# Step 1: Create your cache
<a name="getting-started-step1"></a>

Next, you create your cache. For this exercise, there are instructions about creating a data repository association to link to an Amazon S3 bucket when you create the File Cache.

1. Open the AWS Management Console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/).

1. Choose **Caches** in the navigation pane.

1. On the dashboard, choose **Create cache** to start the cache creation wizard.

   Begin your configuration with the **Cache details** section.  
![\[The Cache details screen, where you can enter cache parameters.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/fsx/latest/FileCacheGuide/images/cache-create-standard.png)

1. For **Cache name**, enter a name for your cache. We recommend using a name that helps you to identify and manage the cache in the future. You can use a maximum of 256 Unicode letters, white spaces, numbers, and these special characters: \$1 - = . \$1 : /

1. For **Cache storage capacity**, set the amount of storage capacity for your cache, in TiB. Set this to a value of 1.2 TiB, 2.4 TiB, or increments of 2.4 TiB.

   Additionally, metadata storage capacity of 2.4 TiB is provisioned for all caches.

1. The amount of **Throughput capacity** is calculated by multiplying the cache storage capacity by the throughput tier. For example, for a 1.2 TiB cache, it's `1200` MBps; for a 9.6 TiB cache, it's `9600` MBps.

   **Throughput capacity** is the sustained speed at which the file server that hosts your cache can serve data.

1. In the **Network & security** section, provide networking and security group information:
   + For **Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)**, choose the Amazon VPC that you want to associate with your cache.
   + For **VPC Security Groups**, the ID for the default security group for your VPC should already be added.
   + For **Subnet**, choose any value from the list of available subnets.

1. In the **Encryption** section, for **Encryption key**, choose the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encryption key that protects your cache's data at rest.

1. For **Tags - *optional***, you can enter a key and value to add tags to your cache. A tag is a case-sensitive key-value pair that helps you to manage, filter, and search for your cache.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. In the **Data repository associations (DRAs)** section, there are no DRAs linking your cache to Amazon S3 or NFS data repositories. For detailed information about linking data repositories to Amazon File Cache, see [To link an S3 bucket or NFS file system while creating a cache (console)](create-linked-repo.md#link-new-repo-console).

   The following instructions describe how to link your cache to an existing Amazon S3 bucket for this getting started exercise. In the **Data repository association** dialog box, provide information for the following fields.

   1. For **Repository type**, choose `S3`.

   1. For **Data repository path**, enter the path of the existing S3 bucket or prefix to associate with your cache (for example, `s3://my-bucket/my-prefix/`).

   1. For **Cache path**, enter the name of a high-level directory (such as `/ns1`) or subdirectory (such as `/ns1/subdir`) within Amazon File Cache to associate with the S3 data repository. The first forward slash in the path is required.
**Note**  
**Cache path** can only be set to root (/) on NFS DRAs when **Subdirectories** is specified. If you specify root (/) as the **Cache path**, you can create only one DRA on the cache.  
**Cache path** can't be set to root (/) for an S3 DRA.

   1. Choose **Add**.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. Review the cache configuration shown on the **Cache summary** page. For your reference, note which cache settings you can modify after the cache is created.

1. Choose **Create cache**.

Now that you've created your cache, note its fully qualified domain name and mount name for a later step. You can find the fully qualified domain name and mount name for a cache by choosing the name of the cache in the **Caches** dashboard, and then choosing **Attach**.