Re: [squid-users] which 2.4.x

khiz code <khizcode@yahoo.com> wrote:
> there are both linux and squid gurus out here who know what is best
> for squid hence i ask !!!!1 a lot of kernels hv been released past
> 2.4.9 of redhat7.2

Yes, the latest Linux kernel (2.4.16) has a higher version number than
Red Hat 7.1/7.2's officiel kernels. On the other hand, 2.4.16 hasn't
gone through much real-World testing yet. And it certainly hasn't gone
though the thorough tests which the distributors perform before they
release kernels.

My advise:
Don't be so version-oriented. Use the lateste official kernel from your
vendor (Red Hat 7.2's updated kernel) unless you have good reasons not
to do so. There is a reason why distributions exist: They consist of an
integrated set of a lot of software packages, and the integration is why
we use distributions in the first place.

Where I work, we use Squid on both Red Hat 7.0 and 7.1, using Red Hat's
latest kernels for those two distributions. And it works very well on
some rather busy caches. Actually, it seems that there isn't much of a
difference between the 2.2 and 2.4 kernels, at least not on our dual-CPU
boxes. There may be a noticable difference if you start using four CPUs.

Sure, you may get an extra percent of performance by using the latest
kernels and tweaking all around the place. But your may get instability
by being on the cutting version-number edge.

Concentrate on where the tweaking really pays of. - Like the difficult
issue of max number of file handles, etc, which seems to make a
difference when the going gets tough.

Also: Often, it's better to buy good hardware than to spend hours and
hours tweaking and compiling kernels. Remember that time is money; at
least it is where I work. If you want to improve performance, then
invest in a lot of RAM and a good SCSI+RAID IO-system.

-- 
Greetings from Troels Arvin, Copenhagen, Denmark
System administrator at TV 2/interaktiv