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Deployment Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
Advanced traffic rules, including stick tables and ACLs, allow me to shape traffic
Pros and Cons
  • "I can simplify configurations of many internal services (e.g. Web server configs) by moving some elements (like SSL) to HAProxy. I can also disable additional applications, like Varnish, by moving traffic shaping configurations to HAProxy."
  • "Advanced traffic rules, including stick tables and ACLs, which allow me to shape traffic while it's load balanced."
  • "Performance configuration options with threads, processes, and core stickiness are very valuable."
  • "There are three main areas to improve: 1) Make remote management more modern by adding API. 2) Propose a general HA ​solution for HAProxy (no I'm using keepalived for this). 3) Thread option should be a bit more stable."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using HAProxy in two use cases. 

The first is as an internal load balancer for OpenStack services, in private cloud solutions. So HAProxy is used in front of Galera (MySQL cluster), Nova API, and also in front of exposed docker services. 

The second use case is as a load balancer for a Web hosting solution. HAProxy is load balancing external traffic.

Configuration of HAProxy includes brute force sandboxing (including stick tables and hardcoded ACL for defined paths), splitting traffic by dynamic and static content to redirect it to the proper back-end, SSL, and HTTP headers management.

How has it helped my organization?

I can simplify configurations of many internal services (e.g. Web server configs) by moving some elements (like SSL) to HAProxy. I can also disable additional applications, like Varnish, by moving traffic shaping configurations to HAProxy.

What is most valuable?

Advanced traffic rules, including stick tables and ACLs, which allow me to shape traffic while it's load balanced.

Performance configuration options with threads, processes, and core stickiness are also very valuable.

What needs improvement?

In my opinion, there are three main areas to improve:

  1. Make remote management more modern by adding API.
  2. Propose a general HA solution for HAProxy (no I'm using keepalived for this).
  3. Thread option should be a bit more stable.
Buyer's Guide
HAProxy
October 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability, but multiprocess config for HAProxy is more efficient than multi-thread.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used NGINX in my Web environment. HAProxy has more traffic shaping options and it's a dedicated VNF load-balancer.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward. The documentation is pretty thorough and up to date, and it is also easy to search.

What other advice do I have?

During the implementation, you have to plan ACLs and back-ends first. That allows you to prepare a cleaner config.

I rate HAProxy a 10 out of 10. It is fast, flexible, and rock solid.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Consultor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
We were able to centralize connections with multiple carriers in a HA environment
Pros and Cons
  • "We were able to use HAProxy for round robin with our databases, or for a centralized TCP connection in one host."
  • "The configuration should be more friendly, perhaps with a Web interface. For example, I work with the ClusterControl product for Severalnines, and we have a Web interface to deploy the HAProxy load-balancer."

What is our primary use case?

In my previous company, we had a lot of connections with carriers and we had this communication centralized with HAProxy. We had a high-availavility environment with HAProxy, and Keepalived too for database connections.

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to use HAProxy for round robin with our databases, or for a centralized TCP connection in one host.

What is most valuable?

Round robin and monitoring.

What needs improvement?

From my point of view, the configuration should be more friendly, perhaps with a Web interface. For example, I work with the ClusterControl product for Severalnines, and we have a Web interface to deploy the HAProxy load-balancer.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
HAProxy
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about HAProxy. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user854778 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. System Administrator Linux & AWS at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Provides us with reliable load balancing, we have never had any downtime
Pros and Cons
    • "They should introduce one feature that I know many people, including me, are waiting for: HAProxy should have provide hot-swipe for back-end servers. Also, they need a more detailed GUI for monitoring and configuration."

    What is our primary use case?

    I am using HAProxy on a live production Web Server (Apache load balancing). It's a very good open-source solution.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Four to five years back, we were struggling with Web load-balancing; we were facing issues with a single Apache. We got the best, and open-source, solution.

    What is most valuable?

    Load balancing, mainly. We are using two Apaches with HAProxy load-balancing.

    Some people use HAProxy to load balance MySQL databases as well.

    What needs improvement?

    They should introduce one feature that I know many people, including me, are waiting for: HAProxy should have provide hot-swipe for back-end servers, no downtime while shifting back-end servers.

    They also need a more detailed GUI for monitoring and configuration.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Three to five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have been using this solution for the last four to five years with no downtime.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    No issues with scalability.

    How was the initial setup?

    Easy to set up.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    If you don't have expertise then go with the licensed version. Otherwise, open-source is the best solution.

    What other advice do I have?

    I will always give HAProxy a 10 out of 10. We never have any downtime with it. The HAProxy team regularly updates the product. I would definitely recommend HAProxy. You must go with this product.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer1001310 - PeerSpot reviewer
    reviewer1001310System Administrator at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
    Vendor

    We use haproxy and I feel the same as the reviewer. Works great, easy to setup and change. Just works! We have open source version running on Centos.

    it_user860874 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company
    Real User
    Allowed us to evenly distribute the load across a number of servers
    Pros and Cons
    • "​It has allowed us to evenly distribute the load across a number of servers, and check their health and automatically react to errors."
    • "​It needs proper HTTP/2 support.​"

    What is our primary use case?

