# Serving website with Apache, with Nginx as interface?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [May 12, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616 "2016-05-12T23:35:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sadaf\_N](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Sadaf\_N](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sadaf_N)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/1 "2016-05-12T23:35:12Z")

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Hello all,  
Here’s what I’m trying to do. I have two sites, [sd1.mysite.com](http://sd1.mysite.com) and  
[sd2.mysite.com](http://sd2.mysite.com). The fun part is that sd1 is a Flask app, served by  
Nginx.  
However, sd2 is OSTicket, which must be served by Apache, it seems. Of  
course, Apache and Nginx can’t listen to port 80 at the same time, and  
as  
this is a subdomain on a local, Windows DNS, I can’t make [sd2.mysite.com](http://sd2.mysite.com)  
point to myip:8080 or anything like that.

Thus, my best option appears to be this: Nginx listens to all incoming  
traffic on 80. If the request is for anything to do with sd1, it handles  
it  
just like it does now. However, if the request is for sd2, Nginx somehow  
hands off the request to Apache, then returns what Apache gives it back  
to  
the user.

I’ve heard that people use Apache and Nginx together, but I haven’t  
found  
anyone who uses them to serve two subdomains, with Nginx as the  
“gateway”  
and handler of one subdomain, and Apache as the handler for the other  
subdomain. Is there any way to do this? Am I even making sense? Thanks  
for  
any ideas anyone has.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/2 "2016-05-12T23:46:18Z")

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Hello,

let Apache listen on a different port and create two server blocks in  
nginx, one for each site. Then configure nginx to proxy the requests to  
sd2  
to apache.  
Just google “nginx reverse proxy” and you will find much information.

Yours sincerely  
Sven Kirschbaum

2016-05-12 23:34 GMT+02:00 Alex H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/3 "2016-05-12T23:56:49Z")

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Hi, you can use vhost in Apache and configure proxy\_pass in nginx  
configuration  
For apache2 somthing like that  
\<VirtualHost \*:8080\>  
ServerName foo.bar

DocumentRoot /home/sites/  
\<Directory /home/sites/\>  
Order deny,allow  
Allow from all

ErrorLog /home/sites/logs/apache\_error.log  
CustomLog /home/sites/logs/apache\_access.log combined

etc…  
  
For nginx  
server {  
listen 80;  
server\_name foo.bar;

```
access_log /home/sites/logs/nginx_access.log;
error_log /home/sites/logs/nginx_error.log;

location / {
    proxy_pass http://backend1;

```

etc…  
}  
}

2016-05-13 0:34 GMT+03:00 Alex H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 7:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/4 "2016-05-13T07:21:22Z")

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Sorry, backend1 its upstream in nginx configuration  
upstream backend1 {  
#ip of Apache back-end  
server 192.168.0.1:8080;  
}

2016-05-13 1:59 GMT+03:00 Alex H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/5 "2016-05-13T00:59:55Z")

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Thanks! I followed you, until the proxy\_pass. What is backend1, and  
where is it defined? I know it’s something you made up, but how does it  
know about Apache, or Apache about it?

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/6 "2016-05-13T19:26:18Z")

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As a quick update, setting  
proxy\_set\_header Host $host;  
seems to have gotten the URL working, but OSTicket is still giving me  
the  
same error I was getting when I was serving it with Nginx directly.  
Worse,  
the Apache2 access log shows none of my recent attempts to access the  
site,  
though it does show older ones. The Nginx access log shows all the  
accesses, though. It’s as though the proxy weren’t working properly at  
all.  
I have it set up in a location:

upstream apache2Redirect {  
server 127.0.0.1:8080;  
}

location / {  
proxy\_set\_header Host $host;  
proxy\_pass [http://apache2Redirect](http://apache2Redirect);  
}

My understanding is that the / will match everything, from /index.html  
to  
/images/small/235.jpg. Is that not the case? Do I need to do something  
to  
my location block, by chance?

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 1:20 AM, Yuriy M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 11:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/7 "2016-05-14T11:20:13Z")

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On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 01:24:57PM -0400, Alex H. wrote:

Hi there,

> }
> 
> My understanding is that the / will match everything, from /index.html to  
> /images/small/235.jpg. Is that not the case? Do I need to do something to  
> my location block, by chance?

If the “location” you show above is the entire content of your server{}  
block, then all requests that get to nginx should be handled in it.

If you have more config that you are not showing, then possibly that  
extra config is interfering with what you want to do.

The best chance of someone being able to help, is if you can include  
very specific details about what you do, what you see, and what you  
expect to see instead.

If you use the “curl” command-line tool instead of a normal browser, you  
can make one request and see the full response. If you know what  
response  
you expect, you can compare it to the response that you actually get.

curl -v [http://ngninx-server/OSTicket/](http://ngninx-server/OSTicket/)

(or whatever url you have set things up at).

Without knowing what you do want to see, I’m pretty sure that you do  
not want to see “127.0.0.1” or “8080” anywhere in the response.

