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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

New version of Squid proxy appliance (KingNeutron v7) available now!

--Previous announcement:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/328648?tstart=0

2013.0325 - Announcing the latest V7 of the KingNeutron (Minimalist) Squid Proxy VM Smiley Happy

o Now Based on Long-Term-Support Ubuntu 12.04 ( Precise Pangolin ) -- JEOS ( Just Enough OS ) - Upgraded from Hardy!

o Minimal download size

o ESX* Compatible with SCSI vdisks - Plase Test!

o Note: ESXi users will probably have to edit the /etc/network/interfaces after 1st boot.

o Feature: Squid3 (and this release in general) are notably faster than previous releases.

o  Takes minimal resources to run -- 128MB RAM alloc, 2 GB Growable Disk ( +4GB 2nd disk on sdb1, INCLUDED! ++ Pre-formatted for ext4 )

    • ROOT SSH logins are DENIED, out of the box -- login as " user " instead and SUDO or SU from there

    • Vmware Tools is NOT installed, for space reasons.

    • NO FIREWALL rules

    • NO GUI

                o  Bridged networking is used by default, and the VM is expecting to  grab a  DHCP address on bootup.  IPV6 support has again been left  Enabled in this release.

(Static MAC address assigned in VMX file - should Just Work anywhere)

o Default STATIC IP: 10.0.244.250

+ This can be changed by editing " /etc/network/interfaces " and then issuing ' /etc/init.d/networking restart '.

    • Note, this is a TESTING release - PLEASE let me know if there are any bugs!

    • I have finally been able to test Logfile rotation on ESXi - works Ok out of the box Smiley Happy

    • IMPORTANT   NOTE: When powering on the VM, tell Vmware you MOVED IT - not Copied  it  -- this may eliminate the hassle that some users have been seeing   with " NIC creep ", where eth0 migrates to eth1 😉

      • DISCLAIMER *** - Run at your own risk, default build only includes SSH ( port 22 ) and Squid ( 10.0.244.250, port 3128 )

      • Not Responsible if this Virtual Appliance wows your ponycatbirdlizardbisongoldfish, and makes it run around in excitement! ***

MD5SUM:

45f7a87830f2e846e6084d14eff51110 *squidserver7-kn-JEOS-201303.7z

SHA1SUM:

dae987df025cdf2fa31a04ebee2d52e4e7aa01d1 *squidserver7-kn-JEOS-201303.7z

Filesize: 67160 KB / ~67MB

  • Download Link:

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=3a871137def1d783870969e638e3713f

--Alternate download link:

https://hotfile.com/dl/199891142/1e0c5a5/squidserver7-kn-JEOS-201303.7z.html

** Default ID / password:

root / vmroot

user / vmware

    • SECURITY   NOTE: ** End-users are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to change these default   passwords as soon as possible, to avoid cracker attacks.

    • As root, ' passwd root ' and ' passwd user '.

    • Feature: The 1st time you login as root, you WILL be asked to change the password. 😉  Otherwise, SSH will not be available.

--Please   note that the Ubuntu Precise Linux distro uses " upstart " instead of   /etc/inittab, so TTY changes should be made in " /etc/init " now.

    • Ctrl-Alt-Del has been set to REBOOT the VM for this release. (Changed from previous version.)

Features:

Alt-F5: Bandwidth monitor, updates every (5) sec ( Increased from V4 to save CPU interrupts )

Alt-F9: " Top " display, slightly customized

* Easter egg(s) and some minor speed tweaks and fixes

--Suggested additional software: (' apt-get update; apt-get install pkgname ')

o webmin -- For system configuration (Browser-based config: https://10.0.244.250:10000 )

o webmin-squid

o calamaris -- Log analyzer

o sarg -- Squid analysis report generator

o webmin-sarg

o srg -- Detailed log analysis for squid

o squid-cgi -- Cache manager interface

==============================

Quick instructions (HOWTO):

- Fire up the VM

- Hit Alt-F5 and you can watch the bandwidth monitor

Hit Alt+F1, LOGIN AS root and ** CHANGE THE PASSWORDS!! 1st thing **

Client-side instructions:

- Set ALL of your browser's Cache setting really low, like to 5-8 MB - and Delete it!  Huge disk space savings!

