This chapter provides an overview of the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA). Procedures for using NCA and reference material about NCA are included. Also for the Solaris 10 6/06 release, an introduction to using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and procedures for using the SSL kernel proxy to improve the performance of the SSL packet processing are added.Network Cache and Accelerator (Overview) Managing Web Cache Servers (Task Map) Administering the Caching of Web Pages (Tasks) Caching Web Pages (Reference) The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA) increases web server performance by maintaining an in-kernel cache of web pages that are accessed during HTTP requests. This in-kernel cache uses system memory to significantly increase performance for HTTP requests that are normally handled by web servers. Using system memory to hold web pages for HTTP requests increases web server performance by reducing the overhead between the kernel and the web server. NCA provides a sockets interface through which any web server can communicate with NCA with minimal modifications.In situations where the requested page is retrieved from the in-kernel cache (cache hit), performance improves dramatically. In situations where the requested page is not in the cache (cache miss) and must be retrieved from the web server, performance is also significantly improved.This product is intended to be run on a dedicated web server. If you run other large processes on a server that runs NCA, problems can result.NCA provides logging support in that NCA logs all cache hits. This log is stored in binary format to increase performance. The ncab2clf command can be used to convert the log from binary format to common log format (CLF).The Solaris release includes the following enhancements:Sockets interface. Support for vectored sendfile, which provides support for AF_NCA. See the sendfilev3EXT man page for more information. New options for the ncab2clf command that support the ability to skip records before a selected date (s) and to process a specified number of records (n). logd_path_name in ncalogd.conf can specify either a raw device, a file, or a combination of the two. Support for a web server to open multiple AF_NCA sockets. With multiple sockets, you can have different web servers that run on one server. A new configuration file that is called /etc/nca/ncaport.conf. The file can be used to manage the IP addresses and ports that NCA uses. Your web server might not provide native support of the AF_NCA socket. If your server lacks this support, use this file and the NCA socket utility library to convert an AF_INET socket to an AF_NCA socket. In the Solaris 10 6/06 release, an Apache 2.0 and a Sun Java System Web Server may be configured to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Protocol. The protocol provides confidentiality, message integrity and end point authentication between two applications. The Solaris kernel has been changed to accelerate the SSL traffic. The following table describes the procedures that are needed to use NCA or SSL.Task Description For Instructions Planning for NCA A list of issues to be resolved before you enable the use of NCA. Planning for NCA Enabling NCA Steps to enable in-kernel caching of web pages on a web server. How to Enable Caching of Web Pages Disabling NCA Steps to disable in-kernel caching of web pages on a web server. How to Disable Caching of Web Pages Administering NCA logging Steps to enable or disable the NCA logging process. How to Enable or Disable NCA Logging Loading the NCA socket library Steps to use NCA if the AF_NCA socket is not supported. How to Load the Socket Utility Library for NCA Using the SSL kernel proxy with an Apache 2.0 web server Steps to use the SSL kernel proxy with a web server to improve SSL packet processing. How to Configure an Apache 2.0 Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy Using the SSL kernel proxy with a Sun Java System Web Server Steps to use the SSL kernel proxy with a web server to improve SSL packet processing. How to Configure a Sun Java System Web Server to Use the SSL Kernel Proxy Using the SSL kernel proxy with a web server in a local zone Steps to use the SSL kernel proxy with a web server in a local zone. Using the SSL Kernel Proxy in Zones The following sections cover the issues that need to be resolved before starting the NCA service.To support NCA, the system must meet these requirements:256 Mbytes RAM must be installed. The Solaris 10, or 9 release, or one of the Solaris 8 upgrade releases must be installed. Support for a web server which has native support for NCA or a web server whose startup script has been modified to use the Socket Utility Library for NCA:Apache web server, ships with Solaris 8 upgrade, Solaris 9, and Solaris 10 releases Sun Java System Web Server Zeus web server available from Zeus Technology, This product is intended to be run on a dedicated web server. The running of other large processes on a server that runs NCA can cause problems. The NCA service can be configured to log web activity. Generally, NCA logging should be enabled if the web server logging is enabled. Many web servers use AF_INET sockets. By default, NCA uses AF_NCA sockets. To correct this situation, an interpositioning library is provided. The new library is loaded in front of the standard socket library, libsocket.so. The library call bind is interposed by the new library, ncad_addr.so. Suppose that the status is enabled in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf. The version of Apache that is included with the Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 release is already set up to call this library. If you are using IWS or Netscape servers, see How to Load the Socket Utility Library for NCA to use the new library. Systems that have NCA installed often need to run multiple instances of a web server. For instance, a single server might need to support a web server for outside access as well as a web administration server. To separate these servers, you would configure each server to use a separate port. The following sections cover the procedures to enable or disable parts of the service.