[users@httpd] Question on load balancing forward proxy servers

["Mills, Larry" <la...@navteq.com>]

Hello all,

I've been able to successfully configure Apache as a load-balancer to content on Tomcat-based "back-end" servers and also to act as a forward web proxy and forward proxy-chain, but I'm wondering if it is possible to have Apache load-balance requests while acting as a forward proxy?  

The desired configuration is to have a group of http proxy servers (i.e. forward proxies), and then to have Apache act as a "front-end" load balancer / proxy-chain to these servers for client requests.

So far, my experiments at getting this working have not been successful.  I've tried using mod_proxy / mod_proxy_balancer in a configuration similar to this, which will work fine for a reverse-proxy situation:

# Load balancer target "back-end" servers, which are forward proxies
<Proxy balancer://proxies>
BalancerMember http://forward_proxy1:9090 loadfactor=1
BalancerMember http://forward_proxy2:9090 loadfactor=1
ProxySet lbmethod=byrequests
</Proxy>

# Set forward proxy mode
ProxyRequests On

# Send chained proxy requests to the balancer
ProxyRemote * balancer://proxies


So, the question is: is this not a supported capability for Apache, or is my configuration just way off?

Any help would be appreciated!

Larry




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