How to redirect a Users sesion to port 80 (the base URL)

[Randall Fisher]

Jira is setup with a Server Base URL of: http://jira.internaldomain.com

iptables is used to redirect Jira on port 8888 to 80 with:

Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REDIRECT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:http redir ports 8888

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Confluence is setup with a Server Base URL of: http://confluence.internaldomain.com

iptables is used to redirect Confluence on port 8090 to 80 with:

Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REDIRECT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:http redir ports 8090

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

So what's the problem? Some users insist on coming into Jira and Confluence on ports 8888 and 8090. The use of the port number will persist in the URL as the user moves around in Jira and Confluence. Ocassioanly they stumble accross a feature where problems arise when the URL in the session and the Base URL do not match. Is there a way to force the user to port 80 on the inital access with actual port the service is running on? (Also, telling the user to not do this, or update their bookmark, does not work.)

[Randall Fisher · Accepted solution]

You can't. Users are stuborn and they are going to do what they are going to do. They best you can hope for is that someone reads that email you send out or the message you put on the welcome page warning them to use the Base URL.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Stick Apache in front of it as a proxy (you can then drop iptables) and create a vhost to catch 8888 and 8090 access and automatically shove them to port 80 ?