SSD or Optane caching without storage spaces

[EricE]

So does anyone have an effective SSD or Optane caching solution that doesn't involve storage spaces?

I'd be fine with a software solution, but the few that are out there either seem to be barely above hobby/shareware level or priced insanely. Hardware solutions are targeted at systems way larger than what I have.

I'm looking for something I can load on my Hyper-V server for the two VMs I have running on it - the busier VM is a Server Essentials install. It's nothing fancy, but there doesn't seem to be anything reasonable targeted towards the low end that I have found so far.

I'm open to any suggestions - thanks!

 

[MiniKnight]

Are you open to Linux?

 

[EricE]

For the hypervisor? Maybe. I've been exploring Proxmox as a potential solution.

 

[j_h_o]

Do you have this running on spinners or on flash? Are the VMs so large that you can't "just" move them over to flash? Or is even that not enough for your I/O needs?