Planning and Configuring the Distributed Cache

SharePoint2013 includes a new caching mechanismknown as the Distributed Cache service.Various SharePoint features depend on

thisservice, including micro-blogging and newsfeeds. The Distributed Cache service also improves the performance of various other

features,including authentication, page load, search, OneNote client access, and security trimming.

 

TheDistributed Cache service is built on Windows Server AppFabric, which is installed as part of the prerequisites for SharePoint 2013.

 

Changing the allocated memory

 

Thereare two circumstances when you may need to change the memory allocated to theDistributed Cache service:

•If you add physical memory to the server, the Distributed Cache service willnot automatically recalculatethe 10 percent memory allocation.You should manually change the amount of memory allocated to the service.

•If you run the Distributed Cache service in dedicated mode, you should reserve2 GB memory for systemprocesses and services, and assign the remaining memory to the DistributedCache service. Remember that noother SharePoint services should run on a dedicated Distributed Cache server

 

You canuse the following procedure to change the allocated memory for the DistributedCache service:

 

1.Stop the Distributed Cache service on every cache host. You can do this fromthe Services on server page inthe Central Administration website.

2.Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell on one of the cache hosts, and runthe following command, where<CacheSize> is the desired memory allocation in MB.

Update-SPDistributedCacheSize –CacheSizeInMB<CacheSize>

3.Restart the Distributed Cache service on all cache hosts. You can do this fromthe Services on server page inthe Central Administration website.

 

Adding and removing cache hosts

 

Insome circumstances, you may need to add or remove servers from the cachecluster. For example, if youwant to repair or upgrade a server in the server farm, you should remove itfrom the cache cluster, performyour maintenance, and then add it back into the cache cluster.

Toadd a server to the cache cluster, run the following Windows PowerShell cmdleton the server you want to add.

 

Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

 

Removinga Cache Host from a Cache Cluster

 

Stop-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance –Graceful

Remove-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance