Selectively Clearing One Site from Proxy Cache - Nov. 12, 2004

Clear Cache for ALL Web Sites

It is often necessary to clear the proxy cache data for a web site in order to ensure that you do not have corrupted files, or often because you have just made that URL non-cacheable. Unfortunately, the standard method (UNLOAD PROXY, LOAD PROXY -CC) clears ALL cache nodes, and is slow, and sometimes unloading PROXY.NLM causes a problem.

Clear Cache for One URL by Re-Downloading It

Thanks to Mike Currin for providing a simple idea: Use option 22 in the proxy console to re-download the web site of interest. Go to the proxy console screen on the server, and select option 22. Type in the URL of interest, and use all the default values (or others that you prefer). This should bring in a new page. Option 22 will not work unless you select 'Enable Scheduled Downloads' in NWADMN32, BorderManager Setup, HTTP Proxy Caching, Scheduled Download.

Alternate Method?

Here is a method that *might* work for you (I don't know if it is browser dependent, or if it works on all versions of BorderManager).

In your browser, prepend 1@ in front of the URL.

Example: To refresh the old www.novell.com page in the cache, enter http://1@www.novell.com in the browser.

Clear/Update A URL's IP Address

Nov. 12, 2004: Sometimes you know that the IP address of a web site has changed. Perhaps it is your own web site, and you have just moved it? If you see in Proxy Console, Option 12, that the wrong IP address is cached, you need to change it. The blunt-force technique to get the old data out of cache (which includes a cached DNS address) is to a) unload proxy, b) delete the sys:etc\pxyhosts files, and c) load proxy -cc.

But here is a better way to update the IP address: Simply put the URL and new IP address in the BorderManager SYS:\ETC\HOSTS file, and wait about 60 seconds. The proxy should see a change in the HOSTS file, reread it, and use the new entry. Option 12 on the proxy console screen will verify the new address being pulled from the HOSTS file. Then you can go back into the HOSTS file and remove that entry.



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