Provided by: libperlbal-perl_1.80-4_all 
NAME
Perlbal::Manual::Configuration - How to configure Perlbal
VERSION
Perlbal 1.78.
DESCRIPTION
By default, Perlbal looks for a configuration file at /etc/perlbal/perlbal.conf.
You can also point perlbal at a different configuration file with the -c flag.
$ perlbal -c /home/user/perlbal.conf
-c has the alias --conf.
Setting up Perlbal as a daemon
You can run "perlbal" as a daemon:
$ perlbal --daemon -c /home/user/perlbal.conf
--daemon has the alias -d.
A common practice is to create a "perlbal.sh" file that supports the common operations you'll require
(start, stop, restart) and place it under "/etc/init.d". You can find a sample file in
"debian/perlbal.init".
Configuration file
A Perlbal's configuration file is a text file where you create pools and services, add servers to pools,
set services' parameters and enable/disable services.
Indentation is not mandatory, but it's considered a good practice for readability issues.
Configuration is case insensitive, but it's also a good practice to uppercase all directives.
Pools
Here's a sample configuration of a pool:
CREATE POOL mywebsite
POOL mywebsite ADD 10.0.0.1:80
POOL mywebsite ADD 10.0.0.2:80
The first line creates a pool called "mywebsite". The second and third lines add two different servers to
that pool.
From here on you'll be able to use this pool in a service.
Also, note that right after creating the pool, you don't need to specify which pool you're adding servers
to, as it is considered to be the active pool:
CREATE POOL mywebsite
POOL ADD 10.0.0.1:80
POOL ADD 10.0.0.2:80
Configuring a pool in a separate file
You can create a pool in a separate file by using the "nodefile" parameter:
CREATE POOL dynamic
SET nodefile = conf/nodelist.dat
This separate file should contain addresses in the form of "ip:port", one per line (empty lines are
ignored, as well as comments started by the "#" sign).
Perlbal will check the file periodically for updates.
The path to the file is relative to where perlbal was started.
Note that:
SET pool nodefile = none
(also undef, null, "", '')
...unsets the nodefile, but does not remove current members.
Also note: If you set a nodefile, then modify the pool via POOL ADD or POOL REMOVE, Perlbal will stop
checking the nodefile for updates!
Check conf/load-balancer.conf and conf/nodelist.dat for an example.
Pool balance method
You can set the pool balance method:
SET pool balance_method = 'random'
At the present time, "random" is the only load balancing method available.
Services
Here's a sample service:
CREATE SERVICE service_mywebsite
SET role = reverse_proxy
SET pool = mywebsite
SET listen = 10.0.0.3:80
The first line creates a service called "service_mywebsite".
On the three following lines we are setting up three parameters for that service (you can see this same
example in Perlbal::Manual::LoadBalancer in more detail).
It is good practice to always start a service with the definition of its role; this way you'll avoid
error messages caused by attempting to set parameters that are only acceptable for certain roles while
Perlbal doesn't know which role the service is supposed to be yet.
Setting parameters
You can set parameters via commands of either forms:
SET <service-name> <param> = <value>
SET <param> = <value>
For a full list of parameters see Perlbal::Manual::LoadBalancer, Perlbal::Manual::ReverseProxy or
Perlbal::Manual::WebServer.
Note on types:
'bool' values can be set using one of 1, true, yes, on, 0, false, off, or no.
'size' values are in integer bytes, or an integer followed by 'b', 'k', or 'm' (case-insensitive) for
bytes, KiB, or MiB.
Setting parameter defaults
Outside the scope of a service you can set parameter defaults for all following created services:
SET <param> = <value>
This takes the same parameters as the section above ""Setting parameters"
Enabling/Disabling services
To enable a service:
ENABLE service_mywebsite
To disable a service:
DISABLE service_mywebsite
These lines is what allows you to have several services configured in a file even if they are not
currently active (a common scenario is to configure everything on the file and then enable/disable
services on-the-fly as required; see Perlbal::Manual::Management for more information on this process).
