Section A: Planning summary for routing configuration

Considerations for configuring basic routing support

Whether you need to add static routes

You need to enter static routes in the NetCache appliance routing table only if your default gateway is not aware of some addresses and you are not able to route packets to those addresses through RIP or IRDP.

If you decide to use static routes, disable the Fast IP option (Setup tab > Network > General). The Fast IP option overwrites any static routes that you have specified.

Setup tab > Network > Routing > Static Routes tab

Whether you want NetCache to listen to Router Discovery messages

If your routers are configured to support IRDP, Network Appliance recommends that you enable Route Discovery. Enabling Route Discovery eliminates the need to manually configure the default gateway.

Setup tab > Network > Routing > General tab > Route Discovery Enable option

This option is disabled by default.

Considerations when a firewall exists

Whether you need to configure NetCache to route traffic through a firewall

If your NetCache appliance is outside a firewall, consider whether you want to use ACLs to ensure that clients and caches outside your organization cannot use this cache to resolve requests (thereby using your bandwidth).

If your firewall is a nontransparent firewall acting as a proxy, you must configure the NetCache appliance as part of a hierarchy.

For ACL configuration: Setup tab > Access Control > Access Control Lists

For hierarchy configuration: Setup tab > Hierarchy

Controlling interfaces over which NetCache sends out and accepts traffic

Whether you need to restrict the NetCache interfaces through which NetCache accepts client requests

Typically, NetCache accepts client requests through any interface and IP address. You can add a level of security by using the Listen Addresses option to restrict the IP addresses, and therefore the interfaces, on which NetCache accepts client requests.

Setup tab > Network > General > Listen Addresses option

Do not use this option if the appliance is configured for transparency or NetCache takeover.

Whether you need to balance traffic from servers to the NetCache appliances over NetCache interfaces

Some organizations, such as ISPs, need to balance responses from servers across multiple lines. By balancing traffic across the NetCache outbound interfaces, server-to-NetCache traffic is balanced over multiple lines.

Setup tab > Network > General > Load Balancing Interfaces option

Whether you want to restrict the interfaces from which NetCache can communicate with servers

Disable outgoing interfaces in the following circumstances:

• You want to devote an interface for administrative purposes instead of using it for regular traffic.
• One interface of a NetCache appliance is outside a firewall and another interface is inside the firewall. Typically, you do not want to use the interface inside the firewall for traffic to outside servers.

Setup tab > Network > General Disabled Outgoing Interfaces option

Considerations for high-bandwidth, long-haul connections

If you have a high-bandwidth, long-haul connection, whether TCP large windows configuration would be beneficial

TCP large windows improves performance over high-bandwidth, long-haul connections by using the capacity of the pipe more effectively.

Setup tab > Network > General > TCP Large Windows Enable and TCP Large Windows List