Proxy websocket wss:// to ws:// apache

Question

i searched alot but i couldnt connect my websocket to wss:// , i found that there is a way to proxy wss://domain.com:9090 and apache apply the proxy on it and redirect request to where the normal ws://domain.com:9090 server is running

ProxyPass /websocket ws://domain.com:9090
ProxyPassReverse /websocket ws://domain.com:9090

this code in apache config will send request from any address ended with /websocket to ws://domain.com:9090 ex : ws://websocket will be ws://domain.com:9090

i want to do it for wss:// also ex wss://websocket must point to ws://domain.com:9090

it dosnt work and i get this error in browser console :

failed: Error in connection establishment: net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

is there any mistake here ? thanks you .

Solution 1

i worked 24 hours for find this and searched a lot of forum but no one write about success. here is my server configuration :

CentOS release 6.7 , Apache 4.2.18

here is what i did finally : first i found that modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so must be enable in apache config file , but my apache didn't have that module and after a lot of search i found that module is Available in apache 2.4.5 and later.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy_wstunnel.html

i downloaded https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd/httpd-2.4.18.tar.gz extracted httpd-2.4.18\modules\proxy\mod_proxy_wstunnel.c and uploaded to my server root then from terminal could compile it again with these commonds :

chmod 755 mod_proxy_wstunnel.c #set permission
pxs -i -a -c mod_proxy_tunnel.c #compile module

pxs command did compile the module and wrote in apache config file to load it

LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so

after that i added these lines to end of apache config file :

RewriteEngine on
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost on
ProxyPass /myws ws://mysite.com:8091
ProxyPassReverse /myws ws://mysite.com:8091

AND NOW : it works ! in client side js you can set ws url like this :

var protocol = 'ws://'; 
if (window.location.protocol === 'https:') {
            protocol = 'wss://';
   }

 var wsUri =protocol+ "mysite.com/myws";  

 var ws = new WebSocket(wsUri);

and it will forward request to ws://mysite.com:8091 doesnt matter the page loaded with https or http , it will direct all request ended with /myws to ws://mysite.com:8091

Solution 2

You need to enable some Apache2 modules:

$ a2enmod proxy proxy_wstunnel proxy_http rewrite

Then you can use this configuration to solve your problem.

    ProxyRequests off
    ProxyVia on      
    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} Upgrade [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
    RewriteRule /(.*) ws://example.com:9090/$1 [P,L]

    ProxyPass               /websocket http://example.com:9090/websocket
    ProxyPassReverse        /websocket http://example.com:9090/websocket

Apache2 automatically upgrades the connection to websocket with ws://, you don't need to set the ws:// manually. I tried dozens of configurations and this is the only one that worked for me.

Solution 3

the problem I was trying to solve was similar to this one. I have a reverse proxy running under Apache 2.4 on CentOs 7 which has to work with both https and wss requests.

Behind the reverse proxy I have my app server running on an internal network. the virtual host configuration in the /etc/httpd/httpd.conf config file is as follows:

<VirtualHost *:443>
   ServerName example.com
   RewriteCond %(HTTP:Upgrade) websocket [NC]   # Required to handle the websocket connection
   RewriteCond %(HTTP:Connection) upgrade [NC]
   RewriteRule /(.*) ws://192.160.0.1/$1 [P,L]

  SSLEngine on # SSL Certificates handling
  SSLCertificateFile ssl/cert.pem # Public Certificate
  SSLCertificateKeyFile ssl/key.pem # Private certificate
  SSLCertificateChainFile ssl/ca.pem # CA or chain certificate

 ProxyPreserveHost On
 ProxyPass /websocket ws://192.168.0.1 # First you need to write the specific rules
 ProxyPassReverse /websocket ws://102.168.0.1
 ProxyPass / http://192.168.0.1 # Then the generic rules for the proxy.
 ProxyPassReverse / http://192.168.0.1
 </VirtualHost>

In your case, you will have to replace the ServerName, the SSL certificates location, and the destination of the proxy.

Solution 4

wss needs following module Uncomment line at the httpd.conf of apache conf LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so

View more solutions

Comments

[Sphinx117]

I am trying to configure a proxy to catch wss requests and redirect it throw ws to my Server for Dev environnment needs. I don't really understand what you did. I already activated mod_proxy and mod_proxy_tunnel (I am on apache2 2.4.10). Now i have to change my apache config (I tried in .htaccess). It Doesn't works, I have an 500 internal server error. And i don't really understand the lines : ProxyPass /myws ws://mysite.com:8091 ProxyPassReverse /myws ws://mysite.com:8091 For you, what is mysite.com? the address of the websocket serveur?

[MitchEff]

oh my GOD thank you so much for that. I've searched high and low, this one did the trick.

[optimists]

So finally after 5 days, My Hackathon to find right answer is ended. I must create a video tutorial for this bug. and how to get over it. Thanks @florian