APP-V Client Cache Settings
I actually have a much much longer document I wrote a few months ago about the App-V client, Sequencer and Management Server/Console Snap-in. The client is the catalyst of APP-V, It is by far the most important component in the APP-V infrastructure. Even though I do have a much more thorough break down of the client I will just do it in bits.
I created over 40 pages about the App-V infrastructure which may be a little overwhelming to put in one post. Plus I’d imagine people viewing this probably have some prior knowledge. I am trying to keep things as high level as possible so if anybody has any questions please feel free to comment.
The cache settings above can be very important for performance. This sets the amount of cache space for the virtual applications on the client machine. When an application is removed from the client, the space does not get increased again, instead the client is smart enough to reallocate this space when needed for a different application. This is when the project is using streaming; the performance issue comes when the cache becomes full as it will start to become a “cache as needed” setup. So when something new needs to be cached it pushes other apps cache out to store the new cache. So when the app that got pushed out is required again it needs to be re-streamed/re-cached.
Important to note is that if the project is not using streaming and has been deployed using the MSI the cache will not automatically replenish as described above, thus management of the cache is more important to ensure it will never become full.
When maximum cache size is selected it is important to ensure the machine does not run out of space. If it does there will be some pretty ominous looking errors. The optimal option which most don’t seem to go for is Use free disk space threshold. This ensures it will never try and grow larger than the size specified, if the machine is running low on space the client shouldn’t fail as in streaming mode it can reallocate the space it already has allocated as stated above.
One further word of warning, as there’s a single large cache file which is increased incrementally. This can be quite the nightmare to manage. If it fills you may need to purge the entire file to clear space. So you’d essentially need to selectively re-cache whatever applications you’d prefer to be fully cached. It’s far from ideal!
