All-inclusive HAProxy 1.7.8 docker container with graceful reload, stdio logging, Lua and more

• HAProxy v1.7.9
• LibreSSL 2.5.0 (static)
• SLZ - zlib/gzip-compatible fast stateless compression (static)
• Lua 5.3.3 scripting
• logging provided with syslog redirection to stdio/console
• graceful restart on configuration file change (on volume)

Here is the pattern to run the image from the command line:

docker run -v <path-to-dir-with-haproxy.cfg>:/haproxy-data \
           -p <hostPort>:<haproxy:port> -p <other-hostPort>:<other-haproxy:port> \
           -e CONFIG_FILE=haproxy.cfg \
           -e EXTRA_WATCH_FILES=/haproxy-data/certs \
           pgaertig/haproxy:latest

Please consult tags to pin to fixed version instead of latest which may change in the feature.

Although image doesn't define any volumes you should provide the configuration by mounting /haproxy-data. Alternatively you can extend the image within your own docker project and ADD command to staticaly embed config into /haproxy-data.

The image and containers do not expose any port by default because these are up to your haproxy configuration. To expose a custom port use standard docker command line options (-p).

• CONFIG_FILE, default: haproxy.cfg

  This is main configuration file which is provided to haproxy executable as parameter. The file is monitored for any changes including timestamp change (e.g. by touching the file) and in case of a change the haproxy reloads the config.

• EXTRA_WATCH_FILES, default: empty

  You can provide additional list of files or directories which should be monitored for changes. The directories are watche recursively which means any change to nested files or subdirectories will trigger haproxy config reload. It is convenient to set this variable to /haproxy-data to notice any change to config and dependent files however make sure the changes won't trigger excessive

• DATA_USER_ID, default: 1000

• DATA_GROUP_ID, default: 1000

  For your convenience the haproxy user and group is created with uid/gid defined by these variables. The container itself starts the haproxy server as root user however you can reduce the process privileges with these configuration settings:

    global
      user haproxy
      group haproxy
  

The following script starts an example ephemeral container in the interactive mode:

./utils/docker_run_example.sh

You can see the proxied content of info.cern.ch at http:https://127.0.0.1:8080/ and statistics are exposed at http:https://127.0.0.1:8080/stats/haproxy.

The proxy is initialized with configuration at utils/example directory which was attached as volume to containers /haproxy-data directory. Now you can check reload in action just by touching the config file:

touch ./utils/example/haproxy.cfg

Above or any change to the file should initiate graceful HA-proxy reload sequence. The activity is reported on interactive console or container log:

2016/12/09 17:28:17 <container> Config ./haproxy.cfg update event received, diff: 
8c8
<   stats refresh 10s
---
>   stats refresh 5s
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <container> Checking updated config
Configuration file is valid
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <container> Check OK, restarting haproxy
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,notice> Proxy fe_app started.
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,notice> Proxy be_app_stable started.
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,waining> Stopping frontend fe_app in 0 ms.
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,waining> Stopping backend be_app_stable in 0 ms.
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,waining> Proxy fe_app stopped (FE: 0 conns, BE: 0 conns).
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <local0,waining> Proxy be_app_stable stopped (FE: 0 conns, BE: 0 conns).
2016/12/09 17:28:17 <container> Successfuly restarted haproxy

In case of any error in the updated config the container stays safe with the old working configuration:

2016/12/09 17:25:11 <container> Config ./haproxy.cfg update event received, diff: 
2c2
<   mode http
---
>   mode garbage
2016/12/09 17:25:11 <container> Checking updated config
[ALERT] 343/172511 (34) : parsing [./haproxy.cfg:2] : unknown proxy mode 'garbage'.
[ALERT] 343/172511 (34) : Error(s) found in configuration file : ./haproxy.cfg
[ALERT] 343/172511 (34) : Parsing [./haproxy.cfg:17]: failed to parse log-format : format variable 'Tq' is reserved for HTTP mode.
[WARNING] 343/172511 (34) : config : 'stats' statement ignored for frontend 'fe_app' as it requires HTTP mode.
[WARNING] 343/172511 (34) : config : 'stats' statement ignored for backend 'be_app_stable' as it requires HTTP mode.
[ALERT] 343/172511 (34) : Fatal errors found in configuration.
2016/12/09 17:25:11 <container> Check failed, no restart performed, haproxy will continue to use the old working config. Please fix the new config file.
2016/12/09 17:25:19 <local0,info> 10.0.2.33:36128 [09/Dec/2016:17:25:19.783] fe_app be_app_stable/upstream_server 0/0/14/15/29 304 137 - - ---- 1/1/0/1/0 0/0 {-,"",""} "GET / HTTP/1.1"

By the way in th above console output you can see the log entry printed by haproxy via syslog-stdout bridge. The bridge is started in parallel to haproxy and to make use of it you can setup logging in haproxy config this way:

log 127.0.0.1:1514 local0 debug

Refer to haproxy configuration manual for details.

Development of this project is sponsored by KurierPlikow.pl.

This project and docker image is licensed under permisive MIT License, see LICENSE file for more details. The following packages used by this software:

• haproxy, http:https://www.haproxy.org/, GNU General Public License Version 2
• LibreSSL, https://github.com/libressl/libressl/blob/master/src/LICENSE
• syslog GO package, https://github.com/ziutek/syslog, Copyright (c) 2012, Michal Derkacz, three-clause BSD License: https://github.com/ziutek/syslog/blob/master/LICENSE