---
title: "Adding Cache Disks"
slug: "adding-cache-disks"
updated: 2026-01-13T15:23:13Z
published: 2026-01-13T15:23:13Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nasuni.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Adding Cache Disks

## Introduction

This document presents the procedure for adding virtual cache disks to the Nasuni Edge Appliance. Procedures are presented for the vSphere Client platform, the Hyper-V Manager platform, and the Nutanix virtual machine.

***Important****: Only perform this procedure at the direction of Nasuni Support.*

On the VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Nutanix virtual platforms, you can add virtual cache disks to the original cache disk.

***Note:****There must be sufficient disk space in the datastore to add virtual cache disks.*If there is not sufficient space on the datastore, consider moving the VM to a different datastore.

***Note:****You must shut down the virtual machine to add virtual cache disks.*

***Caution:****Perform a manual snapshot before adding virtual cache disks.*

***Tip:****Nasuni recommends using Thick provisioning for all virtual disks.*

## vSphere Client platform

***Important:****If you have taken a VMware snapshot, you cannot add virtual cache disks. You must delete the snapshot first.*

To add virtual cache disks on the vSphere Client platform, follow these steps:

1. Launch the VMware vSphere Client. The **VMware vSphere Client** login window appears.
2. Log in to the vSphere Client with a valid IP address and your user name and password. The vSphere Client opens.
3. In the pane on the left, expand the host to display the list of virtual machines.
4. Click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance. This is the name you entered when you installed the Nasuni Edge Appliance. Information about your Nasuni Edge Appliance appears in the right pane.
5. If the virtual machine is running, then shut down the virtual machine using these steps:
  1. On the **Console** tab, click in the command line area.
  2. Press **Enter**.
  3. Enter the login name and password for the service console. The default login name is service and the default password is service.
  4. Enter shutdown.
  5. Confirm the shutdown by entering yes. The virtual machine shuts down.
6. On the **Getting Started** tab, click **Edit virtual machine settings**. Alternatively, on the **Summary** tab, click **Edit Settings**. Alternatively, right-click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance in the list of virtual machines, then select **Edit Settings** from the drop-down list.

The **Virtual Machine Properties** dialog box appears.
7. On the **Hardware** tab, click **Add**. The **Add Hardware** pane appears.
8. From the **Device Type** list, click **Hard Disk**, then click **Next**. The “**Select a Disk**” screen appears.
9. Select “**Create a new virtual disk**”, then click **Next**. The “**Create a Disk**” screen appears.
10. In the **Capacity** area, enter or select a **Disk Size**. Ensure that **Disk Provisioning** is set to “**Thick Provision Eager Zeroed**”. Ensure that **Location** is set to “**Store with the virtual machine**”. Click **Next**. The **Advanced Options** screen appears.
11. On the **Advanced Options** screen, click **Next**. The “**Ready to Complete**” screen appears.
12. On the “**Ready to Complete**” screen, review the specified settings, and back up to correct any settings. Click **Finish**. The new hard disk appears in the list of devices.
13. On the **Getting Started** tab, click **Power on the virtual machine**. Alternatively, on the **Summary** tab, click **Power On**. Alternatively, right-click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance in the list of virtual machines, then select **Power** from the drop-down list, then select **Power On** from the drop-down list. The virtual machine powers on.

## Hyper-V Manager platform

To add virtual cache disks on the Hyper-V Manager platform, follow these steps:

1. Launch Hyper-V Manager.
2. In the **Virtual Machines** list, click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance. This is the name you entered when you installed the Nasuni Edge Appliance. Information about your Nasuni Edge Appliance appears.
3. If the virtual machine is running, then follow these steps:
  1. In the **Virtual Machines** list, right-click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then select **Shut Down** from the drop-down list. Alternatively, in the **Virtual Machines** list, select the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then click **Shut Down** in the list of actions on the right side. The **Shut Down Machine** dialog box appears.
  2. Click **Shut Down**. The virtual machine shuts down.
4. In the **Virtual Machines** list, right-click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then select **Settings** from the drop-down list. Alternatively, in the **Virtual Machines** list, select the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then click **Settings** in the list of actions on the right side. The **Settings** dialog box appears.
5. In the **Hardware** list on the left side, click **Add Hardware**. The **Add Hardware** pane appears.
6. On the **Add Hardware** pane, select a hard drive controller, such as **IDE Controller** or **SCSI Controller**. ***Tip****: Select the same type of controller as the current cache drive.*

