Show IP in Apache logs from nginx reverse proxy

This is a very quick blog to show you how to show a users IP address in your Apache access logs when the site in question is being reverse proxied to Apache through nginx.

You need the rpaf module for Apache, on Debian and Ubuntu this is simple to install

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-rpaf
sudo a2enmod rpaf
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

This set of commands will do the following;

1. Update apt package list
2. Install libapache2-mod-rpaf
3. Enable mod-rpaf
4. Gracefully restart Apache (doesn’t kill connections)

Once installed you simple need to be sure to pass the correct headers through, so open up one of your nginx site configuration files and add the following within the server definition.

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

So you should have something that looks like this, but without the “… snip …”

server {
    # ...snip...
    location / {
        # ...snip...
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        # ...snip...
    }
}