Squid Performance - Default Options Tweak?

Dear all:

I am installing Squid on RedHat 9 out of the Distro CDs on a Dell PowerEdge
1300 Server, Pentium III RAM 256MB. I've been trying it out for 1 week now
with the default options. It seems very slow.

Could someone guide me with some useful tips to tweak the default options of
the /etc/squid/squid.conf file for better performance?

Also, I installed BIND to act as the DNS server; but i configured it to
forward queries to my ISP DNS. Could this be the major traffic block to my
connection to ISP?

Since I started to use Squid and BIND, my ISP notified me that, my 1Mbps
leased-line connection has always been saturated.

Could it be because of Squid or DNS forwarding or a virus?

Regards,
Vidol

[Paul Howarth]

Kh Linux wrote:
> Dear all:
>
> I am installing Squid on RedHat 9 out of the Distro CDs on a Dell PowerEdge
> 1300 Server, Pentium III RAM 256MB. I've been trying it out for 1 week now
> with the default options. It seems very slow.
>
> Could someone guide me with some useful tips to tweak the default options of
> the /etc/squid/squid.conf file for better performance?
>
> Also, I installed BIND to act as the DNS server; but i configured it to
> forward queries to my ISP DNS. Could this be the major traffic block to my
> connection to ISP?
>
> Since I started to use Squid and BIND, my ISP notified me that, my 1Mbps
> leased-line connection has always been saturated.
>
> Could it be because of Squid or DNS forwarding or a virus?

Look in the logs to see what's happening.

/var/log/squid/access.log

Turn on query logging for bind (rndc querylog) if it isn't already on, then 
look in

/var/log/messages

Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather than 
having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own nameserver 
works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.

Paul.

Thank you again Paul.
> Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather than
> having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own

nameserver
> works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.

That is a very good question. I thought, my ISP server would handle queries
better and more up to date in terms of root name servers information. Maybe,
I was wrong.
Well, i'll take your suggestion now to switch to my own DNS server. But one
more thing, is there a major bug in the BIND version that comes with RedHat
9?
I noticed that, we cannot stop it with 'service named stop'; I had to do
'killall named'.

Thank you very much. How about Squid? Any suggestions on its default options
tweak?

Regards,
Vidol

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Howarth" 
To: "For users of Fedora Core releases" 
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 6:14 PM
Subject: Re: Squid Performance - Default Options Tweak?
> Kh Linux wrote:
> > Dear all:
> >
> > I am installing Squid on RedHat 9 out of the Distro CDs on a Dell

PowerEdge
> > 1300 Server, Pentium III RAM 256MB. I've been trying it out for 1 week

now
> > with the default options. It seems very slow.
> >
> > Could someone guide me with some useful tips to tweak the default

options of
> > the /etc/squid/squid.conf file for better performance?
> >
> > Also, I installed BIND to act as the DNS server; but i configured it to
> > forward queries to my ISP DNS. Could this be the major traffic block to

my
> > connection to ISP?
> >
> > Since I started to use Squid and BIND, my ISP notified me that, my 1Mbps
> > leased-line connection has always been saturated.
> >
> > Could it be because of Squid or DNS forwarding or a virus?
>
> Look in the logs to see what's happening.
>
> /var/log/squid/access.log
>
> Turn on query logging for bind (rndc querylog) if it isn't already on,

then
> look in
>
> /var/log/messages
>
> Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather than
> having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own

nameserver
> works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.
>
> Paul.
>
> --
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

[Livhu Tshisikule]

On Friday 29 October 2004 13:36, Kh Linux wrote:
> Thank you again Paul.
> > Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather than
> > having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own
>
> nameserver
> > works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.
>
> That is a very good question. I thought, my ISP server would handle queries
> better and more up to date in terms of root name servers information.
> Maybe, I was wrong.
> Well, i'll take your suggestion now to switch to my own DNS server. But one
> more thing, is there a major bug in the BIND version that comes with RedHat
> 9?
> I noticed that, we cannot stop it with 'service named stop'; I had to do
> 'killall named'.
>
> Thank you very much. How about Squid? Any suggestions on its default
> options tweak?
>
> Regards,
> Vidol
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Howarth"

I had the same problem, I configured one machine as a cache nameserver, and 
the other machines uses it as the nameserver. Internet surfing is fast now. I 
found out that resolving names using ISP DNS takes a long time and that it 
times out a lot and squid was not the problem. Try to use tcpdump to see what 
is happening.

Rehards
Livhu

Thank you Livhu. I'm now trying as you and Paul suggested. I'll come back to
you again. We have a bunch of about 100 users here.

