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SoLucky's avatar
SoLucky
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jul 26, 2016

How to keep the internal URL in browser address bar and point to external website

Is there a way to keep internal web address all the time and point it to public URL?

 

Let's say I have internal web address called honest2.company.com which has 10.10.2.35 and have public website hosted on Azure let's say abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net and I create a VIP honest2_company_http VIP for 10.10.2.35; now anyone from my company access http://honest2.company.com for users the URL always remain as http://honest2.company.com but it will display content of abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net

 

Is it possible via iRule, forward or reverse proxy or any other way? Please give me some pointers or clue.

 

cloud
forward proxy
irule reverse forward proxy ltm
iRules
LTM
reverse proxy

23 Replies

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  • Hannes_Rapp_162's avatar
    Hannes_Rapp_162
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Jul 26, 2016

    That's a fairly basic problem and I recommend you look into LTM Local Traffic policy feature for the most performance-efficient solution. However, you can also use an iRule provided below. Of course, you will also need two DNS entries - one of which is used by the general public, the other for your private LAN users/employees.

    when HTTP_REQUEST {
  if { ([HTTP::host] eq "abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net") && (not ([class match [IP::client_addr] eq "private_net" ])) }{
    HTTP::header replace Host "honest2.company.com"
  }
}
    • Hannes_Rapp_162's avatar
      Hannes_Rapp_162
      Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
      Jul 26, 2016

      Another important note, all HTML hyper-links and directory listings in your web-page should be RELATIVE. Otherwise, the response payload may reveal your internal HTTP host and some elements in your web-site will not load at all. External users won't be able to resolve your internal DNS name to any public IP address. Therefore, it's important the web-page has no hard-coded parts that refer to your private/internal Host name. If this criteria is not met, you will additionally need to look into using stream profiles that do similar replacements in the response payload.

       

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 26, 2016

      Thanks Hannes for your quick reply but it gives "This page can't be displayed."

       

      when HTTP_REQUEST { if { ([HTTP::host] eq "abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net") && (not ([class match [IP::client_addr] eq "private_net" ])) }{ HTTP::header replace Host "honest2.company.com" } }

       

      Do you see anything wrong? From my laptop I am able to hit honest2.company.com (10.10.2.35) but looks like the iRule is not able to do the magic. I am able to successfully do nslookup and get correct IPs. Any clue/help?

       

    • Hannes_Rapp_162's avatar
      Hannes_Rapp_162
      Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
      Jul 26, 2016

      This iRule is correct, all it does is it takes the original HTTP Host value and replaces it with your internal HTTP host. Probably an asymmetric routing issue as you try to hit the external DNS from your internal LAN. Responses might not return via the correct path. For testing purpose, temporarily enable SNAT Automap setting in Virtual Server settings and try again. You can revert it back afterwards.

       

  • Hannes_Rapp's avatar
    Hannes_Rapp
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jul 26, 2016

    That's a fairly basic problem and I recommend you look into LTM Local Traffic policy feature for the most performance-efficient solution. However, you can also use an iRule provided below. Of course, you will also need two DNS entries - one of which is used by the general public, the other for your private LAN users/employees.

    when HTTP_REQUEST {
  if { ([HTTP::host] eq "abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net") && (not ([class match [IP::client_addr] eq "private_net" ])) }{
    HTTP::header replace Host "honest2.company.com"
  }
}
    • Hannes_Rapp's avatar
      Hannes_Rapp
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 26, 2016

      Another important note, all HTML hyper-links and directory listings in your web-page should be RELATIVE. Otherwise, the response payload may reveal your internal HTTP host and some elements in your web-site will not load at all. External users won't be able to resolve your internal DNS name to any public IP address. Therefore, it's important the web-page has no hard-coded parts that refer to your private/internal Host name. If this criteria is not met, you will additionally need to look into using stream profiles that do similar replacements in the response payload.

       

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 26, 2016

      Thanks Hannes for your quick reply but it gives "This page can't be displayed."

       

      when HTTP_REQUEST { if { ([HTTP::host] eq "abc123pqr456xyz789.azurewebsites.net") && (not ([class match [IP::client_addr] eq "private_net" ])) }{ HTTP::header replace Host "honest2.company.com" } }

       

      Do you see anything wrong? From my laptop I am able to hit honest2.company.com (10.10.2.35) but looks like the iRule is not able to do the magic. I am able to successfully do nslookup and get correct IPs. Any clue/help?

       

    • Hannes_Rapp's avatar
      Hannes_Rapp
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 26, 2016

      This iRule is correct, all it does is it takes the original HTTP Host value and replaces it with your internal HTTP host. Probably an asymmetric routing issue as you try to hit the external DNS from your internal LAN. Responses might not return via the correct path. For testing purpose, temporarily enable SNAT Automap setting in Virtual Server settings and try again. You can revert it back afterwards.

       

  • Vijay_E's avatar
    Vijay_E
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jul 27, 2016

    Try something like this example:

    when HTTP_REQUEST {
if { [HTTP::host] contains "abcd.com" } {
HTTP::host [string map {abcd.com xyz.com} [HTTP::host]] 
}
}

when HTTP_RESPONSE {
if { [HTTP::header values Location] contains "xyz.com" } {
HTTP::header replace Location [string map {xyz.com abcd.com} [HTTP::header value Location]]
}
}
  • ekaleido_26616's avatar
    ekaleido_26616
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Jul 27, 2016

    Can't you just create an A record for honest2.company.com pointed at 10.10.2.35 and call it a day? It feels like we're greatly overthinking this. Make the pool member the actual IP of the real webserver and configure the webserver to handle requests for honest2.company.com. There is no need for iRules here as best I can tell.

     

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 28, 2016

      I know and I feel the same but we don't have pool (or any pool member) and need to use it as proxy, I hope it make sense.

       

    • ekaleido_26616's avatar
      ekaleido_26616
      Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
      Jul 28, 2016

      Create a pool, make the external server the sole member. You're now proxying, users see the URL you want them to see, and you don't have to use an iRule.

       

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 29, 2016

      I did what you said but it still displays azure URL.

       

  • ekaleido's avatar
    ekaleido
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jul 27, 2016

    Can't you just create an A record for honest2.company.com pointed at 10.10.2.35 and call it a day? It feels like we're greatly overthinking this. Make the pool member the actual IP of the real webserver and configure the webserver to handle requests for honest2.company.com. There is no need for iRules here as best I can tell.

     

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 28, 2016

      I know and I feel the same but we don't have pool (or any pool member) and need to use it as proxy, I hope it make sense.

       

    • ekaleido's avatar
      ekaleido
      Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
      Jul 28, 2016

      Create a pool, make the external server the sole member. You're now proxying, users see the URL you want them to see, and you don't have to use an iRule.

       

    • SoLucky's avatar
      SoLucky
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Jul 29, 2016

      I did what you said but it still displays azure URL.