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71bfa161 JA |
1 | Table of contents |
2 | ----------------- | |
3 | ||
4 | 1. Overview | |
5 | 2. How fio works | |
6 | 3. Running fio | |
7 | 4. Job file format | |
8 | 5. Detailed list of parameters | |
9 | 6. Normal output | |
10 | 7. Terse output | |
11 | ||
12 | ||
13 | 1.0 Overview and history | |
14 | ------------------------ | |
15 | fio was originally written to save me the hassle of writing special test | |
16 | case programs when I wanted to test a specific workload, either for | |
17 | performance reasons or to find/reproduce a bug. The process of writing | |
18 | such a test app can be tiresome, especially if you have to do it often. | |
19 | Hence I needed a tool that would be able to simulate a given io workload | |
20 | without resorting to writing a tailored test case again and again. | |
21 | ||
22 | A test work load is difficult to define, though. There can be any number | |
23 | of processes or threads involved, and they can each be using their own | |
24 | way of generating io. You could have someone dirtying large amounts of | |
25 | memory in an memory mapped file, or maybe several threads issuing | |
26 | reads using asynchronous io. fio needed to be flexible enough to | |
27 | simulate both of these cases, and many more. | |
28 | ||
29 | 2.0 How fio works | |
30 | ----------------- | |
31 | The first step in getting fio to simulate a desired io workload, is | |
32 | writing a job file describing that specific setup. A job file may contain | |
33 | any number of threads and/or files - the typical contents of the job file | |
34 | is a global section defining shared parameters, and one or more job | |
35 | sections describing the jobs involved. When run, fio parses this file | |
36 | and sets everything up as described. If we break down a job from top to | |
37 | bottom, it contains the following basic parameters: | |
38 | ||
39 | IO type Defines the io pattern issued to the file(s). | |
40 | We may only be reading sequentially from this | |
41 | file(s), or we may be writing randomly. Or even | |
42 | mixing reads and writes, sequentially or randomly. | |
43 | ||
44 | Block size In how large chunks are we issuing io? This may be | |
45 | a single value, or it may describe a range of | |
46 | block sizes. | |
47 | ||
48 | IO size How much data are we going to be reading/writing. | |
49 | ||
50 | IO engine How do we issue io? We could be memory mapping the | |
51 | file, we could be using regular read/write, we | |
d0ff85df | 52 | could be using splice, async io, syslet, or even |
71bfa161 JA |
53 | SG (SCSI generic sg). |
54 | ||
6c219763 | 55 | IO depth If the io engine is async, how large a queuing |
71bfa161 JA |
56 | depth do we want to maintain? |
57 | ||
58 | IO type Should we be doing buffered io, or direct/raw io? | |
59 | ||
60 | Num files How many files are we spreading the workload over. | |
61 | ||
62 | Num threads How many threads or processes should we spread | |
63 | this workload over. | |
64 | ||
65 | The above are the basic parameters defined for a workload, in addition | |
66 | there's a multitude of parameters that modify other aspects of how this | |
67 | job behaves. | |
68 | ||
69 | ||
70 | 3.0 Running fio | |
71 | --------------- | |
72 | See the README file for command line parameters, there are only a few | |
73 | of them. | |
74 | ||
75 | Running fio is normally the easiest part - you just give it the job file | |
76 | (or job files) as parameters: | |
77 | ||
78 | $ fio job_file | |
79 | ||
80 | and it will start doing what the job_file tells it to do. You can give | |
81 | more than one job file on the command line, fio will serialize the running | |
82 | of those files. Internally that is the same as using the 'stonewall' | |
83 | parameter described the the parameter section. | |
84 | ||
b4692828 JA |
85 | If the job file contains only one job, you may as well just give the |
86 | parameters on the command line. The command line parameters are identical | |
87 | to the job parameters, with a few extra that control global parameters | |
88 | (see README). For example, for the job file parameter iodepth=2, the | |
c2b1e753 JA |
89 | mirror command line option would be --iodepth 2 or --iodepth=2. You can |
90 | also use the command line for giving more than one job entry. For each | |
91 | --name option that fio sees, it will start a new job with that name. | |
