Restart HAProxy on pfSense automatically using cron (watchdog script)

Intro

Every few weeks I wake up to none of my hosted services working, despite my server being on and no crashes reported. I found out that HAProxy is the culprit as it seemed to randomly stop running. I checked my configuration and the logs, but nothing seems out of the ordinary.

While I find a proper solution, I created a cron task that acts as a watchdog and restarts HAProxy if the service is stopped.

My setup is:

• pfSense 2.7.2
• HAProxy-devel 0.63_2

HAProxy watchdog script

Create the file /usr/local/sbin/haproxy-watchdog.sh and paste the following contents in there.

#!/bin/sh

service haproxy onestatus >/dev/null 2>&1
status=$?

# If the exit code is not 0, it means HAProxy is not running
if [ "$status" -ne 0 ]; then
    service haproxy onestart >/dev/null 2>&1
fi

Afterwards give it the appropriate permissions by issuing the command chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/haproxy-watchdog.sh.

Adding the script to the cron service

Ensure the cron package is installed. Navigate to Services->Cron and click on Add. Set the settings as shown in the cover picture at the top of this page.

To test if this is working, stop HAProxy, wait a minute or two, and verify that HAProxy has been restarted.

Done!

Next time HAProxy crashes, this will ensure it gets restarted without manual interference.

Comments