Deploy Microsoft Connected Cache caching software to a Windows host machine

• Applies to:

  ✅ Windows 11, ✅ Microsoft Connected Cache for Enterprise and Education

This article describes how to deploy Microsoft Connected Cache for Enterprise and Education caching software to a Windows host machine.

Deploying Connected Cache to a Windows host machine requires designating a Group Managed Service Account (gMSA) or a Local User Account as the Connected Cache runtime account. This prevents tampering with the Connected Cache container and the cached content on the host machine.

Before deploying Connected Cache to a Windows host machine, ensure that the host machine meets all requirements, and that you have created and configured your Connected Cache Azure resource.

Steps to deploy Connected Cache node to Windows

Azure portal

1. Within the Azure portal, navigate to the Provisioning tab of your cache node and copy the provisioning command.

2. Download the provisioning package using the option at the top of the Cache Node Configuration page and extract the package onto the host machine. Note: The installer should be in a folder that isn't synced to OneDrive, as this will interfere with the installation process.

3. Open a PowerShell window as administrator on the host machine, then change directory to the extracted provisioning package.

4. Set the Execution Policy to Unrestricted to allow the provisioning scripts to run.

5. Create a $User environment variable containing the username of the account you intend to designate as the Connected Cache runtime account.

   For gMSAs, the value should be formatted as "Domain\Username$". For Local User accounts, $User should be formatted as "LocalMachineName\Username".

   If you're using a Local User account as the Connected Cache runtime account, you'll also need to create a PSCredential Object named $myLocalAccountCredential. Note: You'll need to apply a local security policy to permit the Local User account to Log on as a batch job.

6. Run the provisioning command on the host machine.

Azure CLI

To deploy a cache node programmatically, you'll need to use Azure CLI to get the cache node's provisioning details and then run the provisioning command on the host machine.

1. To get the cache node's provisioning details, use az mcc ent node get-provisioning-details.

   az mcc ent node get-provisioning-details --cache-node-name mycachenode --mcc-resource-name mymccresource --resource-group myrg
   

2. Save the resulting output. These values will be passed as parameters within the provisioning command.

3. Download and extract the Connected Cache provisioning package for Windows to your host machine. Note: The installer should be in a folder that isn't synced to OneDrive, as this will interfere with the installation process.

4. Open a PowerShell window as administrator on the host machine, then change directory to the extracted provisioning package.

5. Set the Execution Policy to Unrestricted to allow the provisioning scripts to run.

6. Create a $User environment variable containing the username of the account you intend to designate as the Connected Cache runtime account.

   For gMSAs, the value should be formatted as "Domain\Username$". For Local User accounts, $User should be formatted as "LocalMachineName\Username".

   If you're using a Local User account as the Connected Cache runtime account, you'll also need to create a PSCredential Object named $myLocalAccountCredential. Note: You'll need to apply a local security policy to permit the Local User account to Log on as a batch job.

7. Replace the values in the following provisioning command before running it on the host machine. Note: -mccLocalAccountCredential $myLocalAccountCredential is only needed if you're using a Local User account as the Connected Cache runtime account.

   ./provisionmcconwsl.ps1 -installationFolder c:\mccwsl01 -customerid [enter mccResourceId here] -cachenodeid [enter cacheNodeId here] -customerkey [enter customerKey here] -registrationkey [enter registration key] -cacheDrives "/var/mcc,enter drive size"  -shouldUseProxy [enter true if present, enter false if not] -proxyurl "http://[enter proxy host name]:[enter port]"  -mccRunTimeAccount $User -mccLocalAccountCredential $myLocalAccountCredential
   

Steps to point Windows client devices at Connected Cache node

Once you have successfully deployed Connected Cache to your Windows host machine, you'll need to configure your Windows client devices to request Microsoft content from the Connected Cache node.

You can do this by setting the DOCacheHost or DOCacheHostSource policies via Intune.

Next step

Verify cache node functionality

Related content

• Deploy to a Linux host machine
• Uninstall Connected Cache node