Topic: IIS 7.5 and Apache 2.4.4 not working together

[nazmulmahmud]

Hi Everyone!
Here is the issue I am facing while upgrading the current Apache version 2.2.11 to Apache 2.4.4. IIS 7.5 on Windows Web Server 2008 R2 is not redirecting requests to the Apache 2.4.4 which is on Windows Server 2003 R2. I checked the access and error logs of Apache 2.4.4 and there is no entry. The existing 2.2.11 is working completely fine with IIS 7.5. IIS is working as a load balancer in my environment, takes the https requests and forwards that to Apache, then it goes to the App servers. Here, self signed certificate is used between the Load balancer and the Web server. I have followed exact same configuration as it was used in Apache 2.2.11 but installed it with a different port (444), later changed it to 443 before running Apache 2.4.4 as a service, turning off the Apache 2.2.11 service. And also, my Apache 2.4.4 is working completely fine when I access it through the Web Server level URL (through the server machine name). But it throws me an error 502 when I hit the Load Balancer level URL. Here is the complete error:

"502 - Web server received an invalid response while acting as a gateway or proxy server.
There is a problem with the page you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed. When the Web server (while acting as a gateway or proxy)contacted the upstream content server, it received an invalid response from the content server."

Anybody has any idea/ experience how I can solve the issue? I am stuck with this portion for about 2 weeks now, it's really urgent to get it solved!

My observation that came through lots of trial and error, I believe that this has something to do with Windows registry!! I came to this conclusion as I uninstalled the existing Apache 2.2.11 and installed it back again, it throws me the same error that I am getting for Apache 2.4.4. Then, I matched it with the other web server, found out some differences in the registry created for 2.2.11 and changed in this one accordingly- now 2.2.11 worked fine in this web server.
Does anybody has any idea which registry value I need to modify/ where to look for that?
I would really appreciate if anyone can come forward to help on this issue.


Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Steffen]

Apache does not use register entries itself, only Windows services parameters.

Please be more concrete about the register differences with 2.2.11 ?

Do you use ARR with a rewrite rules to reverse proxy in IIS ?

Steffen

[nazmulmahmud]

Yes Steffen,
You are right, those are windows services entry for Apache. And I am using ARR in my environment, but there are no rewrite rules used to reverse proxy in Apache configuration. I don't really have much access to the ARR to see/ know if any rewrite rules are/ can be used in ARR!
But I can just tell you the situation in ARR. The ARR is taking request, then redirects/ just forwards the requests to the servers it is specified in the load balancer. I have 2 webservers it is redirecting to. I am not the IIS admin by the way, but as far as I have seen the ARR, it does not have any URL rewrite activated over there.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>System>CurrentControlSet>Services>Apache2.2>Parameters>ConfgArgs =>> over here, the Apche path was blank when I reinstalled, so I had to put the path. I believe I had to do the same change in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>System>ControlSet001 and ControlSet002!
Then it worked!

[Steffen]

The best is to remove the service and re-install it.
Not advised to fiddle manual in the register.

In a Command window:

Uninstall
...apache/bin >httpd.exe -k uninstall
or
..>sc.exe delete xxxx where xxxx is the Apache Service name

Install
...apache/bin >httpd.exe -k install


Steffen

[nazmulmahmud]

Thank you very much for the quick reply.
I did it exactly: ...apache/bin >httpd.exe -k uninstall


Then, re-installed it using: ..apache/bin >httpd.exe -k install

It did not work. After that I made the changes looking at the working webserver. It worked then.

This is really ambiguous issue, tried to contact Microsoft support, but they did not help at all, rather said check your Apache configuration. I am confident that there was no issue in Apache configuration, that's why I did the trial and error with Apache 2.2.11 and found out the Windows registry entry stuffs!
Don't know what else to do at this point!!!

[Steffen]

You must have some mixed up, it definitely should work.

Have no idea what to do next. Maybe an other of the community comes with an idea.

Steffen