Server won't start AND Nginx as reverse proxy

[pieter@lxnex.com]

Hi guys,

I have two issues on which I can not seem to find decent help:

1- See the configuration below. If the  https://some.site.com  site is down,
Nginx won't start. I still want Nginx to start whether this site is down or
not:

server {
  listen 8000; 
  location / {
    proxy_pass https://some.site.com;
  }
}


2- We have set up Nginx as a reverse proxy server to send users to a few
backend Swazoo web servers. If a particular Swazoo web server is currently
busy handling a request, Nginx does not reverse proxy new incoming requests
to one of the other Swazoo web servers and the site appears to be 'hanging'.
 Any help on this?

Thanks!

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,234664,234664#msg-234664