Setting up content distribution resources

Creating sources

About sources

Sources are directories on local, mapped, or mounted drives that contain the content you want to distribute to NetCache destinations. Each source is designated in ContentDirector by a Universal Resource Locator (URL), for example: http://www.oursite.com. The URL enables NetCaches to recognize and store the content.

Recommendation on setting up sources

Set up sources as directories whenever possible, rather than as specific files. This allows you to eject files from the destination NetCache appliances by deleting them from the source directory in ContentDirector. If you select individual sources as files, ContentDirector cannot trigger an eject by NetCache.

Who can create sources

Only system administrators can create sources.

Source protocols

ContentDirector recognizes the following protocols for sources:

Protocol	Name
http://	HTML
mms://	Microsoft Media Streaming
rtsp://	Real-Time Streaming Protocol

Using a filer as a source location

For increased performance and storage efficiency, consider using a Network Appliance^TM filer as a source location instead of a conventional server:

Data input and output are much faster on the filer than on a conventional server.
Filer snapshots can replace the shadow copies of content that ContentDirector would otherwise store in the workspace.

Before you can use a filer as a source location for sources, you need to mount the filer and create a separate volume for each source. See your filer documentation for more information.

Note
Using a filer as a source location limits the number of jobs you can create for each source. Filers have a limit of 31 snapshots per volume. Each job uses three snapshots while it is running, and two while it is idle. This means for each source you can have a maximum of ten jobs running simultaneously, or 15 jobs in an idle state. If you exceed this limit, the job will fail.

Note
When using a filer as a source location, the filer must open permissions so the core application server can rsh to it. To enable these permissions, create the following entry on the filer in /etc/hosts.equiv: <hostname or IP address of core application server> <username> where the username is the one specified in the advanced dialog for filers. Note the space between the first and second parts of the entry.

Filer permissions for ContentDirector

To set up ContentDirector sources on a filer, your operating system must grant ContentDirector permission to access the filer. Under Solaris the core application machine must have root access. Under Windows there are several possibilities for setting up permissions, depending on your domain configuration and how you run ContentDirector. For detailed instructions, see Appendix E, Mapped Drive Permissions.

Creating a source

To create a source, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	Log in as a system administrator.
2	On the menu bar at the top of the ContentDirector main screen, click Sources > New.
3	Next to Scheme, click the drop-down menu and select the protocol.
4	In the Host name field, enter a unique name for this source. The host name must have at minimum a domain, for example: http://oursite. It may contain a full domain name with a directory path, for example: http://www.oursite.com/products/new. Note Path designations for sources cannot be strings greater than 1028 characters in length.
5	To select a source location on a filer, click Filer. If you do not plan to use a filer, skip this step. Enter the host name, volume name, and remote username. To use filer snapshots instead of workspace copies, click Optimize for Filer. Click OK to save the filer settings and return to the New Source screen.
6	Click Browse and select the source folder for the site content, then OK to select the location. Note If you selected a filer as a source location, all content that you plan to distribute for that source must be on the filer for jobs to succeed.
7	Select the directory that includes all the content for this source. You can split up the content into subdirectories as necessary when you create jobs.
8	Click OK to save the new source.
9	The new source appears in the Network view of the main screen, on the Sources tab.