zfs discuss - Oct 2007 - [osol-help] Squid Cache on a ZFS file system

On 29/10/2007, Tek Bahadur Limbu <teklimbu at wlink.com.np> wrote:
> I created a ZFS file system like the following with /mypool/cache being
> the partition for the Squid cache:
>
> 18:51:27 root at solaris:~$ zfs list
> NAME                   USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
> mypool                 478M  31.0G  10.0M  /mypool
> mypool/cache           230M  9.78G   230M  /mypool/cache
> mypool/home            226M  31.0G   226M  /export/home
>
> Note: I only have a few days of experience on Solaris and I might have
> made some mistakes with the above ZFS partitions!
No, that looks ok. You can just ''zfs set quota=<something else>
mypool/cache''
to be bigger in the future if need be.
> Basically, I want to know if somebody here on this list is using a ZFS
> file system for a proxy cache and what will be it''s performance?
Will it
> improve and degrade Squid''s performance? Or better still, is there
any
> kind of benchmark tools for ZFS performance?
filebench sounds like it''d be useful for you. It''s coming in
the next Nevada
release, but since it looks like you''re on Solaris 10, take a look at:

  http://blogs.sun.com/erickustarz/entry/filebench

Remember to ''zfs set atime=off mypool/cache'' -
there''s no need for it for squid caches.

-- 
Rasputnik :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns
http://number9.hellooperator.net/

Hi Davies,

Dick Davies wrote:
> On 29/10/2007, Tek Bahadur Limbu <teklimbu at wlink.com.np> wrote:
> 
>> I created a ZFS file system like the following with /mypool/cache being
>> the partition for the Squid cache:
>>
>> 18:51:27 root at solaris:~$ zfs list
>> NAME                   USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
>> mypool                 478M  31.0G  10.0M  /mypool
>> mypool/cache           230M  9.78G   230M  /mypool/cache
>> mypool/home            226M  31.0G   226M  /export/home
>>
>> Note: I only have a few days of experience on Solaris and I might have
>> made some mistakes with the above ZFS partitions!
> 
> No, that looks ok. You can just ''zfs set quota=<something
else> mypool/cache''
> to be bigger in the future if need be.
I will increase the quota as required in the future.
> 
>> Basically, I want to know if somebody here on this list is using a ZFS
>> file system for a proxy cache and what will be it''s
performance? Will it
>> improve and degrade Squid''s performance? Or better still, is
there any
>> kind of benchmark tools for ZFS performance?
> 
> filebench sounds like it''d be useful for you. It''s coming
in the next Nevada
> release, but since it looks like you''re on Solaris 10, take a look
at:
> 
>   http://blogs.sun.com/erickustarz/entry/filebench
Thanks for the suggestion and the URL for the utility "filebench". I 
will study it and if possible apply it for benchmarking.

However, I am having some problems installing filebench which I 
downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/filebench

I unzipped the filebench-1.0.0.tar.bz2 package in the directory 
filebench which contains the following:

-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd     216 Jun 20  2005 AUTHORS
-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd       0 Jun 20  2005 ChangeLog
-rwxr-xr-x   1 76367    webservd     227 Oct  5 13:08 COPYING
-rwxr-xr-x   1 76367    webservd     227 Oct  5 13:08 COPYRIGHT
drwxr-xr-x   7 76367    webservd     512 Oct  5 12:59 filebench
-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd     314 Oct  5 13:18 INSTALL
-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd   18600 Jun 15  2005 LICENSE
-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd       0 Jun 20  2005 NEWS
-rw-r--r--   1 76367    webservd     288 Oct  5 13:23 README


The INSTALL and README files both contain references to 
http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/FileBench

But according to the installation manual, the following 2 commands does 
not seem to be working for my Solaris 10 (i386) box!

# zcat (filebench name).tar.Z |tar xvf -

# pkgadd -d .

Please bear with me here because I am only 1 week old with Solaris!

Also there does not seem to be any filebench packages in blastwave or 
sunfreeware.

I think that I am missing a simple thing here. If possible, please guide 
me. I will really appreciate it.
> 
> Remember to ''zfs set atime=off mypool/cache'' -
> there''s no need for it for squid caches.
I will do that.
> 
Thanking you...

-- 

With best regards and good wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Tek Bahadur Limbu

System Administrator

(TAG/TDG Group)
Jwl Systems Department

Worldlink Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Jawalakhel, Nepal

http://www.wlink.com.np

http://teklimbu.wordpress.com

>
>>
>>> Basically, I want to know if somebody here on this list is using  
>>> a ZFS
>>> file system for a proxy cache and what will be it''s
performance?
>>> Will it
>>> improve and degrade Squid''s performance? Or better still,
is
>>> there any
>>> kind of benchmark tools for ZFS performance?
>>
>> filebench sounds like it''d be useful for you. It''s
coming in the
>> next Nevada
>> release, but since it looks like you''re on Solaris 10, take a
look
>> at:
>>
>>   http://blogs.sun.com/erickustarz/entry/filebench
>
> Thanks for the suggestion and the URL for the utility
"filebench". I
> will study it and if possible apply it for benchmarking.
>
> However, I am having some problems installing filebench which I
> downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/filebench
The Makefiles are being fixed up so it will just compile via the  
sourceforge site.

If you BFU or build your own package via the opensolaris source, you  
can just pkgadd the SUNWfilebench package.

eric