&rolestepA;Register the interfaces.Type the names of each of the physical interfaces in the /etc/nca/nca.if file. See the nca.if4 man page for more information.# cat /etc/nca/nca.if hme0 hme1Each interface must have an accompanying hostname.interface-name file and an entry in /etc/hosts file for the contents of hostname.interface-name. To start the NCA feature on all interfaces, place an asterisk, *, in the nca.if file. Enable the ncakmod kernel module.Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf to enabled.# cat /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Configuration File # status=enabled httpd_door_path=/var/run/nca_httpd_1.door nca_active=disabledSee the ncakmod.conf4 man page for more information. Enable NCA logging.Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to enabled.# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=enabled logd_path_name="/var/nca/log" logd_file_size=1000000You can change the location of the log file by changing the path that is indicated by the logd_path_name entry. The log file can be a raw device or a file. See the following examples for samples of NCA log file paths. See the ncalogd.conf4 man page for more information about the configuration file. Define ports for multiple instance support.Add the port numbers in the /etc/nca/ncaport.conf file. This entry causes NCA to monitor port 80 on all configured IP addresses.# cat /etc/nca/ncaport.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Port Configuration File # . . ncaport=*/80 For x86 only: Increase the virtual memory size.Use the eeprom command to set the kernelbase of the system.# eeprom kernelbase=0x90000000 # eeprom kernelbase kernelbase=0x90000000The second command verifies that the parameter has been set.By setting the kernelbase, you reduce the amount of virtual memory that user processes can use to less than 3 Gbytes. This restriction means that the system is not ABI compliant. When the system boots, the console displays a message that warns you about noncompliance. Most programs do not actually need the full 3–Gbyte virtual address space. If you have a program that needs more than 3 Gbytes, you need to run the program on a system that does not have NCA enabled. Reboot the server. The logd_path_name string in ncalogd.conf can define a raw device as the place to store the NCA log file. The advantage to using a raw device is that the service can run faster because the overhead in accessing a raw device is less. The NCA service tests any raw device that is listed in the file to ensure that no file system is in place. This test ensures that no active file systems are accidentally written over.To prevent this test from finding a file system, run the following command. This command destroys part of the file system on any disk partition that had been configured as a file system. In this example, /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 is the raw device that has an old file system in place.# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 bs=1024 count=1After running dd, you can then add the raw device to the ncalogd.conf file.# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=enabled logd_path_name="/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7" logd_file_size=1000000 The logd_path_name string in ncalogd.conf can define multiple targets as the place to store the NCA log file. The second file is used when the first file is full. The following example shows how to select to write to the /var/nca/log file first and then use a raw partition.# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=enabled logd_path_name="/var/nca/log /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7" logd_file_size=1000000 &rolestepA;Disable the ncakmod kernel module.Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf to disabled.# cat /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf # NCA Kernel Module Configuration File # status=disabled httpd_door_path=/var/run/nca_httpd_1.door nca_active=disabledSee the ncakmod.conf4 man page for more information. Disable NCA logging.Change the status entry in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to disabled.# cat /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf # # NCA Logging Configuration File # status=disabled logd_path_name="/var/nca/log" logd_file_size=1000000See the ncalogd.conf4 man page for more information. Reboot the server. NCA logging can be turned on or turned off, as needed, after NCA has been enabled. See How to Enable Caching of Web Pages for more information. &rolestepA;Change NCA logging.To permanently disable logging, you need to change the status in /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf to disabled and reboot the system. See the ncalogd.conf4 man page for more information.Stop logging.# /etc/init.d/ncalogd stop Start logging.