This example will guide you through a simple IP based load balancing solution that handles ssl traffic.

The Configuration =

• Load Balancer:  <192.168.0.2>  // will be our haproxy server
• Web Server 1: <192.168.0.10>  // web application server 1
• Web Server 2: <192.168.0.20>  // web application server 2
• Admin Panel Port 8080: <192.168.0.2>  // Statistics Panel on port 8080

                                       Web Server 1

Load Balancer   <

                                       Web Server 2

Step 1: Get and Install haproxy

We’ll be using the 1.3.17 src files to install haproxy. You can get them from 

wget http://haproxy.1wt.eu/download/1.3/src/haproxy-1.3.17.tar.gz

cd haproxy-1.3.17

make TARGET=linux26

cp /path/to/haproxy-1.3.17/examples/haproxy.init /etc/init.d/haproxy

chmod +x /etc/init.d/haproxy

Step 2: Create some users for security

We’re going to add a haproxy user and run it in a chroot jail. Be sure to read up on other security measures for your server.

useradd haproxy
mkdir /var/chroot/haproxy
chown haproxy:haproxy /var/chroot/haproxy
chmod 700 /var/chroot/haproxy

 

Step 3: Configure /etc/haproxy.cfg

This will be a simple load balancing. The HAProxy server will listen to 1 IP and distribute to 2 servers.

global
    maxconn     10000 # Total Max Connections.
    log     127.0.0.1   local0
    log     127.0.0.1   local1 notice
    daemon
    nbproc      1 # Number of processes
    user        haproxy
        group       haproxy
        chroot      /var/chroot/haproxy

defaults
    log     global
    option      httplog
    mode        tcp
    clitimeout  60000
    srvtimeout  30000
    contimeout  4000
    retries     3
    redispatch
    option      httpclose

listen  load_balanced   192.168.0.2:80,192.168.0.2:443
    balance     source
    option      ssl-hello-chk
    option      forwardfor

    server webserver1 192.168.0.10 weight 1 maxconn 5000 check
    server webserver2 192.168.0.20 weight 1 maxconn 5000 check

listen  admin_stats 192.168.0.2:8080
    mode        http
    stats uri   /my_stats
    stats realm     Global\ statistics
    stats auth  username:password

Step 4: Configuring logging

Edit /etc/sysconfig/syslog

SYSLOGD_OPTIONS=”-m 0 -r”

 

Edit /etc/syslog.conf. Add the following:

local0.* /var/log/haproxy.log
local1.* /var/log/haproxy-1.log

Restart Syslog

service syslog restart