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1.TH fio 1 "October 2013" "User Manual"
2.SH NAME
3fio \- flexible I/O tester
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B fio
6[\fIoptions\fR] [\fIjobfile\fR]...
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B fio
9is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
10particular type of I/O action as specified by the user.
11The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the I/O load
12one wants to simulate.
13.SH OPTIONS
14.TP
15.BI \-\-debug \fR=\fPtype
16Enable verbose tracing of various fio actions. May be `all' for all types
17or individual types separated by a comma (eg \-\-debug=io,file). `help' will
18list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
21Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-runtime \fR=\fPruntime
24Limit run time to \fIruntime\fR seconds.
25.TP
26.B \-\-latency\-log
27Generate per-job latency logs.
28.TP
29.B \-\-bandwidth\-log
30Generate per-job bandwidth logs.
31.TP
32.B \-\-minimal
33Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
34.TP
35.B \-\-version
36Display version information and exit.
37.TP
38.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
39Set terse version output format (Current version 3, or older version 2).
40.TP
41.B \-\-help
42Display usage information and exit.
43.TP
44.B \-\-cpuclock-test
45Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock
46.TP
47.BI \-\-crctest[\fR=\fPtest]
48Test the speed of the builtin checksumming functions. If no argument is given,
49all of them are tested. Or a comma separated list can be passed, in which
50case the given ones are tested.
51.TP
52.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
53Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
54.TP
55.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fPioengine[,command]
56List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR defined by \fIioengine\fR.
57.TP
58.BI \-\-showcmd \fR=\fPjobfile
59Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command-line options.
60.TP
61.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
62Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
63be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
64.TP
65.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
66Force an ETA newline for every `time` period passed.
67.TP
68.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
69Report full output status every `time` period passed.
70.TP
71.BI \-\-readonly
72Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
73.TP
74.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
75Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. Multiple of these options can be given, adding more sections to run.
76.TP
77.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
78Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
79.TP
80.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
81All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
82.TP
83.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
84Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
85.TP
86.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
87Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
88.TP
89.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
90Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
91.TP
92.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
93Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host.
94.TP
95.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
96Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
97.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
98Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
99job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
100extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
101except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
102a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
103behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
104considered a comment and ignored.
105.P
106If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
107standard input.
108.SS "Global Section"
109The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
110job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
111and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
112may override any parameter set in global sections.
113.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
114.SS Types
115Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type. The types used are:
116.TP
117.I str
118String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
119.TP
120.I int
121SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
122of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
123kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
124respectively. The suffix is not case sensitive. If prefixed with '0x', the
125value is assumed to be base 16 (hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b',
126for instance 'kb' is identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value
127by using 'KiB', 'MiB', 'GiB', etc. This is useful for disk drives where
128values are often given in base 10 values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you
12930*1000^3 bytes.
130.TP
131.I bool
132Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
133.TP
134.I irange
135Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
136\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
137\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
138sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
139`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
140.TP
141.I float_list
142List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
143a ':' character.
144.SS "Parameter List"
145.TP
146.BI name \fR=\fPstr
147May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
148has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
149.TP
150.BI description \fR=\fPstr
151Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
152otherwise has no special purpose.
153.TP
154.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
155Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
156than `./'.
157.TP
158.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
159.B fio
160normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
161number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
162specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
163If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
164a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
165reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
166set.
167.TP
168.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
169If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
170fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
171based on the default file format specification of
172\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
173customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
174string:
175.RS
176.RS
177.TP
178.B $jobname
179The name of the worker thread or process.
180.TP
181.B $jobnum
182The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
183.TP
184.B $filenum
185The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
186.RE
187.P
188To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
189have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
190if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
191be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
192will be used if no other format specifier is given.
193.RE
194.P
195.TP
196.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
197Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
198file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
199result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
200The lock modes are:
201.RS
202.RS
203.TP
204.B none
205No locking. This is the default.
206.TP
207.B exclusive
208Only one thread or process may do IO at the time, excluding all others.
