5. Enable Caching with Web Cache

Overview

Deployed before a farm of application Web servers and/or globally at the network edge, Oracle9iAS Web Cache uses caching, assembly, surge protection, compression and load balancing technologies to speed the delivery of static and dynamic Web pages.

By default Web Cache is enabled out-of-the-box. In this walkthrough we will show you how to administer Web Cache and configure it to listen on port 80 (the default HTTP port).

Walk Through

1. Access the Oracle9iAS Web Cache Administration Page by visiting:
   
   http://<hostname>:4000, where <hostname> is your fully qualified hostname
   
   
   

2. Click on Web Cache Manager. When prompted, enter username administrator and password also administrator (these are the default values):
   
   
   

3. First of all, let us change the default password for Web Cache administrator. In the left Navigator, click on Security under General Configuration:
   
   

4. Click on Change Administrator Password and set it to oracle1 (same as the ias_admin password). Remember the old password was administrator:
   
   
   

5. An Invalidator account enables someone (with lesser privileges than the administrator) to manually invalidate content in the cache. The default password for invalidator is invalidator. Click on Change Invalidator Password and set it also to oracle1:
   
   

6. This step is very important. Click on Apply Changes on the top right corner to commit your changes:
   
   
   

7. You must restart Web Cache in order for these changes to take effect. For most changes, you can restart Web Cache by clicking Restart on the Operations Page (from any browser - including remote browsers). But for administrator password modification, and as an extra measure of security, you must restart Web Cache from the command line on the machine where Oracle9iAS Web Cache is installed. Open a command-line window and issue the following command:
   
   webcachectl restart
   
   
   

8. Exit all browser windows and restart your browser (to clear the browser's cache). Visit:
   
   http://<hostname>:4000, where <hostname> is your fully qualified hostname
   
   Click on Web Cache Manager. When prompted, enter username administrator and password oracle1 (note that this time, the old password will not work).
   
   If this doesn't work, chances are that you did not perform step 7 above (Apply Changes). Repeat steps 2 to 8.
   

9. In a previous section, we configured Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) to listen on port 81. Let us now configure Web Cache (which sits in front of OHS) to listen on port 80 (the default HTTP port) and communicate with OHS on port 81.
   Under Cache-Specific Configuration, click on Listening Ports, and click on the Add button:
   
   

   
   

10. Fill out the form as shown here:
    
    

    
    

11. Click Apply Changes on the top right corner of your browser:

    
    
    
    

12. Next, associate Web Cache with OHS on port 81. Click on Application Web Servers under General Configuration and click on Add:
    
    

    
    

13. Fill out the form as follows. Make sure you enter your machine name (instead of WASHINGTON-PC.us.oracle.com as shown in the image). Also, feel free to explore the Help:
    
    

    
    

14. Click Apply Changes on the top right corner of your browser:

    
    
    
    

15. Now, you must restart Web Cache for the changes to take effect:
    
    

    
    

16. Let's verify that you can now submit requests at port 80. In a new browser window, visit:
    http://<hostname> OR http://<hostname>:80 (since 80 is the default HTTP port, it is not necessary to specify it, and replace <hostname> with your machine name). You should see the Welcome page:
    
    

    
    

17. Finally, let us explore what is cached in your Web Cache. Return to the Web Cache Manager page and click on Cache Contents under Administration (your results will be different from the ones shown here):
    
    

    
    

18. Oracle9iAS Web Cache is a very powerful tool. This walkthrough has shown you how to configure some basic settings. Feel free to explore other options in the Web Cache Manager.

    
    

Summary

In this section you have learnt how to:

• Access the Oracle9iAS Web Cache Manager site

• Modify the administrator and invalidator passwords

• Restart Web Cache from the command line as well as from the Web Cache Manager

• Enable Web Cache to listen on a port and associate it with the origin server (OHS)

When you are ready, proceed to the next topic.