Help for Basic Proxy Caching Settings

Use this form to make your server a caching proxy and define the basic caching proxy settings. For more information on setting up and using a proxy, see the Up and Running book.

Caching Proxies

You can set up your server to run as a caching proxy. Clients connected to a proxy server can ask the server to retrieve documents for them from other servers. With caching, the proxy server can store the documents it retrieves from other servers in a local cache. The server can then respond to subsequent requests for the same documents without having to retrieve them from other servers. This can improve response time.

Caching proxies can also reduce the amount of traffic on internal networks. You can connect a hierarchy of caching proxies so that client requests cascade up through the hierarchy of servers until the document is retrieved from a server's cache or from the actual server where the document resides.

To enable proxy caching and define basic settings:

Check the Enable proxy caching box.
Fill in values for the following fields:

Cache size - the maximum amount of disk space (in megabytes) you want the cache to use. The size of the cache will usually stay below the maximum, but may occasionally grow slightly larger. When the maximum size is reached, the storage reclamation process begins.
Root directory for cached files - the top directory in the cache hierarchy. The server creates subdirectories within this directory for each cached protocol. It also creates subdirectories under each protocol subdirectory for each remote server.
Filename in which to log cache accesses - the name of the file where you want to log requests for cached files
Break cache locks after - the amount of time after which the lock on a file being retrieved can be broken. This prevents a file from becoming locked for an indefinite period of time. Specify the time in any combination of hours, mins (minutes), and secs (seconds). The value must be equal to or greater than the value you specify for the Maximum time allowed for the server to send a response field on the Timeouts form.

    Examples:  30 secs
               15 mins
               20 mins 30 secs

Upper size limit - the upper limit (in kilobytes) for file size calculation. The storage reclamation process assigns each cached file a size factor when determining which files to delete. The bigger the file, the greater the chances that it will be deleted. Files larger than this limit are assigned the same size factor and will most likely be deleted.
Lower size limit - the lower limit (in kilobytes) for file size calculation. The storage reclamation process assigns each cached file a size factor when determining which files to delete. The smaller the file, the greater the chances that it will not be deleted. Files smaller than this limit are assigned the same size factor and will most likely not be deleted based on their size.

If you want to use the changes you make to the form, select the Apply button. If you want to go back to the values that were on the form before you made changes, select the Reset button.