PrimoCache Has No Impact on Database Service

[congruityservice]

I'm using a custom database that does it's reading and writing through a Windows Service. As far as I know the service doesn't have any special device drivers or kernel level access but when I try to use it in conjunction with PrimoCache there isn't any caching. The PrimoCache stats will increment on writes but when I do a read test the stats don't move or indicate any reads are occuring.

I've restarted the database service and cleared any application level caches but there isn't any change in behavior.

I know PrimoCache is working because synthetic tests like ioMeter work as expected and demonstrate the cache working.

I tried to search the forum but was unable to because whenever I would click on the second page of search results the forum prevents me from proceeding until a time period has passed.

Does PrimoCache not work for applications with certain types of file IO?

[Bjameson]

PrimoCache intercepts the standard Windows disk driver chain. Indeed programs exist which a) first create their database using the standard Windows drivers and b) subsequently access this database using their own drivers, bypassing the Windows ones.

So indeed you are right. PrimoCache does not (and cannot) intercept all possible non-Windows disk drivers. This is not a PrimoCache problem; it simply cannot be done. At least not in a safe way. Some programs have a "fallback mode": if their on-board proprietary driver fails, it falls back to the Windows drivers. Look for any program setting which allows overriding automatic driver mode. Set it to Windows mode. It will work slower but this is more than compensated by the speed gain from PrimoCache. If there is no such override, you're out of luck.

[InquiringMind]

Agreed with Bjameson but would add that it might be worth stopping/disabling the database service to see if "fallback" mode can be forced. Doing so may affect the reliability/integrity of the database however, so thorough testing of difficult situations (like a powercut) on test data would be strongly advised.