Skip to content

Haproxy Proxy

New

Introduced in 0.28.0

Dokku provides integration with the Haproxy proxy service by utilizing the Docker label-based integration implemented by EasyHaproxy.

haproxy:report [<app>] [<flag>]            # Displays a haproxy report for one or more apps
haproxy:logs [--num num] [--tail]          # Display haproxy log output
haproxy:set <app> <property> (<value>)     # Set or clear an haproxy property for an app
haproxy:show-config <app>                  # Display haproxy compose config
haproxy:start                              # Starts the haproxy server
haproxy:stop                               # Stops the haproxy server

Requirements

Using the caddy plugin integration requires the docker-compose-plugin for Docker. See this document from the Docker documentation for more information on the installation process for the docker-compose-plugin.

Usage

Warning

As using multiple proxy plugins on a single Dokku installation can lead to issues routing requests to apps, doing so should be avoided. As the default proxy implementation is nginx, users are encouraged to stop the nginx service before switching to Haproxy.

The Haproxy plugin has specific rules for routing requests:

  • Haproxy integration is exposed via docker labels attached to containers. Changes in labels require either app deploys or rebuilds.
  • While Haproxy will respect labels associated with other containers, only web containers have Haproxy labels injected by the plugin.
  • Only http:80 and https:443 port mappings are supported at this time.
  • Requests are routed as soon as the container is running and passing healthchecks.

Switching to Haproxy

To use the Haproxy plugin, use the proxy:set command for the app in question:

dokku proxy:set node-js-app haproxy

This will enable the docker label-based Haproxy integration. All future deploys will inject the correct labels for Haproxy to read and route requests to containers. Due to the docker label-based integration used by Haproxy, a single deploy or rebuild will be required before requests will route successfully.

dokku ps:rebuild node-js-app

Any changes to domains or port mappings will also require either a deploy or rebuild.

Starting Haproxy container

Haproxy can be started via the haproxy:start command. This will start a Haproxy container via the docker compose up command.

dokku haproxy:start

Stopping the Haproxy container

Haproxy may be stopped via the haproxy:stop command.

dokku haproxy:stop

The Haproxy container will be stopped and removed from the system. If the container is not running, this command will do nothing.

Showing the Haproxy compose config

For debugging purposes, it may be useful to show the Haproxy compose config. This can be achieved via the haproxy:show-config command.

dokku haproxy:show-config

Customizing the Haproxy container image

While the default Haproxy image is hardcoded, users may specify an alternative by setting the image property with the --global flag:

dokku haproxy:set --global image byjg/easy-haproxy:4.0.0

Checking the Haproxy container's logs

It may be necessary to check the Haproxy container's logs to ensure that Haproxy is operating as expected. This can be performed with the haproxy:logs command.

dokku haproxy:logs

This command also supports the following modifiers:

--num NUM        # the number of lines to display
--tail           # continually stream logs

You can use these modifiers as follows:

dokku haproxy:logs --tail --num 10

The above command will show logs continually from the vector container, with an initial history of 10 log lines

Changing the Haproxy log level

Haproxy log output is set to ERROR by default. It may be changed by setting the log-level property with the --global flag:

dokku haproxy:set --global log-level DEBUG

After modifying, the Haproxy container will need to be restarted.

SSL Configuration

The haproxy plugin only supports automatic ssl certificates from it's letsencrypt integration. Managed certificates provided by the certs plugin are ignored.

Enabling letsencrypt integration

By default, letsencrypt is disabled and https port mappings are ignored. To enable, set the letsencrypt-email property with the --global flag:

dokku haproxy:set --global letsencrypt-email automated@dokku.sh

After enabling, the Haproxy container will need to be restarted and apps will need to be rebuilt. All http requests will then be redirected to https.

Customizing the letsencrypt server

The letsencrypt integration is set to the production letsencrypt server by default. To change this, set the letsencrypt-server property with the --global flag:

dokku haproxy:set --global letsencrypt-server https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

After enabling, the Haproxy container will need to be restarted and apps will need to be rebuilt to retrieve certificates from the new server.

Displaying Haproxy reports for an app

You can get a report about the app's Haproxy config using the haproxy:report command:

dokku haproxy:report
=====> node-js-app haproxy information
       Haproxy image:                   byjg/easy-haproxy:4.0.0
=====> python-app haproxy information
       Haproxy image:                   byjg/easy-haproxy:4.0.0
=====> ruby-app haproxy information
       Haproxy image:                   byjg/easy-haproxy:4.0.0

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku haproxy:report node-js-app
=====> node-js-app haproxy information
       Haproxy image:                   byjg/easy-haproxy:4.0.0

You can pass flags which will output only the value of the specific information you want. For example:

dokku haproxy:report node-js-app --haproxy-image