HAProxy Administration

• An understanding of Linux systems and basic command-line operations
• Experience with server administration tasks such as configuration and monitoring
• Familiarity with networking concepts, including HTTP and TCP/IP protocols

Audience

• System administrators responsible for managing server infrastructure
• Network engineers seeking to implement high-performance load balancing solutions
• DevOps professionals interested in automating traffic management and scaling services

HAProxy is an open-source, high-performance load balancer and proxy server that is widely used for traffic distribution and server optimization in modern IT infrastructures.

This instructor-led, live training (online or onsite) is aimed at intermediate-level system administrators, network engineers, and DevOps professionals who wish to efficiently manage load balancing, proxying, and traffic optimization using HAProxy.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of load balancing and proxy servers.
• Install, configure, and optimize HAProxy for various use cases.
• Use advanced features like ACLs, HTTP header manipulation, and logging for enhanced control.
• Monitor and troubleshoot HAProxy for maximum performance and reliability.

Format of the Course

• Interactive lecture and discussion.
• Lots of exercises and practice.
• Hands-on implementation in a live-lab environment.

Course Customization Options

• To request a customized training for this course, please contact us to arrange.

1. Quick introduction to load balancing and load balancers
 

2. Introduction to HAProxy

1. What HAProxy is and is not
2. How HAProxy works
3. Basic features
   1. Proxying
   2. SSL
   3. Monitoring
   4. High availability
   5. Load balancing
   6. Stickiness
   7. Sampling and converting information
   8. Maps
   9. ACLs and conditions
   10. Content switching
   11. Stick-tables
   12. Formatted strings
   13. HTTP rewriting and redirection
   14. Server protection
   15. Logging
   16. Statistics
4.  Advanced features
   1. Management
   2. System-specific capabilities
   3. Scripting
5. Sizing
6. How to get HAProxy

3. HA Proxy Alternatives

1. a. Nginx
2. b. Apache etc.

4. Quick reminder about HTTP

• The HTTP transaction model
• HTTP request
• The request line
• The request headers
• HTTP response
• The response line
• The response headers

5. Configuring HAProxy

1. Configuration file format
2. Quoting and escaping
3.  Environment variables
4. Time format
5. Examples
    

6. Global parameters

1. Process management and security
2. Performance tuning
3. Debugging
4. Userlists
5. Peers
6. Mailers

7. Proxies

1. Proxy keywords matrix
2. Alphabetically sorted keywords reference

8. Bind and server options

1. Bind options
2. Server and default-server options
3. Server DNS resolution
4. Global overview
5. The resolvers section

9. HTTP header manipulation

10. Using ACLs and fetching samples

1. ACL basics
2. Matching booleans
3. Matching integers
4.  Matching strings
5. Matching regular expressions (regexes)
6. Matching arbitrary data blocks
7. Matching IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
8. Using ACLs to form conditions
9.  Fetching samples
10. Converters
11. Fetching samples from internal states
12. Fetching samples at Layer 4
13. Fetching samples at Layer 5
14. Fetching samples from buffer contents (Layer 6)
15. Fetching HTTP samples (Layer 7)
16. Pre-defined ACLs

11. Logging

1. Log levels
2. Log formats
3. Default log format
4. TCP log format
5. HTTP log format
6. Custom log format
7. Error log format
8. Advanced logging options
9. Disabling logging of external tests
10. Logging before waiting for the session to terminate
11. Raising log level upon errors
12. Disabling logging of successful connections
13. Timing events
14. Session state at disconnection
15. Non-printable characters
16. Capturing HTTP cookies
17. Capturing HTTP headers
18. Examples of logs

12. Supported filters

1. Trace
2. HTTP compression
3. Stream Processing Offload Engine (SPOE)
4. Cache
5. Limitationb. SetupCache section
6. Proxy section