Wednesday 7 December 2011

SharePoint Office Web Apps Cache Storage

Overview: Office Web App is used to work on word, power point and excel document without the need to have the client applications for each of these file types on the client machine. The documents are rendered in the browser for editing.
Problem: My default content database that is hosting my root site collection for the web application grows bigger than the 200GB recommended limit for a content database.

Initial Hypothesis: When a "rendition of the presentation" is available in the cache (stored in a content database) SharePoint will use the rendition to show the document. If there is no “document” in the cache, the appropriate service builds the “rendition”, displays it and adds it to the cache.

The cache is stored in the default content database. From Technet “Content databases also contain the Microsoft Office Web Apps cache, if Office Web Apps have been deployed. Only one cache is created per Web application. If multiple site collections that are stored in different content databases have Office Web Apps activated, they will all use the same cache. You can configure the size of cache, the expiration period, and the location.”
Resolution:
Database location for the OWA cache (a SharePoint content database). You can isolate the Office Web Apps cache from other content:
  • Create a separate content database, set it to contain only one site collection.
  • Configure the Office Web Apps cache to use that database.
Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee837422.aspx

Read More:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431685.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678868.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee837422.aspx

Other: I have used OWA for thumbnails on a past project for search. So when search results return, I get a thumb nail of the word or PowerPoint document in the results. OWA is pretty heavy and it appears that it will have to convert all documents that don’t have a rendition of the presentation in the cache when a search is performed. This doesn’t seem a good use of resources and a potential bottleneck.  Have I understood how FAST generates preview?  Pls leave your comments.

The Microsoft Word Web App and Microsoft PowerPoint Web App generate a series of images to create a rendition of a document that is viewable in the browser. If Microsoft Silverlight 3 is installed, XAML is used to create the rendition.” - Technet

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