[squid-users] Can a cache be "too big"?

Today I examined the latency (service time) for requests that caused a
cache hit and a cache miss. Both were taking the same time. That
didn't sound to good.

So I umounted the cache directory, created a new
filesystem and restarted squid.

After that, the load dropped considerably (from 3 to 1), mostly due to
less IO wait. Cache hits were being served faster than cache misses. So
all went back to normal.

So, can a cache be "too big"?

Current setup (well, the relevant bits at least):

maximum_object_size 50 MB
cache_dir diskd /squid-cache 45000 16 16
request_header_max_size 15 KB
request_body_max_size 750 MB

The machine is 32 bits, MemTotal: 2060960 kB

-- 
Ralf Hildebrandt
  Geschäftsbereich IT | Abteilung Netzwerk
  Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
  Campus Benjamin Franklin
  Hindenburgdamm 30 | D-12203 Berlin
  Tel. +49 30 450 570 155 | Fax: +49 30 450 570 962
  ralf.hildebrandt@charite.de | http://www.charite.de