# /etc/init.d/ncalogd start Follow this process only if your web server does not provide native support of the AF_NCA socket.In the startup script for the web server, add a line that causes the library to be preloaded. The line should resemble the following:LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/ncad_addr.so /usr/bin/httpd &rolestepA;Add a new port.Add a new port entry to /etc/nca/ncaport.conf. This example adds port 8888 on IP address 192.168.84.71. See ncaport.conf4 for more information.# cat /etc/nca/ncaport.conf # # NCA Kernel Module Port Configuration File # . . ncaport=*/80 ncaport=192.168.84.71/8888 Start a new web instance.An address needs to be in the file that contains the NCA port configurations before a web server can use the address for NCA. If the web server is running, it must be restarted after the new address is defined. This procedure should be used to improve the performance of SSL packet process on an Apache 2.0 web server. The following procedure requires that an Apache 2.0 web server has been installed and configured. The Apache 2.0 web server is included in the Solaris 10 release.To use the SSL kernel proxy, the server private key and the server certificate need to exist in a single file. If only the SSLCertificateFile parameter is specified in the ssl.conf file, then the specified file can be used directly for kernel SSL. If the SSLCertificateKeyFile parameter is also specified, then the certificate file and the private key file need to be combined. One way to combine the certificate and the key file is to run the following command:# cat cert.pem key.pem >cert-and-key.pem &rolestepB;Stop the web server.This command will stop the web server on a system in which the server is configured to run using SMF.# svcadm disable svc:/network/http:apache2If the service has not be converted yet, stop the service with this command syntax: /usr/apache2/bin/apachectl stop Determine what parameters to use with the ksslcfg command.All of the options are listed in the ksslcfg1M man page. The parameters that you must have information for are:key-format – Used with the f option to define the certificate and key format. For the SSL kernel proxy the value should be either pem or pkcs12. key-and-certificate-file – Used with the i option to set the location of the file that stores to server key and the certificate. password-file – Used with the p option to select the location of the file that includes the password used to encrypt the private key. This password is used to allow unattended reboots. The permissions on the file should be 0400. proxy-port – Used with the x option to set the SSL proxy port. Select a different port than the standard port 80. ssl-port – Selects the port of the server application. Normally this is set to 443. The ssl-port and the proxy-port values can not be configured for NCA since these ports are used exclusively by the SSL kernel proxy. Usually, port 80 is used for NCA, port 8080 for the proxy-port and 443 for the ssl-port Create the service instance.The ksslcfg command to specify the SSL proxy port and associated parameters.ksslcfg create -f key-format -i key-and-certificate-file -p password-file -x proxy-port ssl-port Verify that the instance was created properly.The service state reported by the following command should be “online”.# svcs svc:/network/ssl/proxy Configure the web server to listen on the SSL proxy port.Edit the /etc/apache2/http.conf file and add a line to define the SSL proxy port. If you use the servers IP address, then the web server will only listen on that interface. The line should look like:Listen 0.0.0.0:proxy-port Set an SMF dependency for the web server.The web server should only be started after the SSL kernel proxy instance. The following commands establish that dependency.# svccfg -s svc:/network/http:apache2 svc:/network/http:apache2> addpg kssl dependency svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/entities = fmri:svc:/network/ssl/proxy:kssl-INADDR_ANY-443 svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/grouping = astring: require_all svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/restart_on = astring: refresh svc:/network/http:apache2> setprop kssl/type = astring: service svc:/network/http:apache2> end Enable the web server.# svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2If the service is not started using SMF, use the following command: /usr/apache2/bin/apachectl startssl The following command creates an instance using the pem key format.# ksslcfg create -f pem -i cert-and-key.pem -p file -x 8080 443 This procedure should be used to improve the performance of SSL packet process on a Sun Java System Web Server. See the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guide for information about this web server. The following procedure requires that a Sun Java System Web Server has been installed and configured. &rolestepB;Stop the web server.Use the administrator web interface to stop the server. See Starting and Stopping the Server in the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guidefor more information. Determine what parameters to use with the ksslcfg command.All of the options are listed in the ksslcfg1M man page. The parameters that you must have information for are:key-format – Used with the f option to define the certificate and key format. token-label – Used with the T option to specify the PKCS#11 token. certificate-label – Used with the C option to select the label in the certificate object in the PKCS#11 token password-file – Used with the p option to select the location of the file that includes