The "static-rr" is just the old round-robin algorithm. It is still
in use when a hash algorithm is used and the data to hash is not
present, but it was impossible to configure it explicitly. This one
is cheaper in terms of CPU and supports unlimited numbers of servers,
so it makes sense to be able to use it.
LB algo macros were composed of the LB algo by itself without any indication
of the method to use to look up a server (the lb function itself). This
method was implied by the LB algo, which was not very convenient to add
more algorithms. Now we have several fields in the LB macros, some to
describe what to look for in the requests, some to describe how to transform
that (kind of algo) and some to describe what lookup function to use.
The next patch will make it possible to factor out some code for all algos
which rely on a map.
The lbprm structure has moved to backend.h, where it should be, and
all algo-specific types and declarations have moved to their specific
files. The proxy struct is now much more readable.
This patch adds support for hashing RDP cookies in order to
use them as a load-balancing key. The new "rdp-cookie(name)"
load-balancing metric has to be used for this. It is still
mandatory to wait for an RDP cookie in the frontend, otherwise
it will randomly work.
There is a patch made by me that allow for balancing on any http header
field.
[WT:
made minor changes:
- turned 'balance header name' into 'balance hdr(name)' to match more
closely the ACL syntax for easier future convergence
- renamed the proxy structure fields header_* => hh_*
- made it possible to use the domain name reduction to any header, not
only "host" since it makes sense to do it with other ones.
Otherwise patch looks good.
/WT]
This patch extends the "url_param" load balancing method by introducing
the "check_post" option. Using this option enables analysis of the beginning
of POST requests to search for the specified URL parameter.
The patch also fixes a few minor typos in comments that were discovered
during code review.
The new "leastconn" LB algorithm selects the server which has the
least established or pending connections. The weights are considered,
so that a server with a weight of 20 will get twice as many connections
as the server with a weight of 10.
The algorithm respects the minconn/maxconn settings, as well as the
slowstart since it is a dynamic algorithm. It also correctly supports
backup servers (one and all).
It is generally suited for protocols with long sessions (such as remote
terminals and databases), as it will ensure that upon restart, a server
with no connection will take all new ones until its load is balanced
with others.
A test configuration has been added in order to ease regression testing.
Now we can compute the max place depending on the number of servers,
maximum weight and weight scale. The formula has been stored as a
comment so that it's easy to choose between smooth weight ramp up
and high number of servers. The default scale has been set to 16,
which permits 4000 servers with a granularity of 6% in the worst
case (weight=1).
The number of possible options for a proxy has already reached
32, which is the current limit due to the fact that they are
each represented as a bit in a 32-bit word.
It's possible to move the load balancing algorithms to another
place. It will also save some space for future algorithms.
This round robin algorithm was written from trees, so that we
do not have to recompute any table when changing server weights.
This solution allows on-the-fly weight adjustments with immediate
effect on the load distribution.
There is still a limitation due to 32-bit computations, to about
2000 servers at full scale (weight 255), or more servers with
lower weights. Basically, sum(srv.weight)*4096 must be below 2^31.
Test configurations and an example program used to develop the
tree will be added next.
Many changes have been brought to the weights computations and
variables in order to accomodate for the possiblity of a server to
be running but disabled from load balancing due to a null weight.
By default, counters used for statistics calculation are incremented
only when a session finishes. It works quite well when serving small
objects, but with big ones (for example large images or archives) or
with A/V streaming, a graph generated from haproxy counters looks like
a hedgehog.
This patch implements a contstats (continous statistics) option.
When set counters get incremented continuously, during a whole session.
Recounting touches a hotpath directly so it is not enabled by default,
as it has small performance impact (~0.5%).
Some applications do not have a strict persistence requirement, yet
it is still desirable for performance considerations, due to local
caches on the servers. For some reasons, there are some applications
which cannot rely on cookies, and for which the last resort is to use
a parameter passed in the URL.
The new 'url_param' balance method is there to solve this issue. It
accepts a parameter name which is looked up from the URL and which
is then hashed to select a server. If the parameter is not found,
then the round robin algorithm is used in order to provide a normal
load balancing across the servers for the first requests. It would
have been possible to use a source IP hash instead, but since such
applications are generally buried behind multiple levels of
reverse-proxies, it would not provide a good balance.
The doc has been updated, and two regression testing configurations
have been added.
In preparation for newer balance algorithms, group the
sparse PR_O_BALANCE_* values into layer4 and layer7-based
algorithms. This will ease addition of newer algorithms.
The following patch will give the ability to tweak socket linger mode.
You can use this option with "option nolinger" inside fronted or backend
configuration declaration.
This will help in environments where lots of FIN_WAIT sockets are
encountered.
Peter van Dijk contributed this patch which implements the "smtpchk"
option, which is to SMTP what "httpchk" is to HTTP. By default, it sends
"HELO localhost" to the servers, and waits for the 250 message, but it
can also send a specific request.
Using the cttproxy kernel patch, it's possible to bind to any source
address. It is highly recommended to use the 03-natdel patch with the
other ones.
A new keyword appears as a complement to the "source" keyword : "usesrc".
The source address is mandatory and must be valid on the interface which
will see the packets. The "usesrc" option supports "client" (for full
client_ip:client_port spoofing), "client_ip" (for client_ip spoofing)
and any 'IP[:port]' combination to pretend to be another machine.
Right now, the source binding is missing from server health-checks if
set to another address. It must be implemented (think restricted firewalls).
The doc is still missing too.
This makes it possible to relay SSL connections in pure TCP instances while
ensuring the remote end really receives our data eventhough intermediate
agents (firewalls, proxies, ...) might acknowledge the connection.
The files are now stored under :
- include/haproxy for the generic includes
- include/types.h for the structures needed within prototypes
- include/proto.h for function prototypes and inline functions
- src/*.c for the C files
Most include files are now covered by LGPL. A last move still needs
to be done to put inline functions under GPL and not LGPL.
Version has been set to 1.3.0 in the code but some control still
needs to be done before releasing.