Can nginx be used as a reverse proxy for a backend

Question

We're working on a Ruby on Rails app that needs to take advantage of html5 websockets. At the moment, we have two separate "servers" so to speak: our main app running on nginx+passenger, and a separate server using Pratik Naik's Cramp framework (which is running on Thin) to handle the websocket connections.

Ideally, when it comes time for deployment, we'd have the rails app running on nginx+passenger, and the websocket server would be proxied behind nginx, so we wouldn't need to have the websocket server running on a different port.

Problem is, in this setup it seems that nginx is closing the connections to Thin too early. The connection is successfully established to the Thin server, then immediately closed with a 200 response code. Our guess is that nginx doesn't realize that the client is trying to establish a long-running connection for websocket traffic.

Admittedly, I'm not all that savvy with nginx config, so, is it even possible to configure nginx to act as a reverse proxy for a websocket server? Or do I have to wait for nginx to offer support for the new websocket handshake stuff? Assuming that having both the app server and the websocket server listening on port 80 is a requirement, might that mean I have to have Thin running on a separate server without nginx in front for now?

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions. :)

-John

Answer 1

How about Nginx with the new HTTP Push module: http://pushmodule.slact.net/. It takes care of the connection juggling (so to speak) that one might have to worry about with a reverse proxy. It is certainly a viable alternative to Websockets which are not fully in the mix yet. I know developer of the HTTP Push module is still working on a fully stable version, but it is in active development. There are versions of it being used in production codebases. To quote the author, "A useful tool with a boring name."