Azure HPC Cache Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure HPC Cache. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

How to Use This Skill

IMPORTANT for Agent: This file may be large. Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections, then use read_file with specific line ranges (e.g., L136-L144) to read the sections needed for the user's question This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content. Use mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch to retrieve full articles.

• Fallback: Use the built-in WebFetch tool if the Microsoft Learn MCP server is not available.

Category Index

Category	Lines	Description
Troubleshooting	L37-L42	Diagnosing and resolving Azure HPC Cache issues with Blob storage firewalls and NFS storage targets, including connectivity, access, and configuration problems.
Best Practices	L43-L51	Guidance on optimizing Azure HPC Cache: client load balancing, efficient data movement and manual copy to Blob targets, NFS-on-Blob considerations, and priming caches for better hit rates.
Decision Making	L52-L57	Guidance on when Azure HPC Cache is appropriate, comparing usage models, workload patterns, performance needs, and deciding if/when to adopt it for your architecture.
Architecture & Design Patterns	L58-L63	Designing Azure HPC Cache namespaces across multiple back-end storage systems, and planning regional redundancy, high availability, and failover strategies for cached workloads.
Limits & Quotas	L64-L68	How to request and manage Azure HPC Cache quota increases, including limits on cache instances, capacities, and the support process for raising quotas.
Security	L69-L76	Configuring HPC Cache security: client access policies, directory/AD integration and extended groups, customer-managed encryption keys, and overall cache security settings.
Configuration	L77-L90	Configuring and operating Azure HPC Cache: CLI setup, networking/DNS/NTP, storage targets and namespaces, mounting NFS clients, lifecycle management, metrics, and environment prerequisites.
Integrations & Coding Patterns	L91-L98	Scripts and patterns for ingesting data (msrsync, parallelcp), controlling write-back with flush_file.py, and integrating Azure HPC Cache with Azure NetApp Files.
Deployment	L99-L103	Creating Azure HPC Cache instances via portal/CLI, and recreating or moving existing caches to a different region while preserving configuration and data paths

Troubleshooting

Topic	URL
Work around Blob firewall issues for HPC Cache targets	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-blob-firewall-fix
Troubleshoot NFS storage target issues in Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/troubleshoot-nas

Best Practices

Topic	URL
Load balance client connections across Azure HPC Cache IPs	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/client-load-balancing
Optimize data movement to Azure HPC Cache Blob targets	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-ingest
Manually copy data into Azure HPC Cache Blob targets	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-ingest-manual
Apply NFS Blob storage considerations with Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/nfs-blob-considerations
Prime Azure HPC Cache to improve cache hit rates	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/prime-cache

Decision Making

Topic	URL
Choose Azure HPC Cache usage models	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/cache-usage-models
Decide when Azure HPC Cache fits your workload	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/usage-scenarios

Architecture & Design Patterns

Topic	URL
Design Azure HPC Cache aggregated namespaces	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-namespace
Design regional redundancy and failover for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-region-recovery

Limits & Quotas

Topic	URL
Request Azure HPC Cache quota increases	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/increase-quota

Security

Topic	URL
Define client access policies for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/access-policies
Configure customer-managed encryption keys for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/customer-keys
Configure directory services and extended groups for HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/directory-services
Understand security configuration for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-security-info

Configuration

Topic	URL
Set up Azure HPC Cache namespace paths	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/add-namespace-paths
Prepare Azure CLI environment for managing HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/az-cli-prerequisites
Configure networking, NTP, DNS, and snapshots for HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/configuration
Configure storage targets for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-add-storage
Modify Azure HPC Cache storage target settings	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-edit-storage
Operate and update Azure HPC Cache instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-manage
Mount Azure HPC Cache on NFS clients	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-mount
Verify environment prerequisites for Azure HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-prerequisites
Manage Azure HPC Cache storage target lifecycle	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/manage-storage-targets
Monitor Azure HPC Cache metrics and reports	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/metrics

Integrations & Coding Patterns

Topic	URL
Use flush_file.py to control HPC Cache write-back	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/custom-flush-script
Ingest data to HPC Cache using msrsync	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-ingest-msrsync
Use parallelcp script to ingest data for HPC Cache	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-ingest-parallelcp
Integrate Azure HPC Cache with Azure NetApp Files	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-netapp

Deployment

Topic	URL
Create Azure HPC Cache instances via portal or CLI	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/hpc-cache-create
Recreate or move Azure HPC Cache to another region	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/hpc-cache/move-resource