Reverse proxy and mod_proxy_html

[rowanmoor]

Hi,

I have been experimenting with using apache on my QNAP (210) as a reverse proxy for a couple of things. At a basic level it works fine. mod_proxy and mod_proxy_http are present and work ok.

However, I got to the point where I needed to use mod_proxy_html to rewrite links in the target web sites. It seems that this is not present in the modules folder.

Is there anywhere I can get a suitable compiled mod_proxy_html that will work?
Am I the only one, or would it make a sensible feature request for future firmwares? I am guessing things like this give a size issue for the firmware updates.

Has anyone worked round this in other ways?
It seems a bit silly to me to use a seperate reverse proxy app when Apache is sitting there running and capable of it, but I guess I would consider other apps.

I have seen mention of using a second apache from ipkg which has all the modules available. I guess that is an option, but again it seems a bit silly to do that when apache is already sitting there working fine up to a point. Are the modules from the ipkg apache compatible with the inbuilt apache or will I get version problems if I try that?

Cheers,
Rowan.

[snelvuur]

I too want mod_proxy_http, this will allow me to run my slimserver on say http://<ip>/slimserver thus not needing strange ports in the url, which most corperate proxy's use for instance. Also looks much nicer to have that. Same for sabnzbd, http://<ip>/sabnzbd/ not to mention all other equipment that needs a way in from the outside.

Checked the forum too, i can only see that QNAPAndy did some mod_rewrite module at some point, perhaps he has the knowledge to build a mod_proxy_http in a similar way. I am running on the 809 pro, but basicly that should not matter that much i presume.

I have a spare system running with asterisk, where i can put a fully blown apache on, but like you said too.. this would be so much nicer. If i could get this fixed i might even move asterisk too and turn of that asterisk system (although its only a vmware one, it still consumes footprint on my server:)

[enterinner]

Hi all,

New to the forum but wanted to get exactly the same feature for my slimserver.

Having done some research I came up with the following process to generate the mod_proxy_html shared object. Note also needed mod_xml2enc for some of the functionality.

I tested this on a ts-639 and Firmware version 3.2.4 Build 0315T and it works for me but there are no guarantees that it will work for you.

Basically you will need the following installed:

ipkg
bash
libxml2

I may have other stuff installed but that would be back in the history of the NAS. Had it for 9 months...

So to deal with the ipkg stuff I will assume that you have already installed ipkg through the gui:
Logon to the NAS box

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ipkg install bash
ipkg install libxml2


Then you need to setup some directories and some links. This is what I did but the directories can be changed to a suitable location on your NAS:

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## link bash so that apxs can find it.
ln -s /opt/bin/bash /bin/bash

## setup area to enable the apxs and libtool to run successfully,
## looks like the apxs that is installed by default has development paths in it so these tweak the system to allow the command to run
mkdir /share/MD0_DATA/tmp
ln -s /share/MD0_DATA/tmp /root/daily_build
cd /share/MD0_DATA/tmp
mkdir -p 0110branch/Model/TS-259/../../NasMgmt/HTTP
cd 0110branch/Model/TS-259/../../NasMgmt/HTTP
ln -s /usr/local/apache apache_install_tmp
ln -s /share/MD0_DATA/tmp /opt/cross-project
cd /share/MD0_DATA/tmp/
mkdir -p x86/sys-root
cd x86/sys-root
ln -s /bin bin


Note: I left these in place once completed and it works for me. I did have a problem with the sys-root originally in that the apache would not start but I changed the depth of the final link to be bin rather than sys-root which fixed the problem.

The next stage is to get the Apache module source I would recommend using the above tempory directory for this so as not to fill the root partition.

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## get apache module
cd /share/MD0_DATA/tmp
wget http://apache.webthing.com/mod_proxy_html/mod_proxy_html.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d mod_proxy_html.tar.bz2
tar xvf mod_proxy_html.tar

cd mod_proxy_html
cp proxy_html.conf /usr/local/apache/conf/extra


Note: Not sure if bzip2 is part of the core NAS build or an ipkg. I will leave that up to you to find out but if it needs to be installed it would be ipkg install bzip2 at a guess.

Next we need to compile the Apache module.

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## compile module
cd /share/MD0_DATA/tmp
/opt/bin/perl /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs -I/opt/include/libxml2/libxml -I/usr/local/apache/include -I. -i -c mod_proxy_html.c
/opt/bin/perl /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs -I/opt/include/libxml2/libxml -I/usr/local/apache/include -I. -i -c mod_xml2enc.c


Note: This will put the module in /usr/local/apache/module

That is it with regards to the getting the module compiled you would have to add the relevant config files to apache config. I note that you wanted to get slimserver running as a reverse proxy. In order to do that I had to make the following amendments to the proxy_html.conf file:
Uncomment the following lines:

ProxyHTMLLinks frame src longdesc
ProxyHTMLLinks iframe src longdesc
ProxyHTMLLinks body background
ProxyHTMLLinks applet codebase

I also had limited success in getting slimserver to work with the new Default skins and had to switch to the Classic skin. I think this is due to the js files not being passed properly but I am happy with the classic look.
This is my config file (/usr/local/apache/conf/extra/slimserver.conf):

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## load all stuff that is required
Include /etc/config/apache/extra/proxy_html.conf
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
LoadFile   /usr/lib/libxml2.so
LoadModule proxy_html_module modules/mod_proxy_html.so
LoadModule xml2enc_module modules/mod_xml2enc.so

