[squid-users] cache disk failure handling?

Hi,

Reading the squid FAQ, it's obvious to me that putting cache_dirs on a
RAID (particularly RAID5) has serious performance penalties and is
highly discouraged. However, what's not as clear is how squid deals
with single-disk failures and whether or not it handles failures
gracefully enough to obviate the need for RAID.

If I have a squid running multiple cache_dirs on single disks, and one
disk suffers a failure, how does squid respond? Will it simply stop
using that cache_dir and soldier on, or can this cause an application
crash?

Also, when starting up squid, what is the effect of an unavailable
cache_dir? I'm thinking of a situation where squid is restarted before
a bad disk can be replaced.

If squid does have problems here, could using pairs of RAID1
partitions be an acceptable compromise, with the cost of reduced total
storage?

Thanks,

-Chris
Received on Mon Jan 28 2008 - 09:56:21 MST