Caching target of the front door

Question

Hi Q&A I have a question about Azure front door.

1. Among the contents of Azure CDN product types, Akamai can specify the directory of the file to be cached, but Azure front door does not seem to be the way to specify the directory, so what is the caching target of the front door?
   2. How can I control?

Answer 1

Hello @Minseo Park ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & hope you are doing well.

I understand that you have few questions regarding Azure Front Door caching and how to control it. Please find the answers below.

In Azure Front Door, caching refers to the process of storing copies of content, such as HTML pages, images, and other resources, in a cache so that it can be delivered more quickly to users. When a user requests a resource that is stored in the cache, Azure Front Door can serve the cached copy of the resource instead of retrieving it from the origin server, which can improve the performance and scalability of the system.

In Azure Front Door, the caching target is the origin server where the static content for your website or application is stored.
When you enable Caching in Azure Front Door via a routing rule, it cache contents closer to your users globally using Azure Front Door's edge POPs/edge nodes and the Microsoft network. These edge nodes are located in strategic locations around the world and are used to deliver content to users with low latency. When a request is made for a resource that is stored in the cache, the edge node serving the request retrieves the cached copy of the resource and delivers it to the user.

You can find more about the Cache behavior and duration which can be configured in Rules Engine in the below doc:
Azure Front Classic: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-caching?pivots=front-door-classic#cache-behavior-and-duration
Azure Front Door Standard/Premium: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-caching?pivots=front-door-standard-premium#cache-behavior-and-duration

To configure cache behavior via Rules engine, refer the below doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-rules-engine-actions?tabs=portal&pivots=front-door-standard-premium

To control cache, you can use Cache-Control headers.
The behavior of Cache expiration can be found in the below doc:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-caching?pivots=front-door-standard-premium#cache-expiration
NOTE : If no Cache-Control is present, the default behavior is that Front Door will cache the resource for X amount of time where X gets randomly picked between 1 to 3 days.

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

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