Re: wccp with a L4 switch

Sandra Jaque wrote:

> I´m evaluating a cache server solution, and I was trying squid
> in a linux box with wccp in a 7200 router working quite well, but
> how wccp v1.0 talk with just one squid box at a time I was wondering
> what happend if I put a L4 switch to load balance between more
> than one squid box (one of them talking wccp and having a hierarchy
> relation with the other squid box) should this work fine?

Not without modification.

> my doubt is because of the GRE encapsulation, I don´t know if
> the switch should be able to send the traffic to the squid boxes
> based on the http port?.

Most likely not, but the idea is interesting.

What could be done in a practical manner is to build a Linux "L4 switch"
announcing itself to the router using WCCP and distributing the sessions
to your cache boxes.

Another option is to build a Linux "router" which performs WCCP
announcements and GRE decapsulation and then forwards the TCP/IP packet
to your favorite L4 switch for distribution.

The announcement protocol of WCCP v1 is quite trivial to implement it is
is for one WCCP node only.

--
Henrik Nordstrom
Squid hacker