Web Cache 11g as a Reverse Proxy for E-Business Suite Virtual Tier

We are currently in the process of implementing a virtual tier setup for our E-Business Suite environment.    The reason is because we are planning on exposing some modules to the internet.   Since we are a small shop a separate physical tier isn't necessary.  

A complicating factor tho is that our DEV environment is in house while our TEST and PROD servers are located at a hosting provider.     TEST and PROD will be able to take advantage of an F5 Loadbalancer, while DEV doesn't have one available.

To setup the virtual tier i'm following the steps in note Case History: Implementing a Reverse Proxy Alone in a DMZ Configuration - R12 [ID 726953.1]

The note suggests using Web Cache 10g to simulate a reverse proxy:  Installing and Configuring Web Cache 10g and Oracle E-Business Suite 12 [ID 380486.1]

We don't have any 10g webcache environments, but we use 11g for our Fusion Middleware environment.  I couldn't find any notes on Metalink which described using WC 11g.  Technically tho, there should be no reason why it wouldn't work with 11g, so I decided to give it a try.

NOTE: I am not sure if 11g Web Cache is certified with R12, I don't believe it is.   So you should confirm with Oracle Support before using this in a production environment.   Since this is just a POC and in TEST and PROD I will be using an F5 Load Balancer I decided to give 11g WC a try.

For each under Section 5: Configuration details, I will show the 11g setup.

5.1.1 - Login to the Web Cache Admin page

• http://server:8091/webcacheadmin

5.1.2 - Listen Port

• Add a Listen Port.
• On the left hand side, under Ports click on Listen Ports.   Once the Listen Ports page has loaded click on the Create... button.
• IP Address Field -> ANY
• Port Number Field -> 7777 (or whichever port your EBS Virtual Tier is listening on.)
• Since this is a DEV environment I am not using https so I left Protocol as default.
• Click on Submit.

5.1.3 - Configure Web Cache Site definitions for E-Business Suite.

• On the left side under  Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing click on Site Definitions.
• No changes from the 10g document.   Here is a screenshot of my setup:

• myserver  is your WebCache server.
• If your not using HTTPS, don't enter / for HTTPS Only Prefix, leave it blank or it will not work.

5.1.4 - Configure E-Business Suite as an Origin Server

• On the left hand side click on Origin Servers and Add... on the right hand side once the page loads.  The setup here is almost identical to the 10g document.   The only thing missing is the option to select the protocol.
  
  Here is a screenshot of my setup.  Remember, the Origin Server is the server where your EBS virtual tier is running.  In my case its configured to listen on port 7777.

• On the left hand side click on Site-to-Server Mapping 
• Click on the Add...  button once the page loads.   
• Below is a screenshot of my configuration.  Host Name (in this case server) is your Web Cache server.   Under Origin Servers select the one you created above for your EBS environment.  (Sorry for blanking out some of the server names, i'm paranoid. ;)   This is  a copy of the default settings for Web Cache 11g for our fusion middleware environment.

• The above configuration seems to work fine but its quite different that what your instructed to do in 10g.   In 10g your told to create the following mappings: 
• 1, , 7777, -, Unrestricted, , 80, No
  2, *, 7777, -, Exclude Fragments, , 80, No
  3, *, *, -, Exclude Fragments, , 80, No
• These mappings confused me a little until I looked at the 10g documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B14099_19/caching.1012/b14046/basics.htm#i1042797
• After seeing this I configured my Site-To-Server Mappings as following:

• The file site-to-site mapping above was the default one.   The next 3 are the ones I added for this EBS configuration.  The second one is the same as the screen shot above.   The next two are the same as that one but hostname is set to * for both, and for the last the port number is a *.   ESI Content Policy is set to Exclude fragments for both.

As you can see, the 11g setup is pretty much identical.  You can follow the rest of Installing and Configuring Web Cache 10g and Oracle E-Business Suite 12 [ID 380486.1] as is.   If your trying this configuration and running into issues with the configuration on the EBS side for the Virtual Tier let me know.