Good luck with it,

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 11:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/8 "2016-05-14T11:55:51Z")

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## Alex H. Wrote:

> upstream apache2Redirect {  
> server 127.0.0.1:8080;  
> }
> 
> location / {  
> proxy\_set\_header Host $host;  
> proxy\_pass [http://apache2Redirect](http://apache2Redirect);  
> }

Browser(get localhost:8080) → osticket (return responses with  
localhost:8080)

Browser(get localhost:80) → nginx proxy\_pass localhost:8080 → osticket  
(return responses with localhost:8080)  
Browser attempts 8080 which is not the nginx proxy.

Ea. sometimes you need to tell the backend (osticket) what it’s frontend  
address/port is.

This is a typical issue with tomcat applications, where you have to tell  
it  
is running on port 443 eventhough it is listening on port 8443 because  
nginx  
is setting in between handling port 443 proxying to 8443.

Posted at Nginx Forum:  
[https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,266874,266895#msg-266895](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,266874,266895#msg-266895)

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/9 "2016-05-14T13:33:24Z")

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> > server 127.0.0.1:8080;
> 
> If the “location” you show above is the entire content of your server{}  
> block, then all requests that get to nginx should be handled in it.
> 
> If you have more config that you are not showing, then possibly that  
> extra config is interfering with what you want to do.

Sorry I should have said. Yes, that’s all there is to my config file. I  
wanted every request to go to Apache, including any subdirectories.

> The best chance of someone being able to help, is if you can include  
> very specific details about what you do, what you see, and what you  
> expect to see instead.

The problem is that the error I’m seeing is in OSTicket. All I can say  
is that the OST forums aren’t any help, that I don’t see the error on  
Apache under Windows, and that I do see it under this configuration.  
It’s the exact same error I saw when serving OST with Nginx directly,  
which is why I think the proxy isn’t working correctly. Plus, I don’t  
see the access to the OST pages in the Apache access log after 11:14,  
despite trying it all day yesterday. Nginx registers them, but not  
Apache. Yet, if I stop Apache, I get a 502 when trying to pull up OST.

> Without knowing what you do want to see, I’m pretty sure that you do  
> not want to see “127.0.0.1” or “8080” anywhere in the response.

Curl is a good idea. I’ll try that Monday when I’m back in the office  
(this is an intranet site, so I can’t test it from home, though I can  
ssh into the server).

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/10 "2016-05-16T14:52:13Z")

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Hi all,  
Well, it seems to be working now, and I’m thoroughly embarrassed about  
it.  
The Nginx/Apache setup is fine, and has been, it seems. The OST error  
was  
rather cryptic, but once I finally found where in the OST code it was  
being  
generated, I discovered that it was likely a database failure. I  
re-granted  
privileges to my OST user, and suddenly the installation completed.

Thus far, everything is running normally. I guess the lesson is to  
always  
check your DB user privileges, and hope OST puts in better error  
messages.

Thanks for the help, everyone; this taught me a lot, about Nginx  
configuration, upstream contexts, and so on. Even if the final answer  
was  
my own mistake in privilege settings, I couldn’t have done the rest of  
the  
setup without the help of the list. I’ll likely be back with more  
questions, but for now, everything seems stable and okay.

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/11 "2016-05-17T19:37:49Z")

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On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 08:50:44AM -0400, Alex H. wrote:

Hi there,

> Well, it seems to be working now, and I’m thoroughly embarrassed about it.  
> The Nginx/Apache setup is fine, and has been, it seems.

Thanks for reporting that result – it’ll help the future reader of the  
mailing list ([xkcd: Wisdom of the Ancients](http://m.xkcd.com/979/)).

> I re-granted  
> privileges to my OST user, and suddenly the installation completed.

You have a working system, so it is sensible to leave well-enough alone.

But if you feel like further investigations – does it now work for you  
with nginx/fastcgi, using an nginx config like the one previously  
posted?

Cheers,

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

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**Author:** ![redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@redroot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/redroot)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/serving-website-with-apache-with-nginx-as-interface/244616/12 "2016-05-17T19:50:40Z")

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On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 1:37 PM, Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> > I re-granted  
> > privileges to my OST user, and suddenly the installation completed.
> 
> You have a working system, so it is sensible to leave well-enough alone.
> 
> But if you feel like further investigations – does it now work for you  
> with nginx/fastcgi, using an nginx config like the one previously posted?

I haven’t tried it. As you said, it’s working now. If it were a matter  
of  
two supported servers–Nginx and Apache–I’d try it. But whenever I read  
about it, someone has some obscure problem that doesn’t crop up until  
later, and I don’t want to risk my work’s switching to a system that  
starts  
behaving unexpectedly seemingly out of nowhere. That said, I feel like  
setting up a FastCGI setup would be easier now that I’ve gone through  
UWSGI  
for one subdomain and Apache for another, both behind Nginx.