Warm Caching to a General or Specific Cache Pool

[Andiroo2]

Would be great to make more use of a cache pool for frequently accessed files that may normally live on the array.

 

Files that are accessed from the array could be copied to cache after the first use, and then handled by the mover process to be flushed from the cache after a period of time with no activity (no need to copy back to the array, as it's already there).  User can specify the shares that utilize warm cache by selecting a new option in the share options (Yes, Prefer, Warm, etc.).  User should be able to specify file types and sizes that would be in scope for warm caching.  

 

Warm cache should be used in conjunction with advanced mover features like those available in the Mover Tuning plugin to allow the user to specify how long files stay in cache after a cache hit.  

 

User could specify a dedicated cache for warm caching use only via the share settings (one pool for regular cache, one pool for warm caching).

 

Files that are modified while in the warm cache would be deleted from the array and the updated version copied back to the array via the mover.  Files that are unchanged in the warm cache will just be flushed by the mover.

[Andiroo2]

Examples where this is useful:

• It's Halloween or Christmas and lots of people are watching Halloween/Christmas movies on Plex.  Those movies get moved to the warm cache when the first person watches them and then they are available faster with fewer disk spin-ups in the warm cache when lots of people start watching them.  This assumes that the user has lots of space in the warn cache pool, and they specify that mkv files can go to the warm cache in settings
• Working on a project using some digital assets that have been on the array for a few months,  Lots of accesses coming to those files over a period of weeks, so they sit in the warm cache while the project runs and then they get returned to the array when the project finishes

[Oriom.Mao]

+1  I vote for it too.

[mint-rye2884]

Did this ever happen?  This seems like a very common use case?
Keeping frequently-accessed files in cache?

[Andiroo2]

Not by Unraid.  I have achieved something similar a couple of different ways:

1. I use the Plexcache python script to move all On Deck media to the cache for my Plex users.  This is really handy.
2. I have a huge cache (8TB NVMe) and I set mover tuning to keep it full (95%) before running Mover, and then only move files that are 3 months old.