[squid-users] Performance and stupid questions

Hi,

Sorry for this stupid question, but I have to ask...

I'm just a new user of squid, trying to install some Squid farms of proxies
in my company in order to replace some old MS proxies. I'm currently using
RedHat 9. We are testing the configuration to know if it's okay to move a
lot of users on Squid.
I am happy with all the features (NTLM, LDAP auth, redirectors, squidGuard,
etc...), and the configuration runs correctly (I mean everything if working
as it should).

But I've got an little problem: performance.

I runnning Linux/Squid on BiPro 1GHZ 1GB Ram with 2x9,1 GB Raid 1 Hard
drives.
With a polygraph test (polymix 1), I reach a 200req/sec load (without
redirectors). My problem is that with an MS ISA Server on the same box, I
can have a nice 800req/sec load (ISA configuration out of the box). I'm not
currently interested in ISA, due to the lack of certain features (LDAP auth,
redirectors easy to write, etc...).

But I wonder why the ratio is so different. Moreover, when I run a "top"
command, i can clearly see that only one processor is really working : squid
seems to work only on one processor at a time.

Using diskd instead of UFS gives me only some req/sec more (it's not
significant).

Here are my configure options:
--enable-external-acl-helpers=winbind_group
--enable-cache-digests
--enable-async-io
--enable-auth=ntlm,basic
--enable-snmp
--enable-poll
--enable-linux-netfilter
--enable-ssl
--with-openssl=/usr/kerberos
--enable-basic-auth-helpers=winbind
--enable-ntlm-auth-helpers=winbind
--enable-ntlm-fail-open
--prefix=/usr
--exec-prefix=/usr
--bindir=/usr/sbin
--sbindir=/usr/sbin
--sysconfdir=/etc/squid
--datadir=/usr/share
--includedir=/usr/include
--libdir=/usr/lib
--libexecdir=/usr/lib/squid
--localstatedir=/var
--sharedstatedir=/usr/com
--mandir=/usr/share/man
--infodir=/usr/share/info
--enable-storeio=diskd,ufs
--with-pthreads

Partitions are extfs3.

In attachment is my squid.conf file.
It gives the same results on two differents servers with approximately same
configurations (IBM x330 and Compaq DL360).
Did I miss something ? Is this normal ?

Best regards,

Nicolas Chaillot