Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

[psamuels56]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

I'm not familiar with that function of IIS, so I'll have to leave it to someone else to direct you. The method I described previously is working for me.

[richardurban]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

Yes, you can use the IIS URL Rewrite reverse proxy feature. I am running IIS 8 on Windows Server 2012 ver 6.2. on a virtual server with an SSD drive. I have set up the alpha server to run on a port that is not available to the public. You can use any port number port number above 1023 (see here).
You can set up reverse proxy in IIS using this procedure:
I have not needed to use any outbound rules.
If you are using one server or virtual server you can specify the location for reverse proxy like this:
COMPUTERNAME:4923
where you have the computer name followed by the port number. In the Alpha Five Web Applicaton Server, set the server to run on the port that you have chosen.
There are several advantages to this set up:
1)You can run multiple domains, i.e. www.example1.com, www.example 2.com, www.example3.com, etc on one instacnce of Alpha Five. This is much better than using web forwarding if you want to preserve the search engine value of each separate domain. See this article
2) You can run a separate SSL certificate for each domain, using IIS 8 Sever Name Identification (SNI) See this article
This is not compatible with Internet Explorer on Windows XP, but I have found that only 1% of users on my website are currently accessing the site using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, and this number will drop over time.
3) You can run both non-sercure and SSL pages on one instance of Alpha Five WAS that is not secure. The SSL certificates are installed on the IIS front end. When you set up the reverse proxy, be sure to check "Enable SSL offloading". SSL requests will be handdled by the non-SSL Alpha Five WAS. SSL will be handled on the front end by using a an https link that causes the IIS front end to use SSL.
You have to be sure that you make your Alpha Five WAS session use www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com, but not both, as the change of session will cause the use of the SSL link to fail (a new session will be set up on the WAS) This is easy to do with IIS; in our case, we make http://urbangrocery.com forward to http://www.urbangrocery.com by setting up a site in IIS that has a permanent 301 redirect to www.urbangrocery.com.
I have received a couple of very rare 502 errors where a request to the backend fails, such as when clicking on a link. I am not sure of the reason for this, but trying again right away works.

[richardurban]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

In post #11, you have to use the web forwarding provided by some domain registrars or by DNS providers like DNS Made Easy; you cannot just directly enter a subfolder in an A record

[richardurban]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

Update. Instead of using an internal port on your computer, like 4356 to run an instance of Alpha Five for reverse proxy, use an IP address, like 77.788.97.95/foldername, where the IP is bound to an instance of the Alpha Five WAS. That does work, and for some reason is twice as fast as running Alpha Five on an internal port like 4356. Just put the folder name after the IP Address when setting up the reverse proxy. I found that this uses little or no overhead; it is almost indistinguishable in terms of speed compared to running your site directly on that IP address without the reverse proxy.

[richardurban]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

Update. Instead of using an internal port on your computer, like 4356 to run an instance of Alpha Five for reverse proxy, use an IP address, like 77.788.97.95/foldername, where the IP is bound to an instance of the Alpha Five WAS. That does work, and for some reason is twice as fast as running Alpha Five on an internal port like 4356. Just put the folder name after the IP Address when setting up the reverse proxy. I found that this uses little or no overhead; it is almost indistinguishable in terms of speed compared to running your site directly on that IP address without the reverse proxy.

On my new server I have set up multiple instances using ports instead of IP addresses. I use the local host IP address plus the port number when setting up the reverse proxy in IIS, and that is working well as far as speed. See the posts above about setting up reverse proxy. It is best to set one instance for each website; on my new server, for some reason, using a subfolder in the reverse proxy to a subfolder caused errors. Rather , have the reverse proxy point to the root folder that is specified in the server instance for that particular domain. By using ports plus IIS reverse proxy, there is no need to have a separate IP address for each instance. The URL rewrite looks like this

http://127.0.0.1:1537/{R:1}

[calyxte]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

Richard,
In your reply you mention how to set it up for multiple websites.
I am interested in multiple instances to service 1 website.
How would you go about doing that?
Thank you.
Calyxte
PS I have been to your urbangrocer website and it seems pretty quick. Are you using multiple instances to serve that website?

[richardurban]

Re: Get Application Server to Automatically direct to a folder on Server

Richard,
In your reply you mention how to set it up for multiple websites.
I am interested in multiple instances to service 1 website.
How would you go about doing that?
Thank you.
Calyxte
PS I have been to your urbangrocer website and it seems pretty quick. Are you using multiple instances to serve that website?

www.urbangrocery.com runs on one instance. Other sites run on the other instances.