209.TP
210.B readwrite
211Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
212time, but writes get exclusive access.
213.RE
214.RE
215.P
216.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
217Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
218.TP
219.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
220Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
221.RS
222.RS
223.TP
224.B read
225Sequential reads.
226.TP
227.B write
228Sequential writes.
229.TP
230.B trim
231Sequential trim (Linux block devices only).
232.TP
233.B randread
234Random reads.
235.TP
236.B randwrite
237Random writes.
238.TP
239.B randtrim
240Random trim (Linux block devices only).
241.TP
242.B rw, readwrite
243Mixed sequential reads and writes.
244.TP
245.B randrw
246Mixed random reads and writes.
247.RE
248.P
249For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
250may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
251specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
252appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
253would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
254value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
255specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
256using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
257into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
258.RE
259.TP
260.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
261If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
262then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
263generated. Accepted values are:
264.RS
265.RS
266.TP
267.B sequential
268Generate sequential offset
269.TP
270.B identical
271Generate the same offset
272.RE
273.P
274\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
275generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
276would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
277only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
278that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
279would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
280fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
281new offset.
282.RE
283.P
284.TP
285.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
286The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
287manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
288reasons. Allowed values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
289.TP
290.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
291Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
292read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
293set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
294.TP
295.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
296Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
297across runs. Default: true.
298.TP
299.BI randseed \fR=\fPint
300Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
301control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
302sequence depends on the \fBrandrepeat\fR setting.
303.TP
304.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
305Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
306offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
307Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
308faster. Default: false.
309.TP
310.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
311Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
312are:
313.RS
314.RS
315.TP
316.B none
317Do not pre-allocate space.
318.TP
319.B posix
320Pre-allocate via \fBposix_fallocate\fR\|(3).
321.TP
322.B keep
323Pre-allocate via \fBfallocate\fR\|(2) with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
324.TP
325.B 0
326Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
327.TP
328.B 1
329Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
330.RE
331.P
332May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
333available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
334because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
335.RE
336.TP
337.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
338Use of \fBposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
339are likely to be issued. Default: true.
340.TP
341.BI size \fR=\fPint
342Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
343been transferred, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
344Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
345divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
346full size of the given files or devices. If the files do not exist, size
347must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
348100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
349or devices.
350.TP
351.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
352Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
353device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
354For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
355the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
356since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
357writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
358.TP
359.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
360Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
361for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
362that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
363same size.
364.TP
365.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
366Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads, writes, and trims
367can be specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR,\fItrim\fR
368either of which may be empty to leave that value at its default. If a trailing
369comma isn't given, the remainder will inherit the last value set.
370.TP
371.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
372Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
373multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
374to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
375separately with a comma separating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
376Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
377.TP
378.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
379This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
380not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
381block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
382block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
383optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
384Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
385blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
386splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
387\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
388comma.
389.TP
390.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
391If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
392work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
393.TP
394.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
395At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
396the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
397for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
398This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
399will turn off that option.
400.TP
401.BI bs_is_seq_rand \fR=\fPbool
402If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings as
403sequential,random instead. Any random read or write will use the WRITE
404blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will use the READ
405blocksize setting.
406.TP
407.B zero_buffers
408Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
409.TP
410.B refill_buffers
411If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
412default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
413if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
414refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
415.TP
416.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
417If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
418deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
419contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
420more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
421of blocks. Default: true.
422.TP
423.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
424If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
425that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
426random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
427wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
428\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
429.TP
430.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
431See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
432big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
433provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
434the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
435size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
436.TP
437.BI buffer_pattern \fR=\fPstr
438If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. If not set, the contents
439of io buffers is defined by the other options related to buffer contents. The
440setting can be any pattern of bytes, and can be prefixed with 0x for hex
441values.
442.TP
443.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
444Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
445.TP
446.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
447Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
448.TP
449.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
450Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
451.RS
452.RS
453.TP
454.B random
455Choose a file at random.
456.TP
457.B roundrobin
458Round robin over open files (default).
