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Prepopulate a FlexCache volume

Contributors netapp-lenida

You can prepopulate a FlexCache volume to reduce the time it takes to access cached data.

What you'll need
  • You must be a cluster administrator at the advanced privilege level

  • The paths you pass for prepopulation must exist or the prepopulate operation fails.

About this task
  • Prepopulate reads files only and crawls through directories

  • The -isRecursion flag applies to the entire list of directories passed to prepopulate

Steps
  1. Prepopulate a FlexCache volume:

    volume flexcache prepopulate -cache-vserver vserver_name -cache-volume -path-list path_list -isRecursion true|false

    • The -path-list parameter indicates the relative directory path you want to prepopulate starting from the origin root directory. For example, if the origin root directory is named /origin and it contains directories /origin/dir1 and /origin/dir2, you can specify the path list as follows: -path-list dir1, dir2 or -path-list /dir1, /dir2.

    • The default value of the -isRecursion parameter is True.

      This example prepopulates a single directory path:

      cluster1::*> flexcache prepopulate start -cache-vserver vs2 -cache-volume fg_cachevol_1 -path-list /dir1
        (volume flexcache prepopulate start)
      [JobId 207]: FlexCache prepopulate job queued.

      This example prepopulates files from several directories:

      cluster1::*> flexcache prepopulate start -cache-vserver vs2 -cache-volume fg_cachevol_1 -path-list /dir1,/dir2,/dir3,/dir4
        (volume flexcache prepopulate start)
      [JobId 208]: FlexCache prepopulate job queued.

      This example prepopulates a single file:

      cluster1::*> flexcache prepopulate start -cache-vserver vs2 -cache-volume fg_cachevol_1 -path-list /dir1/file1.txt
        (volume flexcache prepopulate start)
      [JobId 209]: FlexCache prepopulate job queued.

      This example prepopulates all files from the origin:

      cluster1::*> flexcache prepopulate start -cache-vserver vs2 -cache-volume fg_cachevol_1 -path-list / -isRecursion true
        (volume flexcache prepopulate start)
      [JobId 210]: FlexCache prepopulate job queued.

      This example includes an invalid path for prepopulation:

      cluster1::*> flexcache prepopulate start -cache-volume vol_cache2_vs3_c2_vol_origin1_vs1_c1 -cache-vserver vs3_c2 -path-list /dir1, dir5, dir6
        (volume flexcache prepopulate start)
      
      Error: command failed: Path(s) "dir5, dir6" does not exist in origin volume
             "vol_origin1_vs1_c1" in Vserver "vs1_c1".
  2. Display the number of files read:

    job show -id job_ID -ins