can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?

comet424

not a 100% what you mean.... as i not fluent in pfsense just simple home user...

but i installed the haproxy and setup backend but not working by homeassistant name
not sure what else i need to do .. tried a couple youtube video but got confused but here is some screen shots

stephenw10

Do you have a front end pointing to it?

What name are you trying to use? Does it resolve to an IP HAProxy is listening on?

comet424

@stephenw10

no i dont have a front end setup didnt know i had to..

i just going from what @viragomann said about backend

what i trying to do is have 2 Home Assistant VMs clones
main at
192.168.0.12

and backup at 192.168.0.10

and what i want is like
http://homeassistant:8123 and it will go to the main one but if the main one it goes down due to server reboot it will flip to the backup running on a backupserver
or even use like
http://homesystem or http://homeassistant without the port but it know to go to 8123

so i wanted like
that carp fail over for pfsense of if microsoft.com goes down on 1 server another one will pick up the slack
least thats what i trying to do at home

viragomann

@comet424
Any connection through HAproxy needs a frontend and a backend. I just managed the backend, because this does the trick of failover.

In the frontend you configure, which IP and port HAproxy is listening and to which backend the connection should be forwarded.

So set up a fronted for listening to a proper interface address and port 8123. Select the homeassistant backend as default backend.

and what i want is like
http://homeassistant:8123 and it will go to the main one but if the main one it goes down due to server reboot it will flip to the backup running on a backupserver

So you should set the backup server as backup type in the backend.

comet424

@viragomann ok ill give it a try i was getting confused

so did i do the backend correctly? or was it wrong what i did... ill give it a try the front again

or is it

front end is main home assistant
backend is the backup home assistant

viragomann

@comet424 said in can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?:

front end is main home assistant
backend is the backup home assistant

?
You want HAproxy to forward all requests to the main home assistant, expect if it's down, then the requests should go to the backup.
So edit the backup in the backend and set the type to "backup".
Actually both are "active". With this setting HAproxy does load balancing, i.e. the first request is sent to main, the second to backup and so on.

comet424

looks like i buggered it up i got a bind error?
so i guess i did it wrong

viragomann

@comet424
The frontend must listen on an interface address of pfSense, as I mentioned above twice.

comet424

@viragomann

if you mean the listem address

i changed that to custom as i couldnt get the 192.168.0.12 or is this how it should look

viragomann

@viragomann
Please slow down and follow the suggestions.
I told you to simply edit the backup server in the backend and change the type to "backup". You need a single backend.

comet424

@viragomann
ok i lost

first you said i just need backend then steph siad i need a front end..then you said i need a front end but you did it with just a backend

i said i changed the front end localhost to custom cuz thats where i want 192.168.0.12 main home assistant
but you said i did it wrong so i put it to the backend

so the main home assistant is Active and the backup home assistant is backup
cuz there is no main....

i need it explained simpllified like if you were teaching high school student.. cuz with learning disiability i not understanding 100%

so should it look like this then cuz i not grasping it yet fully i a visual learning not so much with words

viragomann

@comet424 said in can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?:

first you said i just need backend then steph siad i need a front end..then you said i need a front end but you did it with just a backend

@viragomann said in can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?:

Any connection through HAproxy needs a frontend and a backend. I just managed the backend, because this does the trick of failover.

Again, the frontend listens on an interface an port for requests like any other server does. And it forward the request to a backend, basically this can be based on ACLs, but this is not needed for your purpose. You can state your backend as default backend.

In the backend settings you state the backend servers with IP addresses and ports. Since you want to realize a failover, you need to add both home assistant server to a single backed, the main as active, the backup as backup.

Is this really as complicated?

comet424

@viragomann i did have both Active and backup of the ip address in Backend and you said that was wrong so i deleted the active

as you seen in the pic i had both and then you bolded that i needed a single backend so the way you sounded i had to erase the active one

viragomann

@comet424
Your very first screenshot above shows both server as active. So I advised you

@viragomann said in can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?:

So you should set the backup server as backup type in the backend.

comet424

@viragomann
dont remember i talking about the picture right above your reply thats where it says Active and backup and when i read your message i then deleted the active image

viragomann
33 minutes ago

@viragomann
Please slow down and follow the suggestions.
I told you to simply edit the backup server in the backend and change the type to "backup". You need a single backend.

but ok so i put it back in i set it the way its in the pic... im sure i not done what else do i need to edit?

comet424

so i tried to see if it works

by trying http://homeassistant:8123 that didnt work
i tried the name home_assistant:8123

i tried
192.168.0.1:8123 that didnt work either

i did try changing the Listening interface from Localhost to LAN
so it set it to
192.168.0.1:8123

now when i accessed that i got a 503 server error... but still couldnt access http://homeassistant to access the backup server
or by the 192.168.0.1 pfsense box

as i turned off the main home assitant... but ill keep playing around too.. trial and error (:

i also checked off the box use forwarder.. i not sure if you need that checked off or not

viragomann

@comet424
Seems you're going on doing try and fail.

by trying http://homeassistant:8123 that didnt work
i tried the name home_assistant:8123

Is the client able to resolve these host names to pfSense? You've probably to update your DNS accordingly.

i did try changing the Listening interface from Localhost to LAN
so it set it to
192.168.0.1:8123

Localhost only makes sense if you forward the packets on the incoming interface port 8123 to it.
Otherwise let HAproxy listen on the interface address.

now when i accessed that i got a 503 server error... but still couldnt access http://homeassistant to access the backup server
or by the 192.168.0.1 pfsense box

If you look in the HAproxy stats, are the backends shown as online at all?

Maybe we can get a step beyond, when you provide some more details about your network and the HAproxy settings.

stephenw10

We did a hangout covering HAProxy. It's old but the concepts are still valid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJSHMyrd29E

comet424

ok ill check out that video now

@viragomann
ah i tried a bit and failed...

as for accessing

http://homeassistant:8123

ya all computers can access that and then i labled the 2nd home assistant homeassistant2:8123

the home_assistant:8123 that didnt work from using the name i was trying to understand it.. i was trying to find a video for dummies to explain it better what each one ment and explain it like those yellow dummies books

so in one of the videos i watched they set the forward listen to LAN not localhost.. but i can change it to local host

so my network is

Lan 192.168.0.0
Cameras 192.168.10.0
IoT 192.168.20.0
Dmz 192.168.40.0

home assistant has an ip for all the networks
192.168.0.12
192.168.10.12
192.168.20.12
192.168.40.12

all linked to the first one..

the backup home assistant is just on 192.168.0.10 i working on it later for bridging

the stats show red so i guessing it cant connect

so currently this is what i got.. so i wont change it so you know what i have at this moment

and i added a dns server to the settings page i do not know if i needed to or not

and it takes me time with my dislexia and learning disabilitty i need to read things sometimes 10 times to try to understand things.. sorry if i go to fast or too slow or miss stuff

viragomann

@comet424 said in can you setup a fail over for say Homeassistant like 2 Ips 1 domain name?:

the stats show red so i guessing it cant connect

No, it just says that the health check failed.

HAproxy does health checking to determine if a backend server is alive. If the check is failing he sends no packets to it. Since both of yours are failing, it doesn't work.

There different methods of health checking you can set in the backend. At least "basic" should work. It only tries a TCP connection to the backend server. So try this.

and i added a dns server to the settings page i do not know if i needed to or not

I never set this. And for my understanding it is only useful if you state host names instead of IPs for the backend servers.