Creating a cache is a space efficient, cost effective, and high-performance way to bring your datasets closer to clients requiring access. FlexCache is NetApp ONTAP’s remote caching capability that simplifies file distribution, reduces WAN latency, and lowers WAN bandwidth costs. It enables access to data across multiple sites, such as well as branch office access to corporate datasets.. When you create a FlexCache, initially only metadata of the origin file system is copied to the FlexCache. Because the metadata is much smaller than the overall dataset, it is copied to the FlexCache much quicker than a full copy and consumes only a fraction of the capacity.
What FlexCache is
A FlexCache volume is a sparsely-populated volume on a local file system that is backed by a volume on a different, optionally remote, file system. FlexCache provides access to data in the backing volume (also called the origin volume) without requiring that a full copy of the data in the source (origin) volume. The source volume is referred to as the origin volume, and the destination volume is referred to as the FlexCache volume.
Because the cached data on the FlexCache volume has to be ejected when the data is changed, FlexCache volumes work best for workflows in which the data is being read a large majority of the time, and does not change very often.
You can use FlexCache with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP in the following configurations:
| Origin volume | FlexCache volume |
|---|---|
|
On-premise NetApp ONTAP |
FSx for ONTAP |
|
FSx for ONTAP |
On-premise NetApp ONTAP |
| FSx for ONTAP | FSx for ONTAP |
Creating a FlexCache volume
Creating a FlexCache volume from an origin volume involves completing the following high-level tasks:
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Gather source and destination logical interfaces (LIFs).
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Establish cluster peering between the origin and cache file systems, or clusters.
Create a storage virtual machine (SVM) peering relationship between the origin and cache SVMs.
Create the FlexCache volume on the cache SVM.
Mount the FlexCache volume on the clients requiring access.
For more information, including detailed instructions on how to successfully accomplish each of these tasks, see Creating a FlexCache.
