Overview #

This article provides a user-focused overview of the changes introduced between RELIANOID v8 and v10, serving as a practical reference to help users understand the evolution of the platform and make the most of the new RELIANOID Load Balancer v10.

Post-Quantum Cryptography Support #

RELIANOID v10 takes an important step toward next-generation cryptographic security with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) readiness through Hybrid Key Exchange (HKE). By default, new key exchange curves designed to support PQC in TLS 1.3 are enabled, helping prepare encrypted connections for the evolving security challenges posed by future quantum computing capabilities. At the same time, compatibility with established key exchange curves is retained for TLS 1.2, supporting interoperability with existing clients and systems.

This capability is available across the new WebUI server, Pound proxy, and Eproxy, bringing consistent support for modern cryptographic negotiation across RELIANOID’s services. By combining forward-looking TLS 1.3 key exchange options with continued TLS 1.2 compatibility, RELIANOID v10 helps organizations strengthen their security posture while maintaining support for established environments.

Modern Web User Interface #

RELIANOID v10 introduces a modernized Web User Interface built with Angular and Material 3, bringing a refreshed look and feel to the platform. The new design incorporates an updated visual theme, more consistent interface elements, and a cleaner presentation of information to make everyday administration more intuitive and efficient.

This redesign focuses on improving the overall user experience, helping administrators navigate the interface, access configuration options, and manage load balancing services with greater clarity. By adopting a modern UI framework and design system, RELIANOID v10 also establishes a more flexible foundation for continued interface improvements, delivering a more cohesive and user-friendly management experience.

New Modern Web UI Server #

RELIANOID v10 replaces the obsolete Cherokee web server with lighttpd, introducing a modern and lightweight foundation for serving the Web User Interface. This transition moves away from a legacy component and adopts a web server better suited to the platform’s ongoing evolution, helping streamline the delivery and operation of the management interface.

The new web UI server provides a refreshed foundation for RELIANOID’s administration experience, complementing the Angular and Material 3 interface redesign. Together, these changes modernize both the presentation and the underlying web-serving component, supporting a more maintainable platform and a consistent user experience.

New Modern Cluster Session Replication Service #

RELIANOID v10 introduces a modernized session replication service for clustered environments, replacing the obsolete and unreliable ssyncd mechanism with a Redis-based database. This new architecture provides a more robust and streamlined approach to sharing session information between cluster nodes, helping ensure that session state remains available when traffic is handled by different nodes in the cluster.

The new service delivers seamless session replication across L4 farms, Pound proxy farms, and Eproxy farms, improving session continuity and supporting more consistent behavior in high-availability deployments. By adopting Redis as the session replication backend, RELIANOID v10 modernizes a key component of cluster operation and strengthens the foundation for reliable application delivery in clustered infrastructures.

New Features of Eproxy #

RELIANOID v10 significantly expands the capabilities of Eproxy, introducing a comprehensive set of features designed to provide greater flexibility, control, security, and performance when managing application traffic. These enhancements offer administrators more advanced traffic management options while extending the integration of Eproxy with RELIANOID’s high-availability and security capabilities.

The Advanced Farm options now include Request and Response Headers management, allowing administrators to customize HTTP headers exchanged between clients and backend servers. A new Enable Redirect option provides additional control over traffic redirection. Eproxy also introduces an expanded range of scheduling algorithms to adapt traffic distribution to different application requirements and workloads, including Round Robin, Random, Least Request, Maglev, Ring Hash, and Original Destination.

For applications that require session continuity, Eproxy now supports consistent persistence based on Source IP and Source IP and port (additionally to the already supported Header and Cookie based persistence), helping ensure that subsequent requests from the same client are consistently directed to the appropriate backend. Backend maintenance operations are also more flexible thanks to the introduction of Drain and Cut modes. Drain mode allows existing connections to complete while preventing new traffic from being assigned to the backend, whereas Cut mode enables administrators to remove a backend from service immediately.

Security is another major focus of this release. Eproxy now integrates with the IPDS Web Application Firewall (WAF), enabling the application of WAF rulesets to inspect and protect application traffic against web-based threats. In addition, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) integration brings an additional layer of access protection, strengthening authentication for applications published through Eproxy.

Together, these enhancements transform Eproxy into a more versatile and powerful application delivery component, combining advanced load balancing strategies, improved session persistence, flexible backend maintenance, and integrated security features within the RELIANOID platform.

New Modern High-Performance WAF Processor for Eproxy #

RELIANOID v10 introduces a new high-performance Web Application Firewall (WAF) processor for Eproxy, powered by the integration of Coraza WAF. This modern WAF engine brings advanced application-layer protection directly into the Eproxy traffic processing architecture, enabling HTTP traffic to be inspected and filtered before it reaches backend applications.

The integration supports the OWASP Core Rule Set (CRS), providing a comprehensive collection of standardized security rules designed to detect and help prevent common web application attacks and vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other malicious request patterns. By leveraging this widely adopted ruleset, administrators can strengthen application security with established protection mechanisms while retaining the flexibility to adapt WAF policies to their specific environments.

This integration also reflects RELIANOID’s active commitment to the open-source security ecosystem. The RELIANOID Team has contributed to the development and ongoing evolution of the Coraza WAF project, supporting the advancement of a modern, open-source Web Application Firewall. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to building on open technologies and contributing to the security solutions that benefit the wider community.

With this new processor, RELIANOID v10 enhances Eproxy’s ability to combine application delivery and security within a single platform. The integration of Coraza and OWASP CRS provides a modern foundation for protecting web applications, strengthening threat detection capabilities, and delivering security controls closer to the traffic entry point.