Got error "proxy: pass request body failed", after restart of apache2

Hi,

I'm using Apace 2 as a reverse proxy for my Tomcat 5.5 server,
redirecting https requests on port 443 to tomcats 8443 (as well as url
remapping). The setup has been running well for months but suddenly
started producing errors "Unknown error 502: proxy: pass request body
failed". The load when this happened was much larger than usual, but
would still be considered light (some 200 users) by most standards.
The problem went away when I restarted the apache service (I did not
restart tomcat or anything else).

The only logs showing anything was the apache error log (see below),
nothing showed up in the tomcat or system logs.

What could be the cause of this, and how would I stop it from
happening again (will provide further details below)?

I've tried searching the archives for this list and googeling it, and
while there are many reports of similar errors I could not find one
that could explain what and why it happened. The closest I could find
had the most likely culprit as being a expired certificate, but since
things started working for me again after apace restart I can't see
how that could be the cause of my problems (none of my certificates
should expire until summer).

Thanks for your attention
Leon Ljunggren

Technical details:

System:
Ubuntu 9.04, 2.6.28-11-server
Apache/2.2.11 (Ubuntu)
Tomcat 5.5.26.0

/var/log/apache2/error.log:
[Wed Mar 17 12:53:18 2010] [debug] proxy_util.c(1820): proxy: worker
http://tom.kikora.no:8180/kikoraweb2/ already initialized
[Wed Mar 17 12:53:18 2010] [debug] proxy_util.c(1897): proxy:
initialized worker 1 in child 24989 for (tom.kikora.no) min=0 max=25
smax=25
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:15 2010] [debug] proxy_util.c(1801): proxy: grabbed
scoreboard slot 1 in child 27299 for worker
http://tom.kikora.no:8180/kikoraweb2/
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:15 2010] [debug] proxy_util.c(1820): proxy: worker
http://tom.kikora.no:8180/kikoraweb2/ already initialized
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:15 2010] [debug] proxy_util.c(1897): proxy:
initialized worker 1 in child 27299 for (tom.kikora.no) min=0 max=25
smax=25
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:15 2010] [error] (502)Unknown error 502: proxy: pass
request body failed to 91.205.184.26:8443 (login.kikora.no)
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:15 2010] [error] proxy: pass request body failed to
91.205.184.26:8443 (login.kikora.no) from 193.156.194.5 ()
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:19 2010] [error] (502)Unknown error 502: proxy: pass
request body failed to 91.205.184.26:8443 (login.kikora.no)
[Wed Mar 17 12:56:19 2010] [error] proxy: pass request body failed to
91.205.184.26:8443 (login.kikora.no) from 91.205.185.76 ()

The error entries kept on like that for a few hours till I was made
aware of the problem and restarted the service.

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/login.kikora.no:

ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName login.kikora.no

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://login.kikora.no/$1
# [R=301, L]




ServerName login.kikora.no
ServerAlias https://login.kikora.no
DocumentRoot /var/www/

Header edit Set-Cookie "^(.*; Path=/)(.*)" $1

SSLEngine on
SSLProxyEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/login.kikora.no/login.kikora.no.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile
/etc/apache2/ssl/login.kikora.no/login.kikora.no.key_nopass


ProxyRequests off
# ProxyPreserveHost on

ProxyPass / https://login.kikora.no:8443/kikoraweb2/
ProxyPassReverse / https://login.kikora.no:8443/kikoraweb2/


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