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<title>ProFTPD: Memcache</title>
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<center><h2><b>ProFTPD: Memcache</b></h2></center>
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<p>
<b>What is Memcache?</b><br>
<a href="http://memcached.org/">Memcache</a> (or "memcached") is an open-source,
high performance memory object caching system.  A simple (and effective)
key/value store accessible, efficiently, over the network.

<p>
<b>How Can Memcache Be Useful for ProFTPD?</b><br>
Like any high-performance object store, <code>memcached</code> offers several
possibilities to a server like <code>proftpd</code>.  Many sites use
<code>memcached</code> for caching; it can <i>also</i> be used as an efficient
shared storage mechanism, for sharing data among many different servers.  And
for ProFTPD specifically, the shared storage aspect is what is most useful.
Things like SSL/TLS sessions can be cached and shared across a pool of
<code>proftpd</code> servers, as can ban lists for badly-behaved clients.

<p>
<b>Enabling Memcache Support for ProFTPD</b><br>
OK, so you are interested enough in the possibilities that
<code>memcached</code> offers that you want to try it out.  Excellent!  To
do this, you will first need to make sure to build your <code>proftpd</code>
executable using the <code>--enable-memcache</code> configure option.  The
<code>--enable-memcache</code> configure option automatically adds the
<code><a href="../modules/mod_memcache.html">mod_memcache</a></code> module to
your <code>proftpd</code> build.

<p>
The <code>mod_memcache</code> module uses the <code><a href="http://libmemcached.org/libMemcached.html">libmemcached</a></code> library for talking to
<code>memcached</code> servers.  If your <code>libmemcached</code> library is
installed in a non-standard location, you may need to tell the ProFTPD build
system where to find the <code>libmemcached</code> header files and libraries
using the <code>--with-includes</code> and <code>--with-libraries</code>
configure options.

<p>
There are other modules which make use of memcached support when available,
such as
<code><a href="../contrib/mod_tls_memcache.html">mod_tls_memcache</a></code>.
Thus to take advantage of modules like this, putting everything together, your
configure command might look like this:
<pre>
  $ ./configure --enable-memcache \
    --with-modules=...:mod_tls_memcache:... \
    --with-includes=/path/to/libmemcached/include \
    --with-libraries=/path/to/libmemcached/lib
</pre>

<p>
<b>Configuring <code>mod_memcache</code></b><br>
Now that you have compiled <code>proftpd</code> with the
<code>mod_memcache</code> module, you need to add the necessary
<code>mod_memcache</code> directives to your <code>proftpd.conf</code>.
The following example demonstrates this:
<pre>
  &lt;IfModule mod_memcache.c&gt;
    # Enable mod_memcache
    MemcacheEngine on

    # Tell mod_memcache where to log its messages
    MemcacheLog /path/to/proftpd/memcache.log

    # Tell mod_memcache where to find the memcached servers
    MemcacheServers 192.168.0.10:11211 192.168.0.11:11211
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
</pre>
If you wish to see more detailed logging, at least while you are setting
up your memcached servers for ProFTPD, you can enable trace logging for the
<code>memcache</code> trace channel using <i>e.g.</i>:
<pre>
  TraceLog /path/to/proftpd/trace.log
  Trace DEFAULT:10 memcache:20
</pre>

<p>
<b>Using Memcache for Shared Storage</b><br>
You have now compiled support for memcached into ProFTPD, and you have told the
<code>mod_memcache</code> module where to find your <code>memcached</code>
servers.  Is that all you need to do?  No.  Now you need to tell
<code>proftpd</code> modules which bits of data to store in your
<code>memcached</code> servers.

<p>
Currently, only two modules can take advantage of <code>memcached</code>
support: <code><a href="../contrib/mod_ban.html">mod_ban</a></code> and
<code><a href="../contrib/mod_tls_memcache.html">mod_tls_memcache</a></code>.

<p>
First, let us examine <code>mod_ban</code> and how it would use
<code>memcached</code>.  The <code>mod_ban</code> module manages ban lists,
lists of clients/users which have been banned for various reasons.  These
lists are stored in shared memory by default; this works for a single
<code>proftpd</code> server, but if a badly behaved client is banned by one
<code>proftpd</code> server in pool of servers, that client can then connect to
a different server which might not have a ban for that client -- and the client
then gets another chance to be naughty.  To configure <code>mod_ban</code> so
that it stores its ban lists in <code>memcached</code>, simply use the following
in your <code>proftpd.conf</code>:
<pre>
  &lt;IfModule mod_ban.c&gt;
    BanEngine on

    # ...other mod_ban directives...

    # Tell mod_ban to store its ban lists using memcache
    BanCache memcache
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
</pre>
With this, <code>mod_ban</code> will use <code>memcached</code> (as well as
shared memory) for reading/writing its ban lists.  And this, in turn, means
that other <code>proftpd</code> servers' <code>mod_ban</code> modules can see
those bans, and reject the badly behaved clients across the pool/cluster.

