SUSE LINUX 9.3

Chapter 33. The Proxy Server Squid / 33.6. cachemgr.cgi
	33.5. Configuring a Transparent Proxy		33.7. squidGuard

33.6. cachemgr.cgi

The cache manager (cachemgr.cgi) is a CGI utility for displaying statistics about the memory usage of a running Squid process. It is also a more convenient way to manage the cache and view statistics without logging the server.

33.6.1. Setup

First, a running Web server on your system is required. To check if Apache is already running, as root enter the command rcapache status. If a message like this appears:

Checking for service httpd: OK 
Server uptime: 1 day 18 hours 29 minutes 39 seconds

Apache is running on the machine. Otherwise, enter rcapache start to start Apache with the SUSE LINUX default settings. The last step to set it up is to copy the file cachemgr.cgi to the Apache directory cgi-bin:

cp /usr/share/doc/packages/squid/scripts/cachemgr.cgi /srv/www/cgi-bin/

33.6.2. Cache Manager ACLs in /etc/squid/squid.conf

There are some default settings in the original file required for the cache manager. The first ACL is the most important, as the cache manager tries to communicate with Squid over the cache_object protocol.

acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255

The following rules should also be contained:

http_access allow manager localhost
http_access deny manager

The following rules assume that the Web server and Squid are running on the same machine. If the communication between the cache manager and Squid originates at the Web server on another computer, include an extra ACL as in Example 33.2, “Access Rules”.

Example 33.2. Access Rules

acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
acl webserver src 192.168.1.7/255.255.255.255 # webserver IP

Then add the rules in Example 33.3, “Access Rules”.

Example 33.3. Access Rules

http_access allow manager localhost
http_access allow manager webserver
http_access deny manager

Configure a password for the manager for access to more options, like closing the cache remotely or viewing more information about the cache. For this, configure the entry cachemgr_passwd with a password for the manager and the list of options to view. This list appears as a part of the entry comments in /etc/squid/squid.conf.

Restart Squid every time the configuration file is changed. Do this easily with rcsquid reload.

33.6.3. Viewing the Statistics

Go to the corresponding Web site—http://webserver.example.org/cgi-bin/cachemgr.cgi. Press ‘continue’ and browse through the different statistics. More details for each entry shown by the cache manager is in the Squid FAQ at http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/FAQ/FAQ-9.html.