Apache Module mod_proxy_hcheck

Summary

This module provides for dynamic health checking of balancer members (workers). This can be enabled on a worker-by-worker basis. The health check is done independently of the actual reverse proxy requests.

This module requires the service of mod_watchdog.

Usage examples

The following example shows how one might configured health checking for various backend servers:

ProxyHCExpr ok234 {%{REQUEST_STATUS} =~ /^[234]/}
ProxyHCExpr gdown {%{REQUEST_STATUS} =~ /^[5]/}
ProxyHCExpr in_maint {hc('body') !~ /Under maintenance/}

<Proxy balancer://foo>
  BalancerMember http://www.example.com/  hcmethod=GET hcexpr=in_maint hcuri=/status.php
  BalancerMember http://www2.example.com/ hcmethod=HEAD hcexpr=ok234 hcinterval=10
  BalancerMember http://www3.example.com/ hcmethod=TCP hcinterval=5 hcpasses=2 hcfails=3
  BalancerMember http://www4.example.com/
</Proxy>

ProxyPass "/" "balancer://foo"
ProxyPassReverse "/" "balancer://foo"

In this scenario, http://www.example.com/ is health checked by sending a GET /status.php request to that server and seeing that the returned page does not include the string Under maintenance. If it does, that server is put in health-check fail mode, and disabled. This dynamic check is performed every 30 seconds, which is the default.

http://www2.example.com/ is checked by sending a simple HEAD request every 10 seconds and making sure that the response status is 2xx, 3xx or 4xx. http://www3.example.com/ is checked every 5 seconds by simply ensuring that the socket to that server is up. If the backend is marked as "down" and it passes 2 health check, it will be re-enabled and added back into the load balancer. It takes 3 back-to-back health check failures to disable the server and move it out of rotation. Finally, http://www4.example.com/ is not dynamically checked at all.

ProxyHCExpr name {ap_expr expression}

ProxyHCExpr ok234 {%{REQUEST_STATUS} =~ /^[234]/}
ProxyPass "/apps"     "balancer://foo"

<Proxy balancer://foo>
  BalancerMember http://www2.example.com/  hcmethod=HEAD hcexpr=ok234 hcinterval=10
</Proxy>

ProxyHCExpr in_maint {hc('body') !~ /Under maintenance/}
ProxyPass "/apps"     "balancer://foo"

<Proxy balancer://foo>
  BalancerMember http://www.example.com/ hcexpr=in_maint hcmethod=get hcuri=/status.php
</Proxy>

ProxyHCTemplate name parameter=setting [...]

ProxyHCTemplate tcp5 hcmethod=tcp hcinterval=5
ProxyPass "/apps"     "balancer://foo"

<Proxy balancer://foo>
  BalancerMember http://www2.example.com/ hctemplate=tcp5
</Proxy>

ProxyHCTPsize size

ProxyHCTPsize 16

ProxyHCTPsize 32