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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 perfor-
       mance  of a 64k blocksize FS residing on	a RAID3	array with 8 data com-
       ponents,	where a	single disk component would only get 8k	read requests,
       thus effectively	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 de-
       tect devices.  Once devices are labeled,	they will be automatically de-
       tected and configured.

       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 de-
		vice'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 vari-
       able.

       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 num-
	       ber between 0 and 3 inclusive.  If set to 0 minimal  debug  in-
	       formation is printed, and if set	to 3 the maximum amount	of de-
	       bug 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	14.3			January	3, 2010			     GCACHE(8)

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