459.TP
460.B sequential
461Do each file in the set sequentially.
462.RE
463.P
464The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
465appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
466.RE
467.TP
468.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
469Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
470.RS
471.RS
472.TP
473.B sync
474Basic \fBread\fR\|(2) or \fBwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fBfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
475position the I/O location.
476.TP
477.B psync
478Basic \fBpread\fR\|(2) or \fBpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
479.TP
480.B vsync
481Basic \fBreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
482coalescing adjacent IOs into a single submission.
483.TP
484.B pvsync
485Basic \fBpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
486.TP
487.B libaio
488Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
489.TP
490.B posixaio
491POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fBaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fBaio_write\fR\|(3).
492.TP
493.B solarisaio
494Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
495.TP
496.B windowsaio
497Windows native asynchronous I/O.
498.TP
499.B mmap
500File is memory mapped with \fBmmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
501\fBmemcpy\fR\|(3).
502.TP
503.B splice
504\fBsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
505transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
506.TP
507.B syslet-rw
508Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
509.TP
510.B sg
511SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
512the target is an sg character device, we use \fBread\fR\|(2) and
513\fBwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
514.TP
515.B null
516Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
517itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
518.TP
519.B net
520Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
521\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
522\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
523This ioengine defines engine specific options.
524.TP
525.B netsplice
526Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fBsplice\fR\|(2) and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
527and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
528.TP
529.B cpuio
530Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
531\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
532.TP
533.B guasi
534The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
535approach to asynchronous I/O.
536.br
537See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
538.TP
539.B rdma
540The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
541and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
542.TP
543.B external
544Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
545`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
546.TP
547.B falloc
548 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate call to simulate data
549transfer as fio ioengine
550.br
551 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
552.br
553 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
554.br
555 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
556.TP
557.B e4defrag
558IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
559request to DDIR_WRITE event
560.RE
561.P
562.RE
563.TP
564.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
565Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
566iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
567degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
568restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
569Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
570not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
571fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
572.TP
573.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
574Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
575.TP
576.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
577This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
578 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
579kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
580\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
581completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
582cost of more retrieval system calls.
583.TP
584.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
585Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
586\fBiodepth\fR.
587.TP
588.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
589If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
590.TP
591.BI atomic \fR=\fPbool
592If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct IO. Atomic writes are guaranteed
593to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only Linux supports
594O_ATOMIC right now.
595.TP
596.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
597If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
598Default: true.
599.TP
600.BI offset \fR=\fPint
601Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
602.TP
603.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
604If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
605offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
606that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
607there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
608disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
609.TP
610.BI number_ios \fR=\fPint
611Fio will normally perform IOs until it has exhausted the size of the region
612set by \fBsize\fR, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
613condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
614the number of IOs to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
615normally and report status.
616.TP
617.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
618How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
6190, don't sync. Default: 0.
620.TP
621.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
622Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
623data parts of the file. Default: 0.
624.TP
625.BI write_barrier \fR=\fPint
626Make every Nth write a barrier write.
627.TP
628.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
629Use \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
630track range of writes that have happened since the last \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) call.
631\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
632.RS
633.TP
634.B wait_before
635SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
636.TP
637.B write
638SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
639.TP
640.B wait_after
641SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
642.TP
643.RE
644.P
645So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
646\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
647Also see the \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
648.TP
649.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
650If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
651.TP
652.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
653Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
654.TP
655.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
656If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
657it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
658.TP
659.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
660Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
661.TP
662.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
663Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
664\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
665overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
666asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
667the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
668.TP
669.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
670By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
671to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
672specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
673Fio includes the following distribution models:
674.RS
675.TP
676.B random
677Uniform random distribution
678.TP
679.B zipf
680Zipf distribution
681.TP
682.B pareto
683Pareto distribution
684.TP
685.RE
686.P
687When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
688define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
689it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
690used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
691If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
692random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
693fio will disable use of the random map.
