HAProxy is a popular open source software that provides high availability, load balancing, and proxying for TCP and HTTP-based applications. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install HAProxy on Elementary OS Latest.
Before starting the installation process, make sure you have the following:
Before we proceed with installing HAProxy, it's essential to update your system to ensure that we have the latest packages from the official repository. To update the system, run the following command in your terminal:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
With the system updated, we can now proceed with the HAProxy installation. HAProxy can install using the apt package manager. Use the following command to install HAProxy:
sudo apt-get install haproxy
After the installation is complete, you can verify the installation by checking the HAProxy version with the following command:
sudo haproxy -v
Now that HAProxy has installed, we need to configure it to work with our application server, for example, Apache, NGINX or another HTTP server. The HAProxy configuration file stores in the /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg file. The default file is configured to work with IPv4, but if required, it can also configure to run over IPv6.
Open the file in your preferred text editor with sudo privilege.
sudo nano /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
Update the configuration file as per your requirement. Below is an example configuration file that works with HTTP server such as NGINX:
global
maxconn 10000
log 127.0.0.1 local2
ssl-default-bind-ciphers PROFILE=SYSTEM
ssl-default-server-ciphers PROFILE=SYSTEM
defaults
log global
mode http
option httplog
option dontlognull
retries 3
option redispatch
timeout connect 5s
timeout client 15s
timeout server 15s
frontend lb-frontend
mode http
bind *:80
option http-server-close
option forwardfor
default_backend lb-backend
backend lb-backend
mode http
option abortonclose
option httpchk GET /api-check
balance roundrobin
server web1 192.168.0.4:80 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5
server web2 192.168.0.5:80 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5
After you have made the changes, save the file and exit the text editor.
After configuring the file, you can start the HAProxy service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl start haproxy
You can check the status of the service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl status haproxy
You should see an output similar to this if everything has configured correctly:
haproxy.service - HAProxy Load Balancer
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/haproxy.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-09-28 01:52:06 EDT; 1min 34s ago
Docs: man:haproxy(1)
file:/usr/share/doc/haproxy/configuration.txt.gz
Main PID: 1230 (haproxy)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/haproxy.service
├─1230 /usr/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid
└─1231 /usr/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid
Sep 28 01:52:06 ElementaryOS systemd[1]: Starting HAProxy Load Balancer...
Sep 28 01:52:06 ElementaryOS haproxy[1230]: [WARNING] 270/015206 (1230) : parsing [/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg:40] : 'option forwardfor' ignored for default-frontend 'lb-frontend' as it requires HTTP mode.
Sep 28 01:52:06 ElementaryOS haproxy[1230]: [WARNING] 270/015206 (1230) : parsing [/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg:41] : 'option httpclose' ignored for default-frontend 'lb-frontend' as it requires HTTP mode.
Sep 28 01:52:06 ElementaryOS systemd[1]: Started HAProxy Load Balancer.
That's it! You have now installed and configured HAProxy on Elementary OS Latest. You can now use HAProxy to manage and balance the load of your application servers. If you face any issues, refer to the official HAProxy documentation for more information.
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