Configuring high-speed caching using FRCA with the WebSphere Application Server on z/OS

The z/OS® Communications Server TCP/IP contains a high-speed cache that is referred to as the Fast Response Cache Accelerator. You can configure the WebSphere® Application Server on z/OS® to cache static and dynamic content into the FRCA cache.

About this task

The FRCA cache only supports non-SSL connections at this time. The z/OS Communications Server TCP/IP service updates to the FRCA support are required for this function to work on z/OS Version 1.9. If the updated FRCA services are not available on the system the application server will issue error message BBOO0347E or BBOO0348E. TCP/IP utilizes CSM storage to maintain the cache.

To enable cache accelerator for caching static and dynamic content, such as servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP) files, configure WebSphere® Application Server:

Procedure

Configure WebSphere Application Server to enable Fast Response Cache Accelerator.
It is important to follow all of the steps for every application server in the cluster.
1. Turn on servlet caching for each application server that uses the cache accelerator.
2. Configure an external cache group on the application server:
  1. Click Servers > Server Types> WebSphere application servers > server_name > Container services > Dynamic cache service > External cache groups .
  2. Click New on the External cache group administrative console page to define an external cache group named afpa for each application server that uses the cache accelerator.
  3. In the External cache group field, type afpa and apply the changes.
3. Add a member to the group with an adapter bean name of com.ibm.ws.cache.servlet.Afpa.
  1. Click Afpa > External cache group members.
  2. Click New on the External cache group members administrative console page.
  3. Select AFPA.
  4. In the Address field, enter 0 for the port number.
  5. Check Enable fast response cache adapter.
4. Add a cache policy in the cachespec.xml file for the servlet or JSP file you want to cache. Add the following property to the cache policy:
```
<property name="ExternalCache">afpa</property>
```
5. Cache objects larger then 10 MB by setting the application server custom property, protocol_http_large_data_response_buffer, to a value greater than the largest size object that will be cached.
  Refer to the Changing the values of variables referenced in BBOM0001I messages article for information on how to set the custom property.
6. It is recommended to configure the dynamic cache disk offload. This will prevent objects from being removed from the dynamic cache and hence being removed from the FRCA cache.
  Refer to the Configuring dynamic cache disk offload article for further information.
Monitor the FRCA cache.

Example

The following command displays statistics about the FRCA cache:

f bbos001,display,frca

The following command displays more detailed statistics about the FRCA cache:

f bbos001,display,frca,stats

The following command displays the contents of the FRCA cache:

f bbos001,display,frca,content

TCP/IP has a display console command that displays statistics about the FRCA cache including the number of hits and misses. For example, the following command displays TCP/IP statistics about the FRCA cache:

DISPLAY TCPIP,,NET,CACH

FRCA services can be restricted. If access is restricted, WebSphere Application Server must be granted access. The following RACF command enables access to the FRCA services:

PERMIT EZB.FRCAACCESS.SY1.TCPIP CLASS (SERVAUTH) ID (CBSYMCR1) ACCESS (READ)
SETRPOTS RACLIST (SERVAUTH) REFRESH