Using go-websocket behind Apache mod_proxy_wstunnel

Koala Yeung picture Koala Yeung · Sep 13, 2013 · Viewed 17.8k times · Source

Note: Updated config and added trailing slash to websocket path. Still same problem

Is it possible to use go-websocket behind a Apache reverse proxy with mod_proxy_wstunnel?

I tried and failed to get things working.

I tried to use the Chat example behind an Apache reverse proxy (with mod_proxy_wstunnel enabled). And it doesn't work. The proxy is a success, while the websocket part does not work at all.

My Apache config looks similar to this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/foobar
    ServerName foobar.com
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/
    ProxyPass /ws/ ws://localhost:8080/ws/
    ProxyPassReverse /ws/ ws://localhost:8080/ws/
    ErrorLog logs/error_log-foobar
    CustomLog logs/access_log-foobar common
    LogLevel debug
</VirtualHost>

And of course I'm running the chat server on port 8080. I've tested it with SSH tunnel, and things work perfectly. Then I moved on to Apache.

The first time I tried, the javascript console complains this:

NetworkError: 403 Forbidden - http://foobar.com/ws/

The request seems to be stucked at the origin check. Then I tried again after comment out the origin check, it get this:

NetworkError: 400 Bad Request - http://foobar.com/ws/

It seems the chat server do not get the upgrade request at all.

How should I debug this? Where should I start looking?

Answer

Koala Yeung picture Koala Yeung · Sep 16, 2013

Thanks everyone! After taking several advices above, I found the solution.

And for someone who might have similar issue, here is the solution to my question:

  1. As Aralo suggested, trailing slash must be added to the WebSocket path (in my case: "/ws/"). It looks Apache will only handle WebSocket with a valid GET request.

  2. James Henstridge was right. The order of ProxyPass relevant. ProxyPass of /ws/ must be put before the / line.

  3. After consulting the Chat example code, I found an origin check in the function ServeWs() and removed.

Everything works now.

And thanks covener, reading logs does help.