Pages with special characters are not accessible via HAProxy

Question

Hello, I am experiencing the same problem as stated in this article: https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/pages-with-special-characters-are-not-accessible-via-reverse-proxy-829664257.html However, I am using HAProxy and I'm sure if this workaround is possible. Our Confluence version is 6.0 and we use /confluence as context path. server.xml config is as follows: port="8090" protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" connectionTimeout="20000" URIEncoding="UTF-8" acceptCount="10"
enableLookups="false" debug="0" redirectPort="443" maxThreads="200" minSpareThreads="10" scheme="https" secure="true" proxyName="mycompany.com" proxyPort="443" /> Current HAProxy config: backend confluence_server mode http http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Host %[req.hdr(host)] http-request set-header X-Real-IP %[src] http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Server %[req.hdr(host)] balance source option forwardfor except 127.0.0.1 header X-Forwarded-For server confluence 107.105.134.53:8090 maxconn 10000 weight 10 cookie confluence check backend synchrony_server mode http http-check disable-on-404 http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Host %[req.hdr(host)] http-request set-header X-Real-IP %[src] http-request set-header X-Forwarded-Server %[req.hdr(host)] balance source option forwardfor server synchrony 107.105.134.53:8091 maxconn 10000 weight 10 cookie synchrony check Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Celine Villafuerte · Answer

Hi Daniel,

Sorry it took a while to reply. We were not able to fix it using HAProxy, but since Nginx is placed on top of HAProxy in our infra, we just moved the Synchrony configurations to nginx.conf.  HAProxy does not handle websockets well that's why we opted to use the 2 technologies together.

Daniel Eads · Answer

Hi Celine,

I've not personally used HAProxy or have a test one handy to give this a run. So take this with the proper "untested!" grain of salt. :)

The nginx-specific fix simply parses the URI. Based on what nginx is doing, it seems like the equivalent directive you'll need to set in HAProxy is:

http-request set-uri http://%[req.hdr(Host)]%[path]?%[query]

I'd put this right above the "balance source" line in both your server blocks.

Let me know if this works or not, I'd love to update that KB article for future HAProxy users if you're able to get it patched up!

Cheers,
Daniel