[squid-users] Insight into vmstat output?

Greetings Fellow Squidders,

        I have a Squid box running at my main library (2.5.STABLE1) and
I'm trying to get things tuned up on it. It's of the RedHat flavor running
kernel 2.4.20-30.9 with 1 GB of RAM.
        NOW: the kernel needs to be recompiled with HIGHMEM enabled so it can
take full advantage of the RAM (as it only addresses 896 MB, now) and my plan is
to do that tomorrow as well as stick an additional 512 MB in it.
        I've got some vmstat info below, and as you'll notice the amount of swap
increases at the beginning of the day and tends to hover around 102700 (yes, six
digits there) - which I understand to be a Bad Thing.
        Will a recompile of the kernel with HIGHMEM make a difference here or do
I need to start tweaking cache settings in squid.conf?
        Or am I already I/O bound?
        MANY thanks in advance for any help anyone can find the time to offer.

[root]# vmstat 5
   procs memory swap io system cpu
 r b w swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id
 0 0 1 10380 7364 90524 289184 0 1 20 24 145 33 1 1 98
 0 0 0 10476 7244 90484 289288 0 19 9 78 285 114 2 4 94
 0 0 0 10476 7128 90520 289268 4 0 42 22 530 269 5 11 83
 0 1 0 10588 7264 90620 288872 4 24 52 121 461 221 3 8 90
 0 0 0 10620 7272 90808 288668 6 6 94 62 341 169 3 4 92

[root]# cat /proc/meminfo
        total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 924434432 894775296 29659136 0 92082176 331661312
Swap: 205623296 103870464 101752832
MemTotal: 902768 kB
MemFree: 28964 kB
MemShared: 0 kB
Buffers: 89924 kB
Cached: 230668 kB
SwapCached: 93220 kB
Active: 663912 kB
ActiveAnon: 460992 kB
ActiveCache: 202920 kB
Inact_dirty: 53640 kB
Inact_laundry: 98576 kB
Inact_clean: 20504 kB
Inact_target: 167324 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 902768 kB
LowFree: 28964 kB
SwapTotal: 200804 kB
SwapFree: 99368 kB

From cache.log at Squid startup:

2004/08/31 05:01:28| Starting Squid Cache version 2.5.STABLE1 for
i386-redhat-linux-gnu...
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Process ID 1013
2004/08/31 05:01:28| With 1024 file descriptors available
2004/08/31 05:01:28| DNS Socket created at 0.0.0.0, port 32768, FD 5
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Adding nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx from /etc/resolv.conf
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Adding nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx from /etc/resolv.conf
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Adding nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx from /etc/resolv.conf
2004/08/31 05:01:28| helperOpenServers: Starting 25 'squidGuard' processes
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Unlinkd pipe opened on FD 35
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Swap maxSize 61440000 KB, estimated 4726153 objects
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Target number of buckets: 236307
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Using 262144 Store buckets
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Max Mem size: 65536 KB
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Max Swap size: 61440000 KB
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Rebuilding storage in /var/spool/squid (CLEAN)
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Using Least Load store dir selection
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Set Current Directory to /var/spool/squid
2004/08/31 05:01:28| helperOpenServers: Starting 25 'squidGuard' processes
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Unlinkd pipe opened on FD 35
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Swap maxSize 61440000 KB, estimated 4726153 objects
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Target number of buckets: 236307
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Using 262144 Store buckets
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Max Mem size: 65536 KB
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Max Swap size: 61440000 KB
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Rebuilding storage in /var/spool/squid (CLEAN)
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Using Least Load store dir selection
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Set Current Directory to /var/spool/squid
2004/08/31 05:01:28| Loaded Icons.
2004/08/31 05:01:29| Accepting HTTP connections at 0.0.0.0, port 3128, FD 37.
2004/08/31 05:01:29| Accepting ICP messages at 0.0.0.0, port 3130, FD 38.
2004/08/31 05:01:29| WCCP Disabled.
2004/08/31 05:01:29| Ready to serve requests.

-- 
Brett Charbeneau, Network Administrator         Tel: 757-259-7750
Williamsburg Regional Library                   FAX: 757-259-7798
7770 Croaker Road                               brett _at_ wrl.org
Williamsburg, VA 23188-7064                     http://www.wrl.org