    Proxying the requests for our API to a number of back-ends. We are using it in Linux with Keepalived to ensure high availability.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It has allowed us to evenly distribute the load across a number of servers, and check their health and automatically react to errors. It also allows us to do graceful reloads, so not a single request is lost.

    What is most valuable?

    • Performance
    • Stability
    • Security
    • Active health checks of back-end servers
    • A lot of configuration options which let you deeply customize it.

    What needs improvement?

    It needs proper HTTP/2 support.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    More than five years.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user856617 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Deputy Manager and Lead - IT Managed Services at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
    Real User
    Helpful in replicating production environment architecture in a development/testing environment
    Pros and Cons
    • "I have found HAProxy very helpful in replicating production environment architecture in a development and testing environment."
    • "I would like to evaluate load-balancing algorithms other than round robin and SSL offloading. Also, it would be helpful if I could logically divide the HAProxy load-balancing into multiple entities so that I would install one HA Proxy LB application which could be used for different Web servers for different applications. I am not sure if these features are available."

    What is our primary use case?

    Primary use case of this solution is during PoC, demos, and in development environments. I have found HAProxy very helpful in replicating production environment architecture in a development and testing environment.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It has been a great help for all the use cases noted above, and economical.

    What is most valuable?

    Honestly, I have only evaluated the load-balancing feature because that is what I needed in my environment. As you can understand, for development and end-to-end testing, procuring a hardware load-balancer is a pretty expensive a deal.

    What needs improvement?

    I would like to evaluate load-balancing algorithms other than round robin and SSL offloading.

    Also, it would be helpful if I could logically divide the HAProxy load-balancing into multiple entities so that I would install one HA Proxy LB application which could be used for different Web servers for different applications. I am not sure if these features are available.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user854253 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Software engineer
    User
    Improves our scalability and responsiveness services
    Pros and Cons
    • "It improves our scalability and responsiveness services to meet our demanding customer requirements."
    • "Maybe HAProxy could be more modular."

    What is our primary use case?

    It serves as a fast front-end solution to our services.

    Also, it uses the mobile detection module that I developed and maintain.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It improves our scalability and responsiveness services to meet our demanding customer requirements. We now have much better metrics regarding clients types.

    What is most valuable?

    • The Lua module to reach an increasing user base.
    • HTTP/2 support
    • Multi-thread support

    What needs improvement?

    Maybe HAProxy could be more modular. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.

    What other advice do I have?

    The SSL termination was a nice, useful addition.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user702264 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Engineering Systems Manager and Data Scientist at a marketing services firm with 201-500 employees
    Vendor
    Others should try it out, for sure. It’s a great solution backed by a very smart set of technical folks.​

    What is most valuable?

    • Load Balancing. We run large scale, backend infrastructure, serving millions of queries per second with low latency requirements.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We expect to see the following improvements:

    • Software LB that can run on commodity hardware, on enterprise grade Linux OS distributions.
    • Simplifies our operations, improves our scalability, and lowers our costs.
    • Open Source, with an established community of users that we can leverage to operate and grow our deployments.

    What needs improvement?

    • Availability of REST API for Configuration and Reporting
    • An even bigger suite of Load Balancing algorithms
    • Documentation

    For how long have I used the solution?

    In the process of deployment.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We are still in the process of rolling out our deployments and migrating our traffic.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We are still in the process of rolling out our deployments and migrating our traffic.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Excellent. Both their Professional Services and Support Engineers that we have been working with are dedicated, have a high degree of expertise in the software, and with the entire stack in general.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Yes, Citrix Netscaler. We switched for the reasons above.

    How was the initial setup?

    Complex, but their technical staff has made excellent progress on our migration to date.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Other popular Load Balancer solutions out there

    What other advice do I have?

    Others should try it out for sure. It’s a great solution backed by a very smart set of technical folks.

    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer996537 - PeerSpot reviewer
    DevOps-Infrastructure Team Leader at a tech company with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    The seamless reload feature was much needed and very helpful

    What is our primary use case?

    HAProxy is used both as an external (customer facing) and internal (between service APIs) solution. We use it for SSL offload, domain and path based ACLs, request header manipulations, and much more.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Layer 7 health checks improved stability. Logs and metrics are very rich and easy to export which makes it easier for us to pinpoint once something is not working as we expect.

    What is most valuable?

    With each new release, I find very useful features and love each addition. Recently, the seamless reload feature was much needed and very helpful.

    What needs improvement?

    I would like to see a two (or more) native cluster support without third parties or DNS manipulations.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    More than five years.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free HAProxy Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: October 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free HAProxy Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.