ISPPlanet Cache Review Series - Compaq TaskSmart

Four-Step Setup
The CacheFlow 545 is housed in a 2U 19" rack-mountable enclosure. The fixed front panel sports a pair of LEDs; all ports and power switch are accessible from the rear. There are no hot-swappable drives or power supplies in this model, but free slots are available for a total of four Ethernet adapters.

Our CacheFlow 545 was accompanied by a single manual and console cable. Unlike other caches we've tested, there were no floppies or CDs. A current image and on-line manual are preloaded; upgrade images and manuals can be downloaded from CacheFlow's web site. The manual is one big "soup to nuts" handbook: it covers initial setup, CLI command syntax, GUI layout, even WCCP configuration and client access log format. Supplementary documentation —like configuration instructions for L4 switches and filters—can be obtained from CacheFlow's WebPower Online Support site.

 

The console cable must be used for initial setup; thus, drop-ship boxes must be pre-configured rather than booted from a config floppy. Setup is a simple four-step interview (right): respond to prompts for IP address, mask, gateway, DNS, administrative login, password, and "enable" secret. We were running in under 10 minutes; nothing further is required for a basic config.

Thereafter, all management is accomplished from a browser, although a console or Telnet can be used by admins who prefer a CLI. The CacheFlow's IOS-like CLI is easily navigated, accepts abbreviations, offers command completion help, and includes a loopback command to troubleshoot access to any URL (left).