Proxy Node.js using Apache
One of the best ways to serve a Node web service is to reverse proxy it through Apache. A reverse proxy accepts inbound requests from clients and passes those requests back to the origin server (your application).
When setting up any HTTP based service it is highly recommended to use SSL (HTTPS) in all cases. Using a free certificate authority like Let’s Encrypt makes this easy and really leaves no excuse for not doing so.
A virtual host can easily be configured to proxy requests for your Node web service application. Change the port number to suit your own settings.
<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName mynodeapp.com ServerAlias www.mynodeapp.com ErrorLog /var/www/mynodeapp/logs/error.log CustomLog /var/www/mynodeapp/logs/access.log combined ProxyRequests Off <Proxy *> Order deny,allow Allow from all </Proxy> SSLProxyEngine On SSLEngine On SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1 SSLHonorCipherOrder On SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain/cert.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain/privkey.pem SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain/chain.pem ProxyPreserveHost On ProxyPass / http://localhost:3000/ ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:3000/ <Location /> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Location> </VirtualHost>
And of course we want to direct any requests via plain HTTP to HTTPS:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName mynodeapp.com ServerAlias www.mynodeapp.com RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ https://mynodeapp.com/$1 [R,L] </VirtualHost>
Sometimes you may want to use the default error pages or redirect to custom ones. This can be achieved by using the ProxyErrorOverride directive.
ProxyErrorOverride On
You can also prevent certain response codes from being included by using the ProxyPass directive.
ProxyPass /400.html ! ProxyPass /404.html !