the password used to login the user to the PKCS#11 token used by the web server.. This password is used to allow unattended reboots. The permissions on the file should be 0400. proxy-port– Used with the x option to set the SSL proxy port. Select a different port than the standard port 80. ssl-port – Defines the port of the server application. This value is set in the server.xml file. Normally this value is set to 443. The ssl-port and the proxy-port values can not be configured for NCA since these ports are used exclusively by the SSL kernel proxy. Usually, port 80 is used for NCA, port 8080 for the proxy-port and 443 for the ssl-port Create the service instance.The ksslcfg command to specify the SSL proxy port and associated parameters.ksslcfg create -f key-format -T PKCS#11-token -C certificate-label -p password-file -x proxy-port ssl-port Verify that the instance was created properly.The service state reported by the following command should be “online”.# svcs svc:/network/ssl/proxy Configure the web server to listen on the SSL proxy port.See Adding and Editing Listen Sockets in the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP4 Administrator’s Guide for more information. Start the web server. The following command creates an instance using the pkcs11 key format.# ksslcfg create -f pkcs11 -T "NSS Internal PKCS #11 Module" -C "Server-Cert" -p file -x 8080 443 The SSL Kernel Proxy works in zones with the following limitations:All of the kernel SSL administration must be done from the global zone. The global zone administrator needs access to the local zone certificate and key files. The local zone web server can be started once the service instance is configured using the ksslcfg command in the global zone. A specific host name or IP address must be specified when running the ksslcfg command to configure the instance. In particular, the instance can not use INADDR_ANY. In the local zone, first stop the web server. In the global zone do all of the steps to configure the service. To create a instance for a local zone called apache-zone, use the following command:# ksslcfg create -f pem -i /zone/apache-zone/root/keypair.pem -p /zone/apache-zone/root/pass \ -x 8080 apache-zone 443In the local zone, run the following command to enable the service instance:# svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2 The following sections cover the files and the components that are needed to use NCA. Also, specifics about how NCA interacts with the web server are included.You need several files to support the NCA feature. Many of these files are ASCII, but some of the files are binary. The following table lists all of the files.File Name Function /dev/nca The path name for the NCA device. /etc/hostname.* File that lists all physical interfaces that are configured on the server. /etc/hosts File that lists all host names that are associated with the server. Entries in this file must match entries in /etc/hostname.* files for NCA to function. /etc/init.d/ncakmod Script that starts the NCA server. This script is run when a server is booted. /etc/init.d/ncalogd Script that starts NCA logging. This script is run when a server is booted. /etc/nca/nca.if File that lists the interfaces on which NCA is run. See the nca.if4 man page for more information. /etc/nca/ncakmod.conf File that lists configuration parameters for NCA. See the ncakmod.conf4 man page for more information. /etc/nca/ncalogd.conf File that lists configuration parameters for NCA logging. See the ncalogd.conf4 man page for more information. /etc/nca/ncaport.conf File that lists the IP addresses and the ports for NCA. See the ncaport.conf4 man page for more information. /usr/bin/ncab2clf Command that is used to convert data in the log file to the common log format. See the ncab2clf1 man page for more information. /usr/lib/net/ncaconfd Command that is used to configure NCA to run on multiple interfaces during boot. See the ncaconfd1M man page for more information. /usr/lib/nca_addr.so Library that uses AF_NCA sockets instead of AF_INET sockets. This library must be used on web servers that use AF_INET sockets. See the ncad_addr4 man page for more information. /var/nca/log File that holds the log file data. The file is in binary format, so do not edit it. /var/run/nca_httpd_1.door The door path name. The NCA feature includes the following components.Kernel module, ncakmod Web server, httpd The kernel module ncakmod maintains the cache of web pages in system memory. The module communicates with a web server, httpd, through a sockets interface. The family type is PF_NCA.The kernel module also provides a logging facility that logs all HTTP cache hits. NCA logging writes HTTP data to the disk in binary format. NCA provides a conversion utility for converting binary log files to common log format (CLF).The following figure shows the flow of data for the conventional path and the path that is used when NCA is enabled.

Flow diagram shows the flow of data from a client request through the NCA layer in the kernel.

The following list shows the request flow between the client and the web server.An HTTP request is made from the client to the web server. If the page is in cache, the in-kernel cache web page is returned. If the page is not in cache, the request goes to the web server to retrieve or update the page. Depending on the HTTP protocol semantics that are used in the response, the page is cached or not. Then the page is returned to the client. If the Pragma: No-cache header is included in the HTTP request, the page is not cached.