In one embodiment, a system includes a cache storage device, a back-end storage device, and a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor. The logic is configured to receive indication of failure of a primary cache server at a secondary cache server, the primary and secondary cache servers being configured to manage read requests and write requests for the back-end storage device. The logic is also configured to set the secondary cache server to a by-pass mode for read requests directed to any portions of the back-end storage device managed by the primary cache server prior to the failure. Moreover, the logic is configured to read an index of cache block descriptors (CBDs) managed by the primary cache server prior to the failure into a memory of the secondary cache server.

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for populating a second cache with tracks from a first cache when transferring management of the tracks from a first node to a second node. Management of a first group of tracks in the storage managed by the first node is transferred to the second node managing access to a second group of tracks in the storage. After the transferring the management of the tracks, the second node manages access to the first and second groups of tracks and caches accessed tracks from the first and second groups in the second cache of the second node. The second cache of the second node is populated with the tracks in a first cache of the first node

A storage system, maintains a cache and a non-volatile storage. Active tracks in the non-volatile storage are determined. The determined active tracks in the non-volatile storage are validated between the cache and the non-volatile storage during a warmstart recovery.

A cache or other cluster is configuration-aware such that initialization and changes to the underlying structure of the cluster can be dynamically updated for use by a client. A client may use a client driver as an intermediary that is responsible for managing the communication with the cluster. For example, a client driver may resolve an alias from a static configuration endpoint to a storage node. The client driver may request an initial configuration from the storage node and then update configuration from one or more storage nodes that store current configuration of the cluster.