migrate from mod_proxy_balancer to haproxy ?

We have 2 loadbalancers in failover configuration, using mod_proxy_balancer for web and haproxy for pop/imap. I want to move to using haproxy also for the web-part, but am a bit uncertain how to most smoothly accomplish this.

The mod_proxy_balancer is balancing over 5 backend hosts, using a cookie the backend host sets by this apache config:

	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteRule .* - [CO=altiatmailbalance:balancer.hostX:.example.net:70]

and this is the mod_proxy_balancer config:

	ProxyStatus On


	<Proxy balancer://atmailcluster>

        BalancerMember	http://host1.example.net:80	route=host1	loadfactor=100 retry=10
        BalancerMember	http://host2.example.net:80	route=host2	loadfactor=100 retry=10
        BalancerMember	http://host3.example.net:80	route=host3	loadfactor=100 retry=10
        BalancerMember	http://host4.example.net:80	route=host4	loadfactor=100 retry=10
        BalancerMember	http://host5.example.net:80	route=host5	loadfactor=10 retry=10


	</Proxy>

	ProxyPass /mail/ balancer://atmailcluster/mail/ lbmethod=byrequests stickysession=altiatmailbalance
	ProxyPassReverse /mail/ balancer://atmailcluster/mail/

So mod_proxy_balancer looks at the cookie altiatmailbalance, and route the request to the hostname listed in after the dot in the value (balancer.host1 goes to host1). I've no idea what the point of the "balancer." part is..

So, my questions:

	o Can haproxy use the same cookie to select backend worker ? I don't
	  want it to set it, just use it.

	o What's the suggested way of handling https here? Should I
	  keep apache, and have it proxy everything to haproxy#localhost 
	  (with haproxy#loadbalancer2 as backup), or is a stunnel from
	  port 443 -> 80 a better alternativ ?

  -jf Received on 2009/05/29 10:13