Configuring apache2 as a reverse proxy for HTTP/HTTPS

Problem: I have a vm running on ‘the cloud’, which is useful for various things, including having my www.isaacovercast.com domain pointed at it. Now, nobody wants to run their own http server anymore because IT IS A DRAG. Using a github.io page for personal sites is definitely in fashion these days, and it makes a lot of sense. I still want to be able to ssh into my vm, but I want http/https requests to go to my isaacovercast.github.io site. Hm?

Solution: Bounce requests for ports 80 and 443 off isaacovercast.com to the github.io page by using apache as a reverse proxy. Cribbed the general directions from here. Now, the only reason this is a good idea and worked for me is because I already had apache2 installed, so just had to reconfigure it a bit. If you don’t have apache2 installed there’s probably a smarter way of doing this.

Edit your /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf and make it look like this

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # A simple redirect for http traffic
    ServerName www.isaacovercast.com
    Redirect / https://isaacovercast.github.io
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    # Somewhat fancier for https
    ServerName www.isaacovercast.com
    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/ca.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/ca.key
    Redirect / https://isaacovercast.github.io
</VirtualHost>

Restart your apache2 server (sudo service apache2 restart) and you’re done.

Isaac Overcast