AppFabric 1.1 Caching: SQL Server is the recommended configuration store

  • Article

This topic is intended to address a specific issue identified by a Best Practices Analyzer scan. You should apply the information in this topic only to computers that have had the AppFabric 1.1 Caching Best Practices Analyzer run against them and are experiencing the issue addressed by this topic. For more information about best practices and scans, see Best Practices Analyzer.

Operating System

Windows Server 2008 R2

Product/Feature

Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server Caching

Severity

Warning

Category

Configuration

Issue

A shared network location is being used as the configuration store.

Impact

Shared network locations are not as reliable or highly-available as SQL Server, and a loss of connectivity to the cluster configuration can negatively impact cluster operations.

Although using a shared network location (XML) is a supported scenario for the cluster configuration store, SQL Server has more options to increase availability and is considered to be a better choice for the cache cluster configuration data. If the cache cluster is unable to reach the cache cluster configuration store, the cache cluster will either be unavailable or functionally impaired.

Resolution

It is recommended that SQL Server be used to store the cluster configuration.

Additional references

Cluster Configuration Storage Options

  2012-09-12