Determining the number of GRM servers and agent caches needed

Number of GRM servers

Network Appliance recommends that you deploy multiple GRM servers to avoid interruption of your content delivery service if a GRM server becomes unavailable.

Determining the types of GRM agent caches you need

When you determine the types of GRM agent caches that you need, consider the reasons for deploying center and edge caches, which are summarized in the following table.

You need...	If...
A center cache (deployed in a center group, that is, in a data center)	You need to accommodate clients that are not members of edge groups. You need a failover mechanism for content delivery service if all edge caches in an edge group fail. You are deploying edge caches in stages and need to have a center cache handle content delivery service until edge caches are deployed.
An edge cache (deployed in an edge group)	You want NetCache appliances in your edge groups as part of your global request routing scheme.
A single GRM agent cache identified as both a center cache and an edge cache	You need the capabilities of both a center cache and an edge cache to provide failover from one edge group to another.

You need...

If...

A center cache
(deployed in a center group, that is, in a data center)

You need to accommodate clients that are not members of edge groups.
You need a failover mechanism for content delivery service if all edge caches in an edge group fail.
You are deploying edge caches in stages and need to have a center cache handle content delivery service until edge caches are deployed.

An edge cache
(deployed in an edge group)

You want NetCache appliances in your edge groups as part of your global request routing scheme.

A single GRM agent cache identified as both a center cache and an edge cache

You need the capabilities of both a center cache and an edge cache to provide failover from one edge group to another.

Your Network Appliance sales engineer can help you determine how many NetCache appliances you need for your GRM deployment and the models you need. No limit exists for the number of center and edge caches that a GRM server can support.

Licensing

Each GRM server and center and edge cache requires a license. Contact your Network Appliance sales engineer or the Installed Base Group at ibg@netapp.com to purchase a license.