[squid-users] Is it possible to use Squid as a proxy and cache for a slow CIFS drive ?

Hi all !

We have special scenario with a slow file share where Squid (maybe
combined with other tools) could help by acting like as a CIFS proxy and
caching system:

We're testing an Alfresco ECM System which has a CIFS subsystem (based
on jLAN) that is simply to slow for our needs. In this setup the
appserver Alfresco (SUSE on vmwars ESXi) and the clients are on a local
LAN with Gb Ethernet (some clients on WLAN) connectivity and the clients
(Windows and Mac) access Alfresco via the CIFS share provided by Alfresco.

The Alfresco server is (due to it overhead (talking to the DB, indexing,
etc.)) about six times slower when storing or reading files than a Samba
mount on the same machine or a NAS on the same network.

Now my idea is to put a caching layer in the middle between Alfresco and
the client that ...
* ... transparently sits in the middle between Alfresco and the clients
* ... caches read files and (on subsequent access) serves them directly
instead of from the repository
* ... caches write operations in a store-and-forward manner like a write
back cache (ie. signals OK to the client when the file is received
locally and than writes back to Alfresco asynronously)

So far, I've been discussing this with some WAFS vendors, but the ones I
came to know don't have anything in their toolbox to acheive this. Now
I'm completely stuck in finding a way to speed this up :-/

Maybe you can think of a way that Squid - maybe in combination with some
other tools - can create a solution for this problem ?

thx and kind regards,

martin.
Received on Mon Mar 28 2011 - 17:05:24 MDT