Cache Management Using NCache Management Center

NCache can also be managed and configured via a web-based application known as the NCache Management Center, which allows you to smoothly perform managerial tasks like creating a cache, adding servers/clients, monitoring, and more. It is deployed on all cache servers and clients by default with NCache's installation.

The NCache Management Center is ASP.NET Core based and, therefore, runs on both Windows and Linux.

Cache Management: Supported Web Browsers for NCache Management Center

The NCache Management Center supports the latest versions of the following Internet browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Microsoft Edge

Launching the NCache Management Center

• Upon starting the NCache Service, the NCache Management Center will auto-start by default if it is not already running. The NCache Management Process runs on your local server node with port 8251.

• To launch the NCache Management Center in your browser, browse the following URLs:

  • Windows: http://localhost:8251 or <server-ip>:8251
  • Linux: <server-ip>:8251

Note

Information about the NCache Management Center startup after service start is also logged in Event Viewer in Windows.

NCache Service (NCacheSvc)

The NCache Service is a core component of the configuration and management of caches. It manages all the caches on that server and listens on the related management port (default 8250) for PowerShell tools (and UI tools in Enterprise). Upon startup, the NCache Service reads the configuration of all configured caches from config.ncconf file. To apply the configuration changes, you must restart the NCache Service. The NCache Service is also responsible for starting and stopping the cache process that hosts the cache on that server.

Every cache server has a cache manager process called Alachisoft.NCache.CacheHost.exe. Your cache management tools talk to this process for starting and stopping a cache on this server. When you start a cache using PowerShell, the NCache Service starts a new cache host process on this server. Running every cache in its separate process provides a high isolation level between different cache instances running on the same server. A separate cache process also helps reduce Garbage Collector (GC) work. The Get-Caches cmdlet shows the process-id of the running cache process.

Once the cache starts, the NCache Service process must communicate with it for different operations. Therefore, the NCache Service assigns a unique management port for every cache started. This cache port mapping is in the CacheHostPorts.xml file at %NCHOME%\bin\service. This file is auto-generated and only managed by the NCache Service. You should not manually edit this file.

The NCache Service also listens for cache client connection requests for a specific cache on this server. The default listening port for the cache client is 9800. The NCache Service accepts client connections and forwards them to the corresponding cache process. After this point, all further communication occurs directly between the cache client and process, and it does not involve the NCache Service. However, the NCache Service must run continuously for all new client connections.

Enable/Disable Auto Start of the NCache Management Center

The Auto Start NCache Management Center option is enabled upon service start. To disable Auto Start, follow the steps given below:

• Windows Environment
• Linux Environment

• Open Alachisoft.NCache.Service.exe.config (.NET) or Alachisoft.NCache.Service.dll.config (.NET Core Windows) at %NCHOME%\bin\service.

• Change the following flag to True. If the flag is missing, the value is False by default.

<add key="NCacheServer.StartWebManagement" value="False"/>

• Restart the NCache Service by typing the following command in PowerShell:

Start-Service -Name NCacheSvc

Manually Start NCache Management Center

If you want to manually start the NCache Management Center, follow the steps below.

• Windows Environment
• Linux Environment

• Go to the Start menu on the Taskbar, and type NCache PowerShell Management, and click on it.

• This will open an instance of PowerShell with ncacheps imported, and display a list of available NCache PowerShell cmdlets.

• Enter the following PowerShell command to start the NCache Management Process on your local server node. By default, the URL is http://localhost:8251.

Start-NCacheManagementCenter

• You can now use NCache Management Center by browsing http://localhost:8251.

NCache Management Center Security

To ensure the security and integrity of user's data while maintaining ease of use, NCache offers an additional layer of security for operations involving the NCache Management Center. Following are some of the advanced security options in the NCache Management Center for seamless functioning.

• While configuring security, you are required to add similar users as Node Administrators on all the nodes in the same cluster.
• Configuring different users as Node Administrators on participating nodes of the same cluster will cause problems, so make sure that you have the same users as Node Administrators in one cluster.
• Once you have configured security on a node, connecting to the NCache Management Center will require user login credentials. This ensures only the authorized users with the right privileges can access the cache node.

Get Started with the NCache Management Center

To get started, you can:

1. Create a Cache
2. Add Server Nodes to Cache
3. Add Client Nodes to Cache
4. Start Cache

See Also

Configure Caches
Configure Clients
Configure Client Cache
Cache Settings