.BI \-\-parse\-only
Parse options only, don't start any I/O.
.TP
+.BI \-\-merge\-blktrace\-only
+Merge blktraces only, don't start any I/O.
+.TP
.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
.TP
be read at once. If selected true, input from iolog will be read gradually.
Useful when iolog is very large, or it is generated.
.TP
+.BI merge_blktrace_file \fR=\fPstr
+When specified, rather than replaying the logs passed to \fBread_iolog\fR,
+the logs go through a merge phase which aggregates them into a single blktrace.
+The resulting file is then passed on as the \fBread_iolog\fR parameter. The
+intention here is to make the order of events consistent. This limits the
+influence of the scheduler compared to replaying multiple blktraces via
+concurrent jobs.
+.TP
+.BI merge_blktrace_scalars \fR=\fPfloat_list
+This is a percentage based option that is index paired with the list of files
+passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. When merging is performed, scale the time of each
+event by the corresponding amount. For example,
+`\-\-merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100"' runs the first trace in halftime and the
+second trace in realtime. This knob is separately tunable from
+\fBreplay_time_scale\fR which scales the trace during runtime and will not
+change the output of the merge unlike this option.
+.TP
+.BI merge_blktrace_iters \fR=\fPfloat_list
+This is a whole number option that is index paired with the list of files
+passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. When merging is performed, run each trace for
+the specified number of iterations. For example,
+`\-\-merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"' runs the first trace for two iterations
+and the second trace for one iteration.
+.TP
.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPbool
When replaying I/O with \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior is to
attempt to respect the timestamps within the log and replay them with the
data from the rolling collection window. Threshold limits can be expressed
as a fixed value or as a percentage of the mean in the collection window.
.RS
+.P
+When using this feature, most jobs should include the \fBtime_based\fR
+and \fBruntime\fR options or the \fBloops\fR option so that fio does not
+stop running after it has covered the full size of the specified file(s)
+or device(s).
+.RS
.RS
.TP
.B iops
Trim the given file from the given `offset' for `length' bytes.
.RE
.RE
+.SH I/O REPLAY \- MERGING TRACES
+Colocation is a common practice used to get the most out of a machine.
+Knowing which workloads play nicely with each other and which ones don't is
+a much harder task. While fio can replay workloads concurrently via multiple
+jobs, it leaves some variability up to the scheduler making results harder to
+reproduce. Merging is a way to make the order of events consistent.
+.P
+Merging is integrated into I/O replay and done when a \fBmerge_blktrace_file\fR
+is specified. The list of files passed to \fBread_iolog\fR go through the merge
+process and output a single file stored to the specified file. The output file is
+passed on as if it were the only file passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. An example would
+look like:
+.RS
+.P
+$ fio \-\-read_iolog="<file1>:<file2>" \-\-merge_blktrace_file="<output_file>"
+.RE
+.P
+Creating only the merged file can be done by passing the command line argument
+\fBmerge-blktrace-only\fR.
+.P
+Scaling traces can be done to see the relative impact of any particular trace
+being slowed down or sped up. \fBmerge_blktrace_scalars\fR takes in a colon
+separated list of percentage scalars. It is index paired with the files passed
+to \fBread_iolog\fR.
+.P
+With scaling, it may be desirable to match the running time of all traces.
+This can be done with \fBmerge_blktrace_iters\fR. It is index paired with
+\fBread_iolog\fR just like \fBmerge_blktrace_scalars\fR.
+.P
+In an example, given two traces, A and B, each 60s long. If we want to see
+the impact of trace A issuing IOs twice as fast and repeat trace A over the
+runtime of trace B, the following can be done:
+.RS
+.P
+$ fio \-\-read_iolog="<trace_a>:"<trace_b>" \-\-merge_blktrace_file"<output_file>" \-\-merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100" \-\-merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"
+.RE
+.P
+This runs trace A at 2x the speed twice for approximately the same runtime as
+a single run of trace B.
.SH CPU IDLENESS PROFILING
In some cases, we want to understand CPU overhead in a test. For example, we
test patches for the specific goodness of whether they reduce CPU usage.
projects / fio.git / blobdiff