The TOFFEE Project
HOMEDOCUMENTATIONUPDATESVIDEOSRESEARCHDOWNLOADSPONSORSCONTACT


RESEARCH 》 Building my own CDN - Finally Completed - Update: 17-Dec-2017

Today I finally completed building my own private CDN. As I discussed so far in my earlier topics (Building my own CDN), I want to custom build the same step-by-step from scratch. And I don't want to for now use/buy third-party CDN subscriptions from Akamai, CloudFlare, Limelight, etc as I discussed earlier.

As you know The TOFFEE Project (or TOFFEE) is a fork of my TrafficSqueezer WAN Optimization project. I still have/own the TrafficSqueezer domain which is www.trafficsqueezer.org. But ever since I started the The TOFFEE Project fork (and the website), I did a direct domain redirect to the new registered www.the-toffee-project.org. But now recently I got a new hosting from GoDaddy, so once again I linked the old domain (i.e. www.trafficsqueezer.org) to that new hosting. Hence now I have a fresh initial welcome page in the www.trafficsqueezer.org mentioning about the project status. And it automatically redirects the users to the new The TOFFEE Project website (i.e. www.the-toffee-project.org, as you can see in the screenshot below). Other than this, the website is completely empty. Which means I can use the hosting space for other important situations like in this case to build my own private CDN for the www.the-toffee-project.org website.
01 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - empty TrafficSqueezer website [CDN]

Creating a new sub-domain to host my new CDN cdn.trafficsqueezer.org:
So I went ahead and created the new sub-domain cdn.trafficsqueezer.org in my GoDaddy portal (as shown below) to host the CDN within the same so that it is sort of isolated from the main website context. It also makes easy to track the GoDaddy cPanel Awstats and so on.
02 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - sub-domain to host my new CDN [CDN]
03 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - sub-domain to host my new CDN [CDN]

When I create this sub-domain, I have a choice, suppose if I have more websites, I can even instead create sub-domain names such as cdn-the-toffee-project-org and so on, so that this way we can have each CDN sub-domain created for a dedicated remote site. But in my case I would like to keep things simple at this point so I created for now a single sub-domain such as cdn.trafficsqueezer.org and hosted(copied) the images and other web-resources within the same.

So with this thing in place, I now changed my main website scripts so that they point these resources dynamically as per the mode I want. Such as:

  • Always CDN mode
  • Load-Sharing CDN mode
  • No CDN mode (or Disable CDN mode)

Unfortunately, for security reasons I am not interested to share this logic(my exact code). But anyways I hope you get the idea how it can be done. The Always CDN mode allows registered resources (images/scripts/etc) to get incorporated always via CDN for each page request. While the load-sharing CDN mode gives me the flexibility to use CDN resources fairly. And this way if I choose to host in other CDNs in future such as this, I can dynamically point to CDN of my choice dynamically in a sort of round-robin fashion. But for now since I have only one CDN, sometimes the images(and resources) will be served from CDN sources and sometimes it will be served locally via www.the-toffee-project.org server itself.

Last but not least I did the No CDN mode or Disable CDN mode as a precaution so that if something goes wrong or if the CDN site is down, the whole CDN stuff can be disabled. Even this can be automated by incorporating some sort of remote discovery and intelligent switchover to avoid any catastrophe!

So as you can see here are some few screenshots where at times some are getting fed via CDN and at times they are getting fed by www.the-toffee-project.org itself (i.e no CDN). Since it is still work in progress, to debug the same, I have incorporated this dynamic " [CDN]" string in the image title and image alt, so that it gives me a clue if the system is all working fine. And I should able to distinguish the image source.

Here are some of the screenshots. Notice the image title when I hover the mouse pointer above the same:

Image/Resource not fed via CDN (below):
04 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - checking if the resource is fed via CDN

Image/Resource fed via CDN (below):
05 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - checking if the resource is fed via CDN

Image/Resource fed via CDN (below):
06 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - checking if the resource is fed via CDN

Image/Resource not fed via CDN (below):
07 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - checking if the resource is fed via CDN [CDN]

And yes, like I discussed in my earlier CDN topic (How to check a website using CDN ?), you can do a view source of any of these pages (as shown below) just like Facebook, Twitter, etc, and get an hint whether a website is using CDN or not.
08 Building my own CDN for TOFFEE website - cdn.trafficsqueezer.org - check if a website is using CDN [CDN]

Conclusion:
Like I discussed in this case it is not so sophisticated or complex like subscription based CDNs like what you get via CloudFlare/Akamai and so on. But instead this is a pure private custom-built CDN. And kindly note, even CDN technology is a sort of (or a specific category of) WAN Optimization technology. But it is not a mundane WAN Optimization technology, instead it comes under one among the Internet Optimization Technologies.

At times I do offer consultation on this regard to my clients across the world. And hence in case if you are looking forward for any expert advice or any other consultation on this regard you can contact me via email provided in the contact page.



