Lighttpd as reverse proxy

We often recommend to set lighttpd in front of apache to handle http requests (more about https://www.percona.com/blog/speedup-your-lamp-stack-with-lighttpd/ ) , redirect dynamic requests to apache and handle static files by itself. I just gathered step-by-step instruction how to do that in 10 minutes, as it may be not so obvious.

• Of course you need lighttpd by itself, it’s available on http://www.lighttpd.net/download
• You may want pcre-devel packet, which allows to use regular expressions in lighttpd.conf. For CentOS boxes we just run
  
  yum install pcre-devel

  1	yum install pcre-devel

• Take sample config file
  
  lighttpd-1.4.XX/doc/lighttpd.conf

  1	lighttpd-1.4.XX/doc/lighttpd.conf

  
  and put to
  
  /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

  1	/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

• Create directory to store log files, e.g.
  
  /var/log/lighttpd

  1	/var/log/lighttpd

  
  . Despite it looks simple, lighttpd may just die trying to create files in non-existing directory.
• Set
  
  server.document-root = "/www/html/htdocs"

  1	server.document-root        = "/www/html/htdocs"

  
  to point to actual directory with web documents
• Uncomment next lines in lighttpd.conf
  
  server.modules = (<br>...<br> "mod_auth",<br> "mod_status", <br> "mod_proxy",<br>...<br>)<br>

  1	server.modules              =  (<br>...<br>   "mod_auth",<br>   "mod_status", <br>   "mod_proxy",<br>...<br>)<br>

  
  mod_status is useful to show additional information from lighttpd
  mod_auth to protect mod_status from unauthorized access 🙂
  and mod_proxy is proxy by itself
• to enable status uncomment or add
  
  status.status-url = "/server-status"

  1	status.status-url          = "/server-status"

  
  to lighttpd.conf
• to protect access to /server-status put next lines to lighttpd.conf
  
  auth.backend = "htpasswd"<br>auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/var/www/.htpasswd"<br><br>auth.require = ( "/server-status" =&gt;<br> (<br> "method" =&gt; "basic",<br> "realm" =&gt; "status",<br> "require" =&gt; "valid-user"<br> )<br>)<br>

  1	auth.backend = "htpasswd"<br>auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/var/www/.htpasswd"<br><br>auth.require = ( "/server-status" =&gt;<br> (<br> "method"  =&gt; "basic",<br> "realm"   =&gt; "status",<br> "require" =&gt; "valid-user"<br> )<br>)<br>

  
  It enables htpasswd file based authentication, you can just manage this file with htpasswd utility from apache.
• and finally make changes related to proxy
  1. Move apache from 80 port to another, e.g. 8080 or pick your own.
  You need to change
  
  Listen

  1

  Listen

  
  and
  
  VirtualHost

  1	VirtualHost

  
  directives in httpd.cong
  and meantime set
  
  KeepAlive Off

  1	KeepAlive Off

  
  , as we want apache only handling dynamic pages.
  2. put next lines to lighttpd.conf:
  
  $HTTP["url"] !~ ".(js|css|gif|jpg|png|ico|txt|swf|html|htm)$" {<br> proxy.server = ( "" =&gt; (<br> ( "host" =&gt; "127.0.0.1", "port" =&gt; 8080 )<br> )<br> )<br>}<br>

  1	$HTTP["url"] !~ ".(js|css|gif|jpg|png|ico|txt|swf|html|htm)$" {<br>     proxy.server  = ( "" =&gt; (<br>     ( "host" =&gt; "127.0.0.1", "port" =&gt; 8080 )<br>      )<br>    )<br>}<br>

  
  This actually directs lighttpd to redirect all requests, besides one ending
  
  js|css|gif|jpg|png|ico|txt|swf|html|htm

  1	js|css|gif|jpg|png|ico|txt|swf|html|htm

  
  (you can add your own static pages), to apache listening on 8080 port
• Final step to add lighttpd to list of services (actual only for RedHat / CentOS)
  
  cp /doc/rc.lighttpd.redhat /etc/init.d/lighttpd

  1	cp /doc/rc.lighttpd.redhat /etc/init.d/lighttpd

  
  fix path
  
  lighttpd="/usr/local/lighttpd/sbin/lighttpd"

  1	lighttpd="/usr/local/lighttpd/sbin/lighttpd"

  
  and add script to autostart
  
  chkconfig --add lighttpd<br>chkconfig --level 2345 lighttpd on

  1	chkconfig --add lighttpd<br>chkconfig --level 2345 lighttpd on

That’s all. For complex apache setups and VirtualHosts it may be trickier, but work just fine for simple cases.