Getting Started

­­­NCache provides a Windows Installer Package (.msi) to let you easily install NCache. However, before you install NCache, you need to keep the following in mind.

What to Install during Evaluation?

NCache offers the following three editions:

  1. NCache Professional
  2. NCache Enterprise
  3. NCache Open Source

Regardless of which NCache edition you ultimately end up using, we recommend you to evaluate NCache with NCache Enterprise Edition. NCache Enterprise Edition includes the full set of features provided by NCache. This lets you decide whether to stay with NCache Enterprise or downgrade to NCache Professional or Open Source, based on your needs.

Installation Options

Whether you install NCache Enterprise or Professional, the following installation options are provided after running the .MSI file:

Cache Server

This is a full installation of NCache and contains everything that the other two options provide plus cache clustering capability. You must install this on any server where you are going to host the cache, regardless of whether you have dedicated or shared cache servers.

Remote Client

This installs the remote client libraries and client cache on all your web/app servers so you can access the cache across the network. Please note that you need remote client libraries to access the cache across the network.

Developer

This installs the NCache API, online help/documentation, and a local stand-alone cache without any clustering capability. Please note that you cannot access a remotely hosted cache from a developer install machine. You can access only a local cache.

Where to Install NCache?

Production, Staging, QA, or Development Servers: Install NCache Enterprise Edition on the following:

  • Cache Servers (Dedicated or Shared)

If you have 4 or more web/app servers in your environment hosting your application, then we recommend a dedicated caching tier of 2 servers. A dedicated cache cluster should have a minimum of 2 servers for replication and then a ratio of 5:1 between your web/app servers and the cache servers. For smaller environments, even using your web/app servers as cache servers is fine, as long as you have enough memory available on these machines.

  • NCache Remote Clients (Application or Web Servers)

Any web/app server that is not hosting the cache server but instead will access it remotely across the network is considered NCache remote client. You need to install the “remote client” portion of NCache on these machines.

System Requirements

Software Requirements

  • Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit) as Cache Servers
    It is highly recommended that you use 64-bit Windows 2008 or 2012 Server platform for cache servers.

  • Disk
    NCache does not make heavy use of disk space. Hence, you do not need any extra ordinary disk space in your cache server machines.

  • Adequate RAM in Cache Servers
    NCache puts a minimum of 15% overhead on top of your data. However, this overhead may grow to be a lot more than 15% if you are using indexes since each index uses memory. Please keep this in mind while deciding how much memory to have in your cache servers. The total memory you need depends on how much data you plan to store in cache.

Hardware Requirements

  • Dual-CPU, Quad-Core or higher
    NCache is a highly multi-threaded software and takes full advantage of extra cores and CPUs. The most common configuration for NCache is a dual-CPU quad-core machine. You may need stronger processing power if you have higher transaction loads and/or larger amount of data being stored in NCache. Please consult NCache technical support to get a specific recommendation for your needs.

  • Two 1G-bit Network Interface Cards in Cache Servers
    If you have two NICs in cache servers, it allows you to configure NCache so that it uses one of the NICs for cache clustering and the second one for client/server communication. This improves your throughput greatly.