[squid-users] Disabling disk caching for performance (Was Re:Which the best OS for Squid?)

On 10/11/05, Covington, Chris <Chris.Covington@plusone.com> wrote:
> > This is more of a filesystem question, then it is an operating
> > system/distro question.
>
> Let's say one is using Squid primarily for access control. What
> benefits would a cache provide?

Serving any cacheable content out of a RAM cache will always be faster
than fetching the same content from the origin server. Serving out of
disk cache is usually faster than re-fetching.

> Would eliminating the cache help speed up squid,
> assuming there is ample bandwidth?

Eliminating the *disk* cache could help speed up squid only in cases
where disk I/O is seriously degraded, or is a drag on system performance.
For example, "cache_dir null" could be better than having a cache_dir on
the root partition or the same partition as cache_access_log.

If you have separate drive(s) on a separate controller/channel, then
you should almost always see better overall squid proxy performance
(request service time) than going through the same squid without
caching to disk.

Users will often complain that going through squid, caching or not,
feels slower than going direct without any proxy in between the client
and the server. This is a separate problem from the disk I/O question.

Kevin Kadow
Received on Tue Oct 11 2005 - 15:31:48 MDT