Due to Syndetics network/service issues, Western Michigan University implemented a reverse proxy cache for particular third party venders. Squid [http://www.squid-cache.org/] is an opensource reverse proxy cache. It can cache and store third party content locally, thus improving response times.

In our case, we use a separate server to increase performance. Squid can either be installed on the Vufind server or separately. However, due to its system load, it is recommended that Squid be installed on a secondary machine*. In these instructions, the base operating system is RedHat 5.2/CentOS [http://www.centos.org/].

• Large Partitions
• Swap should be 2x or more of RAM

• [root@Squidbox] yum update -y

• [root@Squidbox] reboot

• [root@Squidbox] setup
• Follow GUI

• [root@Squidbox] yum install squid -y

• replace this with the /etc/squid/squid.conf

Note 1: 165.254.62.247 is the IP of syndetics.com Note 2: 3128 is the default port #Squid Conf

http_port 3128 defaultsite=syndetics.com

cache_peer 165.254.62.247 parent 80 0 no-query originserver

acl our_sites dstdomain syndetics.com

http_access allow our_sites

#disk swap cache_swap_high 95

cache_swap_low 90

#ram ram ram

cache_mem 32 MB

#End Squid Conf

[root@Squidbox]/sbin/chkconfig –add squid

[root@Squidbox]/sbin/service squid start

Note: Currently (1.0RC1), you must go through and hand edit bookcovers.php, Record/Review.php, and Record/Exercpt.php and replace http://syndetics.com with yoursquidboxip. I did submit a patch to allow easier setup.

*Machine: Intel Xeon 3.0ghz 800mhz bus, 2 Gig DDR2, 1 terabyte non raid. CentOS 5.2