Author Integration with Dispatcher Steps & Advantages

Question

Hi Team,

Recently adobe reviewed all our environments and recommended author also need to integrated with dispatcher ,even though we have NLB (Network Load Balancer to access AEM author/s servers ) & Publisher already integrated the Dispatcher

Kindly let me know steps how to integrate author with Dispatcher & Benefits or advantages to integrate author with Dispatcher

Currently publish server integrated with dispatcher as below (dispatcher. Any)

# The load will be balanced among these render instances
/renders
{
/rend01
{
# Hostname or IP of the render
/hostname "localhost"
# Port of the render
/port "4503"
# Connect timeout in milliseconds, 0 to wait indefinitely
# /timeout "0"
}
}

Regards

Vara

aanchal-sikka · Accepted Answer

Hello @varaande

While utilizing a dispatcher in front of an AEM author instance is an option, its advantages are somewhat constrained:

- Effective caching is challenging, given the dynamic nature of content on the author instance. There's a heightened risk of failing to trigger cache flushes, potentially leading to outdated content being presented on the author environment.

- Nevertheless, the dispatcher can still be employed to apply extended caching headers to relatively static content, such as product JavaScript and CSS files.

- It can provides extra layer of security

In AEM as a Cloud Service (AEM CS), a dispatcher is not employed in front of the AEM author instance, primarily due to its limited benefits. Additionally, it's essential to consider the security aspect of using a dispatcher in your AEM setup.

For setting up author, please refer to https://github.com/adobe/aem-project-archetype/tree/develop/src/main/archetype/dispatcher.ams.

It has samples for author specific files recommended by Adobe

You roughly will need author-specific:

- vhost

- Farm

- Filter rules

- Caching rules

- redirections if any