Configure and Enable Disk Cache in ARR
Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista
Application Request Routing (ARR) introduces a disk-based cache feature that lets you configure and use primary disk caches and a secondary disk cache in a tiered environment, such as content delivery networks and shared hosting deployments. This topic describes how to configure and enable disk-based caching. To enable this feature, you must have a server farm configured with a minimum of two application servers.
To configure and enable disk-based caching, follow these steps:
Configure a primary disk cache location.
Configure a secondary disk cache location.
Enable disk cache.
Verify cache functionality.
Configure a Primary Disk Cache Location
ARR stores and searches for cached content on the primary disk cache location. You can configure multiple local drives, such as e:\cache or f:\cache, to be primary disk cache locations.
To configure a primary disk cache location
Open IIS Manager.
In the Connections pane, select the server node.
In the Server pane, double-click Application Request Routing Cache.
In the Actions pane, click Add….
In the Add Drive dialog box, specify the drive location and the maximum size (GB) for the drive. Click OK.
Configure a Secondary Disk Cache Location
The secondary disk cache location is typically a large drive that is shared between multiple ARR servers. Unlike primary disk cache locations, there can be only one secondary disk cache location. When ARR cannot find cached content in the primary disk cache, it will search the secondary disk cache. If you have a secondary disk cache configured, ARR will cache content in both the primary and secondary disk cache locations. This configuration is optional.
To configure a secondary disk cache location
In the Server pane, double-click Application Request Routing Cache.
In the Actions pane, click Add Secondary….
In the Add Secondary Drive dialog box, specify the drive location. Click OK.
Enable Disk Cache
After you successfully specify your disk cache locations, the ARR proxy can begin to use the configured disk caches. By default, ARR will cache content to the primary disk cache once it is configured.
To enable disk cache
In the Connections pane, expand Server Farms, and then select the server farm that you created.
Double-click Caching.
On the Caching page, verify that the Enable disk cache check box is selected.
Verify Cache Functionality
After you have configured and enabled disk caching, you can verify that memory and disk caching are working properly.
To verify memory and disk caching functionality
Open a command prompt with administrator user rights.
To verify that memory caching is working properly, enter the following command:
netsh http show cache
By default, the memory cache duration is 5 seconds.
Change the directory to your cache drive location.
To verify that disk caching is working properly, enter the following command:
dir /a
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to verify that disk caching is working properly for your secondary disk cache location.