FlexCache hardware and software requirements

Before you can create FlexCache volumes and use them to access data in their origin volumes, you must ensure that both your origin and caching systems meet the hardware and software requirements for the FlexCache functionality.

The requirements for the caching system and the origin system are different.

For the caching system, the following requirements must be met:

The system must have one of the following versions of Data ONTAP:
- Data ONTAP 7.0.5 or later in the 7.0 release family
- Data ONTAP 7.2.1 or later in the 7.2 release family
- Any version in the 7.3 release family
Note: The caching and origin systems do not need to have the same version of Data ONTAP.
A valid FlexCache license
A valid NFS license, with NFS enabled
Note: The NFS license is not required when the caching system is an SA system.

For the origin system, the following requirements must be met:

The system must have one of the following versions of Data ONTAP:
- Data ONTAP 7.0.1 or later in the 7.x release family
- Data ONTAP 10.0.3 or later in the 10.x release family
  Note: If your origin system is running Data ONTAP 10, your caching system must have Data ONTAP 7.2.1 or later.
  Systems with Data ONTAP 10 cannot serve as caching systems.
A valid NFS license, with NFS enabled
The flexcache.access option set to allow access to FlexCache volumes
Note: For more information about this option, see the na_protocolaccess(8) man page.
If the origin volume is in a vFiler unit, set this option for the vFiler context.
The flexcache.enable option set to on
Note: If the origin volume is in a vFiler unit, set this option for the vFiler context.