Ok I'll try and clarify it (thanks btw)
I am running 3 websites on one single machine and have been for few years,
then the load started to grow, then I decided to have a go at a proxy
server:
I was actually putting off for a couple of years, simply because I am very
restricted time wise
I have as I said 3 different websites running on one single machine in a
vhost mode
three websites with three different domain names.
Let's say 1) example.com, example.net, example.org all pointing eventually
to the same IP address
as I said it worked perfectly but it started to slow down a bit as the
load
gets too much for one machine to handle.
On top of that I run other servers on different machines, such as Chat
servers (IRC, Flash, DigiChat) , and various other applications.
Now, I am using this machine as a proxy server (reverse proxy server) and
a
router at the same time using iptables, and I use another machine as a
DNS/DHCP servers, all configured and working fine indeed no problems at
all.
Now, I really struggled to get the clients on my network to have access to
the internet, I mean just to browse the net, I did in the end, but every
single example I followed not a single one worked for me, I don't know how
many forums and articles I read.
I have applied so many examples no luck.
So basically no requests were passed to the backend server, all I wanted
is
to get those requests forwarded to the web-server and if that works then I
will add three more machines as backend servers and each machine will hold
one website with it's DB and so on..
That was my plan anyway, And I found myself in ever decreasing circle
going
around in circle, following some people's examples and nothing worked, I
tried to find information for example about, how to setup a cache parent,
sibbling and so on, not a single word about, I even read O'reilly's
articles.
In those examples for instance they mention a parent in order to forward a
request, without telling you how to set a parent, and if you don't have a
parent, does that mean you can't use a proxy server, and If I had a parent
where would it be? and how to decide which one is the parent and which one
is the child etc.. NO indication not a single word, "they expect" you to
know all that as if you spent all you life working on their project, it
never occured to them that maybe some people won't know what is a parent
or
how to set it up and so on..
I can go on like this for a whole night, I know you're trying to help but
to
be perfectly honest I am put off by this whole thing, I don't think I want
to use Squid at all, I reached a saturation point now.
You see I know even if I get the thing off the ground now, I am sure in a
few weeks time it will whinge at me or even in a few days time.
Maybe one day if I have the time I can look into it in more details and
take
the time to understand first it's concept and the way it works, it seems
to
have it's own logic.
If not I will just have to either purchase a software that does a similar
thing or use Apache as a proxy server and see how it goes.
I just want to thank you for your time and your effort in trying to help
Best regards
Adam
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhassan@xxxxxxx>
To: "Squid Users" <squid-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 7:49 PM
Subject: Re: Squid3 issues
Please outline your scenario in detail. If you are facing problems
about FDs, then I take it that you already have a running instance,
but that your load is quite high to require more than the default 1024
FDs.
Did you get your OS limits changed to more than 1024? I modify my
servers to 65536 whenever I'm running Squid on them.
Please outline your problem in more details, so that we can help you.
Regards
HASSAN
On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 1:37 AM, Gmail <adbasque@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello again,
I am not ranting, I was merely expressing my opinion, well I never said I
was an expert when it comes to the proxies I have never used them, this
is
my first attempt, yes Debian and Debian based distros are very very
popular
I have used many distros and by far I must admit that the debian is a
fantastic OS, now it comes to tastes, some like FreeBSD, some like
OpenSuse,
some like Centos5, and so on I have seen many people using Fedora, but I
wasn't impressed by it when I used it 2 years ago. anyway as I said it's
a
matter of taste.
You say I couldn't get it running yes, when I follow the instruction to
the letter and I mean to the letter, I have changed several times the
config, to just forward requests to the backend server "As a test" first
the
back end server is running on virtualhosts, that was the reason, why I
decided to tackle Squid or a (proxy sever if you like).
I took people's word for it, and I tried it, all I could get it to do is
allow some http clients to acces the internet, when I try and visit any
of
the websites all I get is the "front page on the proxy itself" No matter
what I did either I get acces denied etc.. or I get invalid url, all of
the
standard error message, and finally I got to get the default page of the
apache on the proxy itself, but not one request was forwarded to the
backend
webserver.
I am not mentionning other apps that don't work with Squid, just a few,
such as MSN, Steam, Utorrent and so on..and then I got the Warnings that
my
cache is running out of file descriptors, no other programme ever did
this
to my servers.
I found squid extremely picky, extremely demanding, what I am saying is,
1024 descriptors should be more than enough for it to run and considering
the fact that nothing else is running on that machine, it was a dedicated
machine just for squid3.0
I got to the point where I couldn't even open the syslog because the
buffer limit was exceeded, and that was a couple days of me just trying
testing it, I managed to get the Utorrent working in the end, I had to
use
pidgin instead of MSN for the clients because It was impossible to get
MSN
or Yahoo to connect I haven't tried Skype though, but some people don't
like
Pidgin, they prefer either MSN or Yahoo anyway that wasn't a big deal.
