port-vhoster

A simple HTTP vhost reverse proxy / port sharing implementation for node.js. Run multiple node HTTP servers (Domains, IP's) through one port.

This project implements a simple HTTP multi domain name / IP / directory HTTP reverse proxy for virtual hosting / port sharing. It simply does what a reverse proxy does combined with some mod_rewrite feature support.

This project also shows the power of node.js by being implemented in less than 100 lines of code.

PERFORMANCE NOTICE: This code has NOT been tested in production / high load environments. So be warned and evaluate it on your own before using it in production. Feedback is welcome! (It SHOULD be NOT LESS faster than the http-proxy module implementation.)

Prerequisites

Make sure:

• node.js is installed (>= 0.8.*)
• npm is installed

Installing

    [sudo] npm install -g port-vhoster

Configuring

A valid configuration file for port-vhoster is written in JSON notation as a single object that should provide three key/value pairs:

• description (String) = Description, printed to the terminal on startup.
• port (Number) = Source port (share port) to listen to (e.g. 80).
• vhosts (Object) = Key ($ip OR $domain/port) / value (target $ip:$port/$path)-pairs of vhost-configurations.

Configuration example

The following configuration is a simple routing example. You can add more vhosts to the config object too:

    {
        "description": "Routing with port sharing on port 80 (HTTP) for some domains and paths...",
        "port": 80,
        "vhosts": {
            "www.aron-homberg.de": "127.0.0.1:8081",
            "aron-homberg.de": "127.0.0.1:8081",
            "example.com/downloads": "10.0.0.1:8080",
            "example.com/uploads": "10.0.0.2:8080/master/golive/upload"
        }
    }

Take a look at the examples directory for more inspiration.

Running

By default, port-vhoster searches for a config file called port-vhoster.json in current working directory. If you want to use a different name, run port-vhoster with the optional argument to name the config file:

    [sudo] port-vhoster [$alternative-config-file.json]

You may need super-user permissions if you want port-vhoster to listen to a port below 1024 (e.g. port 80).

Logging and running in stand-alone mode

If you're on a Unix/Linux/Mac OS X system you can run port-vhoster in server mode easily:

Starting (e.g. start-vhoster.sh - don't forget to: chmod +x start-vhoster.sh!):

    #!/bin/sh
    echo "Starting port-vhoster..."
    nohup port-vhoster > port-vhoster.out 2> port-vhoster.err < /dev/null &

Stopping (e.g. stop-vhoster.sh - don't forget to: chmod +x stop-vhoster.sh!):

    #!/bin/sh
    echo "Stopping port-vhoster..."
    kill $(ps aux | grep '[p]ort-vhoster' | awk '{print $2}')

For sure, server mode and logging may also be possible on Microsoft Windows platform but that's currently untested.