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Branch Cache is a caching technology to help with performance when accessing file shares over a WAN. Netapp supports this technology and it can be used with compatible clients such as Windows 7 Enterprise and newer, and Server 2008r2 and newer

Enable Branch Cache on a storage system

  1. Enable SMB 2.1:
    options cifs.smb2.enable on

    The command enables both SMB 2.0 and SMB 2.1.

  2. Enable BranchCache:
    options cifs.smb2_1.branch_cache.enable on
  3. Optional: Configure the time (in seconds) to keep an unused BranchCache hash in storage system memory:
    options cifs.smb2_1.branch_cache.hash_time_out time

    time can be 0 through 4000000. If you do not set this option, the default is to keep hashes in memory for 3600 seconds. In the example at the end of the procedure, the value was set at 7200.

  4. Set the pass phrase that the storage system uses to generate hashes, enclosing the string in quotation marks if it contains spaces:
    cifs branchcache set key "your_pass_phrase"

    The pass phrase is a string that the storage system uses when generating BranchCache content hashes. You can reset the pass-phrase after you configure BranchCache. Changing the pass-phrase value results in all existing cached content being identified as stale. If data is identified as stale, content is retrieved from the content server and new hashes are generated and stored on the storage system.

Examples:

options cifs.smb2.enable on

options cifs.smb2_1.branch_cache.enable on

options cifs.smb2_1.branch_cache.hash_time_out 7200

cifs branchcache set key “your_pass_phrase"

Enable BranchCache on a CIFS share

The -branchcache option is one of several available client-side caching options. Enabling BranchCache on a share also enables manual client-side caching. If you enable BranchCache on a CIFS share, you cannot enable local client-side caching using the -auto_document_caching or -auto_program_caching options.

To create a BranchCache enabled CIFS share, enter the following command:

cifs shares -add share_name path -branchcache

share_name specifies the name of the new CIFS share.
path specifies the path to the share. Path separators can be backward or forward slashes, although Data ONTAP displays them as forward slashes.

Example:

cifs shares -add projects /vol/vol1/projects -branchcache

For more information:

Creating Share:
https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1401220/html/GUID-06CCA071-D741-40A2-A23A-61FE36930D33.html

Enabling Branch Cache on storage system:
https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1401220/html/GUID-A6D289F1-135A-49E7-BBAD-2328A63F491D.html