Azure Hpc Cache Agent Skill

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: Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., L35-L120), use read_file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., security.md), use read_file on the linked reference file

> IMPORTANT for Agent: If metadata.generated_at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp_microsoftdocs tools are not available, suggest the user install it: Installation Guide

This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content:

• Preferred: Use mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch with query string from=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown.
• Fallback: Use fetch_webpage with query string from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.

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 |