HAProxy load balancer discovery with patterns
Summarize
Summary of HAProxy load balancer discovery with patterns
The Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application in ServiceNow Australia release enables discovery of HAProxy Community load balancers running on Linux servers. It uses pattern-based discovery by default starting from version 1.15.0 to identify HAProxy load balancers operating in HTTP mode (TCP mode is not supported). This process populates the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB) with detailed load balancer configuration and relationships.
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HAProxy Community edition is an open-source load balancer supporting TCP and HTTP modes, but ServiceNow discovery only supports HTTP load balancing. The discovery maps one-to-one relationships between front-end and back-end ports, prioritizing the lowest front-end port when multiple front-ends share a back-end.
Prerequisites
- Ensure Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns and Visibility Content applications are updated to the latest versions.
- Verify HAProxy is installed and running on a Linux server.
- Have permission to run
haproxy -vand read access to the HAProxy configuration file (haproxy.cfg). - Create appropriate SSH credentials to enable discovery access.
- Schedule a horizontal discovery to initiate the pattern-based discovery process.
Data Collected and CMDB Population
During discovery, ServiceNow populates several CI tables with HAProxy details:
- HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdbcilbhaproxy]: Stores load balancer name, version, and description obtained from the HAProxy version command.
- Load Balancer Service [cmdbcilbservice]: Captures service name (formatted as <LB name>:<LB port>), port, IP address, and highest port number used. Links to the HAProxy load balancer CI.
- Load Balancer Pool [cmdbcilbpool]: Contains pool name, load balancing method (e.g., Round Robin), installation status, last discovery timestamp, and reference to the HAProxy load balancer.
- Load Balancer Pool Member [cmdbcilbpoolmember]: Details pool member name, service port, IP address, and references to both the load balancer pool and the HAProxy load balancer.
CI Relationships
Discovery creates important relationships between these CIs to accurately model the HAProxy environment:
- Load Balancer Pool allocated to Load Balancer Service.
- Load Balancer Pool owns Load Balancer Pool Members.
- Load Balancer Pool references the HAProxy Load Balancer.
- Load Balancer Pool Member references both Load Balancer Pool and HAProxy Load Balancer.
- Load Balancer Service references the HAProxy Load Balancer and runs on Hardware CI.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
Using pattern-based discovery for HAProxy load balancers allows customers to:
- Automatically identify and document HAProxy load balancers running in their Linux environments.
- Gain detailed visibility into load balancer services, pools, and members within the CMDB.
- Understand the relationships between load balancing components and underlying hardware.
- Ensure accurate, up-to-date configuration data to support IT operations and service management processes.
The Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application uses the HA Proxy pattern to find HAProxy Community load balancers running on a Linux server. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.
HAProxy Community edition is an open-source load balancer that can run in either TCP or HTTP mode. Note that although Discovery supports HAProxy for HTTP load balancing, TCP load balancing isn’t supported.
Starting with Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns 1.15.0 version, pattern-based discovery is the default method for discovering HAProxy load balancers. For information on probe-based HAProxy discovery, see HAProxy load balancer discovery using probes.
Request apps on the Store
Visit the ServiceNow Store to view all the available apps, and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
To learn about HAProxy load balancers and their versions that you can discover, refer to Detailed information on products discovered by ITOM Visibility.
Prerequisites
- Verify that the applications are up to date
-
- Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns
- Visibility Content
- Verify HAProxy is installed on the Linux server
- Verify the HAProxy software is installed and running on a Linux server.
- Verify permission to run HAProxy command
- Verify you have permission to run the following command: <HAproxy Installation Path>/haproxy -v.
- Verify read access to HAProxy configuration file
- Verify you have read access to the haproxy.cfg file.
- Create SSH credentials
- For more information, see SSH credentials.
- Schedule a horizontal discovery
- For more information, see Schedule a horizontal discovery.
Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery
Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the HA Proxy Pattern.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name [name] | Name of the HAProxy load balancer. |
| Version [version] | Version of the HAProxy load balancer. |
| Description [short_description] | Description of the HAProxy process, which is obtained by running the command: haproxy -version. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name [name] | Name of the load balancer in the following format: <LB name>:<LB port>. |
| Port [port] | Port on which the load balancer is listening. |
| IP Address [ip_address] | IP address of the load balancer service. |
| Last port [last_port] | Highest port number used by the load balancer service. |
| Load balancer [load_balancer] | References the HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] table. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name [name] | Name of the load balancer pool. |
| Load balancer [load_balancer] | References the HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] table. |
| Load balancing method [load_balancing_method] | Method used to load balance the pool, for example: Round Robin. |
| Most recent discovery [last_discovered] | Timestamp of the most recent discovery. |
| Install Status [install_status] | Install status of the load balancer pool, for example: Installed. |
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name [name] | Name of the load balancer pool member. |
| Service port [service_port] | Port used by the pool member. |
| IP Address [ip_address] | IP address of the pool member host. |
| Pool [pool] | References the Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool] table. |
| Load balancer [load_balancer] | References the HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] table. |
CI relationships
Discovery creates these relationships to support the HAProxy load balancer discovery.
| CI | Relationship | CI |
|---|---|---|
| Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool] | Allocated to::Allocated from | Load Balancer Service [cmdb_ci_lb_service] |
| Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool] | Owns::Owned by | Load Balancer Pool Member [cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member] |
| Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool] | References | HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] |
| Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool] | References | Load Balancer Pool Member [cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member] |
| Load Balancer Pool Member [cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member] | References | HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] |
| Load Balancer Service [cmdb_ci_lb_service] | References | HAProxy Load Balancer [cmdb_ci_lb_haproxy] |
| Load Balancer Service [cmdb_ci_lb_service] | Runs on::Runs | Hardware [cmdb_ci_hardware] |