HAProxy on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

You get HAProxy 3.0, the open-source TCP and HTTP load balancer and reverse proxy, from its long-term-support branch on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, with a validated starter configuration already running on ports 80 and 443. Add your backend servers to one file, reload, and HAProxy starts spreading traffic across them.

Who it's for

• Platform engineers who want a self-managed load balancer or reverse proxy (a server that forwards requests to your application servers) in their own Azure subscription
• Teams that need HTTP routing, or TCP balancing for databases and other non-HTTP services
• Operators who want HAProxy's runtime controls without building the server by hand

What's included

• HAProxy 3.0 (GPL-2.0 or later) from Vincent Bernat's HAProxy 3.0 PPA (a signed personal package archive on Launchpad); the 3.0 branch is supported upstream until 2029
• An HTTP frontend on port 80, and a TCP frontend on port 443 that passes encrypted traffic straight to your servers (TLS pass-through: HAProxy does not decrypt it), each with an empty backend for you to fill
• The runtime API socket (live statistics and server control) and the netcat client to talk to it; no statistics web page is enabled
• UFW (Ubuntu's host firewall) on, allowing only SSH, 80 and 443

After deployment

• First boot validates the configuration, opens 80 and 443 in UFW, starts HAProxy and confirms both frontends and the runtime socket answer. No login or password is created.
• Until you add servers, port 80 answers HTTP 503 (no server available). That is expected.
• SSH in and run sudo cat /root/HAPROXY-README.txt for the configuration file, the validate-then-reload steps and the statistics commands. A reload keeps existing connections open.
• Allow 80 and 443 in your network security group for the clients you serve, and keep SSH limited to your own addresses.

Why this image

• A configuration that is already validated and running, with written next steps, instead of a bare package install
• A long-term-support branch from a signed package source, checked weekly against the OSV.dev vulnerability database; Ubuntu security updates applied at build time
• Each week an automated test deploys this image in Azure and checks both frontends, the runtime socket and the firewall

How it runs on Azure

A Generation 2 VM image that supports Trusted Launch (Azure's Secure Boot and virtual TPM security-chip protection). It runs in your own subscription and VNet (virtual network); recommended sizes start at Standard_D4as_v5. Pay-as-you-go: an hourly per-vCPU software charge plus your compute and storage, billed through your Azure subscription.

This image is not affiliated with or endorsed by HAProxy Technologies.