You can query a branch reflector and obtain a report of warmed up layers in its cache.

The desktop component of this reporting tool detects the list of layers cached by the branch reflector and validates the integrity of the files in each layer. When 80% (a configurable setting) of the files are in the branch reflector cache, a layer is considered warmed up. The branch reflector downloads the remaining files from the server on demand.

The branch reflector periodically reports to the server a list of layers that exist in its cache. You can query the branch reflector to send information on its cached layers and view the list by running the Branch Reflector Cached Layers Report from the Mirage Web Management Console or by using a special CLI tool.

Querying Methods

There are three ways to query the existing layers from a Mirage system:

  • Mirage report tool can display the information on screen or output to CSV.

  • Mirage CLI can show the warmed up layers on screen.

  • A Mirage report called Branch Reflector Cached Layers. This report requires you to install the Mirage reporting component which utilizes Microsoft SSRS.

Important:

The report does not show layers that have been exported from a separated Mirage deployment because they contain a different layer GUID. For example, if you deployed two separate Mirage instances and want to export and import layers between these environments, you must export and create a separate branch reflector cache that can be imported to branch reflectors on each Mirage instance, since the layer IDs and GUIDs are different in each instance. Exporting branch reflector cache from instance A and importing it to a branch reflector managed by instance B copies the layer files to the branch reflector's local cache but the layer will not appear in the branch reflector report on instance B.

Important:

Layers warmed up by branch reflectors before Mirage 5.9 will not appear in the Branch Reflector Cached Layers Report or the WarmedUpLayersReport CLI. The layers are warmed up, but the report or query tool does not display them in the output.

Branch Reflector Cached Layers Report Output

The output contains information on the branch reflector and layers:

Branch Reflector Cached Layers CLI

Table 1. Parameters

Goal

Parameter

Query the warmed up layers of a branch reflector or set of branch reflectors

Wanova.Server.Cli localhost > QueryWarmedUpLayers 10010,10011

View the output of all warmed up layers to screen

Wanova.Server.Tools WarmedUpLayersReport -mirageMgmtAddress localhost

View the output of all warmed up layers to CSV

Wanova.Server.Tools WarmedUpLayersReport -mirageMgmtAddress localhost -outputFile c:\Temp\result.csv

View the output of warmed up layers of a specific branch reflectors to screen

Wanova.Server.Tools WarmedUpLayersReport -mirageMgmtAddress localhost -specificBrIds 10010

View the output warmed up layers of a specific set of branch reflectors to screen

Wanova.Server.Tools WarmedUpLayersReport -mirageMgmtAddress localhost -specificBrIds 10010,10011

View the output warmed up layers of a specific set of branch reflectors to CSV

Wanova.Server.Tools WarmedUpLayersReport -mirageMgmtAddress localhost -specificBrIds 10010,10011 -outputFile c:\Temp\Result.csv

Configuring Advanced Settings

You can also configure these settings using the Mirage Server CLI: Wanova.Server.Cli localhost and setConfigParam <Configuration Name> <Value>

Table 2. Advanced Settings

Setting

Description

branchReflectorWarmedUpLayersManifestNumberLimit

Number of manifests to keep. Default is 50 manifests.

branchReflectorWarmedUpLayersEnumeratorReinitializationThreshold

Number of integrity tests to rerun on a layer. Default is 24 enumerations. Mirage determines whether a layer is warmed up by using an integrity process. To conserve resources, this process does not run all the time. This setting constitutes the amount of enumerations which have to run before integrity is rerun on an already warmed up layer.

branchReflectorWarmedUpLayersPercentThreshold

Percentage of the files in the cache that constitute a warmed up layer. Default is 80%.