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Thread: Internet Cache Server

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    Ant
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    Lightbulb Internet Cache Server

    Hi People!

    At work, I have an old server with about 15GB of storage lying around. Now instead of chucking it out, it has been suggested we use it as a web cache server. Now unfortunately I don't know what is involved in setting one up. The idea seems simple enough though.

    Do any of you know the basics to setting one up, or where I could find a good guide telling what software is needed etc?

    Any of you use one? Is it really worth it in the end?

    Thanks

    Ant

    PS Hope this is the right forum. Wasn't sure if it should be here or Connectivity??

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    linux with squid.

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    F.A.S.T. Butuz's Avatar
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    and if you dont know what that ^^^ means, smothwall or clarkonnect will do the duty off an easty to install bootable cd!

    Mind you - web cacheing is pretty pointless nowadays as soooo many sites are dynamic and database driven that a cache hardly caches anything any more.

    For free - its worth doing, not worth buying a dedicated web cache tho.

    Butuz

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    Ant
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    Thanks for the reply you two!

    Well to be honest, I'm still playing around with linux as I don't know much about it... yet... (I mucked up my first and last Debian install attempt )

    Forgive me for sounding stupid, something like Smoothwall and Clarkconnect, are they the OS on the system then, ie would they replace for example Windows? Are they quite easy to set up? I imagine once the server has been set up, its just a case of redirecting the workstations' proxy to the server address?

    Edit: Just seen that they are both based on Linux, so that would answer my question!

    I also noticed that Clarkconnect isn't free. So smoothwall would be the one to play with. (Or maybe even Squid )

    I will only be using old hardware, so I'm not going to be spending any money on this idea! Just only really trying to improve the bandwidth usage and my knowledge really.

    Thanks again
    Last edited by Ant; 11-10-2004 at 12:00 PM.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    smoothwall and clarkconnect are live-cd linux distributions, designed to make an old pc act as a software fireewall/router/etc

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    Ant
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    Cool, thanks. I will download and have a play with them and see what looks best

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    CC isn't a live CD afaik (I've never found a liveCD version of it. )
    both CC and smoothwall come in free and paid for versions.

    CC is better for running a web proxy through ( smothwall is a dedicated firewall, whereas CC has the extra application functionality. )
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    Ant
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    Oh okay, thanks! Well I will try set them all up (even Squid!) using VMWare and see which ones going to be easier to set up and use. Hopefully then, I can try get a feel for each one, without doing 15 meeeeellion installs on the server!

    Are there any Windows alternatives out there I could look into as well? (As I'm a lot more familiar with Windows!)

    Cheers for all your suggestions and Comments!

    ant

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    Administrator Moby-Dick's Avatar
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    the CC inteface is very very easy ( web page to config )

    you can add even dansguardian and prevent them from surfing unwanted sites

    as far as windows goes , there is the analogX proxy , but I dunno how much it caches
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    I dont think you should have any probs with Smoothwall either. It is very easy to install (I managed it with no prior knowledge of Linux) and then you can change all the settings by a web browser interface. I've never used the web cache option though but it seems simple enough.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Butuz
    Mind you - web cacheing is pretty pointless nowadays as soooo many sites are dynamic and database driven that a cache hardly caches anything any more.

    For free - its worth doing, not worth buying a dedicated web cache tho.

    Butuz
    That depends on how smart the cache and the applications are. We use extensive 3 level cache designs in our systems: dedicated proxy caches at the front end, large web caches in the IBM extensions to Apache, and Dynacache (including fragment caching) in the application servers (WebSphere). The performance improvements - if it's architected and implemeted properly - can be dramatic. Don't forget, even dynamic pages can have lots of 'static' content, and the dynamic content can have a constantly varying profile.

    The system I'm currently building has 10 servers, each fitted with Dual Xeons, 4GB of memory, and raided UltraSCSI drives - and that doesn't include the 2 x IBM quad-processer servers I've clustered together for the database (Oracle 9.2) and it's attached EMC S.A.N. Even a system of this specification uses three levels of cache to improve it's scalabilty - and we test for up to 20,000-30,000 *concurrent* users (i.e. multi-million hits/hour). Don't be too dissmissive of cache - it really can be a door to much higher performance, especially when designed from scratch into the solution you are building.

    On the cheapo side of things, I've mainly used Squid on UNIX. The one thing I would say to the poster is don't look at using an old machine as the caching server - unless it has a fast memory subsystem with LOTS of RAM and/or very fast hard drives. Using an older, slower machine is just going to defeat the very purpose of putting the cache in. If he's just doimg it to learn, then I'd say play around with the forward and reverse proxying capabilities and the SSL proxying, as they can be just as useful as the caching facilities.

    EDIT: Also forgot to mention the SQL and Database block buffer caches in the database servers - we dedicate lots of RAM to those, as DB performance can be a killer.

    Nomadd
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    cluster showoff

    know anything about clustering front end terminal servers without resorting to citrix ?

    these are going to be used to deploy an ASP desktop solution , but aiming to load balence front end termianl servers.

    will DNS round robin do what I want ?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moby-Dick
    cluster showoff

    know anything about clustering front end terminal servers without resorting to citrix ?

    these are going to be used to deploy an ASP desktop solution , but aiming to load balence front end termianl servers.

    will DNS round robin do what I want ?
    Oooh, clusters. Hadn't even mentioned those! (We have 3 clusters, BTW. ) EDIT: Excluding the database cluster, which I did in fact mention. :-)

    I have to admit, most of my background is UNIX, not M$. I guess the only thing that springs to mind is to use either a hardware switch (Nortel Alteon, Cisco CSS) or a software load-balancer to do the job (i.e. some alternative to Citrix...) Don't M$ have an option? There are also shareware load-balancers out there (not sure if for Windoze), so maybe download a few and give them a try...

    As regards 'DNS round robin', that's a 'policy', not a load balancer. You'll have potentially many options - all depending on what load-balancing solution you choose to implement. RR is nice and simple, but it's not very intelligent - i.e. doesn't take session stickyness into account or the actual load on the servers in your farm (esp. if they are of varying hardware specs.)

    Nomadd
    Last edited by Nomadd; 11-10-2004 at 10:42 PM.
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    Administrator Moby-Dick's Avatar
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    all 4 front end servers are identical - I'm designing it for a max of 120 users - so 4 front end servers ( it seems that 30 users/server for this kind of work is a sensbile max spenc per spec per user ( dual 3 gig Xeons , 4 Gb Ram )

    I've seen a couple of freeware tools - I'd love to use a CSS but a) we can't afford the 20k they cost and b) I'd have to learn them first - b) isn'ty an issue , but a) is !
    I dont know how cleaverly citrix will ditribute client connections accross the farm ( according to server load etc.

    I've found a product that "ought to be the solution"...
    http://www.terminalsoft.net/ - WTSgatewayPro seems to be the anwer?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moby-Dick
    cluster showoff
    wanna touch my sunfire?

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    only if I get a (digitally) signed pinup for my locker door
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