Are you looking for how to use pfSense HAProxy to redirect HTTP to HTTPS? Here’s how we do it.

Protecting websites over the internet is challenging today. But with pfSense and HAProxy we can secure the server with a secure connection.

That’s why at Bobcares, we redirect HTTP to HTTPS using pfSense and HAProxy, as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see how our Support Engineers do this redirection without fail.

A quick look on pfSense and HAProxy

pfSense is an open-source firewall. Whereas, HAProxy aka High Availability Proxy is a package that allows backend switching, proxying and TCP/HTTP load balancing.

By enabling HAProxy in pfSense we can easily secure a high traffic website with load balancing.

Similarly, we can configure HAProxy to redirect HTTP to HTTPS.

How we redirect HTTP to HTTPS using pfSense and HAProxy?

Now, let’s see how our Support Engineers configure HAProxy on pfSense.

1. Initially, we set up HAProxy in pfSense. For this, we log in to the pfSense admin panel.

2. Then we navigate as Services >> HAProxy >> Settings. Here we enable the HAProxy from General settings and configure the setting. Later, save the changes.

3. Usually, HAProxy connects to servers using backends. So we create a HAProxy backend for each host. Then we configure the settings of each host one by one.

4. Next, we create the frontends. HAProxy uses this to map to the backend. Here we need to create shared-frontend and individual host frontends. And we always ensure to check the option Shared-frontend and make this as primary.

5. But to enable redirection we need to create another frontend. So we create it with required settings.

6. Finally, we add respective rules to open the HTTP port 80 and HTTPS port 443 in the firewall. This is also possible via the pfSense admin panel. For this, we navigate as Firewall >> Rules, here we select the appropriate category and add the separate rules for each. The added firewall rules appear as,

[Need assistance in securing servers? – We are available 24/7.]

Conclusion

So far, we saw how to configure pfSense HAProxy to redirect HTTP to HTTPS. For this, we enable the HAProxy package on pfSense and configure it. Later open the ports on the firewall. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers do this without fail.