Below are steps to install and configure VirtuCache.

1. Download the VirtuCache driver (.vib), VirtuCache license (.vib), and VirtuCache Manager (.OVA) from the ‘Download Trial’ link.

2. Import the OVA in vCenter. Only one instance of VirtuCache Manager VM is required per vCenter. VirtuCache Manager VM enables our GUI. Its not in the storage IO path.

3. Install VirtuCache driver .vib file and VirtuCache license file .vib file on each ESXi host like so.

esxcli software vib install –v “file:///location_of_vib_files/vib_file_name.vib”

4. Using Chrome/Firefox connect to the IP address of VirtuCache Manager VM.

5. Goto the ‘Hosts’ tab, and select ‘Replication Network’. Replication is a process in VirtuCache where cached writes are automatically replicated/mirrored to cache media in another host. This is to protect against data loss in case of host failure. If a host were to fail, VirtuCache will immediately sync the backend storage appliance with the write ‘replica’ from another host. Another use for the replication network is for the read cache to follow the VM (in case of vmotion).

6. Next step is to choose SSD and/or some amount of host RAM as cache media.

7. Goto to the ‘Datastores’ or ‘Virtual Machines’ tab and configure Datastores and/or VMs with a caching policy. Configure caching policy as ‘Write-back One Replica’ if you need to accelerate both reads and writes; or as ‘Write-through’ if only reads need to be accelerated.

8. You can view performance stats per VM by going to the ‘Performance’ tab.

9. If VM latencies are under 5ms, then VirtuCache and the cache media are performing as expected.