-  Point your browser's Proxy setting to the VM's IP address ( default  10.0.244.250 , port 3128 ) - you can point it to the DHCP address for  fast/temporary testing (issue ' ifconfig ' at the root or User prompt to  see the squid VM's DHCP IP address) or change it to whatever matches  your home network. I put it as a Class A address by default so it  matches my home setup and ((hopefully)) shouldn't interfere with other  setups.

--Note  that this is a security feature as well.  I have my home net setup as a  Class A with all-static IPs, and everybody (browsers, Win updates, and apt-get) talks  to Squid.  Squid is usually the only box that has a DHCP address from  the router so it can talk to the Internet.

--  Now here's the neat thing - multiple PCs on your network can have  *multiple browsers* - Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE, Safari, Lynx, etc all  pointing to the Squid proxy, and it will cache and filter ( ad- and some  porn-sites, user definable ) requests for *everybody.*

--  You know how AdBlock Plus works in Firefox?  Squid does something very  similar, only it does it for ANY browser.  Somebody loads the Yahoo  website? Well now you'll get it to load -faster- for you because it will  be pulled from the Squid cache.  Virus updates, ad-aware, apt-get and  Windows updates should also be faster because they won't have to be  downloaded from the Web multiple times.  ( And yes, pretty much all of  my physical PCs, laptops, and VMs go through my Squid proxy - I'm  "eating my own dog food" here. )

o Basic tutorials here:

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/ConfiguringBrowsers

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/WindowsUpdate

http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1391-how-to-configure-windows-update-to-use-a-proxy-server/

http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/speed-up-and-improve-web-surfing-with-an-ubuntu-squid-server/

- ACL / file extension filtering:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/squid-content-filter-block-files/

--  There are a *LOT* of config file options; I've done the heavy lifting  and marked up /etc/squid.conf with " xxx " marks wherever things have  been changed, and it should Just Work out of the box.  The maximum  filesize that will get stored in-cache is 20MB, set by me.  If you're a  tweaker though, you can set it up to pretty much store and filter  whatever you want. ( Hint: as root, edit the following in /etc/squid3:  adsblock.txt, porn.txt, notporn.txt -- and then issue ' squiderr ' )

NOTE: For this release, the /etc/squid3/squid.conf file has been drastically reduced in size (most of the in-file documentation is gone) but you can still search for "xxx" and especially "EDIT ME" strings for important values that may need to be changed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For this release, Squid is using the "network lockdown" settings - so it may not work "out of the box" like previous versions did.  Edit /etc/squid3/squid.conf and change the network ACLs to match your setup, then issue ' squiderr '.

--  If you are really anticipating a lot of usage, you should go ahead and  bump up the settings - give the VM 256 MB RAM or more, change /etc/squid3/squid.conf for extra memory and cache space.  You may also need to possibly  tweak some other settings.  Repeat as needed - you can always replace  the 2nd vdisk with a bigger one, or add more disks.

NOTE: ' squid  -kshutdown; sleep 30; squid -z; squid ' will activate the extra disk  space once you are done editing the config file.

-->  Look in /etc/squid3 dir for ad-blocking settings, and don't forget to '  squid -kreconfigure ' ( or ' squiderr ' ) if you change things...

--  Note for people who like SANE text editors, that don't remind you of  EDLIN - I've included Joe (' jstar ', for those of us who actually miss  WordStar), and Midnight Commander, which comes with ' mcedit ' -- you're  NOT limited to VI !!!  The nano editor is installed as well, if you're used to it.

Have fun...

/ Post bug reports :smileygrin: - If I don't hear anything for (2) weeks, consider it a full release!

----------------------------

--Things to do every so often to keep the appliance up to date:

o It's a good idea to login as " root " once a month or so and run the ' updt ' script.  This will update installed packages and apply security updates.

Running ' updt ' will also sync up the VM's time/date.

o Check your logs with ' mc /var/log ' and then use F3 to view the log files

o Check free disk space with ' df -h '

o Check RAM free and swapfile usage with ' free '

- Hit Alt-F9 and you can see your uptime with the running " top " virtual console

--I  have had uptimes in excess of 100 days easily with Squid V6 running on  ESXi; you just power it on, and it should pretty much take care of  itself.  Smiley Happy  However, make sure you limit Squid's memory so the OOM-killer doesn't get you.