694.TP
695.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint
696For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This defaults
697to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set from
698anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
699sequential. It is possible to set different values for reads, writes, and
700trim. To do so, simply use a comma separated list. See \fBblocksize\fR.
701.TP
702.B norandommap
703Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
704this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
705I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
706.TP
707.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
708See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
709fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
710random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
711option is disabled by default.
712.TP
713.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
714Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
715.RS
716.TP
717.B tausworthe
718Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
719.TP
720.B lfsr
721Linear feedback shift register generator
722.TP
723.RE
724.P
725Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
726side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
727guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
728computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
729for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
730sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
731workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
732.TP
733.BI nice \fR=\fPint
734Run job with given nice value. See \fBnice\fR\|(2).
735.TP
736.BI prio \fR=\fPint
737Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
738\fBionice\fR\|(1).
739.TP
740.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
741Set I/O priority class. See \fBionice\fR\|(1).
742.TP
743.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
744Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
745.TP
746.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
747Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
748of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
749.TP
750.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
751Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks to issue, before
752waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds. If not set, defaults to 1 which will
753make fio wait \fBthinktime\fR microseconds after every block. This
754effectively makes any queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 IO
755will be queued before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other
756words, this setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
757Default: 1.
758.TP
759.BI rate \fR=\fPint
760Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
761rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
762or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
763limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
764can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
765limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
766.TP
767.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
768Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
769Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
770as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
771.TP
772.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
773Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
774specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
775read vs write separation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
776size is used as the metric.
777.TP
778.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
779If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
780is used for read vs write separation.
781.TP
782.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
783Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
784milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
785.TP
786.BI latency_target \fR=\fPint
787If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
788workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. The
789values is given in microseconds. See \fBlatency_window\fR and
790\fBlatency_percentile\fR.
791.TP
792.BI latency_window \fR=\fPint
793Used with \fBlatency_target\fR to specify the sample window that the job
794is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. The value is given
795in microseconds.
796.TP
797.BI latency_percentile \fR=\fPfloat
798The percentage of IOs that must fall within the criteria specified by
799\fBlatency_target\fR and \fBlatency_window\fR. If not set, this defaults
800to 100.0, meaning that all IOs must be equal or below to the value set
801by \fBlatency_target\fR.
802.TP
803.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
804If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
805with an ETIME error.
806.TP
807.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
808Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
809may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
810.TP
811.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
812Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
813.TP
814.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
815Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
816comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
817.TP
818.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
819Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
820the arguments:
821.RS
822.TP
823.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
824.TP
825.B mode
826is one of the following memory policy:
827.TP
828.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
829.TP
830.RE
831For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
832needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
833allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
834comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
835.TP
836.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
837Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
838.TP
839.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
840Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
841.TP
842.B time_based
843If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
844completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
845as \fBruntime\fR allows.
846.TP
847.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
848If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
849logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
850logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
851that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
852increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
853.TP
854.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
855Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
856.TP
857.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
858Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
859this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
860.TP
861.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
862Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
863.RS
864.RS
865.TP
866.B malloc
867Allocate memory with \fBmalloc\fR\|(3).
868.TP
869.B shm
870Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fBshmget\fR\|(2).
871.TP
872.B shmhuge
873Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
874.TP
875.B mmap
876Use \fBmmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
877is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
878.TP
879.B mmaphuge
880Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
881.RE
882.P
883The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
884job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
885the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
886have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
887huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
888and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
889number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
890use.
891.RE
892.TP
893.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
894This indicates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
895given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
896the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
897other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
898system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
899is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
900sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
901.TP
902.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
903Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
904Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
905.TP
906.B exitall
907Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
908.TP
909.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
910Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
911500ms.
912.TP
913.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
914Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
915500ms.
916.TP
917.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
918If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
919.TP
920.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
921\fBfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
922.TP
923.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
924If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
925.TP
926.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
927If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
928laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
929are not executed.
930.TP
931.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
932If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
933IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
934pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
935engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
936multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
937.TP
938.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
939Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
940.TP
941.BI loops \fR=\fPint
942Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
943Default: 1.
