Reverse Proxy and HTTP Redirects¶
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As a reverse proxy cache, Traffic Server serves requests on behalf of origin servers. Traffic Server is configured in such a way that it appears to clients like a normal origin server.
Understanding Reverse Proxy Caching¶
With forward proxy caching, Traffic Server handles web requests to origin servers on behalf of the clients requesting the content. Reverse proxy caching (also known as server acceleration) is different because Traffic Server acts as a proxy cache on behalf of the origin servers that store the content. Traffic Server is configured to behave outwardly as origin server which the client is trying to connect to. In a typical scenario the advertised hostname of the origin server resolves to Traffic Server, which serves client requests directly, fetching content from the true origin server when necessary.
Reverse Proxy Solutions¶
There are many ways to use Traffic Server as a reverse proxy. Below are a few example scenarios.
- Offload heavily-used origin servers.
- Deliver content efficiently in geographically distant areas.
- Provide security for origin servers that contain sensitive information.
Offloading Heavily-Used Origin Servers¶
Traffic Server can accept requests on behalf of the origin server and improve the speed and quality of web serving by reducing load and hot spots on backup origin servers. For example, a web hoster can maintain a scalable Traffic Server system with a set of low-cost, low-performance, less-reliable PC origin servers as backup servers. In fact, a single Traffic Server can act as the virtual origin server for multiple backup origin servers, as shown in the figure below.
Traffic Server as reverse proxy for a pair of origin servers
Delivering Content in Geographically-Dispersed Areas¶
Traffic Server can be used in reverse proxy mode to accelerate origin servers that provide content to areas not located within close geographical proximity. Caches are typically easier to manage and are more cost-effective than replicating data. For example, Traffic Server can be used as a mirror site on the far side of a trans-Atlantic link to serve users without having to fetch the request and content across expensive, or higher latency, international connections. Unlike replication, for which hardware must be configured to replicate all data and to handle peak capacity, Traffic Server dynamically adjusts to optimally use the serving and storing capacity of the hardware. Traffic Server is also designed to keep content fresh automatically, thereby eliminating the complexity of updating remote origin servers.
Providing Security for an Origin Server¶
Traffic Server can be used in reverse proxy mode to provide security for an origin server. If an origin server contains sensitive information that you want to keep secure inside your firewall, then you can use a Traffic Server outside the firewall as a reverse proxy for that origin server. When outside clients try to access the origin server, the requests instead go to Traffic Server. If the desired content is not sensitive, then it can be served from the cache. If the content is sensitive and not cacheable, then Traffic Server obtains the content from the origin server (the firewall allows only Traffic Server access to the origin server). The sensitive content resides on the origin server, safely inside the firewall.
How Does Reverse Proxy Work?¶
When a browser makes a request, it normally sends that request directly to the origin server. When Traffic Server is in reverse proxy mode, it intercepts the request before it reaches the origin server. Typically, this is done by setting up the DNS entry for the origin server (i.e., the origin server’s advertised hostname) so it resolves to the Traffic Server IP address. When Traffic Server is configured as the origin server, the browser connects to Traffic Server rather than the origin server. For additional information, see HTTP Reverse Proxy.
To avoid a DNS conflict, the origin server’s hostname and its advertised hostname must not be the same.
HTTP Reverse Proxy¶
In reverse proxy mode, Traffic Server serves HTTP requests on behalf of a web server. The figure below illustrates how Traffic Server in reverse proxy mode serves an HTTP request from a client browser.
HTTP reverse proxy
The figure above demonstrates the following steps:
- A client browser sends an HTTP request addressed to a host called www.host.com on port 80. Traffic Server receives the request because it is acting as the origin server (the origin server’s advertised hostname resolves to Traffic Server).
- Traffic Server locates a map rule in the remap.config file and remaps the request to the specified origin server ( realhost.com ).
- If the request cannot be served from cache, Traffic Server opens a connection to the origin server (or more likely, uses an existing connection it has pre-established), retrieves the content, and optionally caches it for future use.
- If the request was a cache hit and the content is still fresh in the cache, or the content is now available through Traffic Server because of step 3, Traffic Server sends the requested object to the client from the cache directly.
Traffic Server, when updating its own cache from the origin server, will simultaneously deliver that content to the client while updating its cache database. The response to the client containing the requested object will begin as soon as Traffic Server has received and processed the full response headers from the origin server.
To configure HTTP reverse proxy, you must perform the following tasks:
Enable the reverse proxy option (refer to Enabling HTTP Reverse Proxy).
In addition to the tasks above, you can also Setting Optional HTTP Reverse Proxy Options.
Handling Origin Server Redirect Responses¶
Origin servers often send redirect responses back to browsers redirecting them to different pages. For example, if an origin server is overloaded, then it might redirect browsers to a less loaded server. Origin servers also redirect when web pages have moved to different locations. When Traffic Server is configured as a reverse proxy, it must readdress redirects from origin servers so that browsers are redirected to Traffic Server and not to another origin server.
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