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Web cache server HTTP/2 performance benchmark: nuster vs nginx

Nuster Cache Server on June 13, 2018

This is a simple benchmark comparing the HTTP/2 cache performance of nuster and nginx. https://github.com/jiangwenyuan/nuster I tested the RPS(Re...

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patricklbs • Aug 7 '18

Hello,
I would like to know how nuster works with haproxy? You do not mention it in your doc on github.
We have a haproxy for loadbalancing and we would also like to have a cache without having to install an apache. We have JavaEE middleware applications tomcat / wildfly.

Does Haproxy and Nuster work together? Do you have a doc? Haproxy listens on the: 80 and nuster on the: 8080 we have keepalived in frontend to make high availability haproxy level.

thank you in advance for the answer.

Patrick.

Nuster Cache Server • Aug 7 '18 • Edited

Hi,

You don't need haproxy and nuster work together. You can use nuster as a http loadbalancer just like haproxy as nuster is built on top of haproxy and inherits all features of HAProxy, it's 100% compatible with HAProxy.

So suppose you have haproxy in /usr/local/bin/haproxy and haproxy conf in /etc/haproxy/haproxy.conf.

What you need to do is to install nuster, say /usr/local/nuster/bin/haproxy. And if you run /usr/local/nuster/bin/haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.conf, nuster will work just like haproxy.

In order to enable cache, update /etc/haproxy/haproxy.conf this way:

Add nuster cache on into global section, and nuster cache on and some rules nuster rule into backend section

So your /etc/haproxy/haproxy.conf looks like this:

global
    # your original conf here
    # add this:
    nuster cache on data-size 1g
#....
frontend your-original-frontend
    bind *:80 #
    mode http
    #...
backend your-original-tomcat-backend
    mode http
    # add following two lines
    nuster cache on
    nuster rule all ttl 0
    # end here
    server your-tomcat-server tomcat-ip:tomcat-port

Then kill original haproxy process, and start nuster: /usr/local/nuster/bin/haproxy -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.conf

That's it.

you can check which haproxy version is nuster based on here: github.com/jiangwenyuan/nuster/blo...

patricklbs • Aug 10 '18

Thank's a lot for your reply, J like what I see :)

Can you tell me which section you put the stats tag:
nuster cache on uri / nuster / cache

is it the same as the haproxy stats I guess not?
I would like to do surveys with and without nuster, to see the differences and thus convince of the good choice of nuster! Again thank you, I hope that Nuster has a nice day ahead of him :)

Nuster Cache Server • Aug 10 '18

Hi, you should put it in global section,

global
    nuster cache on uri /_any/path/would/do
...

It's not haproxy stats(web page nor cli), you can get the stats using curl http://127.0.0.1[:port]/_any/path/would/do.

patricklbs • Aug 10 '18

global
    log         127.0.0.1 local2
    chroot      /var/lib/haproxy
    stats timeout 2m
    pidfile     /var/run/haproxy.pid
    maxconn     4000
    user        haproxy
    group       haproxy
    daemon
    nuster cache on data-size 1g
    # turn on stats unix socket
    stats socket /var/lib/haproxy/haproxy.sock mode 660 level admin
    stats timeout 2m
    nuster cache on uri /nuster/stats

curl http://127.0.0.1/nuster/stats 

<html><body><h1>503 Service Unavailable</h1>
No server is available to handle this request.
</body></html>

I forgot something ?

patricklbs • Aug 10 '18 • Edited

How to configure port for stats view, because frontend listen on port 80 :/

patricklbs • Aug 10 '18

Ok I found it

nuster cache on data-size 1g uri /nuster/stats

Nuster Cache Server • Aug 10 '18

Hi, you can use the port defined in frontend

patricklbs • Sep 11 '18

Hi,

I have a problem with java EE application who start on tomcat. when I login on after I want to logout, the session stay open.

My nuster config :



backend demo
        #mode http
        cookie JSESSIONID prefix nocache
        #option redispatch
        #option httpclose
        #option forwardfor
        #http-check disable-on-404
        #option httpchk GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost:\ sli-iqr-11.cg13.fr
        #option http-buffer-request
        server  tomcat-demo  hostname.tomcat.demo.fr:8080 cookie check inter 2000
        server  tomcat_backup hostname.tomcat.backup.fr:82 backup
        nuster cache on
        nuster rule all ttl 0

any idee ? Thank's a lot

Patrick.

Nuster Cache Server • Sep 11 '18

Hi,

maybe you should cache certain page instead of all nuster rule all ttl 0

Kris33 • Feb 1 '19

Hi,

I'm running Haproxy on CentOS 7.6.1810, I'd give a try to nuster but I can't figure out how to install it.
Is there an rpm or something cause buiding always fails with lua versions and missing dependencies default lua version is 5.1.4.

Nuster Cache Server • Feb 13 '19 • Edited

Hi,

You can build without lua, just omit lua related parameters when you make nuster.

Or you can install lua manually, for example, you can refer to

gist.github.com/drpauldixon/b75a33...

Matthew Kersey • Jun 14 '18

What exactly does "based on HAProxy" mean? Built with the same purpose of HAProxy in mind, is it a fork? Curious to how you decided to improve upon it. Looks impressive, might have to give it a try myself.

Nuster Cache Server • Jun 15 '18

nuster uses the source code from HAProxy and added cache functionality on top of it. nuster is not built with the same purpose of HAProxy, but with the powerful features of HAProxy, like load balacing/ACL.

nuster started from HAProxy v1.7 when there was no small cache ability in haproxy, which was introduced in haproxy v1.8.

But the cache introduced in haproxy1.8 has many limitations, for example only small response can be cached, which defaults to 16KB as defined by the global parameter tune.bufsize, while nuster can cache any size response.

Also haproxy1.8 cache only works for 200 and GET, while nuster can cache any http code and POST/PUT.

Also haproxy1.8 cache can only use host and urias key, while nuster can use header, cookie, query as key too.

And nuster has PURGE functionalities, disable/enable at runtime functionalities, stats, and so on.

Please do give it a try, any feedback is welcomed:)