Introduction to administering FCCs

The FMS client cache (FCC) is a private user-level cache. It provides a high-performance cache for both downloaded and uploaded files. The FCC provides proxy interfaces to client programs and connectivity to the server caches and volumes. Files captured by the FCC do not change for download or upload, for neither whole files nor partial files. All file copies and file segment copies are identical throughout the system and are never updated. New file versions are checked into the system with a new GUID, but a file with an existing GUID in the FMS system never changes. Therefore, there are no issues with file change or cache consistency. FCCs provide access to the transient volume for the business server in a Teamcenter two-tier configuration. The business server writes or reads temporary files directly to a disk directory. The rich clients access those files using the standard FCC interfaces. This approach provides client independence from the system configuration and ensures that client programs operate the same in both two-tier and four-tier mode for file access functions. TCCS considerations As of Teamcenter 9.0, FCC runs within the Teamcenter client communication system (TCCS) container, which also contains the TcServerProxy and TcModelEventManager applications. Starting, stopping, and restarting any of these applications cause the entire TCCS service (including all applications within the container) to start, stop, or restart. Stopping an FCC It is important that you shut down TCCS/FCC in a prescribed manner. Not following one of several recommended methods can result in FCC and TCCS errors. Siemens Digital Industries Software recommends shutting down TCCS/FCC on Windows systems using the using the TCCS system tray icon. Doing so closes TCCS and all of the applications it contains. (Ensure the Windows system tray settings are configured to allow the TCCS icon to appear in the system tray.) You are strongly advised not to use an operating system kill command to shut down a TCCS/FCC instance unless safer methods have failed. Restarting an FCC You may need to restart a TCCS/FCC instance when: You have changed FCC cache parameters that require a restart. For information about which cache parameters require an FCC restart, see Elements requiring a restart of an FCC. A TCCS/FCC process executing in memory is not responding to pipe connection attempts. For example, when all of the following events occur: The FMS_HOME\bin\fccstat -status command reports that the FCC is offline. The FMS_HOME\bin\fccstat -start command cannot start the FCC. The FMS_HOMEstartfcc.bat reports that the FCC cache is locked. The TCCS container needs restarting for non-FCC reasons. Reconfiguring an FCC There are three ways to reconfigure an FCC. Each method involves a different level of user interaction and a different set of restrictions. WAN acceleration WAN acceleration improves file download performance across WAN assets by splitting larger files into smaller pieces, downloading the pieces simultaneously, and reconstructing the files in the cache before passing the file to the client. See Enabling and tuning WAN acceleration for instructions on implementing WAN acceleration.