SP2013 plan for upgrading the Distributed cache - with screenshots

Open SharePoint Management Shell - RUNAS Administrator

Get into the cache:

Use-CacheCluster

Check the cache cluster status:

Get-CacheHost

Verify current version is CU1: 1.0.4639.0

(Get-ItemProperty "C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\PowershellModules\DistributedCacheConfiguration\Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.Configuration.dll" -Name VersionInfo).VersionInfo.ProductVersion

 Stop the Cache on the server:

Stop-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance -Graceful

Check the cache cluster status:

Get-CacheHost

Check Output shows the current server is DOWN:

Run the .exe from: C:\APPFabricCU5

Modify the DistributedCacheService.exe.config file in C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server - copy the file first

Then add the line:

Restart the cache on the server:

$instance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {$_.TypeName -eq "Distributed Cache" -and $_.Server.Name -eq $env:computername}

$instance.Provision()

Check the cluster with Get-CacheHost:

If it comes up as status UNKNOWN: Just wait a bit and then try Get-CacheHost again

Verify version is now: 1.0.4655.0

(Get-ItemProperty "C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\PowershellModules\DistributedCacheConfiguration\Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.Configuration.dll" -Name VersionInfo).VersionInfo.ProductVersion

WAIT 5 mins before doing next server

PLAN

This is the plan I used to upgrade the Distributed cache on a Production farm with 4 Web Front Ends.

Step	Server	Action
1	SP01	Open SharePoint Management Shell - RUNAS Administrator
2	SP01	Get into the cache:
3	SP01	Check the cache cluster status:
4	SP01	Verify current version is CU1: 1.0.4639.0
5	SP01	Stop the Cache on the server:
6	SP01	Check the cache cluster status:
7	SP01	Run the .exe from: C:\APPFabricCU5
8	SP01	Modify the DistributedCacheService.exe.config file in C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server - copy the file first
9	SP01	Restart the cache on the server:
10	SP01	Check the cache cluster status:
11	SP01	Verify version is now: 1.0.4655.0
12	SP01	WAIT 5 mins before doing next server
13	SP02	Open SharePoint Management Shell - RUNAS Administrator
14	SP02	Get into the cache:
15	SP02	Check the cache cluster status:
16	SP02	Verify current version is CU1: 1.0.4639.0
17	SP02	Stop the Cache on the server:
18	SP02	Check the cache cluster status:
19	SP02	Run the .exe from: C:\APPFabricCU5
20	SP02	Modify the DistributedCacheService.exe.config file in C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server - copy the file first
21	SP02	Restart the cache on the server:
22	SP02	Check the cache cluster status:
23	SP02	Verify version is now: 1.0.4655.0
24	SP02	WAIT 5 mins before doing next server
25	SP03	Open SharePoint Management Shell - RUNAS Administrator
26	SP03	Get into the cache:
27	SP03	Check the cache cluster status:
28	SP03	Verify current version is CU1: 1.0.4639.0
29	SP03	Stop the Cache on the server:
30	SP03	Check the cache cluster status:
31	SP03	Run the .exe from: C:\APPFabricCU5
32	SP03	Modify the DistributedCacheService.exe.config file in C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server - copy the file first
33	SP03	Restart the cache on the server:
34	SP03	Check the cache cluster status:
35	SP03	Verify version is now: 1.0.4655.0
36	SP03	WAIT 5 mins before doing next server
37	SP04	Open SharePoint Management Shell - RUNAS Administrator
38	SP04	Get into the cache:
39	SP04	Check the cache cluster status:
40	SP04	Verify current version is CU1: 1.0.4639.0
41	SP04	Stop the Cache on the server:
42	SP04	Check the cache cluster status:
43	SP04	Run the .exe from: C:\APPFabricCU5
44	SP04	Modify the DistributedCacheService.exe.config file in C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server - copy the file first
45	SP04	Restart the cache on the server:
46	SP04	Check the cache cluster status:
47	SP04	Verify version is now: 1.0.4655.0
48	SP04	WAIT 5 mins before doing next server