Exadata enables users to override the automatic caching policy for Exadata Smart Flash Cache and elevate the priority for various database objects, such as regular tables and indexes, partitioned tables and indexes, and index-organized tables.

You can use the SQL CREATE or ALTER command to elevate the caching priority for a specific database object by including CELL_FLASH_CACHE KEEP in the STORAGE clause.

For example, assuming sufficient cache space, the following command instructs Exadata to keep data from t1 in Exadata Smart Flash Cache:

SQL> ALTER TABLE t1 STORAGE (CELL_FLASH_CACHE KEEP);

Starting with Oracle Exadata System Software release 24.1.0 in conjunction with Oracle Database 23ai, database objects configured with the KEEP option are automatically loaded into Exadata Smart Flash Cache. This feature benefits online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads by avoiding cache misses on database objects configured with the KEEP option. Previously, the KEEP option was only effective after the data was read into the cache.