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