Introduction
Proxy servers are computer servers that act as intermediaries between clients (such as web browsers) and servers. When a client requests a resource from a server, the request is first sent to the proxy server, which then forwards the request to the server on behalf of the client. The server then sends the response back to the proxy server, which in turn sends it back to the client
👉 Why do we use it?
Mainly we would use a proxy server for load balancing. They can improve performance, provide anonymity, filter content, enable access to blocked resources, enhance security, control content, bypass geographic restrictions, protect privacy, aid in debugging and troubleshooting, and save bandwidth
There are 2 modes in Load balancing. L4 load balancing is based on transport layer while L7 load balancing is based on application layer. L4 load balancing uses IP addresses and port numbers while L7 load balancing uses content of the traffic like HTTP headers or cookies
✨ I will be using HAProxy that uses both modes of Load Balancing
Furthermore, I will be setting up 2 Proxy servers (one as the backup server). I already have 2 web servers prepared for testing purpose
Installing HAProxy
I will install some initial required packages
yum -y install gcc openssl openssl-devel systemd-devel wget
👉 gcc is a compiler, openssl for ssl/tls setting, systemd-devel for including the source into systemd, wget for downloading the haproxy package from the website
Creating an empty directory
mkdir /HAproxy
cd /HAproxy
Downloading the HAproxy package,
wget http://www.haproxy.org/download/2.3/src/haproxy-2.3.10.tar.gz
# Unzipping
tar xvfz haproxy-2.3.10.tar.gz
cd haproxy-2.3.10
# Compiling & installing required files
make TARGET=linux-glibc USE_OPENSSL=1 USE_SYSTEMD=1
make install
Downloading and saving HAproxy service file into /etc/systemd/system/haproxy-service
curl "https://git.haproxy.org/?p=haproxy-2.3.git;a=blob_plain;f=contrib/systemd/haproxy.service.in;" -o /etc/systemd/system/haproxy.service
We can confirm the file after this
ls -l /etc/systemd/system/haproxy.service
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1409 Feb 28 10:38 /etc/systemd/system/haproxy.service
Editing service lines inside this file
vi /etc/systemd/system/haproxy.service
ExecStartPre=/usr/local/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f $CONFIG -c -q $EXTRAOPTS
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f $CONFIG -p $PIDFILE $EXTRAOPTS
ExecReload=/usr/local/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f $CONFIG -c -q $EXTRAOPTS
After this, we can try starting the haproxy service
systemctl start haproxy
Job for haproxy.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status haproxy.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
👉 This means that the primary setup has been done as the control process actually tried to start the service
Now, we need to make some directories for HAproxy
mkdir /etc/haproxy
mkdir /etc/haproxy/certs
mkdir /etc/haproxy/errors
mkdir /var/log/haproxy
Copying errorfiles under haproxy errors
cd ./examples/errorfiles
cp ./* .http /etc/haproxy/errors
Adding a HAproxy service user
useradd -c "HAproxy Daemon User" -s /sbin/nologin haproxy
tail -1 /etc/passwd
haproxy:x:1001:1001:HAproxy Daemon User:/home/haproxy:/sbin/nologin
Setting up the log file configuration
vi /etc/rsyslog.d/haproxy.conf
$ModLoad imudp
$UDPServerAddress 127.0.0.1
$UDPServerRun 514
local0.* /var/log/haproxy/haproxy-traffic.log
Setting up logrotate
vi /etc/logrotate.d/haproxy
/var/log/haproxy/*.log {
daily
rotate 30
create 0600 root root
compress
notifempty
missingok
sharedscripts
postrotate
/bin/systemctl restart rsyslog.service > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
endscript
}
Main Configuration file
We need the following lines inside the main config file for HAproxy
vi /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
global
daemon
maxconn 4000
user haproxy
group haproxy
log 127.0.0.1:514 local0
defaults
mode http
option redispatch
retries 3
# Redispatching to the another web server if retries are over 3
log global
option httplog
option dontlognull
option dontlog-normal
option http-server-close
option forwardfor
# These are the log formats
maxconn 3000
timeout connect 10s
timeout http-request 10s
timeout http-keep-alive 10s
timeout client 1m
timeout server 1m
timeout queue 1m
errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errors/400.http
errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errors/403.http
errorfile 408 /etc/haproxy/errors/408.http
errorfile 500 /etc/haproxy/errors/500.http
errorfile 502 /etc/haproxy/errors/502.http
errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errors/503.http
errorfile 504 /etc/haproxy/errors/504.http
listen stats
bind *:9000
stats enable
stats realm Haproxy Stats Page
stats uri /
stats auth admin:haproxy1
# Authentication for the Admin page
frontend proxy
bind *:80
default_backend WEB_SRV_list
backend WEB_SRV_list
balance roundrobin
option httpchk HEAD /
http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Port %[dst_port]
cookie SRVID insert indirect nocache maxlife 10m
server WEB_01 192.168.1.128:80 cookie WEB_01 check inter 3000 fall 5 rise 3
server WEB_02 192.168.1.129:80 cookie WEB_02 check inter 3000 fall 5 rise 3
👉 HAproxy configuration file setup reference:
※ https://www.haproxy.com/blog/the-four-essential-sections-of-an-haproxy-configuration/
※ https://cbonte.github.io/haproxy-dconv/2.3/configuration.html#3.1
The above sets rules for load-balancing incoming traffic across two backend web servers using round-robin, health checks, and cookies, and includes settings for connection limits, timeouts, error files, logging, and authentication. The "listen stats" section enables access to HAProxy statistics with authentication
Verifying the config file
haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -c
Configuration file is valid
Starting and enabling haproxy
systemctl start haproxy
systemctl enable haproxy
Editing firewall settings
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9000/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload
👉 From both Web Servers
We will open the configuration file
vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
# Line 196
SetEnvIf Request_Method HEAD Health-Check
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%{x-forwarded-for}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common
# Line 219
CustomLog "logs/access_log" common env=!Health-Check
Now, we need to restart the web server service and set firewall
systemctl restart httpd
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --reload
👉 If we don't have any page running on web servers
cd /var/www/html
cat > index.html
WEB 1
# From Server 2
cd /var/www/html
cat > index.html
WEB 2
To test if our proxy server is working, we can navigate to our proxy server's IP address,
After deleting the cookies data, we can reload the page to see that the proxy server forwards the client to the other server as well
We can also check report for HAproxy by connecting to the port 9000
Applying SSL/TLS
👉 From the proxy server
rpm -qa | grep openssl
We needed to confirm that we have openssl package available
Creating the private key
openssl genrsa -out /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.key 2048
Creating the authentication .csr file
openssl req -new -key /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.key -out /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.csr
Creating the public key cert
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.csr -signkey /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.key -out /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01.crt
We need a backup of the Public and the private key in one file
cd /etc/haproxy/certs
cat ha01.crt ha01.key > ha01_ssl.crt
mv ha01.* /backup # Create /backup if it isn't available
Finally need to edit the main haproxy config file
vi /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
# Adding these lines below the 'global' block
ssl-default-bind-ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 # the hash cipher set for SSL/TLS
ssl-default-bind-options ssl-min-ver TLSv1.2 no-tls-tickets # Allowing only TLSv1.2 above versions
# Adding these lines below the 'frontend' block
bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/certs/ha01_ssl.crt
http-request redirect scheme https code 308 unless { ssl_fc }
# the `unless {ssl_fc}` prevents looping when redirecting to `https`
Now we need to verify the configuration and add firewall
haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -c
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --reload
systemctl restart haproxy
We can use https
to see the result
Setting up a Backup Server
👉 What if the proxy server goes down? We would need a backup proxy server to serve when the main server goes down. To make a backup server and to make it run when the main goes down we first need a duplicate of the Proxy server that we created.
I have already created a duplicate proxy server (only the SSL key names are HA02 instead of HA01)
So on both Proxy servers,
echo net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind=1 >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p
net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1
👉 We are making the nonlocal_bind parameter to be active.
From both of the Proxy Servers
yum -y install keepalived-*
Now we have to set up the config files for the keepalived
service
# Main Proxy Server
vi /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf
global_defs {
router_id HA_01
}
vrrp_script HA_Check {
script "killall -0 haproxy"
interval 1
rise 3
fall 3
weight 2
}
vrrp_instance HAGroup_1 {
state MASTER
interface ens32
garp_master_delay 5
virtual_router_id 51
priority 110
advert_int 1
authentication {
auth_type PASS
auth_pass test123
}
virtual_ipaddress {
192.168.1.150
}
track_script {
HA_Check
}
}
# Backup Proxy Server
vi /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf
global_defs {
router_id HA_02
}
vrrp_script HA_Check {
script "killall -0 haproxy"
interval 1
rise 3
fall 3
weight 2
}
vrrp_instance HAGroup_1 {
state BACKUP
interface ens32
garp_master_delay 5
virtual_router_id 51
priority 100
advert_int 1
authentication {
auth_type PASS
auth_pass test123
}
virtual_ipaddress {
192.168.1.150
}
track_script {
HA_Check
}
}
✔ How does
Keepalived
works
- The master device sends VRRP messages according to a set schedule
- The backup device receives the VRRP messages sent by the master device
- If the backup device does not receive VRRP messages from the master device, it changes its state to become the master device
- When the backup device becomes the master device, it sends a Gratuitous ARP (GARP) message, which includes its MAC address, to inform other devices on the network of the change
- The GARP message is used by the switch devices connected to the server equipment where VRRP is running
- The switch devices update their MacAddress Table by mapping the VIP (Virtual IP) address to the MAC address of the device that has become the master
👉 As VRRP is L3 protocol, we need to use iptable rules to set up the firewall
From both Proxy Servers
firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter INPUT 1 -i ens32 -d 224.0.0.18 -p vrrp -j ACCEPT
firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter OUTPUT 1 -o ens32 -d 224.0.0.18 -p vrrp -j ACCEPT
firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules
ipv4 filter OUTPUT 1 -o ens32 -d 224.0.0.18 -p vrrp -j ACCEPT
ipv4 filter INPUT 1 -i ens32 -d 224.0.0.18 -p vrrp -j ACCEPT
systemctl start keepalived
systemctl enable keepalived
Now to test if this works,
From the Main Proxy Server
ip address list | grep 192.168.1.150
inet 192.168.1.150/32 scope global ens32
From the Backup Proxy Server
ip address list | grep 192.168.1.150
Now we will try stopping the keepalived service from our main Proxy Server to test if the Backup Proxy server runs automatically
So now from Main Proxy Server
systemctl stop keepalived
ip address list | grep 192.168.1.150
From the Backup Proxy Server
ip address list | grep 192.168.1.150
inet 192.168.1.150/32 scope global ens32
👉 If the Keepalived daemon is stopped on the master device, the backup device will confirm that it has taken over the VIP (Virtual IP) associated with the stopped master device
When the Keepalived daemon is started again, it is necessary to confirm that the original master device has regained control of the VIP
Conclusion
✍ Today I discussed regarding how to set up a proxy server in Linux CentOS7, apply SSL/TLS certificate to redirect traffic to HTTPS and finally configured a backup proxy server for the main server.
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