Re: [squid-users] Squid with PHP & Apache

Hey Ghassan,

Moving from PHP to C++ is a nice idea.
I do not know the size of the cache or it's limits but couple things to
consider while implementing the cache:
* clients latency
* server overload
* total cost
* efficiency of the cache

Bandwidth can cost lots of money in some cases and which some are
willing to pay for.
Youtube by itself is a beast since the number of visits per video might
not be worth all the efforts that are being invested only in one video
file\chunk.

Specifically on youtube you need to grab the response headers and in
some cases even filter couple of them.
If you are caching and you are 99.5% sure that this "chunk" or "file" is
ok as it is and as an object the headers can be considered as a side
effect but in some cases are important.
A compromise between Response Headers from a file to "from source" is
that in a case that the headers "file" or container is deleted to fetch
new ones or in a case the expiration headers are "out-of-date" then
fetch new Headers\object.

The main issue with 302 is the concept behind it.
I have seen that in the past the usage of 302 was in order to give
enough time for the upstream proxy\cdn node to fetch more data but in
some cases it was a honest redirection towards the best origin server.

In a case you know that uses 302 responses handle them by the site
rather then in a Global way.

The Content-Type is used from the origin server headers since this is
probably what the client application expects.
On a web-server you would see that by the file extension the
Content-Type can be decided but this is not how squid handles http
requests at all.

Squid algorithm are pretty simple while considering the basic "shape" of
the object from the headers.

It is indeed an overhead to fetch from the web couple headers and there
are some cases which it can be avoided but a re-validation of the
integrity of the object\file is kind of important.

Back to the beginning of the Email:
If you do "know" that the object as it is now will not be changed for
example as the owner of the web-service you can even serve the client
"stale" content.

There is no force in the world that limits you to do that.

I can say that for example for youtube I was thinking about using
another approach which would "rank" videos and will consider removing
videos that was used once or twice per two weeks(which is depends on the
size of the storage and load).

If you do have a strong server that can run PHP you can try to take for
a spin squid with StoreID that can help you to use only squid for
youtube video caching.

The only thing you will need to take care off is 302 response with an
ICAP service for example.

I do know how tempting it is to use PHP and it can be in many cases
better for a network to use another solution then only squid.

I do not know if you have seen this article:
http://wiki.squid-cache.org/ConfigExamples/DynamicContent/Coordinator

The article shows couple aspect of youtube caching.

There was some PHP code at:
http://code.google.com/p/yt-cache/

Which I have seen long time ago.(2011-12)

StoreID is at the 3.4 branch of squid and is still on the Beta stage:
http://wiki.squid-cache.org/Features/StoreID

StoreID code by itself is very well tested and I am using it on a daily
basis not even once restarting\reloading my local server for a very long
time.
I have not heard about a very big production environment(clustered)
reports in my email yet.

The basic idea of StoreID is to take the current existing internals of
squid and to "unleash" them in a way that they can be exploited\used by
external helper.

StoreID is not here to replace the PHP or any other methods that might
fit any network, it comes to allow the admin and see the power of squid
caching even in this "dead-end" case which requires acrobatics.

You can try to just test it in a small testing environment and to see if
it fits to you.

One of the benefits that Apache+PHP has is the "Threading" which allows
one service such as apache to utilize as much horse power as the machine
has as a "metal".
Since squid is already there the whole internal traffic between the
apache and squid can be "spared" while using StoreID.

Note that fetching the headers *only* from the origin server can still
help you to decide if you want to fetch the whole object from it.
A fetch of a whole headers set which will not exceed 1KB is worth for
even a 200KB file size in many cases.

I have tried to not miss somethings but I do not want to write a whole
Scroll about yet so if there is more interest in it I will add more later.

Regards,
Eliezer

On 25/11/13 23:13, Ghassan Gharabli wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have built a PHP script to cache HTTP 1.X 206 Partial Content like
> "WindowsUpdates" & Allow seeking through Youtube & many websites .
>
> I am willing to move from PHP to C++ hopefully after a while.
>
> The script is almost finished , but I have several question, I have no
> idea if I should always grab the HTTP Response Headers and send them
> back to the browsers.
>
> 1) Does Squid still grab the "HTTP Response Headers", even if the
> object is already in cache or Squid has already a cached copy of the
> HTTP Response header . If Squid caches HTTP Response Headers then how
> do you deal with HTTP CODE 302 if the object is already cached . I am
> asking this question because I have already seen most websites use
> same extensions such as .FLV including Location Header.
>
> 2) Do you also use mime.conf to send the Content-Type to the browser
> in case of FTP/HTTP or only FTP ?
>
> 3) Does squid compare the length of the local cached copy with the
> remote file if you already have the object file or you use
> refresh_pattern?.
>
> 4) What happens if the user modifies a refresh_pattern to cache an
> object, for example .xml which does not have [Content-Length] header.
> Do you still save it, or would you search for the ignore-headers used
> to force caching the object and what happens if the cached copy
> expires , do you still refresh the copy even if there is no
> Content-Length header?.
>
> I am really confused with this issue , because I am always getting a
> headers list from the Internet and I send them back to the browser
> (using PHP and Apache) even if the object is in cache.
>
> Your help and answers will be much appreciated
>
> Thank you
>
> Ghassan
>
Received on Wed Nov 27 2013 - 05:49:58 MST