Module 10 - ESD Best Practices

1. Module 10 - ESD Best Practices

2. Objectives After completing this module, you will be able to apply best practices for using the following: • HTTP content delivery • NetStorage • Download Manager • Large File Optimization • Authentication

3. Best Practices for HTTP Content Delivery To maximize origin offload and improve performance, follow these best practices: • Use NetStorage to store large files. • Increase the cacheability of site objects and pages. • When refreshing content using the CCU invalidate the content instead of purging it.

4. Best Practices for HTTP Content Delivery (Cont…) • Other best practices: • Optimize the number of DNS entries on a page. • Use separate hostnames based on protocol. • Compress text based content. • Enable persistent connections.

5. Security Related Best Practices for Using NetStorage • To improve security: • Akamai strongly recommends that you use SSH based access. • Consider restricting IP access to your account to a set of specific IPs. • Consider restricting user access to only certain NetStorage directories or files that are relevant to those users. • If required, provide read-only access to users based on their user names.

6. Best Practices for Using NetStorage • Use appropriate file paths. Be aware of the following restrictions: • Path components cannot begin with a period. • Path characters must be in 8-bit characters 32-255, inclusive. • Total path length must be 800 characters or less • Individual path components must be 200 characters or less • Use appropriate directory structures: • Ideal directory structure is about two to three levels deep with each directory containing no more than 2000 files.

7. Best Practices for Using NetStorage (Cont…) • Be aware of the specific MIME types and extensions that NetStorage is configured to support. • If your origin uses case insensitive environments, use the Force Case feature on Akamai EdgeControl. • Avoid multiple simultaneous logins to your NetStorage account. • To simplify account management, avoid creating numerous accounts. • When using NetStorage to post UGC, consider using Akamai edge servers to dynamically create the directory structure and distribute content across multiple directories.

8. Using Multiple CP Codes for Reporting • Akamai recommends using multiple CP codes in the following scenarios: • When you want to run reports for specific products or hostnames. • When you want to evaluate download completion rates with and without Akamai DLM. Use four CP codes: • All traffic for DLM binary, DLM HTML, and Head requests • All requests from user agent 'Akamai DLM’ • All requests from user agent 'Akamai DLM’ and not range requests • All GET requests from user agents other than Akamai DLM

9. Using Multiple CP Codes for Reporting (Cont…) • Akamai recommends using multiple CP codes in the following scenarios: • When you want to track traffic by paid downloads and free downloads, that is, with or without authentication. • For tracking information by region when you are using EdgeScape. • This can help you evaluate factors such as origin offload and download completion rates by region or country.

10. Best Practices for Using DLM • Configure DLM such that the download launches in a pop-up window. • If you are using DLM 2.0, configure it such that the download must be initiated manually by end users. • Provide a link as a backup to download files directly, as primary download through DLM may fail. • If your HTML that contains DLM 3.0 leverages HTTPS, implement DLM 3.0 as a pop-up that does not use HTTPS.

11. Best Practices for Using LFO • Large files on your origin should be identifiable separately from small files. • With LFO enabled, do not update large files in place on the origin – always rename files that you update and publish a new URL. • If your download customers use IE, enable the MSIE Work Around option in Configuration Manager. • Akamai strongly recommends using NetStorage as origin for LFO.

12. Best Practices for Using Authentication • When to Use Remote Authentication? • When your site uses single sign on. • If you have high security and/or audit requirements – since tokens can be revoked. • Caveats: • If you are delivering large files or using DLM, there will be increased load on your authenticating origin. • As each range request must be authenticated there may be download delays. • Possible Solution: • Authenticate only a part of the file.

13. Best Practices for Using Authentication (Cont…) • Authentication tokens can be shared within their expiration time window. • You can use IP addresses while creating the hash for the token – not generally recommended as IPs can change. • URL-based tokens are much easier to share. Where possible, use cookie based tokens. • Using short expiration windows will not work with large files or with DLM. • To overcome this, authenticate only a limited number of range requests.