a few intro to Varnish questions

[dwi kristianto]

hi jason,

i'm not a varnish guru nor expert, but let me give some hints :)

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 6:56 AM, Jason S-M <slackmoehrle.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> Can anyone provide insight on setup and optimization of Varnish?

optimization is dependable on system and your website structures. so
you need to do it your self, i guess. :)

> I have some confusion.
> 1. Looking at: http://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/2.1/tutorial/putting_varnish_on_port_80.html
> So I have to run varnish on 80 and my site on an alternate port (8080 as example)? Or do they both run on port 80?

most OS wont allow two apps open same port.
varnish on port 80, and backend web server at other port.

> 2. Apache listens on my public IP and Varnish should too, correct? or do I use 127.0.0.1?

dont have too. as long as varnish can contact backend server.

> 3. I must make additions to vcl_recv I assume to cache what I want?
> 4. Do I have to make changes to my web pages to add meta-tags to trigger Varnish?
> Best,
> -Jason

varnish react on http heeaders sent by bacend webserver, especially on
Pragma, Cache-control, and Expires. but, gladly varnish equipped with
VCL, that enabled us to force and tweak the caching mechanism. for
example you can "force" to cache or not based on url, user-agent, ip
address of visitor, and many more..

please CMIIMW.
regards,
dwi