944.TP
945.BI verify_only \fR=\fPbool
946Do not perform the specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
947invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
948times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only for
949workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
950\fBtime_based\fR option set.
951.TP
952.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
953Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
954Default: true.
955.TP
956.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
957Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
958values are:
959.RS
960.RS
961.TP
962.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
963Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
964hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
965not supported by the system.
966.TP
967.B meta
968Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
969block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
970.TP
971.B null
972Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
973.RE
974
975This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
976that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
977is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
978written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
979be of the newly written data.
980.RE
981.TP
982.BI verifysort \fR=\fPbool
983If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
984read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
985.TP
986.BI verifysort_nr \fR=\fPint
987Pre-load and sort verify blocks for a read workload.
988.TP
989.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
990Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
991writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
992.TP
993.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
994Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
995\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
996.TP
997.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
998If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
999with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
1000pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
1001fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
1002decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
1003has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
1004\fBverify\fP=meta.
1005.TP
1006.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
1007If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
1008false.
1009.TP
1010.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
1011If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
1012read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
1013data corruption occurred. Off by default.
1014.TP
1015.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
1016Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
1017takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
1018verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
1019to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
1020engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
1021allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
1022.TP
1023.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
1024Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
1025See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
1026.TP
1027.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
1028Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
1029once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
1030everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
1031instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
1032IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
1033be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
1034only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
1035.TP
1036.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1037Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
1038will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
1039read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
1040\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
1041\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
1042will be verified more than once.
1043.TP
1044.BI trim_percentage \fR=\fPint
1045Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
1046.TP
1047.BI trim_verify_zero \fR=\fPbool
1048Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeroes.
1049.TP
1050.BI trim_backlog \fR=\fPint
1051Trim after this number of blocks are written.
1052.TP
1053.BI trim_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1054Trim this number of IO blocks.
1055.TP
1056.BI experimental_verify \fR=\fPbool
1057Enable experimental verification.
1058.TP
1059.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
1060Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
1061\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
1062.TP
1063.B new_group
1064Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
1065of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
1066.TP
1067.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
1068Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
1069Default: 1.
1070.TP
1071.B group_reporting
1072If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
1073specified.
1074.TP
1075.B thread
1076Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
1077with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
1078.TP
1079.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
1080Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1081.TP
1082.BI zonerange \fR=\fPint
1083Give size of an IO zone. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1084.TP
1085.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
1086Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
1087read.
1088.TP
1089.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1090Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
1091for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
1092corrupt.
1093.TP
1094.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1095Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
1096\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
1097.TP
1098.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
1099While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1100attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
1101\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
1102still respecting ordering.
1103.TP
1104.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
1105While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1106is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
1107from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
1108single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
1109.TP
1110.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
1111If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
1112store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
1113fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1114graphs. See \fBwrite_lat_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1115option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1116.TP
1117.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1118Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1119filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1120is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1121.TP
1122.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1123Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1124option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1125filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1126.TP
1127.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1128By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1129IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1130very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1131over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1132Defaults to 0.
1133.TP
1134.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1135Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1136back the number of calls to \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2), as that does impact performance at
1137really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1138calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1139.TP
1140.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1141Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1142.TP
1143.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1144Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1145.TP
1146.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1147Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1148.TP
1149.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1150Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1151simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1152.TP
1153.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1154Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1155.RS
1156Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.prerun.txt\fR
1157.RE
1158.TP
1159.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1160Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1161.RS
1162Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.postrun.txt\fR
1163.RE
1164.TP
1165.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1166Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1167.TP
1168.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1169If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1170CPU cycles.
1171.TP
1172.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1173If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1174given time in milliseconds.
1175.TP
1176.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1177Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1178.TP
1179.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1180Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1181.RS
1182.TP
1183.B gettimeofday
1184\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2)
1185.TP
1186.B clock_gettime
1187\fBclock_gettime\fR\|(2)
1188.TP
1189.B cpu
1190Internal CPU clock source
1191.TP
1192.RE
1193.P
1194\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1195(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1196if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1197unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1198means supporting TSC Invariant.
