[2024-12-31] PrimoCache 4.4.0 released!

[bxn8]

Unless they come up with some cool new features, I don't really see a future for Primocache. Sorry.

Well, name the features ...
(and remember it is a block caching device, so folder or process inclusion / exclusion won't happen)

• Compression on the cache so it can hold more data
• Memory ballooning to force the OS to use said compressed cache in memory.
• Some form of tiered caching like a second-tier eviction cache.
• Adaptive caching policy, not blindly cache the latest used data. (ZFS style for example)
• Pool based cache allocation. Just throw a bunch of SSDs at it to use for caching and let it distribute data across the cache pool.
• Predictive caching. Keep track of access patterns and preload data that is likely needed in the cache.
• Native support for connecting to iSCSI/RBD volumes, avoids going through the windows iSCSI-initiator.
• Windows cluster support for the server edition. Add the cache disk and Primocache service to a role with a cluster shared volume so the cache can move with a failover.
• Remote memory caching - Use multiple machines to add even more memory and cache disks. (Upsell it as the cluster edition)
• RDMA support for said remote caching.
• Expose cached volume as storage-class-memory to avoid filesystem overhead in the OS. (call it virtual NVDIMM support)

That's 5 minutes of brainstorming. I could probably think of some more stuff.
Instead, they have not added anything noteworthy for the better part of a decade.

I’d also really like to see compression and predictive caching implemented. The compression idea could potentially leverage the built-in Windows RAM compression feature, which might make it more efficient. Last year, the vendor mentioned a major 5.0 release estimated for Q1 2025, but it’s still delayed and pretty quiet on updates. Hopefully, some of these features make it into that release!

[tverweij]

Well, at least those are real features, instead of "DarkMode" and "the settings are too difficult" requests that I see here mostly.

But keep in mind that this is a software cache - meaning a compromise between functionality, disk throughput, memory bandwidth and available CPU cycles, where the machine should still be usable for other tasks.
Too many features like this will exhaust the CPU's and the memory bandwidth of the machine, crippling the host on those points.

[SylverCheetah53]

Well, the settings really are too difficult.
I never know the cluster size amount. Read/ Write, prefetch....
It is very hard to use!