Re: [squid-users] Squid and SquidGuard retsarting. Why?

Dwayne Hottinger wrote:
> Quoting Brian Gregory <brian.gregory05@btconnect.com>:
>
>> We have a Linux box running Suse 10.0 set up as a router and web proxy
>> with filtering sharing our DSL connection between 7 Windows XP
>> computers. It's running squid and squidGuard with a very large blacklist
>> of forbidden URLs and phrases.
>>
>> Because we basically have no money the Suse box is an old 400MHz Pentium
>> II PC with only 256MB of RAM and this isn't likely to change in the near
>> future, except that I might be able to get some more RAM if necessary.
>>
>> Squid is set up to run 5 squidGuard processes. When we boot Suse it
>> takes 15-20 minutes with lots of disk thrashing for the 5 squidGuards to
>> read in the blacklists and build their tables. During this time the web
>> proxy is non functional so we usually leave the Suse box running 24/7 to
>> avoid having to wait for it.
>>
>> Much of the time it works fine but every now and then for no obvious
>> reason, squid decides it needs to start more squidGuard processes which
>> effectively cuts off all web access. I'm not sure exactly what happens,
>> maybe sometimes it just kills the existing squidGuards and starts new
>> ones but it sometimes seems to end running 10 squidGuards and thrashing
>> the disk hard for ages leaving the users with no web access.
>>
>> When it's all running properly free -m seems to indicated that there is
>> enough memory:
>>
>> total used free shared buffers cached
>> Mem: 250 246 3 0 51 126
>> -/+ buffers/cache: 68 181
>> Swap: 400 2 397
>>
>>
>>
>> Does anyone know what's going on and how to stop it happening?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Brian Gregory.
>> brian.gregory05@btconnect.com
>>
>> Computer Room Volunteer.
>> Therapy Centre.
>> Prospect Park Hospital.
>>
>
> How big are your access.log files? There is a 2gb limit on Squid. I would
> definately think about adding more memory to the box though. You should be
> able to pick up PC 100 memory fairly cheap.
> --
> Dwayne Hottinger
> Network Administrator
> Harrisonburg City Public Schools
>

Part of the problem may be log file rotation which appears to be set to
restart squid at the moment.

However this does not explain why I sometimes find that it is running 10
squidGuard processes when my squid.conf specifies 5.

-- 
Brian Gregory.
brian.gregory05@btconnect.com
Computer Room Volunteer.
Therapy Centre.
Prospect Park Hospital.