Apache virtual host based on *source* IP

Question

Is it possible to configure Apache for different virtual hosts based on the source IP? (i.e. same interface, same hostname, but two different virtual hosts, with different content, based on source IP.)

The motivation for this is so that my IP address can access the site proper, but that everyone else gets the holding page. The conventional solution seems to be to use mod_rewrite to direct visitors to a separate page within the same docroot, but I'd like to use a completely different docroot for the holding page instead.

Answer 1

I don't know if that's possible (without mod_rewrite, anyway) in Apache level.

Here's another idea. What if you set up two Apache virtual hosts and then use iptables to transparently forward visitor to correct virtual host? Something like

iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp -s your.ip.address -d your.server --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination your.actual.site:someport
iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp ! -s your.ip.address -d your.server --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination your.holding.site:someport

Or something similar. :)

Answer 2

AFAIK, the only way to do this is to symlink a location within the document root to your content outside the document root, then rewrite the request to that.

Answer 3

Here's the answer I posted to the same question on stackoverflow

It wouldn't really be a different virtual host. But using something like mod_rewrite or mod_alias you can serve content out of any folder for which you have set the appropriate permissions. There's only one docroot, but you can effectively change that on the fly.

One way to do it might be:

<VirtualHost *.80>
    ServerName example.com
    ...
    DocumentRoot "/path/to/root"
    <Directory "/path/to/root">
       ...
    </Directory>
    <Directory "/path/to/not/root">
       Order allow,deny
       #replace with your IP
       Allow from 192.168.0.100 
       ...
    </Directory>
    RewriteEngine On
    #Rewrite to alternate path if IP address matches
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^192\.168\.0\.100$
    RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /path/to/not/root/$1
<VirtualHost>

Do note though that it'd probably be a bit cleaner to handle this with a dev subdomain.

Answer 4

It wouldn't really be a different virtual host. But using something like mod_rewrite or mod_alias you can serve content out of any folder for which you have set the appropriate permissions. There's only one docroot, but you can effectively change that on the fly.

One way to do it might be:

<VirtualHost *.80>
    ServerName example.com
    ...
    DocumentRoot "/path/to/root"
    <Directory "/path/to/root">
       ...
    </Directory>
    <Directory "/path/to/not/root">
       Order allow,deny
       #replace with your IP
       Allow from 192.168.0.100 
       ...
    </Directory>
    RewriteEngine On
    #Rewrite to alternate path if IP address matches
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^192\.168\.0\.100$
    RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /path/to/not/root/$1
<VirtualHost>