New BranchCache Hosted Cache Mode Guide Published on the Web

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The Windows Server 2012 Core Network Companion Guide: Deploying BranchCache Hosted Cache Mode, is now live on the Web at https://aka.ms/i2wfpz

This deployment guide shows you how to build on your core network by deploying BranchCache in hosted cache mode in your branch offices.

The scenario in this guide has Web and file servers in a cloud data center - but you can use the guide even if your content servers are in your main office or in a private cloud.

When you deploy BranchCache in hosted cache mode, you configure a server in your branch office as a hosted cache server. This computer can perform workloads in addition to being a hosted cache server, so you don't need to install a dedicated server for BranchCache.

In normal operations, BranchCache doesn't actively push content from Web and file servers to branch offices - instead, when users access a file or Web page, the BranchCache-enabled client downloads the content, and then the content is stored in the hosted cache. The next client that wants the same content gets the content from the hosted cache in the branch office rather than downloading the content over the wide area network (WAN) link. These operations allow content to be added to the branch office cache on a file by file basis.

With BranchCache in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, you have the option of using a new feature called preloading. This new deployment guide explains how to use preloading - which allows you to easily add all of the content on your Web and file content servers to the cache on the hosted cache server in your branch offices. When you preload content, you run two Windows PowerShell commands on your content servers - one that prehashes the content and the other that creates a data package containing the content - and then you copy the package to one or more hosted cache servers. On the hosted cache servers, you run one Windows PowerShell command to import the contents of the data package into the hosted cache.

Stay tuned for publication of this deployment guide for download in Word format from the Microsoft Download Center.