fabio Installation Guide Installation Guide

fabio is a free and open-source load balancer. Fabio provides fast, zero-conf load balancing HTTP/S router

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 256MB minimum

Storage: 100MB for config

Network: HTTP/HTTPS

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 9999 (default fabio port)

UI on 9998

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install fabio
sudo dnf install -y fabio

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now fabio

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9999/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install fabio
sudo apt install -y fabio

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now fabio

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 9999

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Install fabio
sudo pacman -S fabio

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now fabio

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Install fabio
apk add --no-cache fabio

# Enable and start service
rc-update add fabio default
rc-service fabio start

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Install fabio
sudo zypper install -y fabio

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now fabio

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9999/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install fabio

# Start service
brew services start fabio

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install fabio

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'fabio_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service fabio start

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install fabio

# Or using Scoop
scoop install fabio

# Verify installation
fabio --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/fabio

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
fabio --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable fabio

# Start service
sudo systemctl start fabio

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop fabio

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart fabio

# Check status
sudo systemctl status fabio

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u fabio -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add fabio default

# Start service
rc-service fabio start

# Stop service
rc-service fabio stop

# Restart service
rc-service fabio restart

# Check status
rc-service fabio status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'fabio_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service fabio start

# Stop service
service fabio stop

# Restart service
service fabio restart

# Check status
service fabio status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start fabio
brew services stop fabio
brew services restart fabio

# Check status
brew services list | grep fabio

powershell

# Start service
net start fabio

# Stop service
net stop fabio

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service fabio
Stop-Service fabio
Restart-Service fabio

# Check status
Get-Service fabio

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream fabio_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:9999;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name fabio.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name fabio.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/fabio.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/fabio.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://fabio_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName fabio.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://fabio.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName fabio.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/fabio.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/fabio.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:9999/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:9999/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend fabio_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/fabio.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend fabio_backend

backend fabio_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server fabio1 127.0.0.1:9999 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R fabio:fabio /etc/fabio
sudo chmod 750 /etc/fabio

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9999/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status fabio

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u fabio -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep fabio)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/fabio"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/fabio-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/fabio /var/lib/fabio

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/fabio-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop fabio

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/fabio/fabio-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start fabio

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u fabio -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/fabio/fabio.log

# Check configuration
fabio --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/fabio

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 9999

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 9999

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep fabio)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep fabio)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 9999

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  fabio:
    image: fabio:latest
    ports:
      - "9999:9999"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/fabio
      - ./data:/var/lib/fabio
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update fabio

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade fabio

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu fabio

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade fabio

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update fabio

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade fabio

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/fabio-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/fabio

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart fabio

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/fabio

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/fabio -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/fabio

Official Documentation: https://docs.fabio.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/fabio/fabio

Community Forum: https://forum.fabio.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.fabio.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Load balancers Guides

gobetween Installation Guide

HAProxy Installation Guide