HAProxy Administration Training Course

1. Overview of Load Balancing and Load Balancers

2. Introduction to HAProxy

1. Defining the scope and capabilities of HAProxy
2. Exploring the internal working mechanisms of HAProxy
3. Core Features
   1. Proxying
   2. SSL
   3. Monitoring
   4. High availability
   5. Load balancing
   6. Stickiness
   7. Sampling and data conversion
   8. Maps
   9. ACLs and conditional logic
   10. Content switching
   11. Stick-tables
   12. Formatted strings
   13. HTTP rewriting and redirection
   14. Server protection
   15. Logging
   16. Statistics
4. Advanced Capabilities
   1. Management interfaces
   2. System-specific enhancements
   3. Scripting integration
5. Sizing and capacity planning
6. Acquiring HAProxy distributions

3. Alternative Solutions to HA Proxy

1. a. Nginx
2. b. Apache and other comparable tools

4. HTTP Fundamentals Recap

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

5. Configuring HAProxy

1. Understanding the configuration file format
2. Proper use of quoting and escaping
3. Utilizing environment variables
4. Time format specifications
5. Practical configuration examples

6. Global Parameters

1. Process management and security settings
2. Performance tuning strategies
3. Debugging techniques
4. Userlists configuration
5. Peers setup
6. Mailers configuration

7. Proxies

1. Matrix of proxy keywords
2. Alphabetical reference for keywords

8. Bind and Server Options

1. Bind-specific options
2. Server and default-server options
3. DNS resolution for servers
4. Global configuration overview
5. Configuring the resolvers section

9. HTTP Header Manipulation

10. Utilizing ACLs and Sample Fetching

1. Fundamentals of ACLs
2. Matching boolean values
3. Matching integers
4. Matching strings
5. Matching regular expressions (regexes)
6. Matching arbitrary data blocks
7. Matching IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
8. Constructing conditions using ACLs
9. Fetching samples
10. Applying 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 Strategies

1. Log levels
2. Standard log formats
3. Default log format configuration
4. TCP log format
5. HTTP log format
6. Custom log format design
7. Error log format
8. Advanced logging options
9. Excluding external tests from logs
10. Logging prior to session termination
11. Elevating log level on errors
12. Suppressing logs for successful connections
13. Timing event logging
14. Capturing session state at disconnection
15. Handling non-printable characters
16. Capturing HTTP cookies
17. Capturing HTTP headers
18. Illustrative log examples

12. Supported Filters

1. Trace filter
2. HTTP compression
3. Stream Processing Offload Engine (SPOE)
4. Cache management
5. Limitations and Setup: Cache section
6. Proxy section configuration