How to work with configuration files
With Roxy-WI you can configure HAProxy, Nginx, Apache and Keepalived via the web interface. Roxy-WI allows to perform the following operations:
- view and edit the sections of configuration file;
- view the statistics for each server;
- visualize the structure of the network;
- compare the current configuration file to the previous one;
- store the previous versions of the configuration file and roll back to them if necessary.
To start configuring HAProxy, select HAProxy => Configs in the main menu. In the dropdown menu, select the server for which you would like to configure HAProxy and press the Open button.
On the screen you should see the list of the sections of the configuration file. If you click on the name of the section, the section will expand, and you will see the list of the parameters. To edit or delete a section, click on the corresponding link in the upper right corner. Editing the configuration file via Roxy-WI is easier than making changes to the configuration file in a text editor. In the web interface the sections are clearly visualized, and it is very convenient when editing a large configuration file.
To edit the Nginx configuration file, select Nginx => Configs in the main menu. You should see the same dropdown menu as that for HAProxy. Select the server for which you would like to edit the configuration and press the Open button.
Since version 5.4.0 Roxy-WI allows to edit several Nginx configuration files via the graphical interface. It may be useful if you store multiple configs on one host. All configs should be stored in the directory specified as the value of the nginx_config_path parameter (Servers => Settings in the main menu). You can select the configuration file to edit in the dropdown list:
Press the Open button to start editing the file. The options for editing Nginx configs are quite the same as those for HAProxy.
To edit the Apache configuration file, select Apache => Configs in the main menu. You should see the same dropdown menu as that for HAProxy and Nginx. Select the server for which you would like to edit the configuration and press the Open button. The interface for adding and editing configuration files is the same as that for Nginx.
With Roxy-WI it is possible to compare the current version of the configuration file to those used before. This opportunity is very useful when detecting errors. If HAProxy does not run after changing the configuration, you can compare two files and define the possible cause of the problem. To compare two versions of the configuration files, select the Compare button on the Configs page. Select the files you need to compare in the right and in the left dropdown list, and click on the Compare button on the right:
The results of comparison will be visualized as shown below:
Roxy-WI stores all configuration files you used previously. To view the list of the available versions, click on the Versions button on the Configs page. The list of versions is shown on the figure below:
Select the necessary version by marking the checkbox near it. To view the diff between the selected version and the current configuration file, click on the Show diff link. You should see the diff as shown below:
To view the full configuration file, Click on the View/Upload button. You can perform the following actions to the previous config you have opened (there is a button for each action at the bottom of the page):
- upload the previous config on the server without applying it (the Save button);
- upload the previous config and apply it after restarting the service (the Upload and Restart button);
- upload the previous config and instruct the service to reread the configuration file (the Upload and Reload button).