How To Install HAProxy on Ubuntu Linux Server

HAProxy is an open source HTTP / TCP proxy solution to create highly availablesystems. HAProxy is widely used open source load balancer,

In this article I will explain the basic setup of HAProxy 1.8.x on Ubuntu Linuxsystem.

Installing HAProxy on Ubuntu Linux Server

Please refer to Uninstalling HAProxy section, if you want to uninstall any existing installation of haproxy package.

1. Add ppa:vbernat/haproxy-1.8 apt repository to system’s software source. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vbernat/haproxy-1.8
2. Update the apt repository. sudo apt-get update
3. Verify if HAProxy version 1.8.X has been added to available list of installable softwares. apt-cache policy haproxy Output haproxy: Installed: (none) Candidate: 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial Version table: 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial 500 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/vbernat/haproxy-1.8/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages 1.6.3-1ubuntu0.2 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 1.6.3-1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
4. Install HAProxy using apt package manager. sudo apt-get install -y haproxy
5. Run the apt-cache policy command again to verify installation of HAProxy version 1.8.X. apt-cache policy haproxy The line Installed: 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial from following output, confirms haproxy: Installed: 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial Candidate: 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial Version table: *** 1.8.19-1ppa1~xenial 500 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/vbernat/haproxy-1.8/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 1.6.3-1ubuntu0.2 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages 1.6.3-1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

Staring and Stopping the HAProxy service

We can start HAProxy service using service command.

sudo service haproxy start

Run following command to stop HAProxy service.

sudo service haproxy stop

Check current status of HAProxy service

We can check current status of HAProxy service using status option of servicecommand.

sudo service haproxy status

This will output current status of HAProxy service.

● haproxy.service - HAProxy Load Balancer
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/haproxy.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-03-25 21:40:37 PKT; 2s ago
     Docs: man:haproxy(1)
           file:/usr/share/doc/haproxy/configuration.txt.gz
  Process: 12748 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/haproxy -f ${CONFIG} -c -q (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 12753 (haproxy-systemd)
    Tasks: 3
   Memory: 1.0M
      CPU: 13ms
   CGroup: /system.slice/haproxy.service
           ├─12753 /usr/sbin/haproxy-systemd-wrapper -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid
           ├─12754 /usr/sbin/haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid -Ds
           └─12758 /usr/sbin/haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid -Ds

Mar 25 21:40:37 sb-ha-1 systemd[1]: Starting HAProxy Load Balancer...
Mar 25 21:40:37 sb-ha-1 systemd[1]: Started HAProxy Load Balancer.
Mar 25 21:40:37 sb-ha-1 haproxy-systemd-wrapper[12753]: haproxy-systemd-wrapper: executing /usr/sbin/haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid -Ds

Basic Configuration of HAProxy

Basic configuration of HAProxy is located at /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg, we can view the contents of default configuration of HAProxy using cat command

cat /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

This will show the contents of haproxy.cfg file as following.

global
	log /dev/log	local0
	log /dev/log	local1 notice
	chroot /var/lib/haproxy
	stats socket /run/haproxy/admin.sock mode 660 level admin expose-fd listeners
	stats timeout 30s
	user haproxy
	group haproxy
	daemon

	# Default SSL material locations
	ca-base /etc/ssl/certs
	crt-base /etc/ssl/private

	# Default ciphers to use on SSL-enabled listening sockets.
	# For more information, see ciphers(1SSL). This list is from:
	#  https://hynek.me/articles/hardening-your-web-servers-ssl-ciphers/
	# An alternative list with additional directives can be obtained from
	#  https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/?server=haproxy
	ssl-default-bind-ciphers ECDH+AESGCM:DH+AESGCM:ECDH+AES256:DH+AES256:ECDH+AES128:DH+AES:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:!aNULL:!MD5:!DSS
	ssl-default-bind-options no-sslv3

defaults
	log	global
	mode	http
	option	httplog
	option	dontlognull
        timeout connect 5000
        timeout client  50000
        timeout server  50000
	errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errors/400.http
	errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errors/403.http
	errorfile 408 /etc/haproxy/errors/408.http
	errorfile 500 /etc/haproxy/errors/500.http
	errorfile 502 /etc/haproxy/errors/502.http
	errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errors/503.http
	errorfile 504 /etc/haproxy/errors/504.http

Uninstalling HAProxy

You can use following approaches to remove or uninstall haproxy from your Ubuntu system.

1. Run following command to remove just haproxy package from ubuntu. sudo apt-get remove haproxy
2. To remove the haproxy package along with dependent packages. sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove haproxy
3. Ue the purge command, if you also want to delete configuration files. sudo apt-get purge haproxy
4. You can delete configuration along with data files for haproxy as following. sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove haproxy

Related Articles

• Understanding Core Concepts of HAProxy as Load Balancer Solution.

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