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Complex websites are often handled by multiple web servers, all containing the same code. Sometimes it can be necessary to split a website into multiple applications, all served from the same domain. The primary way of handling multiple, separate websites served under a single domain is to use a proxy server. A proxy server is usually another server that handles requests from resources on servers by clients.

For more information on the different proxies available on Cloud Platform, visit Proxies and Acquia Cloud.

You can implement a mod_proxy configuration by using Apache's mod_proxy module on Cloud Platform. You can manage mod_proxy on each environment by using the self-service configuration settings in the Cloud Platform user interface. 

With this feature, you can:

• Enable or disable mod_proxy through the Cloud Platform user interface.

• Configure mod_proxy on each environment.

Considerations before enabling mod_proxy

Before you enable mod_proxy:

• Understand that using mod_proxy introduces a dependency on downstream systems that are external to Acquia. Such systems are outside the scope of Acquia's support or advice.

• Know that dependency on any external service can negatively impact your Acquia-hosted sites.

• Know that a proxy consumes threads from the allotted connections in Apache. Therefore, the available Apache pool might be overwhelmed when the web service that is proxied to is slow or unavailable.

Acquia recommends that you review and accept these risks and consider other solutions.

Enabling or disabling mod_proxy

By default, Apache mod_proxy settings are disabled on all environments.

To enable or disable mod_proxy on an environment:

1. From your Cloud Platform account, go to the environment on which you want to enable or disable mod_proxy.

2. Click Configuration.

3. Click the Proxy tab.

4. Do one of the following based on your requirement:

   • To enable mod_proxy, set the Apache mod_proxy settings toggle to On.

     

   • To disable mod_proxy, set the Apache mod_proxy settings toggle to Off.

     

• Note

  • When you enable or disable mod_proxy, the system creates a task in the Cloud Platform user interface. However, there is no log.
  • To ensure enhanced security for your application, Acquia does not enable mod_proxy by default.

Using mod_proxy