I am trying to figure out if its possible to do a Reverse Proxy in IIS that actually hit a different web server end point. I have used it to traverse Ports on the same machine, but never to a different machine. The purpose of this is that I am writing a Javascript application that needs to connect to data on a different server and I am getting Same Origin errors.

Note: Unfortunately, changing the remote server and service to accept JSONP or CORS is not an option.

Here is the config for Port jumping using IIS Reverse Proxy

<system.webServer>      
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Reverse Proxy to Different Port" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^name/(.*)" />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:5984/{R:1}" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

I am trying to figure out if its possible to do a Reverse Proxy in IIS that actually hit a different web server end point. I have used it to traverse Ports on the same machine, but never to a different machine. The purpose of this is that I am writing a Javascript application that needs to connect to data on a different server and I am getting Same Origin errors.

Note: Unfortunately, changing the remote server and service to accept JSONP or CORS is not an option.

Here is the config for Port jumping using IIS Reverse Proxy

<system.webServer>      
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Reverse Proxy to Different Port" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^name/(.*)" />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:5984/{R:1}" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

• javascript
• iis
• web-config
• reverse-proxy
• windows-server

• So what's the question? – Steven V Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:18
• @StevenVondruska Well... I need to find out if its possible to use Reverse Proxy to call a different server ip and if it is, how to do it. – Rob Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:37
• Do you have Application Request Routing (AAR) installed in IIS? – Steven V Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:44
• 1 Then what you have written should work. Just change <action type="Rewrite" url="http://*IP HERE*:*PORT HERE*/{R:1}" /> and then have your Javascript issue a HTTP GET/POST to /name/*path to remote server*. – Steven V Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 20:16
• @StevenVondruska I am copying your answer to an actual answer below. Please let me know if you would like to answer it yourself and I will remove my answer. – Codeman Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 22:48

1 Answer 1

To make this work, you need to have Application Request Routing (AAR) installed on the IIS server you want to act like the reverse proxy. After that, then add the following into the web.config:

<system.webServer>      
    <rewrite>
        <rules>
            <rule name="Reverse Proxy to Different Port" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^name/(.*)" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="http://[hostname here]:[port number here]/{R:1}" />
            </rule>
        </rules>
    </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

This will redirect any request where the path starts with name/ to the other server. So if you're seeking /foo/bar on the remote server, you would need Javascript to request /name/foo/bar to the IIS server that has the reverse proxy configured.