Suggested Topics:


Generic CDN


Building my own CDN

💎 TOFFEE-MOCHA new bootable ISO: Download
💎 TOFFEE Data-Center Big picture and Overview: Download PDF


Recommended Topics:

Introducing TOFFEE-DataCenter ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
TOFFEE TOFFEE Data-Center is specifically meant for Data Center, Cluster Computing, HPC applications. TOFFEE is built in Linux Kernel core. This makes it inflexible to adapt according to the hardware configuration. It does sequential packet processing and does not scale up well in large multi-core CPU based systems (such as Intel Xeon servers, Core i7 Extreme Desktop systems,etc). Apart from this since it is kernel based, if there is an issue in kernel, it may crash entire system. This becomes a challenge for any carrier grade equipment (CGE) hardware build.

Setting up a WAN Emulator within VirtualBox ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

MySQL Database Network Data - WAN Acceleration ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
Here is a quick demo of TOFFEE WAN Optimization optimizing MySQL Data transfers of a MySQL Client to Server Remote Access.

My Lab Battery Purchase and Service logs for Research ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
Here is a complete log of my lab battery purchase, service record which I maintain in Google drive. These I use for my home (or my family generic use) as well as a part of my home lab. I maintain a detailed log this way to monitor the failure rate of these batteries. This will allow me to select a specific brand/model which has higher success rate and to monitor any premature failure/expiry. The service log helps me to monitor and schedule the next service routine so that I can maintain these batteries in tip-top condition.

TEST CASES :: TEST RESULTS :: Raspberry Pi WAN Emulator TOFFEE-Mocha-1.0.14-1-rpi2 ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

TOFFEE Download :: TOFFEE-1.1.70-1-portable ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

Watch on Youtube - [889//1] 280 WAN Optimization - Animated demo of Packet Optimization in TOFFEE-DataCenter ↗


TOFFEE (and TOFFEE-DataCenter) optimized Wireless Mesh-Networks - B.A.T.M.A.N [open-mesh.org (Open Mesh)] ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
TOFFEE/TOFFEE-DataCenter can be used to optimize Ad-Hoc Mobile Wireless Mesh-Networks. To learn more about the same here are some references: B.A.T.M.A.N. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.A.T.M.A.N. Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_ad_hoc_network Wireless ad hoc network (WANET) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_ad_hoc_network open-mesh.org (Open Mesh) Wiki - https://www.open-mesh.org/projects/open-mesh/wiki

TOFFEE (and TOFFEE-DataCenter) deployment in Large Infrastructure and or ISP Networks ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
Large Infrastructure or ISP setup: In case if you are an ISP and interested in deploying a large customer WAN Optimized network or an add-on enhanced (WAN Optimized) network for select few customers, then you can deploy something as shown below. Although this case is not meant for hobby/DIY users. This is a feasible solution for high-end professional application and the same can be deployed.

TOFFEE-Mocha Documentation :: TOFFEE-Mocha-1.0.14-1-x86_64 ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

Upgrading Ubuntu 17.10 to 18.04 via TOFFEE-DataCenter WAN Optimization Screenshots ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021



Featured Educational Video:
Watch on Youtube - [943//1] x23e TrueNAS ZFS Pool Resilver over and over again issue | ZFS NAS Storage | Forever Resilver ↗

Bitcoin Mining - Blockchain Technology - Network Optimization via TOFFEE Data-Center WAN Optimization ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
Bitcoin Mining - Blockchain Technology - Network Optimization via TOFFEE Data-Center WAN Optimization

Off-Grid Home Lab Research Solar Installation ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

Upgrading Ubuntu 17.10 to 18.04 via TOFFEE-DataCenter WAN Optimization Screenshots ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021

Off-Grid Solar Power System for Raspberry Pi ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
When you choose to use your Raspberry Pi device as your IoT based remote weather station or if you are building Linux kernel (like kernel compilation) within the same, you need a good uninterrupted power source (UPS). But if you are using it on site or in some research camping location you can choose to power your Raspberry Pi device with your custom off-grid solar power source.




First TOFFEE-Butterscotch Code Release ↗
Saturday' 13-Mar-2021
TOFFEE-Butterscotch is a variant of TOFFEE can be used to save and optimize your Home/SOHO Internet/WAN bandwidth. Unlike TOFFEE (and TOFFEE-DataCenter) TOFFEE-Butterscotch is a non peer-to-peer (and asymmetric) network optimization solution. This makes TOFFEE-Butterscotch an ideal tool for all Home and SOHO users.



Research :: Optimization of network data (WAN Optimization) at various levels:
Network File level network data WAN Optimization


Learn Linux Systems Software and Kernel Programming:
Linux, Kernel, Networking and Systems-Software online classes [CDN]


Hardware Compression and Decompression Accelerator Cards:
TOFFEE Architecture with Compression and Decompression Accelerator Card [CDN]


TOFFEE-DataCenter on a Dell Server - Intel Xeon E5645 CPU:
TOFFEE-DataCenter screenshots on a Dual CPU - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5645 @ 2.40GHz - Dell Server