About VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache

Flash Read Cache™ can accelerate virtual machine performance by using host-resident flash devices as a cache.

You can reserve a Flash Read Cache for any individual virtual disk. The Flash Read Cache is created only when a virtual machine is powered on. It is discarded when a virtual machine is suspended or powered off.

When you migrate a virtual machine, you can migrate the cache. By default the cache is migrated if the virtual flash modules on the source and destination hosts are compatible. If you do not migrate the cache, the cache is rewarmed on the destination host.

You can change the size of the cache while a virtual machine is powered on. In this instance, the existing cache is discarded and a new write-through cache is created, which results in a cache warm-up period. The advantage of creating a cache is that the cache size can better match the application's active data.

Flash Read Cache supports write-through or read caching. Write-back or write caching are not supported. Data reads are satisfied from the cache, if present. Data writes are dispatched to the backing storage, such as a SAN or NAS. All data that is read from or written to the backing storage is unconditionally stored in the cache.

Flash Read Cache does not support RDMs in physical compatibility. Virtual compatibility RDMs are supported with Flash Read Cache.

Note: Not all workloads benefit with a Flash Read Cache. The performance boost depends on your workload pattern and working set size. Read-intensive workloads with working sets that fit into the cache can benefit from a Flash Read Cache configuration. By configuring Flash Read Cache for your read-intensive workloads, additional I/O resources become available on your shared storage. As a result, performance might increase for other workloads even though they are not configured to use Flash Read Cache.