Is squid actually caching? Logs look strange.

hardingnick

Morning chaps,

Just been looking through squid logs, as i have it setup in transparent for caching, and from what i can gather, all trafic is being routed through it but looking at the cache logs nothing is being cached or requested from the cache? Or am i taking this all wrong?

Cheers!

squid.png_thumb

doktornotor

No, Squid won't cache dynamic content such as streaming AV defs update from Avast.

hardingnick

@doktornotor:

No, Squid won't cache dynamic content such as streaming AV defs update from Avast.

Hi doktornotor,

So is my proxy server caching or not? watched the logs for 3 hours ish on and off and nothing seems to show in the cache logs on this page? Just wondering is it caching or have i mis configured something?

Many thanks,

Nick.

hardingnick

Can anyone please confirm if my transparent proxy is caching or not?

Thanks!

KOM

From your screenshot, squid is working but did not find any of those 10 elements in its cache. That's all anyone can tell from that.

hardingnick

Hi KOM,

Every single time i have monitored squid, it has always looked very similar with nothing showing in the squid cache table, thats why i have always been concerned that squid isn't caching.

Could you tell me a way i can paste my config for you to see?

Cheers.

Edit:

Heres the conf i found at /usr/local/etc/squid/squid.conf

Can anyone see anything here which would stop swuid from caching?

[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.hardinghome]/usr/local/etc/squid: cat squid.conf

This file is automatically generated by pfSense

Do not edit manually !

http_port 172.16.7.100:3128
http_port 127.0.0.1:3128 intercept
icp_port 0
digest_generation off
dns_v4_first off
pid_filename /var/run/squid/squid.pid
cache_effective_user squid
cache_effective_group proxy
error_default_language en
icon_directory /usr/local/etc/squid/icons
visible_hostname Squid
cache_mgr nick@**************.co.uk
access_log /var/squid/logs/access.log
cache_log /var/squid/logs/cache.log
cache_store_log none
netdb_filename /var/squid/logs/netdb.state
pinger_enable on
pinger_program /usr/local/libexec/squid/pinger

logfile_rotate 2
debug_options rotate=2
shutdown_lifetime 3 seconds

Allow local network(s) on interface(s)

acl localnet src 172.16.7.0/24
forwarded_for on
uri_whitespace strip

acl dynamic urlpath_regex cgi-bin ?
cache deny dynamic

cache_mem 4000 MB
maximum_object_size_in_memory 1500 KB
memory_replacement_policy heap GDSF
cache_replacement_policy heap GDSF
minimum_object_size 0 KB
maximum_object_size 10 MB
cache_dir ufs /var/squid/cache 10000 16 256
offline_mode off
cache_swap_low 90
cache_swap_high 95
acl donotcache dstdomain "/var/squid/acl/donotcache.acl"
cache deny donotcache
cache allow all

Add any of your own refresh_pattern entries above these.

refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern -i (/cgi-bin/|?) 0 0% 0
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320

#Remote proxies

Setup some default acls

ACLs all, manager, localhost, and to_localhost are predefined.

acl allsrc src all
acl safeports port 21 70 80 210 280 443 488 563 591 631 777 901 8080 3128 3129 1025-65535
acl sslports port 443 563 8080

acl purge method PURGE
acl connect method CONNECT

Define protocols used for redirects

acl HTTP proto HTTP
acl HTTPS proto HTTPS
http_access allow manager localhost

http_access deny manager
http_access allow purge localhost
http_access deny purge
http_access deny !safeports
http_access deny CONNECT !sslports

Always allow localhost connections

http_access allow localhost

request_body_max_size 0 KB
delay_pools 1
delay_class 1 2
delay_parameters 1 -1/-1 -1/-1
delay_initial_bucket_level 100
delay_access 1 allow allsrc

Reverse Proxy settings

Custom options before auth

Setup allowed ACLs

Allow local network(s) on interface(s)

http_access allow localnet

Default block all to be sure

http_access deny allsrc

KOM

You need to understand that caching with Squid isn't just some simple flick of a switch. It is a complex subject that requires a deep knowledge of HTTP/S. There is no one-size-fits-all, and nobody is going to wade through your config to give you a perfect one. I myself stopped using Squid for caching since my hit rate was so poor and instead I use it for URL filtering only.

If you really want to tackle this, start by reading all of the Squid site:

http://www.squid-cache.org/

Pay special attention to the subject of dynamic caching & refresh patterns, since this is what you are going to be playing with.

Lastly, this guy seems to have some working config for some sites and he keeps it fairly up to date:

http://www.lawrencepingree.com/2015/07/04/optimized-squid-proxy-configuration-for-version-3-5-5/

hardingnick

Thanks for your input KOM,

Much appreciated!

If anyone else can shed some light that would be fantastic!

Cheers,
Nick.