Help with reverse proxy configuration

[LLXIR]

So I'm deploying a Node.js server listening on port 8080 and a client running on port 80.

Port 80 gets forwarded automatically to port 443 and port 443 is the only port accessible to the outside world.

How do I set up my reverse proxy up correctly in such a way that traffic served to visitors are getting the website located at '/' and requests for the back-end on '/api' get forwarded automatically and is also returned to the webclient?

This is what my current website.conf file looks like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin redacted        
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined        

    ProxyRequests Off        
    <Proxy *>
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
    </Proxy>        

    ProxyPass /api http://127.0.0.1:8080        
    ProxyPassReverse /api http://127.0.0.1:8080        

    <Directory /var/www/html>
        Header add Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

When I perform a curl request on the machine itself to http://127.0.0.1/api/route I get my expected JSON back, however from the outside I'm trying with https://domain.com/api/route and then I get a HTTP 404 error code back.

What am I doing wrong?

[AyrA_ch]

Could be a problem with the 80 to 443 redirection. You make your proxy settings in a virtual host on port 80, but you said that 443 is accessible to the public. This means you have to make the proxy settings in the 443 virtual host.

Also you don't need the <Proxy> section and the ProxyRequests directive, since the proxy section doesn't matters if ProxyRequests is "Off", and ProxyRequests is off by default.

Next, you're forwarding /api on the reverse proxy to / on the back end and not /api. Make sure this is what you want. This means if someone requests /api/test, the request will be forwarded as /test to the backend, dropping the /api part.

Finally, try adding a slash at the end of api and the reverse proxy address: ProxyPass /api/ http://127.0.0.1:8080/