HAProxy not forwarding requests to backend server - haproxy

Question

I have HAProxy (v1.5.8) as a load balancer with keepalived (v1.2.2) to maintain high availability. I also have several Jetty servers on a different machine on the local network as backend server with a webapp.
The problem I have is: I can access to the web app through it IP (z.z.z.z in the code below), but when I try to access by the VIP(y.y.y.y in the code below) I get a connection refused error. I dont have any iptables rule set (Debian 7).
My haproxy.cfg file is this one:
global
log 127.0.0.1 local0
log 127.0.0.1 local1 notice
chroot /var/lib/haproxy
#stats socket /run/haproxy/admin.sock mode 660 level admin
#stats timeout 30s
maxconn 4096
user haproxy
group haproxy
defaults
log global
mode http
option httplog
option dontlognull
retries 3
option redispatch
maxconn 2000
timeout connect 5000
timeout client 50000
timeout server 50000
errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errors/400.http
errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errors/403.http
errorfile 408 /etc/haproxy/errors/408.http
errorfile 500 /etc/haproxy/errors/500.http
errorfile 502 /etc/haproxy/errors/502.http
errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errors/503.http
errorfile 504 /etc/haproxy/errors/504.http
listen stats x.x.x.x:9000
mode http
balance
option httplog
timeout client 5000
timeout connect 4000
timeout server 30000
stats uri /haproxy_stats
stats realm HAProxy/Statistics
stats auth user:passwd
stats admin if TRUE
listen webfarm y.y.y.y:8080
mode http
stats enable
stats auth someuser:somepassword
balance roundrobin
cookie JSESSIONID prefix
option httpclose
option forwardfor
option httpchk HEAD /check.txt HTTP/1.0
server webA z.z.z.z:9400 check
In the keepalived conf file I have defined the VIP I will use (Is the same one defined in the haproxy.cfg :
virtual_ipaddress {
y.y.y.y
}
In the stats web I get the next results:
HAProxy Stats
After this, I believe that haproxy cannot get to the backends as they are displayed as frontend servers. I am missing something in the conf files?
Thank you

Answer 1

No, 'frontend' and 'backend' are summary lines not titles. It is normal for the servers to be between the two.
Your backend is down because it is returning a 404 to haproxy. You need to make /check.txt return a valid response.

Answer 2

I'd recommend simply disabling your checks until you get a bit more comfortable with HAProxy as a whole. Id also recommend you turn on the stats page, which will give you a better visualization of what HAProxy sees. See below:
###########################################
#
# HAProxy Stats page
#
###########################################
listen stats
bind *:9090
mode http
maxconn 10
stats enable
stats hide-version
stats realm Haproxy\ Statistics
stats uri /
stats auth -----:-----