Can Apache BalancerMember be configured to use unix domain sockets?

Question

I am using the Apache Proxy balancer directive to hook up a set of thin servers (for Rails).

Like so:

  <Proxy balancer://thinservers>
    BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5000 route=thin0
    BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5001 route=thin1
    BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:5002 route=thin2
  </Proxy>

However, thin can also be configured to use unix domain sockets.

So I want to be able to do something like:

  <Proxy balancer://thinservers>
    BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.0.sock route=thin0
    BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.1.sock route=thin1
    BalancerMember unix://tmp/thin.2.sock route=thin2
  </Proxy>

But Apache is not taking it. Apparently nginx can do it, but I really want to use Apache.

Is there a way?

Answer 1

Short answer, no.

From http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html

It provides load balancing support for HTTP, FTP and AJP13 protocols

So those are the only protocols supported.