Quick Start Manual

Getting Started With Dell Fluid Cache For DAS

Fluid Cache for DAS monitors your cache usage, protects your writes, programmatically moves data blocks in and out of

the cache as needed, and does it all transparently to the application.

The following steps provide a broad summary to configure and run Fluid Cache for DAS:

1. Add up to four PCIe SSDs to the Dell PowerEdge system.

NOTE: Ensure that all the four PCIe SSDs are of the same capacity.

2. Configure the PCIe SSDs to create a cache pool.

3. Enable caching of back end PERC virtual disks or partitions.

4. Point your applications to the Fluid Cache block device(s) instead of the back end storage.

5. When workload requirements change, dynamically disable or enable caching on disks.

Hardware Prerequisites For Installing Fluid Cache For DAS

• Fluid Cache is supported only on Dell PowerEdge systems that support Dell PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe

SSDs. These PowerEdge systems include PowerEdge R620, R720, R820, and T620.

• Supported PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) cards include PERC H810, H710P, and H710.

• A minimum of two PCIe SSDs are required for write-back support.

• For installing Fluid Cache for DAS, you need 100 MB of disk space.

• The supported PCIe SSD capacities are 175 GB and 350 GB.

NOTE: You cannot mix PCIe SSDs of different capacities to run Fluid Cache for DAS. You can add up to four

PCIe SSDs of the same capacity to form the cache pool.

• The minimum memory required to run Fluid Cache for DAS is 16 GB. For optimum operation, it is recommended

that you install 32 GB of RAM.

NOTE: PCIe SSDs in Write Protect mode cannot be used for the cache pool and are marked as invalid.

Software And Firmware Prerequisites For Installing Fluid Cache

The supported operating systems for Fluid Cache for DAS include:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2, 2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3, 2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64.

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, 3.0.13-0.27 (default).

Other software and firmware prerequisites include:

• Dell OpenManage Storage Administrator version 7.1.2 only.

• Latest updated PCIe SSD driver downloaded and installed from dell.com/support.

NOTE: For information on managing PCIe SSDs using Dell OpenManage Server Administrator, see the

Dell

PowerEdge Express Flash PCIe SSD User’s Guide

at dell.com/support/manuals.

• Latest firmware for PERC H810, H710P, and H710 cards. Supported firmware is A03 21.1.0-0007 or higher.

Ensure the following opensource component packages are available in your system before you install Fluid Cache. See

the operating system distribution media for the supported version of each package.