Proxying Server from Apache on Synology

How to redirect a part of your web site to another server on your LAN:

... On your NAS: at the bottom of /usr/syno/apache/conf/httpd.conf-user

ProxyRequests Off
<proxy *>
  Order deny,allow
  Allow from all
</proxy>
ProxyPass /redmine http://192.168.0.78/redmine
ProxyPassReverse /redmine http://192.168.0.78/redmine
<location redmine>
  AuthName "Protected Access"
  AuthType Basic
  AuthUserFile /var/services/web/hg/.htpasswd
  require valid-user
</location>

It tells Apache to redirect all /redmine/* access to another server (this subdirectory is protected by password in this case).

And... That's all :)

RedMine (Synology)

RedMine is a great project/content management targeted at developers. I'm personnally using it as a complementary tool alongside Mercurial source code repository (cf previous posts):

And after a terrible fight, i managed to get Redmine running on my Synology through Apache.

First, Redmine is coded with Ruby, and that's partially a problem concerning the webserver to run this Web App. CGI interface is deprecated, and Mongrel, Thin, Unicorn, FastCGI gems (which are the usual suspects :)) are not built for our plateform. After spending some days trying, i resign myself using Webrick (which is not intended for production use, but for development, anyways it's working out of the box).

Using Webrick, our ruby webapp will run standalone, accessible via http port 3000. If you want to use Apache to access it (because you cant access port 3000 from the outside, because you need secured transations) you'll need to set 'reverse proxying' to map one of your Apache web directory (https://diskstation/redmine/ ) to Webrick server.

The most important about this installation is these references: 
http://wiki.joachimschuster.de/index.php/Install_Ruby_on_Rails_and_Redmine_on_DS210%2B
(choose the 'root install' way)
http://www.vinc3nt.fr/2010/03/installer-redmine-sur-un-synology-ds209ii/
(in french, use a dedicated redmine user which complicates things a little)
http://www.redmine.org/wiki/redmine/RedmineInstall
(Redmine official install howto)
http://www.redmine.org/wiki/1/HowTo_Install_Redmine_in_a_sub-URI
(and finally to connect the running instance with Apache)

To write it again, the steps are:

  Setup MySQL (no other backend look usable right now)

    Activate MySQL services with Synology Console
    Create a 'redmine' database in MySQL (via phpmyadmin)

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_manage_the_MySQL_database_using_phpMyAdmin
(unzip phpmyadmin into shared web. copy phpmyadmin\config.sample.inc.php into config.inc.php, and add these ''. then flag it as read only.
go on http://diskstation/phpmyadmin
  in privileges:
    create user in mysql db
    check 'create database for user + all credentials'

  Install 'Ruby and the gems'

ipkg install rubygems

  Install the right version of Rake and Rails (long process => coffee time):

gem install rails -v 2.3.5
gem install rack -v 1.0.1

  Plug Ruby with MySQL, using an adapter:

cd /tmp
check http://github.com/tmtm/ruby-mysql/downloads
wget http://github.com/downloads/tmtm/ruby-mysql/ruby-mysql-2.9.3-beta.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ruby-mysql-2.9.3-beta.tar.gz
cd ruby-mysql-2.9.3-beta/
ruby setup.rb

  Download and configure Redmine (http://www.redmine.org/wiki/redmine/RedmineInstall)

mkdir /volume1/apps/
cd /volume1/apps
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/72201/redmine-1.0.1.tar.gz
tar -xzvf redmine-1.0.1.tar.gz

mv redmine-1.0.1 redmine

chown -R nobody:users redmine/

cp config/database.yml.sample config/database.yml
nano config/database.yml
(enter MySQL credential) 

  Session Key creation &  Database init

RAILS_ENV=production rake config/initializers/session_store.rb

RAILS_ENV=production rake db:migrate

  You should be able to launch Redmine from this point, with the command line.

ruby /volume1/apps/redmine/script/server -e production

   Create a startup script, daemonizing redmine:

nano /opt/etc/init.d/S97rubyrails.sh

#!/bin/ash
  case "$1" in
   start)
     /opt/bin/ruby /volume1/rubyapps/redmine/script/server webrick -d -e production
   ;;
   stop)
     killall ruby
   ;;
   restart)
     $0 stop
     sleep 1
     $0 start
   ;;
   *)
     echo “usage: $0 { start | stop | restart}” &>2
     exit 1
   ;;
   esac

don't forget to chmod 755 S97rubyrails.sh

  Now, you can access redmine via  http://synology:3000 .

But Let's go one step further by implementing a proxy within Apache. The proxy thing helps if you need access to your redmine setup through the default syno apache frontend: it makes sense when you're enforcing security with passwords (Apache style), or only want to open your 80 port in your firewall.

  Finally, Reverse Proxying with Apache:

    Add this to /usr/syno/apache/conf/httpd.conf-user

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module  modules/mod_proxy_http.so
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass /redmine/ http://127.0.0.1:3000/
ProxyPassReverse /redmine/ http://127.0.0.1:3000/

Apache server restart

/usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S97apache-user.sh restart

  And finally the most important part: tell Redmine to prefix every url with a 'redmine/'when generating pages:

Add the following line at the end of your Redmine config/environment.rb

Redmine::Utils::relative_url_root = "/redmine"

  Done ! Hopefully. Access to redmine via http://synology.ip/redmine

  Final note: after some time on using RedMine, i wouldn't recommend using it on a low-end synology. As an example, my DS-107+ really takes age at updating project wiki pages. In fact, i ended using the NAS as a gateway between the outside, and some other private servers running on my private network... Next post should about this.