Definition: Distributed Cache Service is a feature introduced by Microsoft in order to improve performance of SharePoint applications.
Some points:
- Using this feature, frequently accessed content are cached and are easily retrieved from the server. This feature caches the data so that application doesn’t need to access database resulting in faster response.
- Windows App Fabric is a pre-requisite for SharePoint and also for Distribute Cache Service to function properly.
- Server, running Distributed Cache Service, is called Cache host. If one or more servers are running Distribute Cache Service then all such servers are together called Cache Cluster.
Distributed Cache Service can be deployed in two ways.
- Dedicated Mode: No other SharePoint service runs other than Distribute Cache Service. This is recommended approach.
- Collocated Mode: Distributed Service runs along with other SharePoint services on the server.
It is advisable not to run Distributed Cache Service on the server where a few heavy services are running like: Search, SQL Server, Project Server, Excel Services.
Distribute Cache service provides in-memory caching service to several features in SharePoint.
- Newsfeeds
- Authentication
- OneNote client access
- Security Trimming
- Page load performance