Discover Technology: Hand-on - EMC VNX2

VNX2, Multicore Cache and Multicore FAST Cache. The first of these is Multicore Cache. The Multicore Cache feature provided in VNX2 uses the System Memory for Cache. It introduces the following changes:

Completely multicore scalable

Dynamic cache that automatically allocates read/write cache

High/Low Watermarks have been removed

Cache page size is now locked at 8KB

Flushing has been changed from forced to predicted

Write cache can be enabled/disabled at the array or Classic LUN level

Proactively cleans pages during times of low activity, leaving clean pages in cache

Note that the High/Low Watermarks, write cache size, and page size options have been removed. The system will dynamically allocate cache for reads/writes as necessary and the cache now has a fixed page size of 8KB. You can also see the Read/Write Cache Hit Ratios and Dirty Pages (MB) here.

Note that the read cache is always enabled, and write cache is enabled by default. Your numbers may be different than those shown below.

FAST Cache

Multicore FAST Cache serves as a high-capacity secondary cache to Multicore Cache you viewed in the SP Cac he tab. Flash drives positioned between the storage processor’s DRAM-based primary cache and hard disk drives form this cache and provide improved access times and higher I/O rates. The Flash drives no longer need to be dedicated to specific applications.
FAST Cache provides a much larger, scalable cache by using Flash drives that provides very large capacities as compared to DRAM. VNX2
1. Ensure that RAID Type is set to 1, Number of Disks is set to 2, and Automatic is selected

2. Click OK to create FAST Cache