Distributed Cache and AppFabric Cache

If you are having any issues with the distributed cache or appfabric cache in your farm, do yourself a favor and read/follow this article before ANY others. Much more insight and assistance in repairing either/or/both of these services.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sambetts/archive/2014/03/19/sharepoint-2013-distributed-cache-appfabric-troubleshooting.aspx

Thanks Sam Betts!

Additional noteworthy articles on Distributed/AppFabric Cache:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/besidethepoint/archive/2013/03/27/appfabric-caching-and-sharepoint-2.aspx

SharePoint 2013 User Profile Synchronization Timer Schedules

After much research and trials/tribulations I think I now have a grasp on the AD User Profile security and attribute update timing. There are multiple jobs, each of which play a part. In this example, I also list a scheduled task for updating User Profile Pictures. This is a powershell script which forces the photo store to update in scenarios where users' pictures are uploaded to Active Directory as opposed to through SharePoint MySites.

User Profile Synchronization Timer Schedules

With the below profile and user token synchronization settings, when changes are made to user’s  account, there will be a synchronization delay of up to 35 minutes for the change to reflect in the system.  (Security settings update every 10 minutes; profile attribute changes update within 35 minutes; and audiences within 15 minutes)

Job/Service	Description	Run frequency
User Profile to SharePoint Full Synchronization	Syncronizes users’ AD/UME attributes whether those users’ attributes changed or not.	Weekly – Saturdays @3 am cst
User Profile Incremental Synchronization	Synchronizes users’ AD/UME attributes which is listed in “Change log” in AD.	Minutes – every 30 minutes
User Profile to SharePoint Quick Synchronization	Pushes attributes from User Profile Service to SharePoint site	Minutes – every 5 minutes
User Profile Audience Compilation	Updates memberships of defined	Minutes – every 15 minutes
WindowsTokenLifetime (windows based authentication)	Amount of time a user’s token will live before refreshing (thus receiving updated permissions)	Minutes – every 10 minutes
LogonTokenCacheExpirationWindow	Minimum lifetime of a token returned from the logon token cache	Minutes – every 5 minutes
ContentService TokenTimeout	Amount of time before a user token times out	Daily – every 24 hours
Profile Picture Update	Amount of time before a user’s profile picture change is updated (run via task scheduler on primary SharePoint application server)	Minutes – every 30 minutes

Full User Profile Synchronization only needs occur under below scenarios and is therefore only scheduled to run weekly:

1.            Configured property mappings

2.            Change users OU

3.            Change the filter of Sync Connection in SP