Best Practices for Configuring Your Middle Tier

Using a Proxy Plug-in between the Web Application Server and the HTTP Server

WebLogic Server, WebSphere Application Server, and JBoss provide plug-in modules that enable integration with an HTTP server, such as Apache HTTP Server or Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).

The plug-ins are useful for either or both of the following:

to forward requests for dynamic content to the Web application server or servlet container. In this scenario, the HTTP server handles all the static content and relies on the Web application server for dynamic content.
to forward requests and distribute those requests among a cluster of Web application servers using a load-balancing algorithm.

The plug-in enables the HTTP server to behave as a reverse proxy, which typically filters requests and passes requests that meet the filter requirements to the Web application server. Many reverse proxies use a local cache of Web pages to respond to requests.

The configuration instructions vary greatly depending on your particular architecture. For the best information, see the vendor's documentation.

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