Load Balancer with HAProxy SSL Termination

Attention: We have migrated our documentation to our new platform, Ant Media Resources. Please follow this link for the latest and up-to-date documentation.

Load Balancer is the sister of cluster so If you make Ant Media Server instances run in Cluster Mode. Then a load balancer will be required to balance the load. In this documentation, you will learn how to install HAProxy Load Balancer with SSL termination.

The configuration below balances RTMP, HLS, HTTP/HTTPS and WebSocket(WS/WSS) connections so that it will be used for RTMP, HLS and WebRTC streaming.

HAProxy Installation

Run the commands below to install HAProxy

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vbernat/haproxy-2.0
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install haproxy=2.0.\*

SSL Certificate Installation

• Install the certbot

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install certbot

• Get the Certificate

Please change example.com with your domain name

sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d example.com -d www.example.com

• Combine fullchain.pem and privkey.pem and save it to /etc/haproxy/certs folder

sudo mkdir -p /etc/haproxy/certs
DOMAIN='example.com' 
sudo -E bash -c 'cat /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/fullchain.pem /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/privkey.pem > /etc/haproxy/certs/$DOMAIN.pem'
sudo chmod -R go-rwx /etc/haproxy/certs

Right now required pem file is ready under /etc/haproxy/certs folder to let HAProxy use.

Configuring HAProxy

• Backup the default configuration file

mv /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg{,_backup}

• Create and edit new configuration file

nano /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

• Add global and default parameters to configuration /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

global
    log 127.0.0.1 local0 notice
    maxconn 2000
    user haproxy
    group haproxy
defaults
    log global
    mode http
    option forwardfor
    option http-server-close
    option httplog
    option dontlognull
    timeout connect 5000
    timeout client  5000
    timeout server  5000
    timeout tunnel  2h  #this is for websocket connections, 2 hours inactivity timeout
    timeout client-fin 5000
    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

The configuration above makes maximum number of connections to 2000. Please change it according to your hardware and cluster size.

• Add Monitoring Parameters Please change {WRITE_YOUR_USERNAME} and {WRITE_YOUR_PASSWORD} with your own username and password. You can use these parameters while entering the monitor panel

listen stats # Define a listen section called "stats"
  bind :6080 
  mode http
  stats enable  # Enable stats page
  stats hide-version  # Hide HAProxy version
  stats realm Haproxy\ Statistics  # Title text for popup window
  stats uri /haproxy_stats  # Stats URI
  stats auth {WRITE_YOUR_USERNAME}:{WRITE_YOUR_PASSWORD}  # Authentication credentials

With the configuration above you can visit http://HAPROXY_LB:6080/haproxy_stats URL to monitor the HAProxy

RTMP Load Balancing

Add following lines for RTMP Load balancing. Please change {WRITE_YOUR_FIRST_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS} and {WRITE_YOUR_SECOND_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS} with your Ant Media Server addresses.

frontend rtmp_lb
    bind *:1935 
    mode tcp
    default_backend backend_rtmp

backend backend_rtmp
    mode tcp
    server ams1 {WRITE_YOUR_FIRST_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:1935 check  # Ant Media Server instance 1
    server ams2 {WRITE_YOUR_SECOND_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:1935 check  # Ant Media Server instance 2
    # you can add more instances 

HTTP Load Balancing

Add following lines to add HTTP Load Balancing

frontend http_lb
  bind *:80
  bind *:5080
  mode http
  reqadd X-Forwarded-Proto:\ http
  default_backend backend_http

HTTPS Load Balancing

Add following lines to add HTTPS Load Balancing. Please change {DOMAIN_NAME} with your full qualified domain name.

frontend frontend_https
  bind *:443 ssl crt  /etc/haproxy/certs/{DOMAIN_NAME}.pem
  bind *:5443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/certs/{DOMAIN_NAME}.pem
  reqadd X-Forwarded-Proto:\ https
  default_backend backend_http

HTTP Backend Servers

Specify the backend servers for HTTP Load Balancing. Please change {WRITE_YOUR_FIRST_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS} and {WRITE_YOUR_SECOND_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS} with your Ant Media Server addresses.

backend backend_http
  leastconn
  # below line forwards http requests to https, if you do not have SSL termination, remove it
  redirect scheme https if ! { ssl_fc }  
  # below line provides session stickiness
  cookie JSESSIONID prefix nocache  
  server ams1 {WRITE_YOUR_FIRST_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:5080 check cookie ams1  #if you do not use session stickiness, remove cookie ams1
  server ams2 {WRITE_YOUR_SECOND_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:5080 check cookie ams2  #if you do not use session stickiness, remove cookie ams2
  # you can add more instances 

RTMPS Load Balancing

In order to encrypt your RTMP traffic, follow the instructions below.

• If you're using let's encrypt, run the following command. Replace $DOMAIN with your own FQDN

sudo -E bash -c 'cat /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/fullchain.pem /etc/letsencrypt/live/$DOMAIN/privkey.pem > /etc/haproxy/certs/$DOMAIN.pem'

• If you're having a third party certificate, you can even generate pem file like this.

Append KEY and CRT to ssl.pem. Replace $DOMAIN with your own FQDN

cat ssl.key ssl.crt >> /etc/haproxy/certs/$DOMAIN.pem 

If you

Add the following lines in haproxy.conf

listen rtmps
  mode tcp
      #Replace $DOMAIN with your own FQDN 
  bind :8443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/certs/$DOMAIN.pem # Your cert file.
  server rtmp {WRITE_YOUR_FIRST_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:1935
      server rtmp {WRITE_YOUR_SECOND_AMS_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS}:1935

Starting HAProxy

When everything is complete, restart the HAProxy

systemctl restart haproxy

and you can view status of the instance through http://HAPROXY_LB:6080/haproxy_stats URL