# Slimserver Reverse Proxy Configuration
# Prepared by BV January 2008
#
# Make sure that the server cannot be abused
ProxyRequests Off
#ProxyHTMLLogVerbose On

# The Proxy section below allows internet users
# to access the internal server
  #ProxyHTMLExtended On
ProxyPass /slimserver/ http://localhost:9001/
ProxyHTMLURLMap http://localhost:9001 /slimserver
ProxyPass /jsonrpc.js http://localhost:9001/
ProxyHTMLURLMap http://localhost:9001 /jsonrpc.js
ProxyPass /html/ http://localhost:9001/
ProxyHTMLURLMap http://localhost:9001 /html

<Location /slimserver/>
  ProxyPassReverse /
  ProxyHTMLEnable On
    ProxyHTMLURLMap / /slimserver/
    RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
</Location>


You will need an Include entry in the /usr/local/apache/conf/apache.conf file to source this file.

All being well this should work and if anybody manages to get the Default skin to work I would be very interested how this was performed.

Dave

[enterinner]

Also note that the URL will need to be http://<server>/slimserver/ The trailing / is important.

If you add the following lines to the slimserver.conf file you will be able to use http://<server>/slimserver

## additional to redirect /slimserver to /slimserver/
Redirect permanent /slimserver /slimserver/

[DeDi]

Thank you!

I managed to compile it for my 259-pro+, only a few paths were different.

Now I can access my links without the port number:

http://QNAP/sabnzbd
http://QNAP/sickbeard

[schumaku]

No need to compile anything - everything required is readily available, here on v3.3.4:

[~] # ls -ls /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy*
76 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 70084 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy.so*
36 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 33680 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so*
24 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 23108 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so*
8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 7928 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_connect.so*
32 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 30904 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so*
32 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 29964 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_http.so*
12 -rwxr-xr-x 1 admin administ 11972 Oct 18 18:32 /mnt/ext/opt/apache/modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so*

Enjoy,
-Kurt.

[danirod]

Nope, unfortunately mod_proxy_html is not available, not in the preinstalled Apache nor on the IPKG package therefore needs to be compiled, at least for Arm-based NASes.
I've tried to compile it myself on my TS-110 with no luck as all paths on the apxs and config_vars.mk are messed up and there are quite a few *.h missing (particularly the ones related to APR) and whatnot so until some kind soul provides it we're pretty much stuck.
I even thought trying to cross-compile it on a virtual Linux instance but I think it's beyong my Linux hacking skills...

Anyone has managed to do this?

Cheers

[czechplease]

Would it be possible to post the *.so files so that others using x86-based NASes can use them?

[lmolenaar]

Hi enterinner!

I am trying to compile the mod_proxy_html according to your guide (thanks for that!) but encounter a problem. Perhaps it makes more sense to you and you could give me a pointer?

[/share/MD0_DATA/tmp] # /opt/bin/perl /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs -I/opt/include/libxml2/libxml -I/usr/local/apache/include -I. -i -c mod_proxy_html.c

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cannot open /root/daily_build/3.7.x/Model/TS-459/../../NasMgmt/HTTP/apache_install_tmp/build/config_vars.mk: No such file or directory at /usr/local/apache/bin/apxs line 219.


I already tried changing the "TS-259" string referenced in your instructions with "TS-459" as mentioned in the error message, to no avail (both do not make sense to me as I own a 509-pro ).

[~/daily_build] # pwd

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/root/daily_build

[~/daily_build] # ls -al

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drwxr-xr-x    5 admin    administ     4096 Aug 15 15:17 ./
drwxrwxrwx   30 admin    administ     4096 Aug 15 15:01 ../
drwxr-xr-x    4 admin    administ     4096 Aug 15 15:03 0110branch/
drwxr-xr-x    2 101      10           4096 Oct 30  2009 mod_proxy_html/
-rw-r--r--    1 admin    administ    92160 Oct 30  2009 mod_proxy_html.tar
lrwxrwxrwx    1 admin    administ       19 Aug 15 15:17 tmp -> /share/MD0_DATA/tmp/
drwxr-xr-x    3 admin    administ     4096 Aug 15 15:03 x86/

I see the /root/daily_build/3.7.x/.. directories are missing. Which step did I miss to make it available?

[forkless]

It's missing the Apache apxs utility, which should be available in the Optware repository, however I'm not sure if that version is compatible. I didn't think it was so I had to recompile Apache from source to get it. (I got stuck compiling some other bits after that myself).

Hope that helps.

[lmolenaar]

It's missing the Apache apxs utility, which should be available in the Optware repository, however I'm not sure if that version is compatible. I didn't think it was so I had to recompile Apache from source to get it. (I got stuck compiling some other bits after that myself).

Hope that helps.

Not sure if that is the case:
[/share/MD0_DATA/tmp] # cd /usr/local/apache/bin/
[/usr/local/apache/bin] # ls

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ab*           apachectl*    apu-1-config* checkgid*     envvars       htcacheclean* htdigest*     httxt2dbm*    php*          rotatelogs*
apache*       apr-1-config* apxs*         dbmmanage*    envvars-std   htdbm*        htpasswd*     logresolve*   pwauth*

apxs is there it seems..