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

Answer 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

Answer 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.

Answer 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.

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

The /websocket path is missing in your ProxyPass configuration path.
Use:
ProxyPass /websocket ws://example.com:9090/websocket
ProxyPassReverse /websocket ws://example.com:9090/websocket
Additional information:
Like others mentioned, you have to uncomment the line:
LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so
If you are also using a http ProxyPass thats relative path is "/" (forwarding everything directly), the specific "/websocket" path configuration must be configured first, otherwise "/" grabs first.
ProxyPass /websocket ws://example.com:9090/websocket
ProxyPassReverse /websocket ws://example.com:9090/websocket
ProxyPass balancer://ac-cluster/
ProxyPassReverse / http://example.com:9090

Answer 6

I did it for aria 2. I just enabled some modules and added a single line to config. (env: debian buster/apache 2.4).
enabling modes:
sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_balancer proxy_wstunnel proxy_http
and add this line to ssl site config file inside the virtual host directive :
ProxyPass /jsonrpc ws://127.0.0.1:6888/jsonrpc

Answer 7

I want to share this in case it helps somebody else avoid days of wasted time and effort.
I was giving up after researching everything. I was ready to start following the code of the different proxy modules, yes I know, a spiderweb..., but I was desperate. As a last resource I installed wireshark to follow exactly what was going on in my network. After installing wireshark, the instructions asked me to restart my server through a power off/on cycle. So, I did. When I started tracing it, to my complete surprise, the server was proxying perfectly the wss requests to ws, no problems! So I had the correct setup to start with but something got messed up in Ubuntu 20.4 / Apache 2.4.41 / node 14.17.2 that required a complete restart of the machine where the server operates. Crazy! But that was it...