1199.TP
1200.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1201Enable all of the \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1202disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1203\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1204the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1205.TP
1206.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1207Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1208the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1209\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1210nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1211threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1212entering the kernel with a \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call. The CPU set aside for doing
1213these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1214from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1215.TP
1216.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1217Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1218error list for each error type.
1219.br
1220ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1221.br
1222errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1223Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1224.br
1225Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1226.br
1227This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1228.TP
1229.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1230If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1231only fatal error will be dumped
1232.TP
1233.BI profile \fR=\fPstr
1234Select a specific builtin performance test.
1235.TP
1236.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1237Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1238The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1239your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1240
1241# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1242.TP
1243.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1244Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1245with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1246.TP
1247.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1248Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1249To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1250set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1251cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1252.TP
1253.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1254Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1255the thread/process does any work.
1256.TP
1257.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1258Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1259.TP
1260.BI unit_base \fR=\fPint
1261Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
1262.RS
1263.TP
1264.B 0
1265Use auto-detection (default).
1266.TP
1267.B 8
1268Byte based.
1269.TP
1270.B 1
1271Bit based.
1272.RE
1273.P
1274.TP
1275.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1276The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1277\fBflow\fR.
1278.TP
1279.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1280Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1281\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1282two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1283\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1284flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1285\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
12861:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1287.TP
1288.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1289The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1290reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1291.TP
1292.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1293The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1294exceeded before retrying operations
1295.TP
1296.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1297Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1298.TP
1299.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1300Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1301latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1302the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1303numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1304report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1305the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1306.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1307Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1308used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1309command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1310.TP
1311.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1312Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1313.TP
1314.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1315Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1316.TP
1317.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1318Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1319the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1320With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1321from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1322enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1323iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1324.TP
1325.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1326The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1327If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1328used and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1329.TP
1330.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1331The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1332.TP
1333.BI (net,netsplice)interface \fR=\fPstr
1334The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP multicast
1335packets.
1336.TP
1337.BI (net,netsplice)ttl \fR=\fPint
1338Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1
1339.TP
1340.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1341Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1342.TP
1343.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1344The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1345.RS
1346.RS
1347.TP
1348.B tcp
1349Transmission control protocol
1350.TP
1351.B tcpv6
1352Transmission control protocol V6
1353.TP
1354.B udp
1355User datagram protocol
1356.TP
1357.B udpv6
1358User datagram protocol V6
1359.TP
1360.B unix
1361UNIX domain socket
1362.RE
1363.P
1364When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1365as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1366reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1367used and the port is invalid.
1368.RE
1369.TP
1370.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1371For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1372connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1373hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1374.TP
1375.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1376Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1377will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1378payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1379This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1380latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1381completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1382send back. For UDP multicast traffic pingpong=1 should only be set for a single
1383reader when multiple readers are listening to the same address.
1384.TP
1385.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1386File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1387.TP
1388.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1389Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1390.RS
1391.BI 0(default) :
1392Preallocate donor's file on init
1393.TP
1394.BI 1:
1395allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right after event
1396.RE
1397.SH OUTPUT
1398While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1399example:
1400.RS
1401.P
1402Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1403.RE
1404.P
1405The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1406threads. The possible values are:
1407.P
1408.PD 0
1409.RS
1410.TP
1411.B P
1412Setup but not started.
1413.TP
1414.B C
1415Thread created.
1416.TP
1417.B I
1418Initialized, waiting.
1419.TP
1420.B R
1421Running, doing sequential reads.
1422.TP
1423.B r
1424Running, doing random reads.
1425.TP
1426.B W
1427Running, doing sequential writes.
1428.TP
1429.B w
1430Running, doing random writes.
1431.TP
1432.B M
1433Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1434.TP
1435.B m
1436Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1437.TP
1438.B F
1439Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1440.TP
1441.B V
1442Running, verifying written data.
