Monitor Squid Status

wagonza

Now, that was really really nice and easy! Thank you wagonza!

It was so easy that it must be added to pfsense squid package gui, IMHO.

no problem - let me see what I can do about getting that added.

mhab12

Just ran through this myself and agree that it is a great tool. Thank you for finally shedding some light on how to use cachemgr!

Bai Shen

@wagonza:

Where it says 'Hit %' on the landing page - that is a percentage of what has been served out of cache.

Ah, gotcha. So far I have yet to break 1%. :)

Any suggestions for squid settings? I currently have the following, and it seems that some things have actually gotten slower. I'm trying to figure out what will give me the most benefit.

5G disk cache size
256M memory cache size
256k max file size

@wagonza:

You have nothing to lose, as the changes should be safe across 2.0 updates.

Okay. I'll give it a shot then when I get some free time.

@scooterdouglas:

@Bai Shen,

The problem with Error 500 in Lightsquid is that Squid uses Perl v5.10.xx but Lightsquid uses Perl v5.8.xx, so you will probably have a symlink pointing to Perl v5.10.xx.

I tried helping some one over in the Spanish forum (Click here) but Spanish is not my first language! Take a look at the post, as it does tell you which directories you need to check.

;)

Interesting. I wonder why they're not synced. I'll take a look over there when I get a chance, but I haven't done any Spanish since HS. :)

wagonza

@Bai:

Ah, gotcha. So far I have yet to break 1%. :)

Any suggestions for squid settings? I currently have the following, and it seems that some things have actually gotten slower. I'm trying to figure out what will give me the most benefit.

5G disk cache size
256M memory cache size
256k max file size

Depends on the number of users that are using the cache.
256M is great, specially for caching hot replies/objects (saves it having to serve it off the disk). Just bare in mind that if your request rate requires more than 256M of memory, squid will increase the memory usage so that it can serve these new requests. Consider that if you dont have a lot of memory.

Also consider raising the max file size if you plan on downloading larger stuff and want it cached :)

Otherwise for more tuning have a look at http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Squid_Package_Tuning - that has some performance tuning and how to cache windows updates etc.

Also have a look at http://wiki.squid-cache.org/ConfigExamples/DynamicContent/YouTube to give you an idea of what is possible with caching of dynamic content.

Bai Shen

@wagonza:

Depends on the number of users that are using the cache.

It's just for my house, so only a couple people. However, we tend to be power users. :)

256M is great, specially for caching hot replies/objects (saves it having to serve it off the disk). Just bare in mind that if your request rate requires more than 256M of memory, squid will increase the memory usage so that it can serve these new requests. Consider that if you dont have a lot of memory.

So it won't hard limit itself to what I set? Hmm. I might have to drop it, then. I only have 1GB in this machine(can prolly bump it to 1.5), and since I set up squid, I've gone from 15% memory used to 75%.

Also consider raising the max file size if you plan on downloading larger stuff and want it cached :)

I was going to do that initially, as I'm barely using any hard drive space with my current install. Although I only have a 20GB drive. The 160 I was initially going to use wouldn't work correctly. I think the mobo didn't support it.

The reason I went with the default 4 and then 256 was because it mentioned that a lower setting would help more with speed while a higher one would save bandwidth.

Otherwise for more tuning have a look at http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Squid_Package_Tuning - that has some performance tuning and how to cache windows updates etc.

Also have a look at http://wiki.squid-cache.org/ConfigExamples/DynamicContent/YouTube to give you an idea of what is possible with caching of dynamic content.

I'll take a look. Squid is just checking urls, correct? So if I had the same file served from multiple urls(updates, etc), it wouldn't recognize that, right?

Also, yesterday I got up to 9.99% hit rate. :) However, looking at it now, it's down to 4.36% :(

So I guess I'll tweek the settings and also install the monitoring setup posted earlier.

Bai Shen

Just did the cachemgr.cgi setup. Man, that's a lot of info. Is there anyplace that explains what each of those links mean?

Also, any suggestions for a good SNMP setup?

wagonza

Have a look at http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/CacheManager - which provides a lot of info on the statistics that are generated.

For a good SNMP graph tool check out www.cacti.net and if/once you have that setup download squid template from http://forums.cacti.net/about4142.html

it will create some nice pretty graphs.

Bai Shen

Cool. I'll take a look. Thanks.

dlawley

Sorry been a long week, must be missing something..

