Serving static content faster with Fast Response Cache Accelerator

The fast response cache accelerator (FRCA) can improve the performance of the IBM® HTTP Server when serving static content, such as text and image files. Support for FRCA is on AIX® and Windows systems only.

Before you begin

The use of FRCA is discouraged, as it has been deprecated. FRCA might be removed in a future release. This release has no AFPA directives in the default configuration file.

[Windows] The afpa.sys file is no longer copied during the installation to the C:\Windows\system32\drivers\ directory.

[Windows] There is no support for any Windows 64-bit operating system. FRCA is not supported on Windows Vista, Windows 2008, or any later Windows operating systems. This is a permanent restriction.

[AIX] FRCA on AIX is only supported with the 32-bit installation of IBM HTTP Server.

Read about deprecated features in the topic about deprecated features.

Read about Fast Response Cache Accelerator operational restrictions for information on restrictions and limitations.

About this task

When FRCA is enabled, the default configuration setting allows all static files to be cached. The cache automatically loads during server operation so that individual files do not need to be listed. Use the AfpaCache directive to turn caching on or off for specific directories.

FRCA will remove files from the cache when they change to avoid serving stale content.

Procedure

Configure FRCA.

Copy the afpa.sys file from the IBM HTTP Server installation directory to the existing C:\Wndows\system32\drivers directory if it is not already present.
The afpa.sys file might already be in the directory if an earlier version of IBM HTTP Server has been previously installed on the system.

Edit the httpd.conf configuration file by commenting out the Listen directive, and adding the following statements:

##
  LoadModule ibm_afpa_module modules/mod_afpa_cache.so
  
    AfpaEnable
    AfpaCache on
    AfpaPort  80
    AfpaLogFile "/logs/afpalog" V-ECLF