The DataPlane API of HAProxy is a powerful feature that offers a RESTful HTTP API for dynamically setting up and handling HAProxy instances. At Bobcares, with our Server Management Service, we can handle your HAProxy issues.

DataPlane API of HAProxy

The Data Plane API allows us to interact with HAProxy programmatically, allowing us to automate configuration changes, observe metrics, and perform various management tasks. This API also provides a comprehensive set of endpoints that cover a wide range of features.

How to Access it?

To begin using the Data Plane API, we must enable and configure it in the configuration file of the HAProxy instance. To expose the API socket, set up the stats socket and stats timeout directives. And, to secure the API, we may also need to configure authentication and access control settings.

After we’ve enabled and configured the Data Plane API, we can make HTTP requests to the API endpoints with tools like cURL, HTTP libraries in the preferred programming language, or specialised API clients. To interact with different API endpoints and perform the desired operations, we’ll typically use HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).

Main Features

The Data Plane API supports the following key features and operations:

1. Configuration Administration:

HAProxy’s configuration can be managed dynamically by making API calls to create, update, and delete frontend, backend, server, and ACL configurations. This allows us to modify HAProxy’s configuration in real-time based on the needs of the application.

2. Control at Runtime:

We can modify HAProxy’s runtime behaviour by making API calls to enable/disable servers, change backend server weights, configure health checks, and more. This allows us to modify HAProxy’s behaviour in real-time without restarting the instance.

3. Metrics and tracking:

Endpoints in the Data Plane API allow us to access various metrics and statistics about HAProxy’s performance and health. We can also obtain data on frontend and backend sessions, server status, connection statistics, and other topics. We can use these metrics for evaluation, alerting, and analysing performance.

4. Configuration of SSL/TLS:

The Data Plane API allows us to manage SSL/TLS configurations, including the ability to add, update, and delete SSL certificates, bind SSL/TLS to frontends, configure cypher suites, and handle certificate renewal.

5. Authentication and access control:

We can set up access control and verification for API endpoints using the Data Plane API. API tokens, roles, and permissions can be defined to restrict access and make sure secure API interactions.

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Conclusion

The Data Plane API was added in HAProxy 2.2 and is not available in earlier versions. To use the Data Plane API, make sure we’re running a compatible version of HAProxy.