92 | Command line entries following a --name entry will apply to that job, | |
93 | until there are no more entries or a new --name entry is seen. This is | |
94 | similar to the job file options, where each option applies to the current | |
95 | job until a new [] job entry is seen. | |
b4692828 | 96 | |
71bfa161 JA |
97 | fio does not need to run as root, except if the files or devices specified |
98 | in the job section requires that. Some other options may also be restricted, | |
6c219763 | 99 | such as memory locking, io scheduler switching, and decreasing the nice value. |
71bfa161 JA |
100 | |
101 | ||
102 | 4.0 Job file format | |
103 | ------------------- | |
104 | As previously described, fio accepts one or more job files describing | |
105 | what it is supposed to do. The job file format is the classic ini file, | |
106 | where the names enclosed in [] brackets define the job name. You are free | |
107 | to use any ascii name you want, except 'global' which has special meaning. | |
108 | A global section sets defaults for the jobs described in that file. A job | |
109 | may override a global section parameter, and a job file may even have | |
110 | several global sections if so desired. A job is only affected by a global | |
65db0851 JA |
111 | section residing above it. If the first character in a line is a ';' or a |
112 | '#', the entire line is discarded as a comment. | |
71bfa161 JA |
113 | |
114 | So lets look at a really simple job file that define to threads, each | |
115 | randomly reading from a 128MiB file. | |
116 | ||
117 | ; -- start job file -- | |
118 | [global] | |
119 | rw=randread | |
120 | size=128m | |
121 | ||
122 | [job1] | |
123 | ||
124 | [job2] | |
125 | ||
126 | ; -- end job file -- | |
127 | ||
128 | As you can see, the job file sections themselves are empty as all the | |
129 | described parameters are shared. As no filename= option is given, fio | |
c2b1e753 JA |
130 | makes up a filename for each of the jobs as it sees fit. On the command |
131 | line, this job would look as follows: | |
132 | ||
133 | $ fio --name=global --rw=randread --size=128m --name=job1 --name=job2 | |
134 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
135 | |
136 | Lets look at an example that have a number of processes writing randomly | |
137 | to files. | |
138 | ||
139 | ; -- start job file -- | |
140 | [random-writers] | |
141 | ioengine=libaio | |
142 | iodepth=4 | |
143 | rw=randwrite | |
144 | bs=32k | |
145 | direct=0 | |
146 | size=64m | |
147 | numjobs=4 | |
148 | ||
149 | ; -- end job file -- | |
150 | ||
151 | Here we have no global section, as we only have one job defined anyway. | |
152 | We want to use async io here, with a depth of 4 for each file. We also | |
153 | increased the buffer size used to 32KiB and define numjobs to 4 to | |
154 | fork 4 identical jobs. The result is 4 processes each randomly writing | |
b4692828 JA |
155 | to their own 64MiB file. Instead of using the above job file, you could |
156 | have given the parameters on the command line. For this case, you would | |
157 | specify: | |
158 | ||
159 | $ fio --name=random-writers --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=randwrite --bs=32k --direct=0 --size=64m --numjobs=4 | |
71bfa161 JA |
160 | |
161 | fio ships with a few example job files, you can also look there for | |
162 | inspiration. | |
163 | ||
164 | ||
165 | 5.0 Detailed list of parameters | |
166 | ------------------------------- | |
167 | ||
168 | This section describes in details each parameter associated with a job. | |
169 | Some parameters take an option of a given type, such as an integer or | |
170 | a string. The following types are used: | |
171 | ||
172 | str String. This is a sequence of alpha characters. | |
6d16ecb6 JA |
173 | int Integer. A whole number value, can be negative. If prefixed with |
174 | 0x, the integer is assumed to be of base 16 (hexidecimal). | |
71bfa161 JA |
175 | siint SI integer. A whole number value, which may contain a postfix |
176 | describing the base of the number. Accepted postfixes are k/m/g, | |
6c219763 | 177 | meaning kilo, mega, and giga. So if you want to specify 4096, |
71bfa161 JA |
178 | you could either write out '4096' or just give 4k. The postfixes |
179 | signify base 2 values, so 1024 is 1k and 1024k is 1m and so on. | |
43159d18 JA |