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA

* Note: This VM was built and customized from the following JEOS skeleton appliance - my thanks to the developers:

https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/12-04-lts-jeos-ubuntu

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
21 Replies
vonster
Contributor
Contributor

When I deploy this OVF on ESXi v5.0, I got this warning message.

Line 70: Unable to parse 'backing.exclusive' for attribute 'key' on element 'Config'.

I proceeded on and got a failure.  It could not find file 'Ubuntu-12.04-LTS-Jeos-1.0-disk1.vmdk'.  There is a file 'squidserver7-kn-JEOS-201303-disk1.vmdk' that closely resemble this file.


Thanks.

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--Sorry about that - I left the .ovf file in as it was part of the original appliance before my customizations.

Try deleting these 2 files:

163 May 18  2012 Ubuntu-12.04-LTS-Jeos-1.0.mf
5816 May 18  2012 Ubuntu-12.04-LTS-Jeos-1.0.ovf

--The VM should be imported using the .vmdk files, not the .ovf -- please let me know if this succeeds.

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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vonster
Contributor
Contributor

I will try your suggestion and report back.  Can you tell me if this squid versioj will support transparent proxy?

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--It's the standard squid package, so anything supported by the upstream (source) you should be able to config and have it work.

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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vonster
Contributor
Contributor

I am having difficulty getting access to a VM server to deploy so I plan to convert it to OVF this weeken to run in ESXi. Can you tell me if this is squid version 3.3?  Thanks.

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muddin
Contributor
Contributor

How to make it transparrent proxy?

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--The version of Squid included in this appliance VM is: 3.1.19-1ubuntu3.12.04.2 ; however, if you want to uninstall the .deb package and reinstall from source, there should be very few issues beyond possibly changing some directory paths.

http://www.squid-cache.org/Versions/v3/3.3/

http://arfanahmedcheema.blogspot.com/2013/04/squid-333-compilation-on-ubuntu-12.html

--As far as configuring for transparent proxy:

http://tuxnetworks.blogspot.com/2012/07/squid-3-transparent-proxy.html

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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didi_be
Contributor
Contributor

webmin (port 10000) doesn't seem to be listening

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--Webmin falls under " Suggested additional software " - it does not come included with the appliance, and will not be listening on port 10000 unless you download and install Webmin.

Webmin

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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didi_be
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks, guess I was asleep while reading Smiley Happy

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KTrojok
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I have a DNS timeout issue .. local name resolution is working fine (resolv.conf), I changed the dns_nameservers statement to my local one .. but still my clients get "Unable to determine IP address from host name ..". I already searched some blogs, but answers are not consistent - some use dns_nameservers others say "take them out".

regards

Konrad

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--What happens if you put dns_nameservers back to the default (setting that came with the VM) or comment it out entirely?

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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KTrojok
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

wow .. I'm drop dead .. I have no idea, what might have been wrong. But put back these two lines dns_nameservers and positive_dns_ttl and voila!

Smiley Happy

regards

Konrad

Nvious1
Contributor
Contributor

This is something I would like to give a try and use however it appears all the download links are dead.  Could you rehost it somewhere else or share a working link?

Thanks

kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--Sorry about that, looks like my filesend link got mangled to megaupload somehow. Try this:

FileSend -squidserver7-kn-JEOS-201303.7z

I hope to rev the next version sometime soon...

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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stevejensen
Contributor
Contributor

As of 1/22/14 I see the following error msg when trying to import the ovf:

Device 'VirtualCdRom' has a backing type that is not supported. This is a general limitation

of the machine's compatibility with the ESXi version of the selected host.

Any suggestion on how to get this appliance up and running?

Im running ESX 5.1.0

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--Don't try doing anything with the .ovf - it was a leftover file that was included by mistake. Use the .vmx or the .vmdk, whichever applies...

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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wogboy_112
Contributor
Contributor

any chance of getting some fresh links?

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zeroice80
Contributor
Contributor

try this MDF download

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