Prefilling streaming media content

Prefilling described

You can download streaming content into the cache so that clients can access streaming media content from within their own network (called prefilling). Prefilling the cache ensures that each cache contains the same streaming media content. An additional benefit is that streams are delivered quickly and with high quality because they are stored closer to clients.

Use the confill command to prefill

Use the CLI confill command to prefill the cache. The confill command downloads an origin server file and caches it to disk so all clients can access it. You can use HTTP or FTP to download the source file. If you use HTTP, the origin server must be an HTTP server and not a streaming server using HTTP to stream the file.

Content fill example

To pull content into the cache, you must enter the confill command and the source URL and target URL. For example:

confill http://foo.com/video.rm rtsp://foo2.com/video.rm

In the preceding example, the source file located at http://foo.com/video.rm is cached to disk with the URL rtsp://foo2.com/video.rm.

FTP example

The following example shows content fill using FTP:

confill ftp://username:password@foo.com//video.rm 
rtsp://foo2.com/video.rm

Syntax of the confill command

The command syntax for the confill command is as follows:

confill [-l {<lock_age> | inf}] [-m {<max_age | inf}] <source URL> 
<target URL>

The following text describes the elements in the preceding syntax example:

-l <lock_age>

Specifies the period, in seconds, that the inserted streaming media file will be stored in the cache as a nonejectable object.

-l inf

Specifies infinite lock age. The inserted streaming media file will remain in the cache until manually ejected by the eject command. See Ejecting locked objects from the cache for more information.

-m <max_age>

Specifies that the cache will never verify with the origin server that the inserted cached content is current (although it will contact the origin server to resolve misses).

-m inf

Specifies that the cache will never verify with the origin server that the inserted cached content is current (though it will contact the origin to resolve misses).

<source_URL>

Required element that specifies the source URL for the inserted streaming media content. This variable indicates the server that has the streaming media content to be inserted into the cache.

<origin_server_URL>

Required element that specifies the target URL. The target URL is the URL from which clients will request content from. Clients that request streaming content from this URL are served the inserted streaming media content.

Ejecting locked objects from the cache

The eject command can be used to eject any content from the cache, including content locked by the confill command. Ejected content cannot be used to satisfy client requests.

The syntax of the eject command is as follows:

eject <target_url>

For example:

eject rtsp://foo2.com/video.rm

The preceding command ejects the content associated with the following streaming media URL:

rtsp://foo2.com/video.rm