TCP Connection Proxying with HAProxy: A Beginner’s Guide

2025-10-03

TCP Connection Proxying with HAProxy: A Beginner’s Guide

Introduction

If you are a beginner system administrator or developer, you’ve probably faced the task of managing network traffic. One of the most powerful tools for this is HAProxy, a high-performance load balancer for TCP and HTTP.

In this article, we will cover:

• what TCP proxying is,
• why to use HAProxy,
• a sample configuration for beginners,
• security and monitoring tips.

What is TCP Proxying?

TCP Proxying is the forwarding of TCP connections from a client to a server (or group of servers) through an intermediary. Unlike an HTTP proxy that operates at the application layer, TCP proxying happens at the transport layer, making it universal for any TCP protocol: from databases to mail services.