Last Updated on April 16, 2021 by Amit

Apache Proxy module

“Apache Proxy module” also known as mod-proxy is a URL rewriting module provided by Apache. This module enables URL rewriting between domains hosted on two different servers.
With mod-proxy enabled , you can redirect your domain to an external domain without changing the URL in browser.

You can proxy requests from your domain to a domain on remote host with this module. You can learn more about mod-proxy on the official Apache guide which is on the following URL https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy.html

This module doesn’t come pre-installed which means you must first enable it from the server config in order to use it.

How to use mod-proxy?

You can use proxy module to rewrite external URLs. If this module is active on your server then you can use mod-rewite P flag which stands for “Proxy” .
P flag can be used in htaccess, server.config and virtual host context.
With P flag you can rewrite your URLs to URLs on another domain which is being hosted on a remote server.
For example:
You can rewrite

To

P flag will proxy the request from domain1 to domain2 without changing the URL.

Using P flag in htaccess

P flag can be used in htaccess or other contexts. Here I will show you an htaccess example so you can understand how it actually works.

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule ^foobar http://example.com/foobar [P]

To see how it works, put the above code in your /.htaccess and visit yoursite.com/foobar .
The rule will internally map your URL to example.com/foobar showing you the contents of the example.com domain on the same URL.
In case the rule returns a 500 server error then one possible might be that the module isn’t enabled.

How to install mod-proxy on Apache server

To install the proxy module
Go to the source directory of the Apache installation

Replace the path with where you downloaded the Apache installation.
Reconfigure the existing apache configuring appending the mod_proxy lines
./config-nice –enable-proxy=shared Rebuild Apache:
make
Install the new Apache
make install
Once you have done that you will want to edit the Apache Configuration to load the modules

vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Add the following modules and save the file

LoadModule proxy_module lib/apache/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule proxy_balancer_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_balancer.so
LoadModule proxy_connect_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_connect.so
LoadModule proxy_ftp_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_ftp.so
LoadModule proxy_scgi_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_scgi.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_ajp.so

Restart Apache to load them using service httpd restart
In case you don’t have access to the main configuration file (this usually happens if you are on a shared hosting server) then you can ask your hosting provider to enable the module.