Reverse proxy with websocket mod_proxy_wstunnel

Question

I have a problem with the web sockets and my reverse proxy Apache, I have upgraded in latest release 2.4.5 and loaded the module mod_proxy_wstunnel.

The httpd.conf :

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName www.toto.fr
ServerAlias toto.fr


ProxyPass /my_app  http://1X.X.X.1:8080/my_app
ProxyPassReverse /web_pmr  http://1X.X.X.1:8080/my_app
ProxyPassReverseCookiePath /my_app /
ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain localhost my_app
ProxyRequests off
ProxyTimeout 15

#WEBSOCKETS


ProxyPass /my_app/BasicWebsocketServlet ws://1X.X.X.1:8080/my_app/BasicWebsocketServlet retry=0
ProxyPassReverse /my_app/BasicWebsocketServlet ws://1X.X.X.1:8080/web_pmr/BasicWebsocketServlet retry=0


ErrorLog "logs/my_app_error.log"
LogLevel debug
CustomLog "logs/my_app_access.log" combined
<Proxy *>
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
</Proxy>
</VirtualHost>

When I test in my local URL, websockets are working but with the reverse proxy Apache, there is no trace in Tomcat logs.

Answer 1

This line:

ProxyPass /my_app/BasicWebsocketServlet ws://1X.X.X.1:8080/my_app/BasicWebsocketServlet retry=0

needs to come before this one:

ProxyPass /my_app  http://1X.X.X.1:8080/my_app

Explanation (from https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass):

Ordering ProxyPass Directives

The configured ProxyPass and ProxyPassMatch rules are checked in the order of configuration. The first rule that matches wins. So usually you should sort conflicting ProxyPass rules starting with the longest URLs first. Otherwise later rules for longer URLS will be hidden by any earlier rule which uses a leading substring of the URL. Note that there is some relation with worker sharing. In contrast, only one ProxyPass directive can be placed in a Location block, and the most specific location will take precedence.

For the same reasons exclusions must come before the general ProxyPass directives.