Difference between revisions of "Third-party software integration: Apache"

Revision as of 09:05, 29 June 2011

Expose OpenKM directly from JBoss can be dangerous if you need the application to be accessed from Internet. Also this 8080 may be closed by a firewall. For these reasons, is a good idea expose your OpenKM installation through the standard web port 80. In the following steps we explain how to configure Apache to handle these request and forward to JBoss application server using the AJP13 protocol.

From the Apache documentation: The AJP13 protocol is packet-oriented. A binary format was presumably chosen over the more readable plain text for reasons of performance. The web server communicates with the servlet container over TCP connections. To cut down on the expensive process of socket creation, the web server will attempt to maintain persistent TCP connections to the servlet container, and to reuse a connection for multiple request/response cycles.

Debian / Ubuntu

The first thing in to install the required Apache software. From Debian / Ubuntu you can install Apache with a single command:

$ sudo aptitude install apache2

Edit the file called /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and configure a ServerName to prevent warnings in the Apache startup process:

ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
ServerName "your-domain.com"

Enable the proxy module, needed to forward petitions to JBoss:

$ sudo a2enmod proxy_ajp

Now create the configuration file /etc/apache2/sites-available/openkm.conf with this content:

<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName openkm.your-domain.com
    RedirectMatch ^/$ /OpenKM
    <Location /OpenKM>
        ProxyPass ajp://127.0.0.1:8009/OpenKM
        ProxyPassReverse http://openkm.your-domain.com/OpenKM
    </Location>
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The VirtualHost ServerName must be other than ServerName in the main Apache configuration. Enable this site configuration:

$ sudo a2ensite openkm.conf

If after restart Apache you see a warning like: [warn] NameVirtualHost *:80 has no VirtualHosts you have to change the virtual host definition from <VirtualHost *> to <VirtualHost *:80>

If you don't want to show the /OpenKM context, try this as your VirtualHost configuration:

<VirtualHost *>
  ServerName openkm.your-domain.com
  ProxyPass / ajp://localhost:8009/OpenKM/
  ProxyPassReverse / http://openkm.your-domain.com/OpenKM/
  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error.log
  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access.log combined

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /OpenKM*
  RewriteRule ^(/.*)$ http://localhost:8080$1 [P]

  RequestHeader edit X-GWT-Module-Base ^(http://openkm.your-domain)/frontend/(.*)$ $1/OpenKM/frontend/$2
</VirtualHost>

You need also set the configuration parameter system.apache.request.header.fix to on (true). Note than in OpenKM 5.1 the configuration is stored in database and the OpenKM.cfg configuration only make sense in the database (Hibernate) configuration parameters.

If you see an error like: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration you need to enable this Apache module: $ sudo a2enmod rewrite $ sudo a2enmod proxy_http $ sudo a2enmod headers

You have to enable explicitly the proxy access editing the Apache configuration file /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.conf:

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
  #turning ProxyRequests on and allowing proxying from all may allow
  #spammers to use your proxy to send email.

  ProxyRequests Off

  <Proxy *>
    AddDefaultCharset off
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
    Deny from all
    #Allow from .example.com
  </Proxy>

  # Enable/disable the handling of HTTP/1.1 "Via:" headers.
  # ("Full" adds the server version; "Block" removes all outgoing Via: headers)
  # Set to one of: Off | On | Full | Block

  ProxyVia On
</IfModule>

Finally restart Apache:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now you can access your OpenKM installation from http://openkm.your-domain.com/. Another advantage of using Apache is that you can log OpenKM access and generate web statistics.

SSL under Debian / Ubuntu

$ sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl
$ sudo /usr/sbin/make-ssl-cert /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
$ sudo a2enmod ssl

Ensure ports 443 is listen in /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Do the same task related to port 80 but changing the configuration file /etc/apache2/sites-available/openkm.conf with this content:

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName openkm.your-domain.com
    RedirectMatch ^/$ /OpenKM
    <Location /OpenKM>
        ProxyPass ajp://127.0.0.1:8009/OpenKM
        ProxyPassReverse http://openkm.your-domain.com/OpenKM
    </Location>
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/openkm.your-domain.com-error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/openkm.your-domain.com-access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
</VirtualHost>

Red Hat / CentOS

Here you can use the yum application manager to install Apache:

$ sudo yum install httpd

Now edit the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/proxy_ajp.conf and add:

ProxyPass /OpenKM ajp://localhost:8009/OpenKM

After that, restart Apache to make effective this configuration.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Now you can access your OpenKM installation from http://openkm.your-domain.com/. Another advantage of using Apache is that you can log OpenKM access and generate web statistics.

More info

For more info, visit:

• Apache Module mod_proxy
• Apache Module mod_proxy_ajp
• Apache Module mod_rewrite
• mod_rewrite, a beginner’s guide
• Using Apache Virtual Hosts and ProxyPass Together
• Apache configuration for GWT applications