A.0 Configuring Apache as a Load Balancer

The following example configuration uses the balancer module built into the newer Apache (version 2.2.4 and later) Web server. It is based on a widely used sticky session technique. Novell Filr does not support session sharing/replication among Tomcat instances.

If you are using NetIQ Access Manager as described in Section 4.7, Changing Reverse Proxy Configuration Settings, you do not need to configure Apache to load balance as described in this section, because Access Manager provides this service.

NOTE:When you update your Filr system, these settings are not preserved. You must redefine these settings each time you update your Filr system.

To configure Apache to load balance:

  1. Install the Apache Web server on a separate server.

  2. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/apache2 file:

    1. Locate the following line:

      APACHE_MODULES=

      Then add the following lines:

      proxy
proxy_ajp
proxy_balancer

      The end result should look similar to the following:

      APACHE_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_file authz_host authz_groupfile authz_default authz_user authn_dbm autoindex cgi dir env expires include log_config mime negotiation setenvif ssl suexec userdir php5 reqtimeout proxy proxy_ajp proxy_balancer"

    2. Create the following new configuration file:

      /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.filr

    3. Add the following section to the /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.filr file, providing a BalancerMember line for each jvmRoute value in a Tomcat server.xml file. 

      <Location /balancer-manager>
   SetHandler balancer-manager
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
   Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Location>
<Proxy balancer://cluster_name>
   BalancerMember ajp://filr_server_1:8009 route=worker1
   BalancerMember ajp://filr_server_2:8009 route=worker2
</Proxy>
<Location />
   ProxyPass balancer://cluster_name/ stickysession=JSESSIONID
</Location>

      The values that you specify for the route setting (for example, worker1, worker2, etc.) must exactly match the values that you specify as the JVM Route setting when configuring clustering, as described in Section 4.6, Changing Clustering Configuration Settings.

    4. Save the httpd.conf.filr file.

  3. Reconfigure each Filr appliance in the cluster so that each appliance has the same hostname as the Apache Web server.

    For information about how to rename each Filr appliance in the cluster, see Section 4.6, Changing Clustering Configuration Settings.

  4. Open port 8009 on each Filr appliance in the cluster.

    For information about port numbers in Filr, see Section 4.2.2, Port Numbers.

    For information about configuring the firewall with YaST, see the SuSE Firewall Documentation.

  5. Restart Apache.