Click **Add**. The pane for the selected controller appears.
7. In the list for the selected controller, select **Hard Drive**, then click **Add**. The **Hard Drive** pane appears.
8. On the **Hard Drive** pane, select **Virtual hard disk**, then click **New**. The **New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard** begins. Skip the **Before You Begin** screen. The **Choose Disk Type** screen appears.
9. On the **Choose Disk Type** screen, select **Fixed**, then click **Next**. The “**Specify Name and Location**” screen appears.
10. On the “**Specify Name and Location**” screen, enter a **Name** for the new cache disk. For example, if this is the second cache disk, you might enter “cache2” for the new cache disk. Enter the same **Location** as the original cache disk. Click **Next**. The **Configure Disk** screen appears.
11. On the **Configure Disk** screen, select “**Create a new blank virtual hard disk**”, then enter the **Size** of the new disk. Click **Next**. The **Summary** screen appears.
12. On the **Summary** screen, review the specified settings, and back up to correct any settings. Click **Finish**. The new hard disk appears in the list of devices.
13. Click **OK**. The **Settings** dialog box closes.
14. In the **Virtual Machines** list, right-click the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then select **Start** from the drop-down list. Alternatively, in the **Virtual Machines** list, select the name of your Nasuni Edge Appliance, then click **Start** in the list of actions on the right side. The virtual machine restarts.

## Nutanix platform

***Note****: If deploying multiple virtual disks (vDisks) for use as the appliance cache, you must contact Nasuni Support to enable this feature on the virtual appliance.*

To add virtual cache disks on the Nutanix Prism Web Console, follow these steps:

1. On the **Main Menu**, from the drop-down menu at the upper left, select **VMs**. A list of VMs appears.
2. From the list of VMs, select the Nasuni Edge Appliance virtual machine.
3. To attach a disk to the VM, click **New Disk**. The **Add Disks** dialog box appears. If deploying multiple virtual disks (vDisks) for use as the appliance cache, as Nasuni recommends, create the appropriate number of identical virtual disks. ![](https://cdn.document360.io/2adf6ce2-c120-4520-b135-0fc4463ddde3/Images/Documentation/adding-cache-disks-image-lg78p6gs.png) Enter the following information:

- Type: From the drop-down menu, select **DISK**.
- Operation: From the drop-down menu, specify the device contents. This depends on which disk you are configuring. For a cache disk, select **Allocate on Storage Container** to create a new empty disk.
- Bus Type: From the drop-down menu, select SCSI.
- Storage Container: From the drop-down menu, select the storage container to use. The list includes all containers created for this cluster.
- Size: Enter the disk size in GiBs. This size must be identical to the size of the original cache disk. All virtual disks must be identical in size, and the total size of the virtual disks must be equal to the total desired size of the cache. For example, if you want to create 4 virtual disks with a total cache size of 500 GiB, each of the 4 virtual disks must be 125 GiB.

1. When all the field entries are correct, click **Add** to attach the disk to the VM.
2. To power on the Nasuni Edge Appliance virtual machine, follow these steps:
  1. Click **Explore** at the top left. The **Entities** list appears on the left.
  2. In the **Entities** list on the left, click **VMs**. A list of VMs appears.
  3. From the list of VMs, select the Nasuni Edge Appliance virtual machine.
  4. From the **Actions** drop-down menu, select **Power On**.

The Nasuni Edge Appliance virtual machine powers on.

## After adding cache disks

After adding cache disks, the new cache disks must be prepared in one of the following ways:

- Scalable cache: The new disks are concatenated to the original disks. For details, see Scalable Cache Procedure.
- Striped cache: The new disks are striped with the original disks. For details, see Striped Cache Procedure.

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