Skip to main content

Create your first pool & Enroll your first member

Create your first pool

Step 1 — Add pool

  1. Go to Pools → Add pool
  2. Choose the HAProxy edge · Betatemplate
  3. Name the pool (e.g. production-edge)
  4. After create, you land in the pool with a setup banner

Step 2 — Connect DNS (Settings)

ServerCTL needs API access to authoritative DNS to create/update the failover A record.

Cloudflare

  • API token: Zone · DNS · Edit (+ zone read)
  • Cloudflare Account ID
  • Select the zone that will host your public hostname

cPanel / WHM

  • WHM hostname and port (usually 2087 or 443)
  • WHM username + API token
  • Zone domain (apex), e.g. example.com

You can save reusable Cloudflare credentials under Settings → API providers and link them to pools without re-entering tokens.

Step 3 — Enrol the first member

On Overview → Add member:

Field Notes
Member template
HAProxy balancer
Hostname
Must match JSON hostname from the agent; set BALCTL_HOSTNAME on the VM if OS hostname differs
Allowed source IPs
VM outbound IPv4 to serversctl.com (egress), not necessarily SSH address

After creating, copy the one-shot install command immediately and run it in the HAProxy Server — the enrollment secret is shown once.

The command:

  • Downloads the agent bundle
  • Runs balctl-agent.sh --enrol --key … --hostname …
  • Writes /etc/balctl/agent.env
  • Installs and starts balctl-heartbeat.service

Within a few seconds, the member tab should show a green heartbeat.

Step 4 — Set the public failover hostname

Settings or Managed DNS tab:

  • Set DNS label (e.g. lb → lb.example.com)
  • Choose orange-cloud (proxied) vs DNS-only as needed
  • On Overview, Make active on the member that should receive traffic

Step 6 — Add a standby (High Availability)

Repeat enrollment on a second VM. Enable Automatic failover in Settings when ready for unattended promotion.

Back to top