Varnish vcl_fetch does not work

Question

I'm new to configuring varnish. I am trying to replicate a varnish setup I made on AWS onto another server. Here's the scenario:

I have 2 servers serving web content (Web1 and Web2), which is a load-balanced pair. We have Web1 running and configured correctly and right now I just have Web2 pointing to Web1 via Varnish.

Here's the content of /etc/sysconfig/varnish:

NFILES=131072
MEMLOCK=82000
RELOAD_VCL=1
DAEMON_OPTS="-a :80 \
     -T localhost:6082 \
     -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
     -u varnish -g varnish \
     -S /etc/varnish/secret \
     -s file,/var/lib/varnish/varnish_storage.bin,1G"

And here's the content of my /etc/varnish/default.vcl (note that I have substituted the host's ip address here). I currently have a bare VCL and this one is working:

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

sub vcl_recv {
}

Now if I start adding a "grace period" setting inside vcl_recv like so, varnish refuses to start:

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

sub vcl_recv {
    set req.grace = 24h;
}

If I attempt to add a vcl_fetch, it flat out refuses to work either:

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

sub vcl_recv {
}

sub vcl_fetch {
}

I'm not sure what I'm missing. It might be something obvious but I do not have sufficient experience with this yet to realize that.

I have something more complex working on our AWS server, something of this sort, and it is working:

sub vcl_recv {
    set req.grace = 24h;

    if (!req.backend.healthy) {
        unset req.http.Cookie;
    }

    if (req.url ~ "(?i)\.(svg|png|gif|jpeg|jpg|ico|swf|css|js|html|htm)(\?[a-z0-9]+)?$") {
        unset req.http.Cookie;
    }
    set req.http.Cache-Control = "public; max-age=31557600";

    if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
        if (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
        }
        else if (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
        }
        else {
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        }
    }
}
sub vcl_fetch {
    set beresp.grace = 24h;
    unset beresp.http.pragma;
    set beresp.http.Max-Age = 31557600;
    set beresp.http.Cache-Control = "public, max-age=31557600";
    unset beresp.http.Set-Cookie;
}
sub vcl_deliver {
    if (obj.hits > 0) {
        set resp.http.X-Cache = "HIT";
    }
    else {
        set resp.http.X-Cache = "MISS";
    }
}

So I don't understand why the same configuration won't work on this other server.

Update:

Doing Carlos Abalde's suggestion of running in debug mode, I now see the following error:

Message from VCC-compiler:
VCL sub's named 'vcl*' are reserved names.
('input' Line 28 Pos 5)
sub vcl_fetch {
----#########--

Valid vcl_* methods are:
        none
        vcl_recv
        vcl_pipe
        vcl_pass
        vcl_hash
        vcl_purge
        vcl_miss
        vcl_hit
        vcl_deliver
        vcl_synth
        vcl_backend_fetch
        vcl_backend_response
        vcl_backend_error
        vcl_init
        vcl_fini
Running VCC-compiler failed, exited with 2

VCL compilation failed

I don't understand how vcl_fetch is not recognized. Here's my Varnish version info:

varnishd (varnish-4.0.2 revision bfe7cd1)
Copyright (c) 2006 Verdens Gang AS
Copyright (c) 2006-2014 Varnish Software AS

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 13 '15 at 20:51

0

If Varnish is not starting, you could try to run it manually in foreground and then check for errors in the stdout: sudo varnishd -F -f /path/to/your.vcl.

answered Feb 13 '15 at 20:51

Carlos Abalde

171
3

Thank you so much, this has been very valuable. I'm seeing a VCC compiler error now. This should point me to the right direction. I do not know how I can upvote you (cause I have low rep). – Chuck Cerrillo Feb 15 '15 at 09:58

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

0

Did a bit more digging and the version information gave me some clues. I found a similar issue here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23284764/varnish-wont-recognize-req-grace-variable

Basically I'm using a Varnish version 3 config on a Varnish 4 installation. Looks like I will have to rewrite my VCL.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Feb 15 '15 at 10:09

Chuck Cerrillo

11
1
5

Varnish vcl_fetch does not work

2 Answers2