##Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Install Varnish
3. Class varnish
4. Class varnish::vcl
   • varnish::acl
   • varnish::acl_member
   • varnish::probe
   • varnish::backend
   • varnish::director
   • varnish::selector
5. Configure VCL with class varnish::vcl
6. Class varnish::ncsa
7. Tests
8. Development
9. Contributors

Overview

This Puppet module installs and configures Varnish.
It also allows to manage Varnish VCL.
Tested on Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL and Oracle Linux.

Install Varnish

installs Varnish
allocates for cache 1GB (malloc)
starts it on port 80:

class {'varnish':
  varnish_listen_port => 80,
  varnish_storage_size => '1G',
}

Class varnish

Class varnish
Installs Varnish.
Provides access to all configuration parameters.
Controls Varnish service.
By default mounts shared memory log directory as tmpfs.

All parameters are low case replica of actual parameters passed to
the Varnish conf file, $class_parameter -> VARNISH_PARAMETER, i.e.

$memlock             -> MEMLOCK
$varnish_vcl_conf    -> VARNISH_VCL_CONF
$varnish_listen_port -> VARNISH_LISTEN_PORT

Exceptions are:
shmlog_dir - location for shmlog
shmlog_tempfs - mounts shmlog directory as tmpfs, (default value: true)
version - passes to puppet type 'package', attribute 'ensure', (default value: present)

At minimum you may want to change a value for default port:
varnish_listen_port => '80'

For more details on parameters, check class varnish.

Class varnish vcl

Class varnish::vcl manages Varnish VCL configuration.

Varnish VCL applies following restictions:
if you define an acl it must be used
if you define a probe it must be used
if you define a backend it must be used
if you define a director it must be used

Gives access to Varnish acl, probe, backend, director, etc. definitions
(see below)

varnish acl

Definition varnish::acl allows to configure Varnish acl.

varnish::acl { 'acl1': hosts => [ "localhost", "172.16.0.1" ] }

varnish acl_member

Definition varnish::acl_member allows to export member resources to be included in configuration of Varnish acl.

varnish::acl_member { fqdn => "your.varshish.fqdn", acl => 'acl1', host => $::ipaddress }

varnish probe

Definition varnish::probe allows to configure Varnish probe.

varnish::probe { 'health_check1': url => '/health_check_url1' }

varnish backend

Definition varnish::backend allows to configure Varnish backend.
If you have a single backend, you can name it default and ignore
selector sections.
For more examples see tests/vcl_backend_default.pp and tests/vcl_backends.pp

varnish::backend { 'srv1': host => '172.16.0.1', port => '80', probe => 'health_check1' }
varnish::backend { 'srv2': host => '172.16.0.2', port => '80', probe => 'health_check1' }

varnish director

Definition varnish::director allows to configure Varnish director.
For more examples see tests/vcl_backends_probes_directors.pp

varnish::director { 'cluster1': backends => [ 'srv1', 'srv2' ] }

varnish selector

Definition varnish::selector allows to configure Varnish selector.

While acl, probe, backend and director are self-explanatory
WTF is selector?

You cannot define 2 or more backends/directors and not to use them.
This will result in VCL compilation failure.

Parameter selectors gives access to req.backend inside vcl_recv.
Code:

varnish::selector { 'cluster1': condition => 'req.url ~ "^/cluster1"' }
varnish::selector { 'cluster2': condition => 'true' } # will act as backend set by else statement

Will result in following VCL configuration to be generated:

if (req.url ~ "^/cluster1") {
  set req.backend = cluster1;
}
if (true) {
  set req.backend = cluster2;
}

For more examples see tests/vcl_backends_probes_directors.pp

Usaging class varnish::vcl

Configure probes, backends, directors and selectors

class { 'varnish::vcl': }

# configure probes
varnish::probe { 'health_check1': url => '/health_check_url1' }
varnish::probe { 'health_check2':  
  window    => '8',
  timeout   => '5s',
  threshold => '3',
  interval  => '5s',
  request   => [ "GET /healthCheck2 HTTP/1.1", "Host: www.example1.com", "Connection: close" ]
}

# configure backends
varnish::backend { 'srv1': host => '172.16.0.1', port => '80', probe => 'health_check1' }
varnish::backend { 'srv2': host => '172.16.0.2', port => '80', probe => 'health_check1' }
varnish::backend { 'srv3': host => '172.16.0.3', port => '80', probe => 'health_check2' }
varnish::backend { 'srv4': host => '172.16.0.4', port => '80', probe => 'health_check2' }
varnish::backend { 'srv5': host => '172.16.0.5', port => '80', probe => 'health_check2' }
varnish::backend { 'srv6': host => '172.16.0.6', port => '80', probe => 'health_check2' }

# configure directors
varnish::director { 'cluster1': backends => [ 'srv1', 'srv2' ] }
varnish::director { 'cluster2': backends => [ 'srv3', 'srv4', 'srv5', 'srv6' ] }

# configure selectors
varnish::selector { 'cluster1': condition => 'req.url ~ "^/cluster1"' }
varnish::selector { 'cluster2': condition => 'true' } # will act as backend set by else statement

If modification to Varnish VCL goes further than configuring probes, backends and directors
parameter template can be used to point varnish::vcl class at a different template.

NOTE: If you copy existing template and modify it you will still
be able to use probes, backends, directors and selectors.

Redefine functions in class varnish::vcl

With the module comes the basic Varnish vcl configuration file. If needed one can replace default functions in the configuration file with own ones and/or define custom functions. Override or custom functions specified in the array passed to varnish::vcl class as parameter functions. The best way to do it is to use hiera. For example:

varnish::vcl::functions:
  vcl_hash: |
    hash_data(req.url);
    if (req.http.host) {
      hash_data(req.http.host);
    } else {
      hash_data(server.ip);
    }
    return (hash);
  pipe_if_local: |
    if (client.ip ~ localnetwork) {
      return (pipe);
    }

There are two special cases for functions vcl_init and vcl_recv. For Varnish version 4 in function vcl_init include directive for directors is always present. For function vcl_recv beside the possibility to override standard function one can also add peace of code to the begining or to the end of the function with special names vcl_recv_prepend and vcl_recv_append For instance:

varnish::vcl::functions:
  pipe_if_local: |
    if (client.ip ~ localnetwork) {
      return (pipe);
    }
  vcl_recv_prepend: |
    call pipe_if_local;

Class varnish ncsa

Class varnish::ncsa manages varnishncsa configuration.
To enable varnishncsa:

 class {'varnish::ncsa': }

Tests

For more examples check module tests directory.
NOTE: make sure you don't run tests on Production server.

Development

Contributions and patches are welcome!
All new code goes into branch develop.

Contributors

• Max Horlanchuk max.horlanchuk@gmail.com
• Fabio Rauber fabiorauber@gmail.com
• Samuel Leathers sam@appliedtrust.com
• Lienhart Woitok lienhart.woitok@netlogix.de
• Adrian Webb adrian.webb@coraltech.net
• Frode Egeland egeland@gmail.com
• Matt Ward matt.ward@envato.com
• Noel Sharpe noels@radnetwork.co.uk
• Rich Kang rich@saekang.co.uk
• browarrek browarrek@gmail.com
• Stanislav Voroniy stas@voroniy.com