BranchCache is a system in Windows that allows files to be cached on the local network rather then coping them again over the wide area network. If you have Windows Server 2008 R2 on the local network this can be done by the Server. If you do not, the Windows client on the network can perform the caching themselves. This video looks at how BranchCache works can how to configure it using Group Policy and netsh.
Requirements of BranchCache
Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate edition
Windows Server 2008 R2
How BranchCache Works
When a client attempts to access a file from Windows Server 2008 R2 file share across a WAN, the file is first checked to see if a copy of that file is cached locally. This can either by on a Windows Server 2008 R2 local to the client or anther Windows 7 computer that has already copied that file. Before the cached version is use, Windows will generate a hash of the file which is used to determine if the cached file is that same as the file remote file. That is, the file has not changed since it was cached.
Hosted Mode
This mode requires a Windows Server 2008 R2 server at each remote location to store the cached files. The files are transferred using SSL encryption so the server also requires a SSL certificate. The advantage of hosted mode is that assuming the server is on it will always be available.
Distributed mode
This mode is when each Windows 7 computer has its own cache. When a file is attempted to be copied over the WAN network, a broadcast is sent on the local network to see if any of the other computer have already copied that file. If they have the file will be copied from the local computer rather then the WAN network again.
Group Policy
The setting are found under
Computer Configuration-Administrative templates-Network-BranchCache
There are five settings listed below
Turn on BranchCache\Must be enabled to use BranchCache
Set BranchCache Distributed Cache Mode\Enabled distributed cache mode
Set BranchCache Host Cache Mode\Enables Hosted mode and configures
BranchCache server
Configure BranchCache for network files\Allows the latency value to be configured. Default 80
Set percentage of disk space used for client computer cache\Configure how much free disk space will be used for BranchCache. The default is 5%
Netsh commands
1) Show status of BranchCache
netsh branchcache show status
2) Configure Branch Cache Hosted mode
netsh branchcache set service mode=HOSTEDCLIENT location=[ServerName]
2) Configure Branch Cache distributed mode
netsh branchcahce set service mode=distributed
3) Set cache size in bytes
netsh branchCache set cachesize [Size in bytes]
4) Set cache size percentage of total disk size
netsh branchCache set cachesize size=20 percent=true
5) Show statistics for the cache
Netsh branchcache show localcache
6) Set the latency (Milliseconds of round trip)
netsh branchcache smb set latency [value]
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