1 Introduction

This deliverable contains the final reports of the evaluation of a NetApp proxy cache, model C230 by Network Appliance. Employees of Van Mook Consulting (VMC) did all tests and documentation, in cooperation with Studenten Net Twente (SNT) and the Center for Informationtechnology (CIV) of the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

The University of Twente is the only Dutch university with it's own campus, which has a RESNET type network. That network, called CAMPUSnet, is based on 10 Mbit Ethernet and connected by a 10 Mbit link to the rest of the network of the university, called the UTnet. UTnet is linked to SURFnet and the Internet through a 34 Mbit ATM line.

Members of the SNT systems management group became involved with proxycaching, the SURFnet cachemesh and related issues around December 1996. Using an old SUN 4/470 they managed to run Squid to prove the CIV that proxy was a useful new service. In September 1997 members of SNT wrote a report about the proxy, and gave that to the CIV. In January this year it became clear that the CIV would build his own proxy. SNT then decided it would continue running his proxy and promoting it, untill the CIV had their own proxy up and running.

In March 1998 the proxy maintainer received an email from the list snet-cache (which is a list for info and discussion about caches that are connected to the SURFnet caches) by Ton Verschuren in which he stated that he was looking for a site to test the NetApp C230. We responded, and after a short time we heard we were selected to test the box.

So, it arrived... April 24^th, 1998.

This document gives an overview of the tests that we have done with the NetApp C230. After this introduction we'll discuss the installation and configuration of the C230. We'll describe the tests we ran and their results, and discus the performance of the C230 in the SURFnet cachemesh. We'll look at the security aspects of the C230 and finish with some conclusions and recommendations.