All I am saying is I found that Squid is very very demanding indeed, and
if I can't use it the way I like, what's the point?
Anyway, I have decided not to use it and leave it for people who are
happy
with it and wish them good luck with it.
I haven't ignored anybody, I have always replied and to tell you the
truth, I have asked questions before and I was ignored, and that's fine
all
I was asking if they had a decent documentation with clear examples.
The examples I read all made no sense to me, there are better ways of
giving good examples.
For example, they ask you to use a parent, a sibling etc. what if you
don't have any of these??
Anyway I don't know why you took it so personally, All I am saying here
in
simple terms, when you write a program don't expect every person to know
what you're on about, make your example as simple as possible that
anybody
can understand, people don't need to be experts in order to use that's
all,
and if that offended and you can't take a bit of criticism than I can't
help
you.
When I write a program and I get criticised I will listen and ask how
would they like to be and I will explain why I did it the way I did it.
Simple :-)
Take care mate, we're going nowhere with this, thanks anyway for your
replies
Regards
Adam
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhassan@xxxxxxx>
To: <squid-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: Squid3 issues
Your rant can be summarized as follows:
1. You are using a OS (and version) which (according to you) has poor
documentation or other info. Ubuntu / Debian are very popular Linux
flavours. As someone who claims to have been a Linux administrator for
"several years", haven't you ever come across the FD issue in any
situation?
Strange!
2. You are a single man catering to "many" servers, so you don't want to
"waste time" with a software that you could not get running on an OS as
in
#1. The "we" in my email was meant to be my company. I personally see
over
all the installations we have. No one else as a helping hand.
3. You find a lot of people complaining that they can't run squid. But,
you ignore a lot of other people (like myself and Jan who responded to
your
post) who are saying this is a brilliant piece of software.
Instead of ranting, I would suggest you change your attitude, and start
laying down the problems that you are facing. Someone from the community
will always get back to you, as they have for me in the past.
I have no intention of starting a flame war here. I just want you to
calm
down, and assure you, Squid in itself is a brilliant piece of code.
Remember, this is the same software that serves Wikipedia, and that
speaks a
lot about how stable this software is.
Also, Squid 3.0 is still under active development, and is not suitable
for all scenarios. We use 2.7 because we use it as a forward proxy, and
many
features available in the 2.x branch have not yet been fully migrated to
the
3.x branch. So, 2.7 suits our scenario more. Perhaps you can also
mention
what your scenario is.
As for OS, I've seen some people say FreeBSD is one of the best OS for
Squid. But, we ourselves are pretty happy with CentOS 5.x. So, find out
what
works for you. Ubuntu / Debian are also very popular Linux flavours, so
I
think you need to search some more about how to increase FDs.
I hope you find solutions to your woes, and come to use Squid to your
favour.
Regards
HASSAN
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gmail" <adbasque@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhassan@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 00:01
Subject: Re: Squid3 issues
Hello,
I did say that some people would disagree, I know that there are people
who might find it brilliant
I am not moaning, I was stating facts, you're talking about the version
2.7 or whatever you're using
I am talking about version 3.0++.
All of the examples don't make any sense I have followed them to the
letter and yet I still got lot of issues, as for the emails I did reply
to
both of them and twice
and I even sent another email asking another question, if it works for
you then good for you, I am glad that some people like it.
but for me it didn't work, no matter what I tried, I am using Ubuntu,
that's another thing you will find certain things in details for most
OSes
but not for Ubuntu or even a debian and if you do find anything it's
always
with the older versions., which you know most things in the v2.0++ are
not
recognised in version 3.0
I have been a webmaster for many years and I have used many linux
distros, I have compiled, installed and ran countless programmes.
I also code in Java, and many other scripting languages, I am not
exactly a novice.
If you think the programme is so brilliant, then don't take my word for
it, just check out the forums, mailing lists etc.. you will see how
many
people are having difficulties with squid, since it started.
It hasn't got any better I had a go few years back I had the same
problems back then.
If you do like it good for you, and to tell me if I don't like it I
shouldn't use it, yes if we had another option yes, but we don't, and
it's
not as good as people claim to be, the truth is, people don't have a
choice
or an alternative.
If you're happy spending hours everyday solving one problem after
another, be my guest but I hardly have the time to mock around with
useless
software, People should be able to use and run without having to become
experts.
The same things applies to the Linux community, that's why most pople
can't be bothered to have linux in their homes, even though deep down
they
know that Microsoft isn't reliable.
And you're talking in "we" meaning you have more than one person to run
whatever you're running, as for me I am running everything all by
myself,
from the webservers, to the clients, to the DBs, to the chat servers,
to the
commercial websites, all by myself.
So I don't have the time to waste with one program that is supposed to
be compiled, installed and ran without any difficulties, not even a
read me
on how to install it., unless you run .configure --help in order to
find the
list of options, and most of them are not recognised and so on and so
forth.
on one hand solving problems caused by Squid and then solve problems on
the system itself in order for it to recognise it,
not to mention the huge amount of errors you'll get when you try and
configure it and then compile it etc...
