How to use two possible parents in a backup manner

Hi,

I'm in a firewalled environment with two possible parent proxys. I learned they are both
netscapes so I'm not able to do ICP.

I would like to setup my squid in a way that it prefers to use the first parent as long
as this one works. Only in cases when the first parent is down (unreachable or not
responding or refusing connections) my squid should try to connect to the second parent
(the backup proxy which should normally be left alone).

I tried to configure

        cache_peer parent1.my.dom parent 81 0 no-query
   cache_peer parent2.my.dom parent 81 0 no-query

To test this config I used another name for parent1 directing squid to a machine not
listening on port 81. Result was that squid insisted to request from this machine only to
get "connection refused" their. Now I expected squid to fall back to the still reachable
parent2 which did not happen.

How can I convince squid that (only) in cases parent1 is not "living" it shall use
parent2?

Thanks in advance.

Hasta la vista,
               Robert
Received on Tue Dec 15 1998 - 11:12:53 MST