Caching API Support in Windows Azure Caching
Windows Azure Caching and Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server share a common API set for working with caches, but there are some differences between the two. This topic provides an overview of the API differences between Windows Azure Caching and on-premise Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server. For more information on Caching concepts that differ between on-premises and in the cloud, see Differences Between Caching On-Premises and in the Cloud.
The following information provides more details on the support for specific APIs in the Windows Azure SDK.
API Support in Windows Azure Caching
Windows Azure Caching comes in two flavors: Windows Azure Shared Caching and Windows Azure Caching on Windows Azure roles. Shared Caching is the multitenant cache offering that provides several caching tiers from 128 MB to 4 GB. In addition to memory and cost differences, each tier varies in other resource quotas such as bandwidth, transactions, and client connections. Caching on roles provides caching by using a portion of the memory from the virtual machines instances for the role that hosts Caching. Role-based Caching supports more of the Caching APIs than Shared Caching.
 Note |
|---|
| For more information on Shared Caching and Caching, see About Windows Azure Shared Caching and About Windows Azure Caching. |
The following table provides support information for Caching classes, properties, or methods. These items are highlighted because they have a supportability note for either Shared Caching or role-based Caching. In many cases, an unsupported item in Shared Caching is supported in Caching on Windows Azure roles. The classes, properties, and methods listed in the following table are in the Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching namespace.
| API | Shared Caching | Role-based Caching |
|---|---|---|
|
DataCache.AddCacheLevelBulkCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.AddCacheLevelCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.AddCacheLevelCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.AddItemLevelCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.AddRegionLevelCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.ClearRegion |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.CreateRegion |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetObjectsByAllTags |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetObjectsByAnyTag |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetObjectsByTag |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetObjectsInRegion |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetSystemRegionName |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.GetSystemRegions |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.RemoveCallback |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCache.RemoveRegion |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCacheFactory.GetCache |
Partial - Named caches are not supported, so the only valid parameter to this method is |
Supported |
|
DataCacheLocalCacheProperties constructor |
Partial - The DataCacheLocalCacheInvalidationPolicy class must be set to TimeoutBased. Notifications are not supported. |
Supported |
|
DataCacheNotificationProperties class |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCacheOperationDescriptor class |
Not supported |
Supported |
|
DataCacheSecurity constructor |
Use the constructor overload that takes a single string value of the ACS key. The ACS key is obtained during provisioning. |
Not required |
|
ICustomProvider interface |
Not supported |
Not supported |
|
DataCacheStoreProvider class |
Read-through and write-behind are not supported. |
Read-through and write-behind are not supported. |
|
Important |
|---|
| The previous list highlights the most important differences in the API, but it is not exhaustive. For example, there are many methods that have an overload which takes a region parameter. These overloads are not supported for Shared Caching; although in this example, these overloads are supported on role-based Caching. |
See Also
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