1443.TP
1444.B E
1445Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1446.TP
1447.B \-
1448Exited, thread reaped.
1449.RE
1450.PD
1451.P
1452The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1453the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1454respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1455.P
1456When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1457for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1458.P
1459Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1460error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1461.RS
1462.TP
1463.B io
1464Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1465.TP
1466.B bw
1467Average data rate (bandwidth).
1468.TP
1469.B runt
1470Threads run time.
1471.TP
1472.B slat
1473Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1474the time it took to submit the I/O.
1475.TP
1476.B clat
1477Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1478is the time between submission and completion.
1479.TP
1480.B bw
1481Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1482and standard deviation.
1483.TP
1484.B cpu
1485CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1486this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1487.TP
1488.B IO depths
1489Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1490to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1491.TP
1492.B IO issued
1493Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1494.TP
1495.B IO latencies
1496Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1497as \fBIO depths\fR.
1498.RE
1499.P
1500The group statistics show:
1501.PD 0
1502.RS
1503.TP
1504.B io
1505Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1506.TP
1507.B aggrb
1508Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1509.TP
1510.B minb
1511Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1512.TP
1513.B maxb
1514Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1515.TP
1516.B mint
1517Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1518.TP
1519.B maxt
1520Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1521.RE
1522.PD
1523.P
1524Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1525.PD 0
1526.RS
1527.TP
1528.B ios
1529Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1530.TP
1531.B merge
1532Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1533.TP
1534.B ticks
1535Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1536.TP
1537.B io_queue
1538Total time spent in the disk queue.
1539.TP
1540.B util
1541Disk utilization.
1542.RE
1543.PD
1544.P
1545It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1546running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1547signal.
1548.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1549If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1550semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1551(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1552number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1553for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1554change. The fields are:
1555.P
1556.RS
1557.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1558.P
1559Read status:
1560.RS
1561.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1562.P
1563Submission latency:
1564.RS
1565.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1566.RE
1567Completion latency:
1568.RS
1569.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1570.RE
1571Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1572.RS
1573.B Xth percentile=usec
1574.RE
1575Total latency:
1576.RS
1577.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1578.RE
1579Bandwidth:
1580.RS
1581.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1582.RE
1583.RE
1584.P
1585Write status:
1586.RS
1587.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1588.P
1589Submission latency:
1590.RS
1591.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1592.RE
1593Completion latency:
1594.RS
1595.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1596.RE
1597Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1598.RS
1599.B Xth percentile=usec
1600.RE
1601Total latency:
1602.RS
1603.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1604.RE
1605Bandwidth:
1606.RS
1607.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1608.RE
1609.RE
1610.P
1611CPU usage:
1612.RS
1613.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1614.RE
1615.P
1616IO depth distribution:
1617.RS
1618.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1619.RE
1620.P
1621IO latency distribution:
1622.RS
1623Microseconds:
1624.RS
1625.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1626.RE
1627Milliseconds:
1628.RS
1629.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1630.RE
1631.RE
1632.P
1633Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1634.RS
1635.B name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks, read in-queue time, write in-queue time, disk utilization percentage
1636.RE
1637.P
1638Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1639.RS
1640.B total # errors, first error code
1641.RE
1642.P
1643.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1644.RE
1645.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1646Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1647where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1648run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1649have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1650be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1651
1652To start the server, you would do:
1653
1654\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1655
1656on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1657are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1658for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1659socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1660listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1661
16621) fio \-\-server
1663
1664 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1665
16662) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1667
1668 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1669
16703) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1671
1672 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1673
16744) fio \-\-server=,4444
1675
1676 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1677
16785) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1679
1680 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1681
16826) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1683
1684 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1685
1686When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1687is run with:
1688
1689fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1690
1691where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1692running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1693are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1694does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1695You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1696
1697fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1698.SH AUTHORS
1699
1700.B fio
1701was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1702now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1703.br
1704This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1705on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1706.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1707Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1708See \fBREADME\fR.
1709.SH "SEE ALSO"
1710For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1711.br
1712Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1713