Can Apache BalancerMember be configured to use unix domain sockets?

apache, mod-proxy, ruby-on-rails, thin

Solution

Short answer, no.

From http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html

It provides load balancing support for HTTP, FTP and AJP13 protocols

So those are the only protocols supported.

Problem

I am using the Apache Proxy balancer directive to hook up a set of thin servers (for Rails). Like so: ``` <Proxy balancer://thinservers> BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5000 route=thin0 BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5001 route=thin1 BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5002 route=thin2 </Proxy> ``` However, thin can also be configured to use unix domain sockets. So I want to be able to do something like: ``` <Proxy balancer://thinservers> BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.0.sock route=thin0 BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.1.sock route=thin1 BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.2.sock route=thin2 </Proxy> ``` But Apache is not taking it. Apparently nginx can do it, but I really want to use Apache. Is there a way?

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