Magento & Varnish / Turpentine, Zero-hit rate -

we have strange problems (nginx), magento(1.9.0.1), turpentine , varnish(3.0.2), running on ubuntu 12.04lts. we aren't 2 experienced varnish/turpentine, might basic thing.

we got turpentine vcl applied running varnish instance, , checked result varnishadm vcl.list. enabled debug info in turpentine.

strange thing:

if activate both turpentine caching methods in magento backend->cache, fpc, got following response

server  nginx transfer-encoding   chunked via 1.1 varnish x-frame-options sameorigin x-powered-by    php/5.3.10-1ubuntu3.15 x-turpentine-cache  0 x-turpentine-esi    1 x-varnish   293774805 x-varnish-hits  0 

and real bad response time of 3.5sec cause page never seems cached can see in x-turpentine-cache , x-varnish-hits. there's no age set in header.

but if deactivate turpentine fpc, while letting vcl untouched

age 29 server  nginx via 1.1 varnish x-frame-options sameorigin x-powered-by    php/5.3.10-1ubuntu3.15 x-varnish   293775151 293775096 x-varnish-hits  2 

combined optimized resonse time 100ms, seems hit.

what point missing setup turpentine/varnish right way, causing 0 hit rate activated turpentine caching?

thanks in advance...

here's steps troubleshoot:

get varnish working on own:

your varnishd should running several parameters, here's samples ubuntu server install (/etc/defaults/varnish):

• -a :6081 public port -- port webbrowsers use
• -t localhost:6082 admin port -- used configure varnish
• -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl initial vcl config file (see below) -- configuration used when varnish first starts
• -s malloc,256m storage backend -- 256mb in-memory backend in case
• -s /etc/varnish/secret path varnish's admin password file

turpentine's documentation mentions these parameters required:

• -p esi_syntax=0x2
• -p cli_buffer=16384

here's sample default.vcl, barebones config tells varnish proxy requests 127.0.0.1:80, , wil used until turpentine reconfigures varnish:

backend default {     .host = "127.0.0.1";     .port = "80"; } 

you can verify these settings in-use checking running process: ps aux |grep varnishd

testing varnish config

with varnishd running above parameters should able telnet admin port (-t above):

telnet localhost 6082 

if provided -s above prompted authorization; use contents of secret file. if can't in via telnet try removing -s parameter disable authentication (you'll want re-enabled later). once login you'll @ varnish console; keep open.

setting turpentine

i assume you've installed turpentine in magento. go system -> configuration , review these settings:

• varnish options

  • varnish version: set "auto" if don't know specific version you're using
  • server list: should match -t parameter varnishd -- localhost:6082 in above example
  • varnish authentication key: should key used -s above, or empty if you've disabled authentication

• caching options

  • backend host: localhost if magento , varnish on same server, otherwise magento host
  • backend port: magento's http port (typically 80)

when save these configs should see success or error message. message indicates turpentine able generate new vcl configuration file , make active in varnish. confirm use telnet session run vcl.list. should see like:

vcl.list 200 106      available       4 boot active          2 ef1a15f2132a599ed26520c94c599e71aa7f5e576afcfca211e6249dcd640ddd 

boot default.vcl above; second vcl turpentine has generated , has been switched active.

• use system -> cache management enable both varnish magento caches; flush caches , logout of admin panel ensure takes effect.

at point turpentine should , running. can run varnishstats , load webpage using -a port varnishd. reloading page several times should result in above-zero hitrate.

keep in mind configuration turpentine vcl lost if varnishd restarted (along cached contents). can use cache management page of magento export new .acl file use -f parameter take effect whenever varnish restarts.