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GCACHE(8)		     System Manager's Manual		       GCACHE(8)

NAME
     gcache -- control utility for CACHE GEOM class

SYNOPSIS
     gcache create [-v] [-b blocksize] [-s size] name prov
     gcache configure [-v] [-b blocksize] [-s size] name
     gcache destroy [-fv] name
     gcache label [-v] [-b blocksize] [-s size] name prov
     gcache stop [-fv] name ...
     gcache clear [-v] prov ...
     gcache dump prov ...
     gcache list
     gcache status [-s name]
     gcache load [-v]
     gcache unload [-v]

DESCRIPTION
     The  gcache  utility is used to control GEOM cache, which can speed up read
     performance by sending fixed size read requests to its  consumer.	 It  has
     been  developed  to address the problem of a horrible read performance of a
     64 KiB blocksize FS residing on a RAID3 array with 8 data components, where
     a single disk component would only get 8 KiB  read  requests,  thus  effec-
     tively killing disk performance under high load.

     Caching  can  be  configured  using  two  different  methods:  "manual"  or
     "automatic".  When using the "manual" method, no metadata are stored on the
     devices, so the cached device has to be configured by hand every time it is
     needed.  The "automatic" method uses on-disk metadata  to	detect	devices.
     Once  devices  are labeled, they will be automatically detected and config-
     ured.

     The first argument to gcache indicates an action to be performed:

     create   Cache the given devices with specified name.  This is the "manual"
	      method.  The kernel module geom_cache.ko will be loaded if  it  is
	      not loaded already.

     label    Cache  the  given  devices  with	the specified name.  This is the
	      "automatic" method, where metadata are stored  in  every	device's
	      last sector.  The kernel module geom_cache.ko will be loaded if it
	      is not loaded already.

     stop     Turn off existing cache device by its name.  This command does not
	      touch on-disk metadata!

     destroy  Same as stop.

     clear    Clear metadata on the given devices.

     dump     Dump metadata stored on the given devices.

     list     See geom(8).

     status   See geom(8).

     load     See geom(8).

     unload   See geom(8).

     Additional options:

     -f      Force the removal of the specified cache device.

     -v      Be more verbose.

SYSCTL VARIABLES
     The  following  sysctl(8)	variables can be used to control the behavior of
     the CACHE GEOM class.  The default value is shown next to each variable.

     kern.geom.cache.used_hi: 20

     kern.geom.cache.used_lo: 5

     kern.geom.cache.idletime: 5

     kern.geom.cache.timeout: 10

     kern.geom.cache.enable: 1

     kern.geom.cache.debug: 0
	     Debug level of the CACHE GEOM class.  This can be set to  a  number
	     between  0  and 3 inclusive.  If set to 0 minimal debug information
	     is printed, and if set to 3 the maximum amount of debug information
	     is printed.

EXIT STATUS
     Exit status is 0 on success, and 1 if the command fails.

SEE ALSO
     geom(4), geom(8)

HISTORY
     The gcache utility appeared in FreeBSD 7.0.

AUTHORS
     Ruslan Ermilov <ru@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD ports 15.1		 January 3, 2010		       GCACHE(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gcache&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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