HAProxy Administration Training Course

1. Brief overview of load balancing and load balancers

2. Introduction to HAProxy

1. Defining the scope of HAProxy (what it is and is not)
2. Operational mechanics of HAProxy
3. Core functionalities
   1. Proxying capabilities
   2. SSL support
   3. Monitoring tools
   4. High availability setups
   5. Load balancing strategies
   6. Session stickiness
   7. Data sampling and conversion
   8. Map management
   9. ACLs and conditional logic
   10. Content switching techniques
   11. Stick-tables implementation
   12. Formatted string handling
   13. HTTP rewriting and redirection
   14. Server protection mechanisms
   15. Logging configurations
   16. Statistical reporting
4. Advanced capabilities
   1. Management functions
   2. System-specific features
   3. Scripting integration
5. Sizing considerations
6. Acquisition and installation methods

3. Alternative solutions to HAProxy

1. a. Nginx
2. b. Apache and other alternatives

4. Refresher on HTTP protocols

• The HTTP transaction model
• Structure of an HTTP request
• The request line components
• Request headers
• Structure of an HTTP response
• The response line components
• Response headers

5. Setting up HAProxy

1. Configuration file syntax
2. Handling quotes and escape sequences
3. Utilizing environment variables
4. Time format specifications
5. Practical configuration examples

6. Global configuration parameters

1. Process management and security settings
2. Performance optimization techniques
3. Debugging features
4. Userlist definitions
5. Peer configuration
6. Mailer setup

7. Proxy configuration

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

8. Bind and server configurations

1. Bind directive options
2. Server and default-server parameters
3. Server DNS resolution settings
4. Global overview of options
5. Configuring the resolvers section

9. Manipulating HTTP headers

10. Implementing ACLs and sample fetching

1. Fundamental ACL concepts
2. Boolean matching rules
3. Integer matching rules
4. String matching rules
5. Regular expression (regex) matching
6. Matching arbitrary data blocks
7. Matching IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
8. Constructing conditions using ACLs
9. Techniques for fetching samples
10. Using converters
11. Fetching samples from internal states
12. Layer 4 sample fetching
13. Layer 5 sample fetching
14. Fetching samples from buffer contents (Layer 6)
15. Fetching HTTP samples (Layer 7)
16. Pre-defined ACLs

11. Logging configuration

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

12. Supported filters

1. Trace filter
2. HTTP compression
3. Stream Processing Offload Engine (SPOE)
4. Cache management
5. Limitations, SetupCache section
6. Proxy section configurations