Technical data

ServerIron ADX Advanced Server Load Balancing Guide 29

53-1002435-03

Chapter*

Transparent Cache Switching

In this chapter

•Transparent cache switching overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

•Other transparent cache switching options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

•Policy-based caching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

•Content-aware cache switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

•Cache persistence using URL hashing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

•Traffic distribution based on cache server capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

•Displaying cache information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

•Sample configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

•High availability designs with TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

•Interoperability issues with cache servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Transparent cache switching overview

Cache servers process web queries faster and more efficiently by temporarily storing details about

repetitive web queries locally, thereby reducing the number of external inquiries required to

process a web query. The Brocade ServerIron ADX utilizes transparent cache switching (TCS) to

distribute traffic among multiple cache servers in a local network

The Brocade ADX application delivery controllers increase the reliability of provider’s cache

infrastructure, and transparently redirect client queries to a cache farm to improve response time

and overall efficiency.

ServerIron ADX supports transparent cache switching for both IPv4 and IPv6 cache servers.

Operation of transparent cache switching

A sample Transparent Cache Switching network diagram utilizing Brocade ServerIron ADX is shown

below in Figure 9.