HAProxy

To get started first follow the steps below:

• Install
• Root access
• Verify the required port is open

Older versions can be found here 7, 6, 5

deb (Debian/Ubuntu)

HAProxy generates logs in syslog format, on debian and ubuntu the haproxy package contains the required syslog configuration to generate a haproxy.log file which we will then monitor using filebeat. Confirm the existance of /etc/rsyslog.d/49-haproxy.conf and /var/log/haproxy.log If you've recently installed haproxy you may need to restart rsyslog to get additional haproxy config file loaded.

rpm (Centos/RHEL)

The RPM haproxy default configuration sends it's logs to a syslog daemon listening on localhost via UDP. We need to configure rsyslog to listen on localhost and write a haproxy.log file which we will then monitor using filebeat. Run the following lines of command and then restart rsyslog.

echo '#Rsyslog configuration to listen on localhost for HAProxy log messages 
#and write them to /var/log/haproxy.log
$ModLoad imudp
$UDPServerRun 514
$UDPServerAddress 127.0.0.1
local2.*    /var/log/haproxy.log' | sudo tee /etc/rsyslog.d/haproxy.conf

sudo systemctl restart rsyslog

There are several built in filebeat modules you can use. You will need to enable the haproxy module.

deb/rpm_

sudo filebeat modules list
sudo filebeat modules enable haproxy

macOS

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
./filebeat modules list
./filebeat modules enable haproxy

Windows

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
.\filebeat.exe modules list
.\filebeat.exe modules enable haproxy

Additional module configuration can be done using the per module config files located in the modules.d folder, for haproxy we want to configure the haproxy module to read from file, uncomment and edit the var.input line to say

var.input: file

deb/rpm /etc/filebeat/modules.d/haproxy.yml mac/win <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>/modules.d/haproxy.yml

The configuration file below is pre-configured to send data to your Logit.io Stack via Logstash.

Copy the configuration file below and overwrite the contents of filebeat.yml.

# ============================== Filebeat modules ==============================
filebeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
  reload.enabled: false
  #reload.period: 10s

# ================================== Outputs ===================================
# ------------------------------ Logstash Output -------------------------------
output.logstash:
    hosts: ["your-logstash-host:your-ssl-port"]
    loadbalance: true
    ssl.enabled: true

# ================================= Processors =================================
processors:
  - add_host_metadata:
      when.not.contains.tags: forwarded
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
  - add_docker_metadata: ~
  - add_kubernetes_metadata: ~

If you’re running Filebeat 7 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 7 only ...
filebeat.registry.path: /var/lib/filebeat

If you’re running Filebeat 6 add this code block to the end. Otherwise, you can leave it out.

# ... For Filebeat 6 only ...
registry_file: /var/lib/filebeat/registry

Validate your YAML

It’s a good idea to run the configuration file through a YAML validator to rule out indentation errors, clean up extra characters, and check if your YAML file is valid. Yamllint.com is a great choice.

If you have issues starting in the next step, you can use these commands below to troubleshoot.

Let's check the configuration file is syntactically correct by running directly inside the terminal. If the file is invalid, will print an error loading config file error message with details on how to correct the problem.

deb/rpm

sudo  -e -c /etc//.yml

macOS

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
sudo ./ -e -c .yml

Windows

cd <EXTRACTED_ARCHIVE>
.\.exe -e -c .yml

Start or restart to apply the configuration changes.

Now you should view your logs:

Launch Dashboard

If you don't see logs take a look at How to diagnose no data in Stack below for how to diagnose common issues.

If you don't see data appearing in your Stack after following the steps, visit the Help Centre guide for steps to diagnose no data appearing in your Stack or Chat to support now.

The HAproxy module comes with predefined Kibana dashboards. To view your dashboards for any of your Logit.io stacks, launch Kibana and choose Dashboards.

HAProxy (High Availability Proxy) is an open-source software load balancer for proxying HTTP & TCP based applications. As the tool offers high availability by default it is well suited for high traffic websites.

HAProxy is the de-facto proxy server powering many of the web’s most popular sites & is often the default deployment in most cloud platforms. For most Linux distributions it is the reference load-balancer recommended for container orchestration (E.G Kubernetes).

HAProxy logs hold data on HTTP queries, error codes & how long the request took to send, if it was queued and how long for, how long the TCP connection took to establish, as well as information on response size and cookies, among other valuable insights for reporting & security. These logs can be difficult to process for analysis at scale & so a log analyser will likely be required to process HAProxy logs efficiently.

Requests & traffic for HTTP & TCP based applications are spread across multiple servers when HAProxy is used. The proxy is well known for its flexibility & the tool’s logs can be used in a log management solution such as Logit.io for easy identification of critical issues within an application.

The Logit.io platform offers a complete solution for centralising your log files from multiple applications and servers and provides a HAProxy log analyser as standard. You can also use our Kibana integrations to visualise key server metrics from both frontend and backend applications for fast error resolution & troubleshooting.

Followed our HAProxy log configuration guide and are still encountering issues? We're here to help you get started. Feel free to reach out by contacting our support team by visiting our dedicated Help Centre or via live chat & we'll be happy to assist.