Tag:

IIS

setup IIS reverse proxy

by mn.sobieh August 3, 2020

A proxy server acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from servers that provide those resources, In other words, The proxy controls and filters the data that go through it. Hence, organizations use it to filter and control Internet access, or to protect their servers. This article explains how to setup IIS reverse proxy using Application Request Routing ARR addons, So you can protect your servers.

This article is part of a series, how to manage, and troubleshoot the Microsoft IIS server.

Install IIS on Windows Server.
Configure a reverse proxy.
Setup IIS SSL certificate.
troubleshoot IIS reverse proxy error 500.25.
troubleshoot IIS reverse proxy ERR_CONNECTION_RESET.

Why would I setup a reverse proxy?

Proxy servers provide varying levels of functionality, for example, security to achieve load balancing and high availability. For example, a website may have several web servers behind the reverse proxy for high availability. Above all, It depends on your use-case, needs, or company’s policy.

How to configure a reverse proxy server on IIS server?

Easy two steps to enable reverse proxy in IIS.

Install IIS extension.

URL rewrite extension: Download the extension from here. Or google it.
Application Request Routing (ARR) extension from here. Or google it.

Create an inbound rule

Allow redirection of any request coming to proxy to your Internal server.

Proxy Inbound

Create outbound rule (Optional)

Allow you to control outbound transactions based on conditions redirection of any transaction coming from the server to the client to be masked with a specific URL.

Proxy outbound

Full example, step by step Setup IIS reverse proxy.

In this example we prepare two servers, the internal web server uses Ubuntu and the second server will act as a proxy server. As shown in the following table

	Reverse Proxy	WebServer
Operating System	Windows	Linux
IP Address	192.168.160	192.168.157.180
port	80	80
protocol	HTTP	HTTP
Server Name	prxy	Srv

Server names should be added to the client hosts file

Configure Internal server Installing Apache webserver

Easy steps just install apache webserver using the following command

 sudo apt-get install apache2 -y

Then , check if the apache installed the default index.html page. by executing the following command.

ls /var/www/html/index.html

Also, test your installation by opening your browser. then, type Ubuntu server IP to test if the webserver is runing. You should see a page like that

ubuntu-index

Configure IIS Proxy Server

Firstly, Open the IIS Manager. then, on the left side Navigate under “server name”, right-click on “Sites”, then chose Add website. After that, In the new window, enter the website name, location, and Listening Host-name.

Than, On the right side click on URL Rewrite Icon.

Choose Reverse Proxy then click OK. It will ask if you want to enable Proxy functionality, so click OK.

After that, when the Add Reverse Proxy window appears in the upper section titled ” inbound Rules” enter the Internal server hostname or IP of the internal server where HTTP requests will be forwarded to.

Finally, do not check the outbound rules as we will configure it separately, Click OK.

Conclusion

To summarize, with these steps you configured IIS to work as a reverse proxy server. you can test your efforts by typing the IP/URL in the browser.

Windows

Install IIS on windows server

by mn.sobieh July 26, 2020

Internet Information Services or IIS for short is an extensible web server created by Microsoft for use with the Windows NT family. furthermore, it is distinguished by its graphical interface; Ease of management; and it fully supports .NET applications. Though IIS supports HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP, and NNTP, It doesn’t support PHP or JSP natively. This article explains step by step how to install IIS on Windows server in simple steps.

Steps to Install IIS on windows server.

Connect to your Windows server and open Server Manager windows. Usually, it appears on connection unless you’ve disabled it. otherwise, You can open it from start windows.

When you open the server manager windows, Click on Manage menu. then, click on “Add Roles and Feature” to open Add Roles and Features wizard.

The first screen is just an informational window that describes the functionality of the wizard. therefore, you can click in the checkbox to hide this screen in the future. then, click Next.

before you begin

In Installation Type Window. Click on Role-based or feature-based installation radio button. then, click Next.

Next, Server selection window: Select a server – usually it will be only one entry – on which you want to install IIS server. Then, click Next.

After that, Scroll down the roles list and check the Web Server(IIS) checkbox. You might see a window prompting you to add some require features by IIS. So, click add feature Button.

“Features” windows: In this window, you will find a list of additional Windows features and functionalities the might interest you. however, it is beyond our scope. So, Just click Next.

“Role Services” It will allow you to control the features of your IIS.firstly you will see an introductory screen. therefore, click next to move to the important stuff.

For example, if you plan to host ASP pages or .NET application you need to check ASP.NET. In that topic, I will choose CGI then click Next.

“Confirmation” windows: It will show you the summary of all chosen Roles and features you selected. Finally, begin the installation by clicking Install.

“Result” window: This screen will show the installation progress and high light any component failed to be installed. When the installation complete click Close.

When Installation complete you will find a new icon on your OS start menu titled “Internet Information Service” which will allow you to manage your IIS

Test your IIS installation

To test if your IIS service is working you need to open your browser and type the URL HTTP://<Your Server IP>/. if you still on the server just type http://localhost and you should see a page like that

By that, you have successfully installed IIS on that server. Next is to configure IIS as a reverse proxy.

IIS reverse proxy ERR_CONNECTION_RESET fixed

Windows

IIS ERR_CONNECTION_RESET fixed

by mn.sobieh July 21, 2020

When you have an IIS working as a reverse proxy. the default configuration values cloud support small to medium loads. However, In the enterprise environment, these values need to be tuned up to suit the new high loads and the back-end server configurations. This article addresses error “This site can’t be reached” reported by IIS ERR_CONNECTION_RESET.

IIS reverse proxy ERR_CONNECTION_RESET error message

Confusing issue!

Today’s adventure, We have an ADF application installed on Weblogic. That application is running behind an IIS reverse proxy. Though the application is working normally and its pages are loading normally, there are certain pages that fail to open showing error ERR_CONNECTION_RESET.

The developers are saying “It’s working on my PC”

Tracing error ERR_CONNECTION_RESET.

As a good administrator, I will investigate using the deduction process. hence, what I will do.

Initially, I will open the application directly using the URL of Web-logic deployment URL, that means, I opted out reverse proxy. Surprisingly, application pages including those pages work normally. That means the application has some requirements and ISS can’t fulfill them. Causing, connection to reset.

What causes it?

the ERR_CONNECTION_RESET errors appear in the browser console. This message sent by the reverse proxy indicating a failure in page caching or loading pages. It seems that these pages contain objects which can’t be split into default size of the proxy cache.

Solving ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

To solve that error, We need to increase the Response buffer cache and Response buffer threshold in IIS Server. By following steps

Firstly, Open IIS Administration console. Then, Click on the root structure on the left panel to view IIS icons. Secondly, click on the Application Request Routing icon.

IIS reverse proxy ERR_CONNECTION_RESET IIS main page

After that, Click Cache Configuration settings located on the upper right side.

In the Cache configuration setting window navigate into the buffer settings section, then, Increase the value of the Response buffer cache and Response buffer threshold.

Conclusion, IIS ARR buffer cache causes the ERR_CONNECTION_RESET due to insufficient buffer cache size. Therefore, Increasing the values will solve the issue.