Haproxy vs. apache2 proxybalancer

Rails Deployment
1

Hi,

I’m thinking of switching to using RubyWorks rather than keep rolling/
maintaining my own stack. Until now, I’ve used Apache2 Proxy balancer
for my mongrel cluster. I see that RubyWorks ships HAProxy instead.
Anyone care to tell me of the pros/cons using HAProxy?

My hunch is that HAProxy vs. Apache2 Proxy is same-same.

Thanks.

Morten

PS: When will we see RubyWorks for OpenSolaris…? :slight_smile:

2

On 5/23/07, Morten [email protected] wrote:

I’m thinking of switching to using RubyWorks rather than keep rolling/
maintaining my own stack. Until now, I’ve used Apache2 Proxy balancer
for my mongrel cluster. I see that RubyWorks ships HAProxy instead.
Anyone care to tell me of the pros/cons using HAProxy?

Cons: yet another process to manage.

Pros: HAProxy (as configured in RubyWorks stack) sends only one
request at a time to any Mongrel in the cluster, thus preventing
requests from piling up on a Mongrel that is stuck for a long time
inside Rails handler. As a side-effect, this also prevents Mongrels
from allocating extra 50 Mb of RAM per process under load, which is
important when you are running multiple relatively inactive apps on
the same hardware.

–
Alex Verkhovsky

3

How do you set up the system to handle static files using HAProxy?
mod_rewrite in apache or similar to front it, as you would with a
mongrel_cluster?

Does HAProxy support X-SendFile hearder?

On May 23, 4:26 pm, “Alexey V.” [email protected]

4

How do you set up the system to handle static files using HAProxy?
mod_rewrite in apache or similar to front it, as you would with a
mongrel_cluster?

Does HAProxy support X-SendFile hearder?

On May 23, 4:26 pm, “Alexey V.” [email protected]

5

On 5/23/07, Steve T. [email protected] wrote:

How do you set up the system to handle static files using HAProxy?
mod_rewrite in apache or similar to front it, as you would with a
mongrel_cluster?

Yes. The only difference is that you use normal mod_proxy and let
HAProxy do the load balancing.

Does HAProxy support X-SendFile hearder?

We haven’t specifically tested the functionality you are thinking
about (serving large files) with this stack, but HAProxy simply passes
HTTP headers back to the web server.

–
Alex

6

Thanks Alex, looking forward to giving it a go when I trial RubyWorks!

On May 23, 6:52 pm, “Alexey V.” [email protected]