diff --git a/include/types/proxy.h b/include/types/proxy.h
--- a/include/types/proxy.h
+++ b/include/types/proxy.h
@@ -313,6 +313,8 @@
 		struct eb_root used_listener_id;/* list of listener IDs in use */
 		struct eb_root used_server_id;	/* list of server IDs in use */
 	} conf;					/* config information */
+
+        int do_unique_id;			/* If true, turn on X-Unique-Id processing */
 };
 
 struct switching_rule {
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -4519,6 +4519,9 @@
 			free(err);
 		}
 	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "unique-id")) { /* enable X-Unique-Id processing */
+                curproxy->do_unique_id = 1;
+        }
 	else {
 		struct cfg_kw_list *kwl;
 		int index;
diff --git a/src/proto_http.c b/src/proto_http.c
--- a/src/proto_http.c
+++ b/src/proto_http.c
@@ -2713,6 +2713,46 @@
 	/* transfer length unknown*/
 	txn->flags &= ~TX_REQ_XFER_LEN;
 
+        /* 4b: Insert header for tracing, if needed */
+        if (s->fe->do_unique_id) {
+                ctx.idx = 0;
+                const char hdr[] = "X-Unique-Id";
+                const size_t hdr_len = sizeof(hdr);
+                if (! http_find_header2(hdr, hdr_len, msg->sol, &txn->hdr_idx, &ctx)) {
+                        const int max_counter = 1000;
+                        static int id_counter = max_counter;
+                        static char id_base[100];  // too lazy to figure out the exact minimum size needed
+                        if (id_counter == max_counter) {
+                                /*
+                                 * We want the ids to be unique, so they need lots of
+                                 * entropy.  This is too expensive to do on every
+                                 * request.  So, do this every max_counter requests
+                                 * and append a counter per request.  I'm sure there
+                                 * are better ways to do this.
+                                 */
+                                long host_id;
+                                pid_t pid;
+                                struct timeval tv;
+
+                                host_id = gethostid();
+                                pid = getpid();
+                                gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
+                                snprintf(id_base,
+                                         sizeof(id_base),
+                                         "%s: %X.%X.%lX.%lX.",
+                                         hdr,
+                                         (unsigned int) host_id, 
+                                         pid,
+                                         tv.tv_sec,
+                                         tv.tv_usec);
+                                id_counter = 0;
+                        }
+                        char hdr_val[sizeof(id_base) + sizeof("1234567890")];
+                        snprintf(hdr_val, sizeof(hdr_val), "%s%d", id_base, id_counter++);
+                        http_header_add_tail(req, &txn->req, &txn->hdr_idx, hdr_val);
+                }
+        }
+
 	/* 5: we may need to capture headers */
 	if (unlikely((s->logs.logwait & LW_REQHDR) && s->fe->req_cap))
 		capture_headers(msg->sol, &txn->hdr_idx,