IIS as Reverse Proxy

Full Title

Using Windows Server as a Reverse Proxy for IIS 8 and above (Server 2012 and above).

Context

• It is often necessary to us a Reverse Proxy to terminate HTTPS requests and then forward those requests to specific server instances for load balancing or similar services.

Example

Goal: Redirect https: requests to a separate IIS instance (or site) which only supports http: scheme.

1. Open the Server Manager - select the computer to run manager and "add Roles and Features Wizard
2. Select "Role-based or feature-based Installation - click next
3. Select Server - click next
4. Select Web Server (IIS) - it is assumed that IIS has already been installed - if not do that
5. Add security features - Request Filtering, Basic Authentication - Windows Authentication
6. Click Install - this takes several minutes

1. Open Internet Information services (IIS) manager (for example from administrative tools)
2. Click on the Server in the left pane (click a second time if you don't see sites)
3. Click on sites
4. Clink on (typically) Default Web Site (the rewrite rules created here will apply to all of the sub-sites, which is probably the place to be)
5. Double click on "URL Rewrite" in the center pane. - the assumption here is that there are no existing rules, if there are it gets complicated.
6. Click "Add Rule" in the right pane.