RE: [squid-users] Bigger Squid setup recommendations

Tony,

I'm in a similar situation right now. I am testing a squid cache that will
be deployed for a simliar number of users and similar hardware (eerily
similar...). I'll take a stab at answering your questions based on my
research over the past few weeks. If anyone has any corrections, please
feel free to make them as I would like to know for myself as well.

> The hardware: HP ProLiant DL360, 3 GB RAM, dual 2.something
> gig Xeon CPU's, dual 72 GB 10k SCSI drives. I can hardware
> RAID the disks, but I'm not sure I want to given the massive
> amount of disk activity this box is destined for. (Or do I?)
> I only have this one box to work with at the moment.

Consider RAID 0 for the cache partition for maximum performance. Apparently
this is where you will get the most performance bang for your buck (the
disks).

> The people: anywhere from 500 to 2,000 concurrent users, with
> the potential for up to 5,000+ in the event of a news event like 9/11.
>
> I'm planning to use SuSE 9 with squid transparently. I think
> I can handle setting up squid and the other little packages
> that we intend to mix in with it (already tested on a smaller

What other packages mixed in are you talking about? I am currently
evaluating 2 redirectors (squirm for domain redirection and adzap just for
fun) and am using 2 reporting packages (SARG & Squid Graph).

> scale), but I'm not sure about sizing the partitions. Is one
> file system better than another for caching? How many
> partitions? How big? Should I mirror the drives? I need the
> best performance with just a dash of fault tolerance. :) The
> config of the box will be backed up frequently in case it
> needs to be rebuilt. I'm thinking a partition scheme like this:
>

It sounds like your on the right track but if you want to check your
numbers, re-read the user guide chapter tha addresses disk/ram/cpu.

http://squid-docs.sourceforge.net/latest/html/c21.html

I found this to be an excellent resource for scaling the box.

> /boot 100MB reiser
> / 10 GB reiser
> /var/log 20 GB reiser
> /var/cache 30 GB aufs (or reiser? this is the cache_dir)
>
> Are there any squid configuration parms that I should be
> aware for a deployment of this size? Any "gotchas" to look
> out for? Any on-going administrative bummers? Cool tools for
> administration? I'd like to run the package that comes with
> SuSE and can be updated with the provided tools, but I can
> compile and install from source if necessary. Any arguments
> in favor of one over the other?

I was lazy and used the precompiled bins on a redhat 9 box that was already
configured for development. The one feature that did not precompile was the
NTLM auth features. Check the ./configure --help and really make sure you
have everything you want to use.

>
> Any recommendations or pointers in the right direction are
> appreciated. Thanks!
>
> Tony Gettig
> Kalamazoo Public Schools
>
Received on Mon Dec 15 2003 - 12:45:40 MST