Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q1 Technical Note

Sun Java Enterprise System Technical Note: Configuring Web Server Reverse Proxy Plugin for Communications Express

2005Q1

Part Number 819-4194-11

The Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q1 Technical Note: Configuring Web Server Reverse Proxy Plugin for Communications Express describes how to obtain and configure the Sun Java™ System Web Server 6.1 Reverse Proxy Plugin for use with Sun Java System Communications Express 2005Q1 and Sun Java System Messenger Express 2005Q1.

The component products affected by this technical note are:

This technical note contain the following sections:

Technical Note Revision History

Table 1  Revision History 

Date

Description of Changes

December 21, 2006

Fixed Step 2 and Step 3 in “To Configure the Reverse Proxy Plugin.”

September 8, 2005

Initial release of this technical note.

Overview of the Problem

Currently, in order for users of Mozilla and Firefox browsers to be able to compose HTML messages in Communications Express, Messenger Express (Webmail) must appear to be running on port 80. The current deployment requirements for Communications Express and Messenger Express state that they must be installed on the same host. However, if you choose to run Messenger Express on a port other than 80—which is often the case—you will run into this problem.

Using the Web Server 6.1 Reverse Proxy Plugin solves this problem, as it proxies the Communications Express connection from port 80 to the actual Webmail host:port pair, thus enabling you to run your Messenger Express on a different port.

Configuring the Reverse Proxy Plugin

This section describes how to download and configure the Web Server Reverse Proxy Plugin. See http://docs.sun.com/source/819-0902/rpp61.html#wp012 for more information.

  To Download and Install the Reverse Proxy Plugin

  1. Download the Web Server 6.1 Reverse Proxy Plugin to a temporary directory from this site:

    2. http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=3f567f91

  2. Extract the tar file.
  3. Install the package on the machine running mshttpd and Communications Express.

  To Configure the Reverse Proxy Plugin

  1. Edit the Web Server’s magnus.conf file to enable the reverse proxy plugin by pointing to the directory where the libpassthrough.so file is installed.

    2. For example, for a Web Server installation in the /opt/SUNWwbsvr directory, add the following line:

    Init fn="load-modules" shlib="/opt/SUNWwbsvr/plugins/passthrough/libpassthrough.so" funcs="init-passthrough,auth-passthrough,check-passthrough,service-passthrough" NativeThread="no"

    Make sure the libpassthrough.so file is under the same ownership as the Web Server owner and group names.

  2. Modify the Web Server’s obj.conf file. Assign uwc and messengerXpress names, and add objects to be checked for reverse proxy.

    3. Add the following lines to the top of the default Object section:

    <Object name="default">

    NameTrans fn="assign-name" from="/*.msc" name="passthrough"

    NameTrans fn="assign-name" from="/*webmail/attach/*" name="passthrough"

    AuthTrans fn="match-browser" browser="*MSIE*" ssl-unclean-shutdown="true"

    NameTrans fn="ntrans-j2ee" name="j2ee"

    NameTrans fn=pfx2dir from=/mc-icons dir="/opt/SUNWwbsvr/ns-icons" name="es-internal"

    NameTrans fn=document-root root="$docroot"

    PathCheck fn=unix-uri-clean

    PathCheck fn="check-acl" acl="default"

    PathCheck fn=find-pathinfo

    PathCheck fn=find-index index-names="index.html,home.html,index.jsp"

    ObjectType fn=type-by-extension

    ObjectType fn=force-type type=text/plain

    Service method=(GET|HEAD) type=magnus-internal/imagemap fn=imagemap

    Service method=(GET|HEAD) type=magnus-internal/directory fn=index-common

    Service method=(GET|HEAD|POST) type=*~magnus-internal/* fn=send-file

    Service method=TRACE fn=service-trace

    Error fn="error-j2ee"

    AddLog fn=flex-log name="access"

    </Object>

    <Object name="uwc">

    ObjectType fn="check-passthrough"

    type="magnus-internal/passthrough"

    </Object>

    <Object name="messengerXpress">

    Service fn="service-passthrough"

    servers="http://webmail.red.example.com:8080"

    </Object>

    Note

    The servers parameter is a quoted, space-delimited list of the servers that receive the forwarded requests. In the example above, the server is webmail.red.example.com, and it is communicating on port 8080.

  3. Update the webmail.port parameter in the comms_express_deployed_dir/WEB-INF/config/uwcconfig.properties file to set the Webmail port to 80.

    4. webmail.port=80

  4. Update the messagingsso.ipsecurity parameter in the comms_express_deployed_dir/WEB-INF/config/uwcauth.properties file so that Communications Express does not perform IP address check to restrict the access to the session.

    5. messagingsso.ipsecurity=false

  5. Restart Web Server, for example:

    6. cd /opt/SUNWwbsvr/https-webmail.red.example.com

    ./start

    The reverse proxy startup will be noted in startup messages.

  To Verify the Configuration

Known Issues and Limitations

See the Java Enterprise System Release Notes Collection at the following URL to find out about known problems:

How to Report Problems and Provide Feedback

If you have problems with Communications Express, contact Sun customer support using one of the following mechanisms:

So that we can best assist you in resolving problems, please have the following information available when you contact support:

Sun Welcomes Your Comments

Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions.

To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Send Comments. In the online form, provide the document title and part number. The part number is a seven-digit or nine-digit number that can be found on the title page of the book or at the top of the document. For example, the title of this book is Communications Express 2005Q1 Technical Note: Configuring Web Server Reverse Proxy Plugin for Communications Express, and the part number is 819-4194-11.

Additional Sun Resources

Useful Sun Java System information can be found at the following Internet locations:

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