As its name implies, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 is not only a firewall but also a service that accelerates Internet access by using an excellent caching functionality. The ISA Server cache stores frequently used URL objects (i.e., the content associated with URLs) in memory and in a cache file (or files) on ISA Server's hard disk. ISA Server caches requests for both forward proxying (i.e., for internal clients requesting external URL objects) and reverse proxying (i.e., external clients requesting internal published URL objects), but this two-article series covers only ISA Server's forward proxying capabilities. In Part 1, I explain ISA Server's caching behavior and show you how to configure cache routing rules and cache settings. In Part 2, I'll explain ISA Server's active caching feature, prepopulating the cache, advanced cache options, monitoring the cache, and scripts for working with the cache.
Setting the Cache Location and Size
You must install ISA Server in Cache mode or in Integrated mode to take advantage of the cache. During installation, the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server Setup dialog box prompts you to select drives for the cache. You can use only NTFS partitions. By default, ISA Server creates a 100MB cache on the largest NTFS partition when that partition has more than 150MB of space available, but the dialog box lets you change the cache size and location (the minimal cache size is 5MB). Microsoft recommends a cache of at least 100MB plus 0.5MB for each potential proxy client. . . .
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