You're right if I don't like it I don't use, that is exactly the
attitude I am talking about, instead of trying to improve the software
so
people can use it, you give them the choice take it or leave it, is
that it?
Listen my friend I am not here to pick an argument with people, all I
am
saying is people should come out of this mindset of "I am a volunteer"
therefore I don't have to do anything, when you do something do it
properly
or don't bother.
Don't expect anyone who walks in will understand your software or your
program, I make programs with perl and java I make sure that anybody
can run
it, install it and compile it with instructions step by step on how to
use
it.
Have a nice day and good luck to you and everybody else
Cheers! :)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhassan@xxxxxxx>
To: <squid-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: Squid3 issues
Your email is one long whining without much substance at all. I have
been a
member of this list for over 3 years now, and been using Squid for a
year
and a half. During all this time, I have always found this list to be
hospitable, and helpful.
If you don't like the software, then don't use it. It's not costing
you
anything. That being said, I have almost never found any attitude from
any
person on the list that says RTFM. Even when someone asks about
obvious
things, someone is kind enough to point to the right direction.
We use over 4 Squid proxies (running 2.7STABLE7), running commodity
hardware, and their performance has been more than satisfactory to us.
However, we run all of them over CentOS 5+. Last year, even commercial
vendor Bluecoat could not give us a strong enough reason to show that
their
product performed any better than Squid to justify the cost
differential.
If it is file descriptors that is creating problems, then you need to
read the OS docs on how to increase that on the OS side. On CentOS,
running
"ulimit -n" shows how many FDs are allowed by the OS.
As for Squid, a simple recompile with the "--with-maxfd=XXXX" flag
worked
like a charm for me. Using "squid -v" is always handy to get the
existing compile-time flags first.
Whatever your frustration at this point, whining over at the forum,
and
blaming everyone else and saying "admit that squid does not work", is
pretty lame.
Oh, by the way, I searched my email archives of the Squid Mailing
List,
with your "email id", and it turned out there is only one email from
you,
and that was only 15 hours ago, within which there have been 4 email
responses already. You did not even reply to one of them saying what
did not
go as suggested.
Regards
HASSAN
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gmail" <adbasque@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <squid-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 19:30
Subject: Squid3 issues
Hello everyone,
I have been trying for nearly 5 weeks now to get this piece of
software to
work, I have tried several versions, I have tried it on several
platforms,
all I got from it is frustration, I know that some people would say
what a
fantastic piece of software.
I have used many softwares, packages, compiled stuff for years, never
ever
had an experience such as this one, it's a package full of headaches,
and
problem after problem, And to be honest the feedback I get is always
blaming other things, why can't you people just admit that Squid
doesn't
work at all, and you are not providing any help whatsoever, as if you
expect everyone to be an expert.
I also don't like the attitude of some people, talking to you as if
you're
an "idiot", while in fact you follow their suggestions to the letter
and
yet it doesn't work, instead of blaming the operating systems and
blaming
people for not knowing how to use it, why can't you try and do
something
that works for a change, I have wasted nearly 5 weeks day in day out
sometimes I stayed til 3 or 4 am trying desperately to get this thing
working.
For instance if I compile with no options I know that somewhere down
the
line I am going to find out that I needed this or that, if I compile
it
with some options I get errors that don't make any sense, examples.
I uninstalled the version that was packaged with Ubuntu hardy, I am
trying
to compile it so I won't have the same problem, with the file
descriptors,
I followed exactly the suggestions in the configure --help menu, yet
I
am
getting an error,
like Compile cannot create executable, or something to that effect.
Not to mention when I tried to run it, it didn't forward any
requests,
I
have followed all of the configuration examples and people's
suggestions,
never could forward any request to my backend server.
After three weeks I managed to get my clients to have access to the
internet, and many applications didn't work, such as Yahoo, Msn,
Steam
and
so on, when I ask for help, nobody has an answer including some
members of
the team.
Yes I can hear some arguments, saying but we are volunteers, true,
but
you
either do something that works or don't.
If I needed help for say, Unrealircd or any other program I know I
can
get
help, and their documentaion, does what it says on the tin. you
follow
their instructions, you will get it to work exactly as they say.
With squid, it doesn't work, that's all I am getting, I don't even
believe
that it works now to be honest, I am sorry I am not moaning but it's
true,
I have been on many forums for weeks and all I could see were
problems
people are facing with any version of squid , and no solutions are
given
very few and after you fix one problem 10 others pop up somewhere
else
I
certainly don't want to spend my life fixing and bashing my head
trying to
find a solution, I want something that works, but unfortunately it
doesn't.
I am just going to try something else somewhere else,
Thanks all the same for anyone who tried to help, but this is not for
me,
life is too short to waste anymore of my time, in trying to get
something
that doesn't work, "working"
If anybody can prove me wrong:
Regards
All the best to everyone
