Re: Cisco Cache Director (Was RE: Does Squid beat the rest? )

>>> "Paquette, Trevor" wrote
> Cisco's Cache Director is a very interesting approach to Web
> caching.

Another point is the way chaining is done - suppose you have a network like

client ----- routerA ---- routerB ---- routerC ---- server
                | | |
           cisco cache A cache B cache C

client sends a request, routerA deflects it to cacheA. If cacheA doesn't
have it, it will try to get it from the server. routerB redirects it to
cacheB, which might then have to make a connection to cacheC, etc etc.
Each of these involves a TCP setup/teardown (it's all HTTP). I can see
problems here - it's basically enforcing a parent-child intercache
relationship between each pair of caches. I am concerned about scaling
issues with this.

Um, other problems at the moment - logs are exported via syslog. This just
won't work for busy caches who need all the logs (for billing, or whatever).

You can install multiple ones in a group to sit alongside each other and
load share - but the way the sharing is done is extremely simple (takes
a hash of the hostname) - so all of www.microsoft.com would go to the same
box.

It's a neat idea, and most of the above are to be expected from a first
release of the product. I hope cisco release the WCCP (web cache control
protocol - the protocol between the router and the caches) as a public
specification.

Anthony
Received on Fri Sep 19 1997 - 19:22:26 MDT