virtual host with rewriterule vs reverse proxy?

[apachenoob]

Hi,

we're supposed to setup a reverse proxy server and someone ended up creating a vhost with rewriterules, i havent seen anywhere this replacing a reverse proxy server! can someone then tell me what's the difference between these two?

Both seem to go to the app server when using the web server url, then why use one or the other?

Thanks

[jdMorgan]

Mod_rewrite supports the reverse proxy function with the [P] flag on RewriteRule.

It is useful when you need to check more server variables or HTTP request header values -- more conditions than can be tested by putting your ProxyPass directive inside <Directory> and <Limit> containers to make the reverse-proxy invocation conditional, for example.

Jim