title: mod_proxy time-outs (502) and failovers
body: <p>so we're running a cluster of 2+ backend servers (happend to be JBoss servers) that are being load-balanced by an Apache 2.2. From time to time it can happen that the backend servers become unresponsive (meaning they'll wait ages to reply to a request, but don't close the connection immediately). This will naturally end up in a 502 "Bad gateway" error. My understanding of a load-balancer that is, that it should fail-over and redirect requests to the remaining instances.</p>
  
  <p>I've seen that a node of the balancer can go to error state, but was never able to force-fully send one into that state (i.e. do that after the first 502 has been encountered). Am I missing something or is that just a feature I am wishing for?
  Oh, and here goes my config:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Proxy balancer://s&gt;
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
  
      BalancerMember http://host1:8080/ route=h1 timeout=20 retry=40
      BalancerMember http://host2:8080/ route=h2 timeout=20 retry=40
  &lt;/Proxy&gt;
  
  # Distribute by Round Robin, use Sticky Sessions
  ProxyPass / balancer://s/ stickysession=JSESSIONID lbmethod=byrequests nofailover=On
  ProxyPassReverse /  http://host1:8080/
  ProxyPassReverse /  http://host2:8080/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Best,
  Sebastian</p>