After working on setting up my NodeBB in a Linode server, I struggled to get an apache reverse proxy that would allow me to setup the NodeBB as a 'forum' subdomain (ie forum.example.com). I tired using the proxy configuration guide in the documentation, but it really doesn't work. So here are some suggestions on how to improve it.

The required apache module section is fine.

The configuration for the virtual host section needs a clearer example, so here is my example of how to set up the virtualhost.conf file. This is specifically for setting up NodeBB in a subdomain, but it should be pretty obvious how to set it up for a regular domain.

<VirtualHost example.com:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html/
ErrorLog /var/www/example.com/logs/error.log
CustomLog /var/www/example.com/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

ProxyRequests off

<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>

<VirtualHost forum.example.com:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ServerName forum.example.com
ServerAlias forum.example.com

ProxyPass /socket.io/1/websocket ws://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/1/websocket
ProxyPassReverse /socket.io/1/websocket ws://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/1/websocket

ProxyPass /socket.io/ http://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/
ProxyPassReverse /socket.io/ http://127.0.0.1:4567/socket.io/

ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:4567/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:4567/

</VirtualHost>

Finally, the config.json file bit is fine. I guess it's just the virtualhost configuration file piece that needs adjustment IMHO.