Caching storage data in dedicated mode

In the dedicated mode, the cache device is directly provisioned to the AIX® logical partition (LPAR).

You must create a cache pool, and then a cache partition on the cache device. Only one cache partition can be created in a dedicated cache device. You can use the cache partition to cache any number of target devices on the AIX LPAR. The LPAR is not mobile because the cache device is dedicated to this LPAR. If the LPAR needs to be migrated to another server, you must manually stop the caching and unconfigure the cache device before the migration.

The following figure shows an example of caching configuration on an AIX LPAR for a dedicated cache device.

In the dedicated mode, the cache device is directly provisioned to the AIX LPAR. — Figure 1. Storage data caching: Configuration for dedicated cache device

Consider the cache devices are hdisk1, hdisk2, and hdisk3, and the target devices are hdisk4, hdisk5, and hdisk6. To start and monitor the caching of the target devices, complete the following steps:

Create a cache pool on the SSD or Virtual Persistent Memory (vPMEM) storage.
```
# cache_mgt pool create -d hdisk1,hdisk2,hdisk3 -p cmpool0
```

Create a cache partition of 80 MB from the cache pool.

# cache_mgt partition create -p cmpool0 -s 80M -P part1

Assign the cache partition to the target disks that you want to cache.

# cache_mgt partition assign -t hdisk4 -P part1
# cache_mgt partition assign -t hdisk5 -P part1
# cache_mgt partition assign -t hdisk6 -P part1

Start caching of the target devices.

# cache_mgt cache start -t hdisk4
# cache_mgt cache start -t hdisk5
# cache_mgt cache start -t hdisk6

Monitor statistics on cache hits.
```
# cache_mgt monitor get -h -s
```