180 | If the option accepts an upper and lower range, use a colon ':' |
181 | or minus '-' to seperate such values. See irange. | |
71bfa161 JA |
182 | bool Boolean. Usually parsed as an integer, however only defined for |
183 | true and false (1 and 0). | |
184 | irange Integer range with postfix. Allows value range to be given, such | |
0c9baf91 JA |
185 | as 1024-4096. A colon may also be used as the seperator, eg |
186 | 1k:4k. If the option allows two sets of ranges, they can be | |
187 | specified with a ',' or '/' delimiter: 1k-4k/8k-32k. Also see | |
188 | siint. | |
71bfa161 JA |
189 | |
190 | With the above in mind, here follows the complete list of fio job | |
191 | parameters. | |
192 | ||
193 | name=str ASCII name of the job. This may be used to override the | |
194 | name printed by fio for this job. Otherwise the job | |
c2b1e753 | 195 | name is used. On the command line this parameter has the |
6c219763 | 196 | special purpose of also signaling the start of a new |
c2b1e753 | 197 | job. |
71bfa161 | 198 | |
61697c37 JA |
199 | description=str Text description of the job. Doesn't do anything except |
200 | dump this text description when this job is run. It's | |
201 | not parsed. | |
202 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
203 | directory=str Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to places files |
204 | in a different location than "./". | |
205 | ||
206 | filename=str Fio normally makes up a filename based on the job name, | |
207 | thread number, and file number. If you want to share | |
208 | files between threads in a job or several jobs, specify | |
ed92ac0c JA |
209 | a filename for each of them to override the default. If |
210 | the ioengine used is 'net', the filename is the host and | |
9f9214f2 | 211 | port to connect to in the format of =host/port. If the |
af52b345 JA |
212 | ioengine is file based, you can specify a number of files |
213 | by seperating the names with a ':' colon. So if you wanted | |
214 | a job to open /dev/sda and /dev/sdb as the two working files, | |
66159828 JA |
215 | you would use filename=/dev/sda:/dev/sdb. '-' is a reserved |
216 | name, meaning stdin or stdout. Which of the two depends | |
217 | on the read/write direction set. | |
71bfa161 | 218 | |
bbf6b540 JA |
219 | opendir=str Tell fio to recursively add any file it can find in this |
220 | directory and down the file system tree. | |
221 | ||
4d4e80f2 JA |
222 | lockfile=str Fio defaults to not doing any locking files before it does |
223 | IO to them. If a file or file descriptor is shared, fio | |
224 | can serialize IO to that file to make the end result | |
225 | consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that | |
226 | share files. The lock modes are: | |
227 | ||
228 | none No locking. The default. | |
229 | exclusive Only one thread/process may do IO, | |
230 | excluding all others. | |
231 | readwrite Read-write locking on the file. Many | |
232 | readers may access the file at the | |
233 | same time, but writes get exclusive | |
234 | access. | |
235 | ||
236 | The option may be post-fixed with a lock batch number. If | |
237 | set, then each thread/process may do that amount of IOs to | |
238 | the file before giving up the lock. Since lock acqusition is | |
239 | expensive, batching the lock/unlocks will speed up IO. | |
29c1349f | 240 | |
d3aad8f2 | 241 | readwrite=str |
71bfa161 JA |
242 | rw=str Type of io pattern. Accepted values are: |
243 | ||
244 | read Sequential reads | |
245 | write Sequential writes | |
246 | randwrite Random writes | |
247 | randread Random reads | |
248 | rw Sequential mixed reads and writes | |
249 | randrw Random mixed reads and writes | |
250 | ||
251 | For the mixed io types, the default is to split them 50/50. | |
252 | For certain types of io the result may still be skewed a bit, | |
211097b2 JA |
253 | since the speed may be different. It is possible to specify |
254 | a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset - this | |
255 | is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally | |
256 | generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append | |
257 | eg 8 to randread, you would get a new random offset for | |
258 | every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for only every 8 | |
259 | IO's, instead of for every IO. Use rw=randread:8 to specify | |
260 | that. | |
71bfa161 | 261 | |
ee738499 JA |
