Overview

A stick table tracks counters (also known as data types) that count certain events so that you can observe behavior over time. For example, you could count the number of times a user has made a request. Stick tables have a predefined list of these counters, which cover tasks such as calculating a client's request rate.

For each stick-table directive that you add to your configuration file, HAProxy Enterprise provisions a new storage area, which is similar to a table in a relational database where each table holds its own set of records.

Entries in a stick table are useful for various purposes, such as:

• counting the number of requests a client makes.

• counting errors a particular client has triggered.

• counting the number of times a webpage has been accessed.

With this data, you can enforce policies such as setting rate limits on clients who make too many requests.

The structure of a stick table looks like this:

In this case, we are tracking two counters and the key that we use to keep track of them is the client's IP address. In this generic example, I have labeled the counters HTTP Request and Data size. In reality, counters have specific names like http_req_cnt and bytes_in_cnt.

A record has an expiration time. A record will be removed when it expires unless it is accessed (read or updated) before that time. You define the expiration time for records when you define the stick table.

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