Configured as shown but get a Cache Manager Error.

connect: (60) Operation timed out

Not sure which user/password combo its looking for.. but I might not be getting that far that user/pw make a difference

ran the two CMDs as shown, set the following

External Cache-Managers set to 192.168.5.1
cachemgr.conf also set to 192.168.5.1

You made it sound easy…

wagonza

@dlawley:

Sorry been a long week, must be missing something..

Configured as shown but get a Cache Manager Error.

connect: (60) Operation timed out

Not sure which user/password combo its looking for.. but I might not be getting that far that user/pw make a difference

ran the two CMDs as shown, set the following

External Cache-Managers set to 192.168.5.1
cachemgr.conf also set to 192.168.5.1

You made it sound easy…

You should be getting a web page thats says "Cache Manager Interface" and below it a drop down list with the IP address 192.168.5.1 in it.
The username and password fields you can ignore and just click continue. It should still allow you in. The only difference is that some of the links will not be active for example 'Shut Down the Squid Process'. If you want this links set to active, then in General Settings->Custom options add:

'cachemgr_passwd none all'

and click save. You wont have to enter a password. To make it secure have a look at the cachemgr_passwd config option @ http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/config/cachemgr_passwd/

dlawley

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was all around that option reading the squidfaq…

retraced my steps, and a reboot

Still getting Cache Manager timeout...

Running transparent maybe an issue?? I know it causes some limitations in other areas when you use it.

Maybe proxy filter service is also having an effect?

maybe I need to be hitting 127.0.0.1 instead. ?? guess its easy enough to try..

Do not edit manually !

http_port 192.168.5.1:800
http_port 127.0.0.1:80 transparent
icp_port 0

wagonza

@dlawley:

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was all around that option reading the squidfaq…

retraced my steps, and a reboot

Still getting Cache Manager timeout...

Running transparent maybe an issue?? I know it causes some limitations in other areas when you use it.

maybe I need to be hitting 127.0.0.1 instead. ?? guess its easy enough to try..

Do not edit manually !

http_port 192.168.5.1:800
http_port 127.0.0.1:80 transparent
icp_port 0

I see you have squid listening on the non default port of 800 - did you add 192.168.5.1:800 to the cachemgr.conf file? Not just 192.168.5.1 - otherwise cachemgr.cgi will try connect to 3128.

Shouldn't make a difference whether the proxy is in transparent mode or not.

dlawley

That did it!, thanks!!

dlawley

The proxy filter might impact your access to the cache mgr, if you have ip addresses blocked. Which I did on my production server.

But I'm all good now.

serangku

i always use cachemgr to monitoring squid …
ifen not understand much ... ;D
i keep this link on my email to help me remember how to it ...

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=14609.0

Bai Shen

So I have the cachemgr page working, but one thing concerns me. On the Store Directory page, it says the following: Accepted object sizes: 0 - (unlimited) bytes

However, on the Cache Mgmt page, I have max object size set to 1024. So why the difference?

Pistolero

No workie for me :(

I get this:

Cache Manager menu for x.x.x.x:

GIF89a

Generated Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:32:27 GMT, by cachemgr.cgi/2.7.STABLE9@r

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

wagonza

@Pistolero:

No workie for me :(

I get this:

Cache Manager menu for x.x.x.x:

GIF89a

Generated Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:32:27 GMT, by cachemgr.cgi/2.7.STABLE9@r

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I am not sure what that reference to GIF89a is? But you should see a page with:

Cache server with drop down list of your pfSense's IP address.
Input for a Manager name
Input for a Password

and finally a "Continue" button which will take you to the stats page. What do you see when you click on this button?

Pistolero

@wagonza:

@Pistolero:

No workie for me :(

I get this:

Cache Manager menu for x.x.x.x:

GIF89a

Generated Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:32:27 GMT, by cachemgr.cgi/2.7.STABLE9@r

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I am not sure what that reference to GIF89a is? But you should see a page with:

Cache server with drop down list of your pfSense's IP address.
Input for a Manager name
Input for a Password

and finally a "Continue" button which will take you to the stats page. What do you see when you click on this button?

I do see the drop-down list with the input fields. I get that weird screen after clicking continue. The weird page with the GIF89a I get only in Firefox. IE only displays

wagonza

Sounds like you dont have your cachemgr.conf file setup correctly and after clicking submit it is timing out.