<p>
The <code>mod_tls_memcache</code> module uses <code>memcached</code> servers
for storing SSL/TLS sessions; SSL/TLS session caching can greatly improve
SSL/TLS session handshake times, particularly for data transfers using
SSL/TLS.  If you have a pool of <code>proftpd</code> servers, and you have
FTPS clients which may connect to a different node every time, caching the
SSL/TLS session data in a shared storage mechanism like <code>memcached</code>
can be quite beneficial.

<p>
To use <code>memcached</code> for SSL/TLS session caching, then, you use the
<a href="../contrib/mod_tls.html#TLSSessionCache"><code>TLSSessionCache</code></a> directive of the <code>mod_tls</code> module, using something like this
in your <code>proftpd.conf</code>:
<pre>
  &lt;IfModule mod_tls.c&gt;
    TLSEngine on

    # ...other mod_tls directives...

    &lt;IfModule mod_tls_memcache.c&gt;
      # Tell mod_tls to cache sessions using memcached
      TLSSessionCache memcache:
    &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
</pre>
That's it.  The <code>mod_tls</code> module now knows to give the SSL/TLS
session data to <code>mod_tls_memcache</code>, and <code>mod_tls_memcache</code>
knows how to talk to the <code>memcached</code> servers using
<code>mod_memcache</code>.

<p><a name="FAQ">
<b>Frequently Asked Questions</b><br>
<font color=red>Question</font>: If I don't use memcache, are there other
ways for sharing data (such as ban lists) among different <code>proftpd</code>
instances?<br>
<font color=blue>Answer</font>: It might be possible using <code>mod_sql</code>
and some <code>SQLLogInfo</code> directives, but that would only work for very
specific information.  For sharing things like ban lists and SSL/TLS sessions
across a cluster of <code>proftpd</code> servers, Memcache (or
<a href="Redis.html">Redis</a>) support is <em>recommended</em>.

<p>
<font color=red>Question</font>: Can I use <code>mod_memcache</code> to cache frequently accessed files, similar to <code><a href="http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpMemcachedModule">nginx+memcache</a></code>?<br>
<font color=blue>Answer</font>: No.  And in reality, caching of files like that
will probably not give you the same performance gain for FTP transfers as it
can for HTTP transfers.

<p>
Why not?  Many HTTP transfers are for dynamically generated pages; the cost of
generating each page is expensive, and the generated content may not change
that frequently (relative to the rate of requests).  FTP transfers, by contrast,
are for <b>static</b> files; FTP servers do not (usually) dynamically generate
the bytes of the files being downloaded.  The cost of reading files from disk
is probably <i>less</i> than reading files from <code>memcached</code> over
the network, even a LAN.

<p>
Now the above may not be true in <b>all</b> cases -- there may be FTP servers
serving files from network-mounted filesystems (<i>e.g.</i> NFS, CIFS
<i>et al</i>).  And for these very specific cases, having a cache of frequently
access files on closer storage such as local disk (or <code>memcached</code>)
could make a big difference; please contact the ProFTPD Project if you find
yourself in this situation, and we will see what can be done to help.

<p>
<font color=red>Question</font>: Why do I see the following error when
<code>proftpd</code> starts up?<br>
<pre>
  mod_tls_memcache/0.1: notice: unable to register 'memcache' SSL session cache: Memcache support not enabled
</pre>
<font color=blue>Answer</font>: This message means that your
<code>proftpd</code> server has <code>mod_tls_memcache</code> built and
loaded, <b>but</b> your <code>proftpd</code> server was <b>not</b> built
with memcache support (<i>i.e.</i> the <code>--enable-memcache</code> configure
option was not used when compiling <code>proftpd</code>).

<p>
The above is not a fatal or worrisome error; it is merely pointing out that
some of your modules want to use a feature that was not enabled.

<p>
<hr>
<font size=2><b><i>
&copy; Copyright 2017 The ProFTPD Project<br>
 All Rights Reserved<br>
</i></b></font>
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