RAM Caching in V5.0

[MattBoB]

According to your website, helpfiles, and the GUI, version 5.0 of starwind includes new high speed RAM caching. Is this actually enabled in version 5.0?

I have been doing some testing using the trial version, but even though I select "write-through" caching and set size etc... When I look at the log file it says caching set to none when it creates the target. Also when looking in the config file i see a comented out example with "CacheMode=wt" etc in it but nothing similar for the line generated for my new targets.

I tried copying the cache settings from the example, and starwind did indeed seem to be caching IO but caused significant file corruption when trying to use that target.

So does the gui actually disable caching whether you enable it or not, because it doesn't actaully work properly, or am I missing something?

[Robert (staff)]

Matt,

Caching will be fully implemented in the next version of StarWind (v 5.1 probably). At the moment caching is not fully implemented.

[MattBoB]

By "not fully implemented" you mean not implemented then, or half implmented in a non working state which is even worse for an Enterprise class product !

I wish you would stop claiming Starwind has RAM caching functionality on web site, when it doesn't.

I have just wasted 2 days setting up a test system to try out the new RAM caching only to discover it doesn't exist in this version !

I'll continue to stick with version 3.4.7 for now then as I know my current config is stable, and without caching, version 5.0 still doesn't offer anything new that I'm interested in.

HA sounds great but we can't afford to buy double the number of disks to make use of it.

[MattBoB]

Will new RAM caching in version 5.1 include caching for IBV targets?

[Robert (staff)]

Most probably, but we can not say 100% at this point.

[stup]

Can I just confirm that in 5.0 RAM Caching isn't working properly... and moreover can actually corrupt your data if you use it???

[MattBoB]

Hi Stup,

Starwind should probably confirm this but as I understand it the situation is as follows:

If you create a target using the GUI and select any RAM caching options, the setting you choose are ignored and RAM caching is not turned on for that target. Therefore if you did it this way you don't need to worry about corruption, but you also won't get any RAM caching benefits.

If you create or modify a target by editing the starwind.cfg file manually you can enable RAM caching for targets by copying settings from the example, but if you do this you can suffer corruption.

[Robert (staff)]

Right now caching is only available for the mirror devices. For other devices it will just not work. One of the next minor releases (5.1 probably) will support caching for other virtual devices.

Thanks

[stup]

Has this been enabled in 5.2 ?

Thanks

[Constantin (staff)]

Yes, it was. But cache for HA devices will be implemented in StarWind 5.5, that will be released in the end of January.

[stup]

So caching now for all devices except for HA is enabled, and stable?

[Constantin (staff)]

Yes.

[Aitor_Ibarra]

Hold on a minute, there's been a 5.2? I had no idea. Wa s there a 5.1? Again, no idea!

Can we please, please have a sticky for new releases, ideally with the release notes pasted in? Then I can subscribe to it.

I didn't know that 4.2 released either except by visiting the forum.

Thanks,

Aitor

[Constantin (staff)]

On November 1 first was released StarWind 5. On December 30 was released bugix version StarWind 5.2. Please, provide me email to PM and I`ll tell if your ASM is still valid, and you can download and use StarWind 5 with it`s new functionality

[nbarsotti]

I would like to second the request to have a permanent thread will the post the most current version and a change log/release notes.