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Microsoft Connected Cache for Enterprise and Education Requirements

This article details the requirements and recommended specifications for using Microsoft Connected Cache for Enterprise and Education.

Licensing requirements

  • Valid Azure subscription: To use the Microsoft Connected Cache for Enterprise and Education service, you'll need a valid Azure subscription that can be used to provision the necessary Azure resources.

    If you don't have an Azure subscription already, you can create an Azure pay-as-you-go account, which requires a credit card for verification purposes. For more information, see the Azure Free Account FAQ.

    The Azure resources used for Connected Cache will be free to you during this public preview.

  • E3/E5 or A3/A5 license: Your organization must have one of the following license subscriptions for each device that downloads content from a Connected Cache node:

Cache node host machine requirements

General requirements

  • Any previous installations of Connected Cache must be uninstalled from the host machine before installing the latest version of Connected Cache.
  • These listed endpoints must be reachable by the host machine.
  • The host machine must have no other services / applications utilizing port 80 (for example, Configuration Manager or a distribution point).
  • The host machine must have at least 4 GB of free memory.

Additional requirements for Windows host machines

  • The Windows host machine must be using Windows 11 or Windows Server 2022 with the latest cumulative update applied.
  • The Windows host machine must support nested virtualization. Ensure that any security settings that may restrict nested virtualization are not enabled, such as "Trusted launch" in Azure VMs.
  • The Windows host machine must have WSL 2 installed. You can install this on Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 by logging on as a local administrator and running the PowerShell command wsl.exe --install --no-distribution in an elevated PowerShell window.

Additional requirements for Linux host machines

  • The Linux host machine must be using one of the following operating systems:
    • Ubuntu 22.04
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.* or 9.*
      • If using RHEL, the default container engine (Podman) must be replaced with Moby
  • Multiple network interface cards (NICs) on a single Connected Cache host machine isn't supported.
  • 1 Gbps NIC is the minimum speed recommended but any NIC is supported.
  • The NIC and BIOS should support SR-IOV for best performance.

Based on your enterprise configuration, it's recommended to deploy your Connected Cache nodes to host machines that meet the following recommended hardware specifications:

Component Branch office Small / medium enterprise Large enterprise
CPU cores 4 8 16
Memory 8 GB, 4 GB free 16 GB, 4 GB free 32 GB, 4 GB free
Disk storage 100 GB free 500 GB free 2x 200-500 GB free
NIC 1 Gbps 5 Gbps 10 Gbps