How do I return an SSL URL from a non-SSL Apache?

vacapinta — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:28:33 -0800

Help Apache gurus! How do I setup a virtual host when SSL terminates before my Apache server? Hopefully this is easy since it seems like a common thing...

Here's the setup: Browser -> Load balancer -> Apache Server
The browser connects to the load balancer using https (https://www.example.com). But then the load balancer directs the request to Apache using http (http://host1.company.com). Fine.

Now, how do I use the virtual host directive to have Apache return an https url to the browser? If i just have:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.example.com
</VirtualHost>

in httpd.conf then URLs are returned to the client as http URLs which doesnt work. Is this possible? Thanks!

Large Site Network Infrastructure (Hardware) Examples?

hmaugans — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:03:57 -0800

Network admin / geek question: I'm in the process of building a small cluster of servers for my quickly growing wallpaper website, but I've never charted those waters before. I found a nice article on TorrentFreak about Mininova's server setup, and found it quite intriguing. My question is, are there any other big-ish sites like Mininova that are open about their hardware infrastructure? Googling around yielded few results. I'd be interested to see the setup for a site like Digg, MeFi, or Flickr. Thanks in advance. Currently, I have a single Dual P3 load balancer, four DL360 (each 2x 2.8Ghz xeon) servers for apache, one DL560 (quad 2.8 xeon) server for MySQL and NFS, and a few misc. servers.

Do most large sites use NFS to share the website source? Any idea how much load NFS puts on a server? Also, any idea how much overhead a load balancer requires to route connections? Can a dual P3 1.6Ghz handle a 15mbit'ish site?

Any links or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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How do I return an SSL URL from a non-SSL Apache?

Large Site Network Infrastructure (Hardware) Examples?