NAME

       flashcache - overview of operation

SYNOPSIS

       modprobe flashcache

       Flashcache  consists  of a kernel module and userspace utilities.  The module is named "flashcache".  The
       kernel module can be controlled with flashcache_create(8), flashcache_load(8)  and  flashcache_destroy(8)
       utilities.

DESCRIPTION

       Flashcache  is  a  block  cache for Linux, built as a kernel module, using the device mapper.  Flashcache
       supports writeback, writethrough and writearound caching modes.  See flashcache_create(8) for a  descrip‐
       tion of caching modes.

       Flascache allows one to use a fast block device such as Solid State Drives (SSD) as cache to accelerate a
       slower drive used as backstore.

       Originally, Flashcache was built as a block device cache for I/O intensive database applications, for ex‐
       ample to run an accelerated InnoDB store for mysqld(8), but it can be used as general purpose backend for
       filesystems as well.

USAGE

       Before  using Flashcache, it might be a good idea to check if device mapper works properly.  Assuming the
       partition /dev/md0p1 shall be used as flash cache, one may try to create a linear device  with  following
       command:

       echo 0 1024 linear /dev/md0p1 0 | dmsetup create tmpdisk

       It this works, flashcache_create should be able to create its device.

       Remove tmpdisk with command:

       dmsetup remove tmpdisk

       Before creating a flashcache device using the flashcache_create command, the deivce must not be mounted.

SEE ALSO

       flashcache_create(8), flashcache_load(8), flashcache_destroy(8)

       README   and   other   documents   in   /usr/share/doc/flashcache-utils.    In   particular,  see  flash‐
       cache-sa-guide.txt for configuring the flashcache kernel module through its /proc interface.

       The flashcache source code  and  all  documentation  may  be  downloaded  from  <https://github.com/face‐
       book/flashcache/>.

AUTHORS

       Flashcache is developed by Mohan Srinivasan <mohan@fb.com>

       This  man  page  was  written by Dmitry Smirnov <onlyjob@member.fsf.org> for Debian GNU/Linux (but may be
       used by others).

flashcache                                       September 2011                                    FLASHCACHE(7)