Adjust Cache Size of the SharePoint 2013 Distributed Cache Service Part II – Using Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration Command

Use Cases

• If you have servers in your distributed cache cluster with different RAM allocated to physical or virtual machine and Set-Update-SPDistributedCacheSize may not be viable option to allocate same RAM on inadequate servers.
• If you have application servers running as inactive cache host part of cache cluster for Distributed Cache administrative purpose and you would like to avoid resizing or adjusting default cache size on inactive cache hosts.

Pros

• You can specify different cache sizes for each host
• Works great where you have different physical or virtual RAM allocated to the cache hosts

Cons

• This is not SharePoint cmdlet and may not gain any respect from hardcore seasoned SharePoint professional. Additionally, keep an eye on future SharePoint service packs where it may dependent on future version of Microsoft AppFabric version which may have different cmdlets. e.g. Microsoft AppFabric 1.0 for Windows Server had Set-CacheHostConfig and Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server has Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration to change memory cache information. Since Set-Update-SPDistributedCacheSize is SharePoint wrapper for AppFabric cmdlet, it’s safe to assume Set-Update-SPDistributedCacheSize would work for future service packs.

Syntax

Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration – Updates the configuration settings for a Cache host to the specified values. This cmdlet is part of Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server caching powershell cmdlets. Only CachePort and ComputerName is required field. Notice this command would not only allow you to adjust Cachesize but allows you to adjust advanced settings like lead host, high watermark, and low watermark settings.

Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration [-ComputerName] <String> [-CachePort] <Int32> [-ArbitrationPort <Int32> ] [-CacheSize <Int64> ] [-ClusterPort <Int32> ] [-HighWatermark <Int32> ] [-IsLeadHost <String> ] [-LowWatermark <Int32> ] [-RefreshNow] [-ReplicationPort <Int32> ] [ <CommonParameters>]

Scenario

I have a multi-server farm with 2 WFEs (Niks-SP13-Web1, Niks-SP13-Web2) and 2 App Servers (Niks-SP13-App1, Niks-SP13-App2). When I have installed SharePoint 2013 on all servers in farm, it started Distributed Cache by default on all the servers. I have stopped Distributed Cache service on all Application servers from Services on Server page on central admin. Having stopped Distributed Cache service on all Application servers, these servers would be part of Cache cluster and allows us to manage Distributed Cache from the Application Servers using PowerShell. If your server isn’t part of Cache Cluster, you can’t login to the server and run Distributed Cache commands to adjust the memory allocation.

Initially I had allocated 4 GB RAM to 2 WFEs virtual machines and 5 GB RAM to 2 App Servers virtual machines during SharePoint installation. During default Distributed Cache configuration, SharePoint has allocated 205 MB (5% of 4 GB) to the Distributed Cache running on WFE servers. As I have mentioned earlier, I have stopped Distributed Cache on application servers from Services on Server Page on central admin. After a while, I have reallocated RAM to my virtual machines with 3 GB RAM to 2 WFEs servers and 4 GB RAM to 2 App Servers. Because of underlying Virtual machine RAM changes, I need to reallocate Distributed Cache size to all WFE servers.

Here is how my SharePoint farm looks like prior to attempting to change Distributed Cache Size.

Step by Step Guide to change Distributed Cache Size

• To Adjust Memory allocation of Distributed Cache on Web Front End Servers, log in to the Application Server hosting Central Admin using SP_Install account
• Open the Windows PowerShell or SharePoint PowerShell Management Window as an Administrator.
• Set the context of your PowerShell session to a particular cache cluster. Note that you must run this command before using any other Cache Administration commands in PowerShell

Use-CacheCluster

• Retrieve the initial cache information by running this command from one of the cache host. This will allow us to view number of Cache hosts in Cache cluster, active Cache hosts in Cache cluster, and current memory allocated to Cache hosts. If you have never adjusted Cache size after your SharePoint installation, default memory allocated to Distributed Cache host should be 5% of initial RAM of server.

Get-CacheHost
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web1.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web2.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-App1.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-App2.niks.local -cacheport 22233

In my case, I have 2 web front end & 2 application servers running as part of Cache Cluster. You may notice only that Distributed Cache is running only on web front servers but application servers are still part of Cache cluster.

When I installed SharePoint on these servers, I had allocated 4 GB RAM to the web front end server virtual machines & 5 GB RAM to the application server virtual machines. Since default memory allocation for Distributed Cache is 5%, you may notice that Distributed Cache size for web front end server is 205 MB (5% of 4 GB) and application server is 256 MB (5% of 5 GB)

• Manually Stop Distributed Cache Service on all WFEs from the Services on Server Page in Central Admin. Alternatively, you can login to all WFE servers and run following command to stop the Distributed Cache from the WFE servers. Please note that you must run this command from all the WFE servers and ensure Distributed Cache is stopped on all the servers in the farm.

$instanceName =”SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService”
$serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.server.name) -eq $env:computername}
$serviceInstance.Unprovision()

I have manually stopped Distributed Cache service on both web front servers from Services on Server page on Central Admin. Notice that Distributed Cache is no longer showing up on the Servers in Farm page in Central Admin.

• Update Cache Size on all WFEs by running this command from one of the cache host (e.g. application server hosting central admin) using Use Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration. As I said earliar, beauty of this command is it allows us to configure Cache Size for specific Server.

In my sample test case, I have readjusted & decreased total RAM allocated to my virtual machines – 3 GB RAM to each web front end servers & 4 GB to each application servers. In this step, since our WFE have 3GB RAM allocated, we will allocate Maximum 1 GB (1024 MB) to Distributed Cache. Cache size should be half of maximum Distributed Cache allocated memory. In our case, it will be 512 MB. We won’t adjust Distributed Cache size on any application servers.

Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web1.niks.local -cacheport 22233 -cachesize 512
Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web2.niks.local -cacheport 22233 -cachesize 512

• Manually Start Distributed Cache Service on all WFEs from the Services on Server Page in Central Admin. Alternatively, you can login to all WFE servers and run following command to start the Distributed Cache from the WFE servers. Please note that you must run this command from all the WFE servers and ensure Distributed Cache is started on all the servers in the farm

$instanceName =”SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService”
$serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.server.name) -eq $env:computername}
$serviceInstance.Provision()

I have manually started Distributed Cache service on both web front servers from Services on Server page on Central Admin. Notice that Distributed Cache shows up on the Servers in Farm page in Central Admin.

• Verify your final Cache Cluster configuration, memory allocation to each servers in the farm running following command. Please notice that since we ran Set-AFCacheHostConfiguration command, all the WFE servers should have newly adjusted 8GB memory allocated and all the application & search servers have only intiial 5% memory allocated. Since Distributed Cache is not running on application & search servers, memory allocated to Distributed Cache is never used but it would allow you to run Distributed Cache PowerShell commands from Central Admin Server.

Get-CacheHost
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web1.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-Web2.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-App1.niks.local -cacheport 22233
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName Niks-SP13-App2.niks.local -cacheport 22233

As you may notice, Distributed Cache on web server has been increased from 205MB to desired 500 MB but application server cache size stayed default value.

Hopefully this step by step guide will show you approach to change Distributed Cache size on your SharePoint 2013 farm. Stay tuned to learn how to change Distributed Cache size using Microsoft’s preferred approach in my next article!!!!