Warm Up Cache Nodes on ARR

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

This topic describes how to pre-cache (warm up) the Application Request Routing (ARR) cache node in anticipation of expected demand. This feature is also effective in situations where you want to make sure that content is always cached regardless of its popularity, or when you want to select which cache nodes to pre-cache. You can pre-cache all the cache nodes, both the child cache tier and the parent cache tier, or only the parent cache tier. You should be familiar with the disk-based caching feature in ARR before you continue.

ARR warms up the cache node by consuming a file that has a list of URLs, one URL per line. For ARR to consume the file, it must be located in a file system or hosted on a Web server and it must be accessible through HTTP or HTTPS. Note that if any of the URLs in the file reference content that is on a secure (HTTPS) site, the ARR cache node must be configured for HTTPS. When consuming the file, ARR sends GET requests to the localhost to process the URL rewrite rules and sends CARP to make sure that the pre-cache objects are cached properly.

Warm Up All Cache Nodes

This procedure will warm up all ARR cache nodes. To pre-cache content on both child and parent cache nodes, the pre-caching action is taken on the child cache node.

To warm up all cache nodes

  1. Open IIS Manager.

  2. In the Connections pane, expand the server node.

  3. In the Server pane, double-click Application Request Routing Cache.

  4. On the Application Request Routing Cache page, in the Actions pane, click Pre-cache Objects….

  5. In the Pre-cache Objects dialog box, follow these steps:

    • In the Pre-cache the following content box, enter the location of the file that contains the URLs that you want to pre-cache.

    • In the Log file box, enter the location of a log file.

  6. To view cached content and verify that the warm-up feature works properly, see the Browse Cached Contents on Disk on ARR topic.

Warm Up Cache Nodes on the Parent Cache Tier Only

This procedure will warm up ARR cache nodes on the parent cache tier only. Pre-caching only on the parent cache tier is effective in situations such as when parent cache nodes are geographically dispersed to support regional child cache nodes. This prevents child cache nodes from pre-caching content prematurely.

  1. Open IIS Manager.

  2. In the Connections pane, expand the server node.

  3. In the Server pane, double-click Application Request Routing Cache.

  4. On the Application Request Routing Cache page, in the Actions pane, click Pre-cache Objects….

  5. In the Pre-cache Objects dialog box, follow these steps:

    • In the Pre-cache the following content box, enter the location of the file that contains the URLs that you want to pre-cache.

    • In the Log file box, enter the location of a log file.

    • Select the Do not cache all content on this server check box.

  6. In the Peer servers table, enter the names/server addresses of your ARR servers, including the server where you are running the pre-cache action.

  7. In the Address of this server list, select the name of the server where you are running the pre-cache action.

    Note: The peer server names and the server selection in the list are required to process CARP correctly. The names of the servers must match exactly with the child cache nodes that are referenced in the server farm.

See Also

Concepts

Disk Caching Tasks for IT Pros
ARR Tasks for IT Pros
ARR Common Tasks