Apache FTP Reverse Proxy

Can Apache (specifically Apache2) be used as a reverse proxy for access to ftp servers? If so, how to configure? How to address?

Thanks.

No, Apache (by nature of being an HTTP server) can only be used as an HTTP proxy.

How strange then to have a module called mod_proxy_ftp. I wonder what it's for?

Jflowers, did you ever get the ftp proxy feature implemented?

Apache's documentation site seems to clearly indicate that such a feature exists, but they don't go into much detail or give any examples.

If I work it out I'll post my solution here.

I have some doubts as to whether the feature is even appropriate for what I'd like to do -- I would like to proxy ftp via a virtual host, and I don't know if the ftp protocol provides the name of the host that the client requested...

Asa

Well, after some more research, it seems that reverse-proxying ftp based on hostname, as I wanted to do, is not possible using a single DNS ip address for all hosts. It should be possible if multiple IPs are mapped to the proxy server all with different DNS names.

The only reference I found to hosting multiple distinct FTP sites with only one external IP address on a single port was at URL - to "ftp-gw that was included in the old TIS ... Fire Wall Tool Kit" which apparently proxies connections to different ftp servers by requiring login names in the form user@host.

It's also possible to proxy ftp servers using different ports or ip addresses on the proxy, but I was interested in defined name-based access on the standard ftp port.


I still didn't find a specific example for an FTP reverse proxy setup with Apache, but I can see that that setup doesn't suit my requirements.

I *think* the httpd.cong configuration for reverse ftp-proxy would go along the lines of:



The context would be important, and there may be other directives that need to be set. I think the simplest way to put it in a clear context would be to run a seperate instance/service of Apache with it's own .conf file, that listened just on port 21, perhaps on a specific ip.

Apache is new to me, so these are just hunches based on what I've seen so far. I haven't tried this setup.

Asa