Set up content cache clients, peers or parents on Mac
Content caches can have clients that use the content cache, peer content caches and parent content caches.
Set up clients
On larger networks it is important to ensure that a content cache receives requests only from clients that are nearby. You can specify ranges of client IP addresses that a content cache is best positioned to serve, and optionally make it exclusive to those clients by choosing the “devices using custom local networks” option.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Sharing. (You may need to scroll down.)
Click next to Content Caching.
Press and hold the Option key and click Advanced Options, then click Clients.
Click the “Cache content for” pop-up menu, then choose one of the following options:
Devices using the same public IP address
Devices using the same local networks
Devices using custom local networks
Devices using custom local networks with fallback
If you chose “devices using custom local networks” or “devices using custom local networks with fallback”, click , then enter a range of local IP addresses of clients.
Repeat for any additional IP address ranges you want to enter.
Click the “My local networks” pop-up menu, then choose one of the following:
Use one public IP address
Use custom public IP addresses
If you chose “use custom public IP addresses”, click , then enter a range of local IP addresses.
Repeat for any additional IP address ranges you want to enter.
After you enter the address ranges, if you need to create a DNS TXT record, click the DNS Configuration button. See Use DNS TXT records with content caches for Apple devices in the Apple Platform Deployment guide.
Click OK, then click Done.
If you make changes to the client settings, you might want to restart the client devices. Client devices automatically discover changes, but it takes some time. However, if you restart the client devices, they discover the changes immediately.
Set up peers
You can use multiple content caches for your network. Content caches on the same network are called peers, and they share content with each other.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Sharing. (You may need to scroll down.)
Click next to Content Caching.
Press and hold the Option key and click Advanced Options, then click Peers.
Click the “Share content with” pop-up menu, then choose one of the following options:
Content caches using the same public IP address
Content caches using the same local networks
Content caches using custom local networks
If you chose “content caches using custom local networks”, click , then enter a range of local IP addresses of peer content caches.
Repeat for any additional IP address ranges you want to enter.
Click OK.
Set up parents
You can arrange your content caches in a hierarchy. These content caches are called parents, and they provide content to their children.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Sharing. (You may need to scroll down.)
Click next to Content Caching.
Press and hold the Option key and click Advanced Options, then click Parents.
Click , then enter the local IP address of a parent content cache.
Repeat for any additional IP addresses you want to enter.
Select a parent policy.
Click OK.