Branchcache between 2 2012R2 servers

Question

Hi,
I found the BranchCache documentation lacking as more and more usual with MS. There's a lot of info on what it does and a lot of marketing jabbajabba but not much technical info - at least not for troubleshooting. I am having a remote site which only has
one 2012R2 server. No clients. That server holds a copy of some data in the main site. On several places there is some info on how 'well branchcache works with deduplication in 2012R2'.
My goal is to use branchcache to limit WAN bandwidth usage while syncing the data over SMB. What I have done now is enabled branchcache for network shares on the main sites share, configured it's GPO to 0ms latency, allowed hasing for all shares (just to
be sure) but still enabled Branchcache on the specific share.
On the remote site, having just one server there I enabled Branchcache in distributed mode, as I see no use in hosted mode in this environment (but please prove me wrong if needed!). It's enabled through GPO and it is in fact enabled:
PS C:\Users\<me>> get-bcstatus
BranchCacheIsEnabled        : True
BranchCacheServiceStatus    : Running
BranchCacheServiceStartType : Automatic
ClientConfiguration:
    CurrentClientMode           : DistributedCache
    HostedCacheServerList       :
    HostedCacheDiscoveryEnabled : False
ContentServerConfiguration:
    ContentServerIsEnabled : True
HostedCacheServerConfiguration:
    HostedCacheServerIsEnabled        : False
    ClientAuthenticationMode          : Domain
    HostedCacheScpRegistrationEnabled : False
NetworkConfiguration:
    ContentRetrievalUrlReservationEnabled : True
    HostedCacheHttpUrlReservationEnabled  : True
    HostedCacheHttpsUrlReservationEnabled : True
    ContentRetrievalFirewallRulesEnabled  : True
    PeerDiscoveryFirewallRulesEnabled     : True
    HostedCacheServerFirewallRulesEnabled : True
    HostedCacheClientFirewallRulesEnabled : True
HashCache:
    CacheFileDirectoryPath               : C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\PeerDistPub
    MaxCacheSizeAsPercentageOfDiskVolume : 1
    MaxCacheSizeAsNumberOfBytes          : 533169397
    CurrentSizeOnDiskAsNumberOfBytes     : 29433856
    CurrentActiveCacheSize               : 0
DataCache:
    CacheFileDirectoryPath               : C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\PeerDistRepub
    MaxCacheSizeAsPercentageOfDiskVolume : 5
    MaxCacheSizeAsNumberOfBytes          : 2665846985
    CurrentSizeOnDiskAsNumberOfBytes     : 29433874
    CurrentActiveCacheSize               : 0
    DataCacheExtensions:
Both main-site as well as remote-site volumes are deduped by the way. As I understand from the sumire info available that should in fact help branchcache as the files are already hashed. No matter how often I copy a single file from the main site, I never
get any results. I have perfmon opened with all branchcache counters, but they don't reflect a single action or byte at all. I have used https://mizitechinfo.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/step-by-step-deploy-configure-branchcache-in-windows-server-2012-r2/,
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Windows-Server-2012-R2-and-c18a6dd1 and https://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj572990 to no avail.
I am now installing Windows 8.1 Enterprise now as here and there I read you need enterprise to use this. However all client components seem to be available in 2012R2 as well.
My concrete questions:
- Is it at all possible to use 2012R2 as a client? About the same question here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/551c55ab-7e49-4a18-8315-13fcf3cab522/branchcache-client-on-a-rd-host?forum=winserverfiles
but no answer.
- What should I expect BranchCache to do together with dedupe?

Answer 1

Hi, 0 bytes:
C:\Users\<me>>netsh branchcache show status all
BranchCache Service Status:
Service Mode                 = Distributed Caching (Set By Group Policy)
Serve peers on battery power = Disabled
Current Status               = Running
Service Start Type           = Automatic
This machine is not configured as a hosted cache client.
Local Cache Status:
Maximum Cache Size        = 5% of hard disk
Active Current Cache Size = 0 Bytes
Local Cache Location      = C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Lo
cal\PeerDistRepub (Default)
Publication Cache Status:
Maximum Cache Size         = 1% of hard disk
Active Current Cache Size  = 0 Bytes
Publication Cache Location = C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\L
ocal\PeerDistPub (Default)
Networking Status:
Content Retrieval URL Reservation          = Configured     (Required)
Hosted Cache URL Reservation               = Configured     (Not Required)
Hosted Cache HTTP URL Reservation          = Configured     (Not Required)
SSL Certificate Bound To Hosted Cache Port = Not Configured (Not Required)
Content Retrieval Firewall Rules           = Enabled        (Required)
Peer Discovery Firewall Rules              = Enabled        (Required)
Hosted Cache Server Firewall Rules         = Enabled        (Not Required)
Hosted Cache Client Firewall Rules         = Enabled        (Not Required)
Warning: The Windows Firewall is Currently Disabled.
That's what I expected as get-bcstatus retrieves the same info. Both machines are 2012R2 Standard, I didn't try with Enterprise. However, all components are there and can be configured just as expected so it would be weird if it can't be used? In addition,
it's very feasible for branch-offices to have one Remote Desktop server for which branchcache could be very good.