SharePoint Publishing Cache Test

Object caching Office SharePoint Server 2007 supports caching of certain page items, such as navigation data and data accessed through cross-list queries. Caching page items reduces the requirement to retrieve field data from the database every time a page is rendered. The caching system also caches complete field data for a page, excluding data for any Web Part controls on the page.

Using the statistics provided by this test, you can fine-tune your cache size, so as to maximize cache hits and minimize object discards.

Target of the test : A Microsoft SharePoint Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Microsoft SharePoint server that is being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test period

This indicates how often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the host server listens.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Publishing cache hit ratio

Indicates the ratio of hits to misses on the publishing cache.

Percent

A hit ratio greater than 90% and a low object discard rate are generally good signs that the current size is satisfactory. However, you should also measure user response time for key operations to adjust this setting.

If you set the size too large, you might waste valuable memory for the other caches, such as the ASP.NET output cache if it is used. Certain Web Parts, such as the Content Query Web Part, stores their XSLT stylesheets in the output cache. If the object cache size is set too large, ASP.NET might flush output cache memory to make room for it. CPU usage might increase after the flushing. This is especially important for a system that is running on a 32-bit operating system because each worker process is limited to 2 GB application memory space. If you set the object cache size limit too large, the IIS worker process (w3wp) can run out of memory.

Object discards

Indicates the total number of items that have been removed from the publishing cache since the last measurement period due to cache compaction.

Number