For Aggregator, Joiner, Lookup, and Rank transformations, the Data Integration Service creates the cache files in the directory specified in the Cache Directory property. For Sorter transformations, the service creates the cache files in the directory specified in the Work Directory property.
If the Data Integration Service process does not find the directory, it fails the mapping and writes a message to the mapping log indicating that it could not create or open the cache file. The Data Integration Service may create multiple cache files. The number of cache files is limited by the amount of disk space available in the cache directory.