Including configuration files
While Perlbal doesn't natively let you include a configuration file within another, one of its core
Plugins does.
By using Perlbal::Plugin::Include you can use this feature:
LOAD include
INCLUDE = /etc/perlbal/my.conf
INCLUDE = /etc/perlbal/other.conf /etc/perlbal/*.conf
See Perlbal::Plugin::Include for further examples and more information.
Expansions
The following things expand/interpolate in config files/commands:
"${ip:eth0}"
Expands to the configured IP for interface "eth0". Probably only works on Linux.
Comments
Comments in Perlbal's configuration files start with a "#":
# this is a comment
ENABLE myservice # this is also a comment
Environment variables
DANGABUILD_DAEMONONLY
Used in "Makefile.PL". If set to a true value the modules will not be built.
DANGABUILD_MODULESONLY
Used in "Makefile.PL". If set to a true value only the modules will be built, not the "perlbal"
executable.
PERLBAL_DEBUG
There are four levels of debugging in Perlbal.
By setting this variable to a value between 0 and 4 (included) you will activate Perbal's debug.
PERLBAL_DEBUG = 0 # no debug
PERLBAL_DEBUG = 4 # debug everything
These four levels are described in more detail in Perlbal::Manual::Debugging.
PERLBAL_DEBUG_BUFFERED_UPLOADS
By setting this variable to 1 you can tell Perlbal to add a "X-PERLBAL-BUFFERED-UPLOAD-REASON" header to
requests that have to be buffered.
This can be useful to let your backend machine know that Perlbal is buffering the request.
The value of the header contains the reason why the request was buffered.
PERLBAL_DEBUG_OBJ
This is the variable you'll have to set to a true value in order to properly use the commands "obj" or
"track".
See Perlbal::Manual::Management for more information.
PERLBAL_REMOVE_FIELDS
Setting this variable true will give perlbal an extra speed boost on perl 5.10+ by removing run-time
locking of field names on internal objects. As a tradeoff this will make code such as plugins or patch
sets that incorrectly handling fields in perlbal to silently fail rather than giving warnings and errors.
Use with caution until you trust your combination of perlbal version, plugins and versions and other
patches you may have applied. Once you trust you perlbal instance to have no problems this option should
simply make perlbal faster.
PERLBAL_TEST_ALPHA
This is a variable used to test Perlbal's alpha features.
If you're a developer working on one of these features, first set the variable to a true value:
PERLBAL_TEST_ALPHA = 1
And then, on your test file, use something like:
unless ($ENV{PERLBAL_TEST_ALPHA}) {
plan skip_all => 'Alpha feature; test skipped without $ENV{PERLBAL_TEST_ALPHA}';
exit 0;
} else {
plan tests => 4;
}
PERLBAL_TRACK_STATES
This is the variable you'll have to set to a true value in order to properly use the command "state
changes".
See Perlbal::Manual::Management for more information.
PERLBAL_XS_HEADERS
By setting to a true value you can enable Perlbal::XS::HTTPHeaders, if installed.
Note that if you enable Perlbal::XS::HTTPHeaders you won't have access to the fields of
Perlbal::HTTPHeaders.
TEST_PERLBAL_FOREGROUND
This variable is used by Perlbal::Test to test Perlbal.
"TEST_PERLBAL_FOREGROUND" with a true value tells Perlbal::Test that it should run a server in the
foreground.
See Perlbal::Test for more information.
TEST_PERLBAL_USE_EXISTING
This variable is used by Perlbal::Test to test Perlbal.
If "TEST_PERLBAL_USE_EXISTING" is set to a true value then "Perlbal::Test::start_server" will be return a
socket which is connected to an existing server's management port.
See Perlbal::Test for more information.
SEE ALSO
Perlbal::Manual::Management.