[Fwd: Optimizing Squid performance]

Hi,

I am running Squid 2.4devel-ntlm3 under Linux 2.2.14 on a Compaq
Proliant 1600 (1 PIII 600Mhz, 512Mb RAM, 4x9GB SCSI-3 hard disks on a
single RAID 5 logical unit controlled by a SMART-2 RAID controller).
I am attending approx. 1000 users and I am getting (through cachemgr)
about 2000hits/min at peak time. I am using squidGuard a redirector for
filtering banned sites and a home made authenticator for NTLM users.
CPU utilization is low (normally above 90% idle state).

1) The whole 512Mb of RAM are in use most of the time (even at 3am when
only 10-20 users are active). Is this normal? The box used to have 256Mb
(also all in use) and I notice no difference in performance after
duplicating the size of the box's RAM.

2) I would wish to fine tune my box for maximum performance. Although it
can attend 2000hits/min I think it can do better than that. Is there a
certain manner of knowing that squid is the bottleneck and not my 2Mb
internet link? What should I change in the conf file and/or OS and /or
box in order to achive max. performance? The conf file is almost
untouched except the dir locations and acl sections.

3) I use 10 authenticators. If I shut squid down, it does not kill the
authentication chldren. Instead they remain alive, with PPID 1 and
consuming all of the box's CPU (each 10% aprox). Do I have to take any
special considerations in my authenticator in order for squid to kill
gracefully the processes when going down?

Many thanks in advance,

Athanasios Kouroussis
Unifon - T.C.P. S.A.
akouroussis@unifon.com.ar
Received on Mon Aug 07 2000 - 16:34:07 MDT