Re: [squid-users] Hardware/software suggestions (TPROXY)

On 16-12-2009 6:37, Michael Bowe wrote:
> Hi, I need some hardware/software suggestions for TPROXY servers.
>
> We're an ISP and have been trialling Squid for a while on an assorted
> collection of spare hardware. (We've got some Dell 2950 running VMware and
> iSCSI, also Dell 2970 with VMware and SAS HDD, also HP DL360-G5 non-VMware
> with SAS HDD). All these servers have been working pretty well, but we now
> need to work out a budget to buy proper dedicated gear.
>
> We have some POPs which have about 5000 cable modems. Cisco routers running
> WCCP feed groups of Squid 3.1 / TPROXY servers. At the moment we have 3 to 4
> sibling no-cache servers at each POP.
>
> We currently deal with HTTP traffic of about 150Mbps but would like to
> dimension the new gear to support double this.

I didn't even know ISP's still used proxies in this century :D I assume
you use them to save on bandwidth and improve the experience for the
end-user?

>
> What are peoples opinions on what sort of hardware to use?
>
> Maybe groups of mid-size servers be best? I was thinking along the lines of
> :
> Eg HP DL360/380-G6, 1 x 2.4Ghz quad core, 32Gb RAM, 4 x 15K 146Gb HDD
>
> Or should we be looking at just using one larger server :
> Eg HP DL380-G6, 1 x 2.4Ghz (or faster) quad core, 64Gb RAM, 8 x 15K 146Gb
> HDD

You might also consider more smaller servers. You can get 3 R300's for
the price of a single R610.. Storage would perhaps be an issue, but
since you have an iSCSI SAN...

You could also use CARP to split up front-end squids and storage squids
like wikipedia does, and create an even more scalable setup:
http://www.nedworks.org/~mark/presentations/san/Wikimedia%20architecture.pdf

I'm still not sure about virtualizing or not.. It both has advantages
and disadvantages..

>
> When buying HDDs for these servers, you can choose between 2.5" and 3.5"
> drives. Should there be much difference in performance between the two? I
> see the 3.5" version of 15K's are quite a bit cheaper and also are available
> in sizes > 146Gb

I think a 300GB 3.5" disk is the same price as a 146GB 2.5" disk, but
you can put more 2.5" in the same machine :) If I remember correctly a
15k 2.5" disk can do more iops (key factor) than a 15k 3.5" disk.

http://proliant.blogspot.com/2007/02/sas-drive-technology-large-or-small.html

Of course nothing beats an SSD in performance, but Dell charges such
ridiculous prices that for a squid machine I personally think it's not
worth it yet.

> There are choices for the disk controller. Eg HP lets you choose between
> 256M, 512M, 1G RAM on the supplied P410i RAID card. We wouldn't be running
> any RAID, but would extra RAM on the card still be helpful with speeding up
> disk access for squid?

I think not, since I think most data is random, and not frequently accessed.

> Dell R610/R710 seems pretty similar to the HP DL360/380. But with the Dell
> you have to buy dual quad core, which seems a bit wasteful for squid?
> (unless you were going try and dice the server up to run multiple squids
> under VMware). Probably best to save a few $$ and stick with 1 x CPU and put
> extra cash towards more RAM or disk? Or do you think VMware is an OK way to
> make use of all the CPU's? On our trial servers the VMware ESXi seems to
> work OK but in the back of my mind I worry about the extra overhead it
> introduces.

I'm in a Dell only shop, and you can buy the R610 with any 1 or 2 cpu's,
it's a choice. (And probably cheaper than HP).

As I said, I'm not sure about virtualization, but you could run some
benchmarks to compare things and base your decisions on what you find .
If you do, let us know your findings ;)

-- 
With kind regards,
Angelo Höngens
systems administrator
MCSE on Windows 2003
MCSE on Windows 2000
MS Small Business Specialist
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