Regards,
Vidol

----- Original Message -----
From: "Livhuwani Tshisikule" 
To: "For users of Fedora Core releases" 
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: Squid Performance - Default Options Tweak?
> On Friday 29 October 2004 13:36, Kh Linux wrote:
> > Thank you again Paul.
> > > Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather

than
> > > having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own
> >
> > nameserver
> > > works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.
> >
> > That is a very good question. I thought, my ISP server would handle

queries
> > better and more up to date in terms of root name servers information.
> > Maybe, I was wrong.
> > Well, i'll take your suggestion now to switch to my own DNS server. But

one
> > more thing, is there a major bug in the BIND version that comes with

RedHat
> > 9?
> > I noticed that, we cannot stop it with 'service named stop'; I had to do
> > 'killall named'.
> >
> > Thank you very much. How about Squid? Any suggestions on its default
> > options tweak?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Vidol
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Paul Howarth"
>
> I had the same problem, I configured one machine as a cache nameserver,

and
> the other machines uses it as the nameserver. Internet surfing is fast

now. I
> found out that resolving names using ISP DNS takes a long time and that it
> times out a lot and squid was not the problem. Try to use tcpdump to see

what
> is happening.
>
> Rehards
> Livhu
>
> --
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

[Paul Howarth]

Kh Linux wrote:
> Well, i'll take your suggestion now to switch to my own DNS server. But one
> more thing, is there a major bug in the BIND version that comes with RedHat
> 9?
> I noticed that, we cannot stop it with 'service named stop'; I had to do
> 'killall named'.

This isn't something I've noticed, as I never really have any need to stop 
named. After making any changes to the bind configuration, I just use "rndc 
reload" rather than stopping and starting the nameserver.
> Thank you very much. How about Squid? Any suggestions on its default options
> tweak?

I use squid and haven't had any problems like the one you mention. I suspect 
the problem is not with squid.

I think it's more likely that your 100 or so Windows boxes may be doing bogus 
DNS lookups in your.domain.local and that could be causing the problem. 
Looking at the query logs should resolve whether or not that is the case.

Paul.

[Rodolfo J. Paiz]

On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 18:22 +0700, Kh Linux wrote:
> Dear all:
>
> I am installing Squid on RedHat 9 out of the Distro CDs on a Dell PowerEdge
> 1300 Server, Pentium III RAM 256MB. I've been trying it out for 1 week now
> with the default options. It seems very slow.

Don't install old software. Move to Fedora Core, and I suggest you move
to Fedora Core 3 which will be released on November 8th.

Note that everything you do will be slow if you are saturating 1 Mbps.
Find out what is wrong with that first. Also, try not forwarding DNS
queries to your ISP.

Remember, the software you are using was declared at "End Of Life" more
than six months ago. You are going to find it difficult to get help. Did
you at least make sure to install *all* patches and upgrades available
for your operating system?

Cheers,

[Ow Mun Heng]

Hi,

Saw your message in the list, Was wondering if you made any head-way
with it?

Did you manage to solve your issues?

Did you find out what sort of tweaks were needed?

On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 19:56, Kh Linux wrote:
> Thank you Livhu. I'm now trying as you and Paul suggested. I'll come back to
> you again. We have a bunch of about 100 users here.
>
> Regards,
> Vidol
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Livhuwani Tshisikule" 
> To: "For users of Fedora Core releases" 
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 6:39 PM
> Subject: Re: Squid Performance - Default Options Tweak?
> > On Friday 29 October 2004 13:36, Kh Linux wrote:
> > > Thank you again Paul.
> > > > Why are you forwarding DNS queries to your ISP's nameservers rather
>
> than
> > > > having your bind look them up itself? I find that running my own
> > >
> > > nameserver
> > > > works much better than forwarding all queries to my ISP.
> > >
> > > That is a very good question. I thought, my ISP server would handle
>
> queries
> > > better and more up to date in terms of root name servers information.
> > > Maybe, I was wrong.
> > > Well, i'll take your suggestion now to switch to my own DNS server. But
>
> one
> > > more thing, is there a major bug in the BIND version that comes with
>
> RedHat
> > > 9?
> > > I noticed that, we cannot stop it with 'service named stop'; I had to do
> > > 'killall named'.
> > >
> > > Thank you very much. How about Squid? Any suggestions on its default
> > > options tweak?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Vidol
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Paul Howarth"
> >
> > I had the same problem, I configured one machine as a cache nameserver,
>
> and
> > the other machines uses it as the nameserver. Internet surfing is fast
>
> now. I
> > found out that resolving names using ISP DNS takes a long time and that it
> > times out a lot and squid was not the problem. Try to use tcpdump to see
>
> what
> > is happening.
> >
> > Rehards
> > Livhu
> >
> > --
> > fedora-list mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list