Use Group Policy to configure domain member clients for distributed cache mode

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Updated: October 7, 2009

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

You can use this procedure to configure Group Policy to enable and configure BranchCache distributed cache mode on domain-joined client computers.

Membership in Domain Admins, or equivalent is the minimum required to perform this procedure.

To use Group Policy to configure clients for distributed cache mode

  1. On a computer upon which the Active Directory Domain Services server role is installed, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and click Group Policy Management. The Group Policy Management console opens.

  2. In the Group Policy Management console, expand the following path: Forest: example.com, Domains, example.com, Group Policy Objects, where example.com is the name of the domain where the BranchCache client computer accounts that you want to configure are located.

  3. Right-click Group Policy Objects, and then click New. The New GPO dialog box opens. In Name, type a name for the new Group Policy object (GPO). For example, if you want to name the object BranchCache Client Computers, type BranchCache Client Computers. Click OK.

  4. In the Group Policy Management console, ensure that Group Policy Objects is selected, and in the details pane right-click the GPO that you just created. For example, if you named your GPO BranchCache Client Computers, right-click BranchCache Client Computers. Click Edit. The Group Policy Management Editor console opens.

  5. In the Group Policy Management Editor console, expand the following path: Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates: Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local machine, Network, BranchCache.

  6. Click BranchCache, and then in the details pane, double-click Turn on BranchCache. The Turn on BranchCache dialog box opens.

  7. In the Turn on BranchCache dialog box, click Enabled, and then click OK.

  8. In the Group Policy Management Editor console, ensure that BranchCache is still selected, and then in the details pane double-click Set BranchCache Distributed Cache mode. The Set BranchCache Distributed Cache mode dialog box opens.

  9. In the Set BranchCache Distributed Cache mode dialog box, click Enabled, and then click OK.

  10. To configure the amount of hard disk space allocated on each client computer for the BranchCache cache: In the Group Policy Management Editor console, ensure that BranchCache is still selected, and then in the details pane double-click Set percentage of disk space used for client computer cache. The Set percentage of disk space used for client computer cache dialog box opens. Click Enabled, and then in Options type a numeric value that represents the percentage of hard disk space used on each client computer for the BranchCache cache.

  11. To enable client computers to download and cache content from BranchCache file server-based content servers: In the Group Policy Management Editor console, ensure that BranchCache is still selected, and then in the details pane double-click BranchCache for network files. The Configure BranchCache for network files dialog box opens.

  12. In the Configure BranchCache for network files dialog box, click Enabled. In Options, type a numeric value, in milliseconds, for the maximum round trip network latency time, and then click OK.

Note

By default, client computers cache content from file servers if the round trip network latency is longer than 80 milliseconds.