262 | randrepeat=bool For random IO workloads, seed the generator in a predictable |
263 | way so that results are repeatable across repetitions. | |
264 | ||
d2f3ac35 JA |
265 | fadvise_hint=bool By default, fio will use fadvise() to advise the kernel |
266 | on what IO patterns it is likely to issue. Sometimes you | |
267 | want to test specific IO patterns without telling the | |
268 | kernel about it, in which case you can disable this option. | |
269 | If set, fio will use POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL for sequential | |
270 | IO and POSIX_FADV_RANDOM for random IO. | |
271 | ||
7616cafe JA |
272 | size=siint The total size of file io for this job. Fio will run until |
273 | this many bytes has been transferred, unless runtime is | |
274 | limited by other options (such as 'runtime', for instance). | |
275 | Unless specific nr_files and filesize options are given, | |
276 | fio will divide this size between the available files | |
277 | specified by the job. | |
71bfa161 | 278 | |
9c60ce64 JA |
279 | filesize=siint Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case fio |
280 | will select sizes for files at random within the given range | |
281 | and limited to 'size' in total (if that is given). If not | |
282 | given, each created file is the same size. | |
283 | ||
aa31f1f1 SL |
284 | fill_device=bool Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no |
285 | space left on device) as the terminating condition. Only makes | |
286 | sense with sequential write. | |
287 | ||
d3aad8f2 | 288 | blocksize=siint |
f90eff5a JA |
289 | bs=siint The block size used for the io units. Defaults to 4k. Values |
290 | can be given for both read and writes. If a single siint is | |
291 | given, it will apply to both. If a second siint is specified | |
292 | after a comma, it will apply to writes only. In other words, | |
293 | the format is either bs=read_and_write or bs=read,write. | |
294 | bs=4k,8k will thus use 4k blocks for reads, and 8k blocks | |
787f7e95 JA |
295 | for writes. If you only wish to set the write size, you |
296 | can do so by passing an empty read size - bs=,8k will set | |
297 | 8k for writes and leave the read default value. | |
a00735e6 | 298 | |
d3aad8f2 | 299 | blocksize_range=irange |
71bfa161 JA |
300 | bsrange=irange Instead of giving a single block size, specify a range |
301 | and fio will mix the issued io block sizes. The issued | |
302 | io unit will always be a multiple of the minimum value | |
f90eff5a JA |
303 | given (also see bs_unaligned). Applies to both reads and |
304 | writes, however a second range can be given after a comma. | |
305 | See bs=. | |
a00735e6 | 306 | |
564ca972 JA |
307 | bssplit=str Sometimes you want even finer grained control of the |
308 | block sizes issued, not just an even split between them. | |
309 | This option allows you to weight various block sizes, | |
310 | so that you are able to define a specific amount of | |
311 | block sizes issued. The format for this option is: | |
312 | ||
313 | bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage | |
314 | ||
315 | for as many block sizes as needed. So if you want to define | |
316 | a workload that has 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k blocks, and | |
317 | 40% 32k blocks, you would write: | |
318 | ||
319 | bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 | |
320 | ||
321 | Ordering does not matter. If the percentage is left blank, | |
322 | fio will fill in the remaining values evenly. So a bssplit | |
323 | option like this one: | |
324 | ||
325 | bssplit=4k/50:1k/:32k/ | |
326 | ||
327 | would have 50% 4k ios, and 25% 1k and 32k ios. The percentages | |
328 | always add up to 100, if bssplit is given a range that adds | |
329 | up to more, it will error out. | |
330 | ||
d3aad8f2 | 331 | blocksize_unaligned |
690adba3 JA |
332 | bs_unaligned If this option is given, any byte size value within bsrange |
333 | may be used as a block range. This typically wont work with | |
334 | direct IO, as that normally requires sector alignment. | |
71bfa161 | 335 | |
e9459e5a JA |
336 | zero_buffers If this option is given, fio will init the IO buffers to |
337 | all zeroes. The default is to fill them with random data. | |
338 | ||
5973cafb JA |
339 | refill_buffers If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers |
340 | on every submit. The default is to only fill it at init | |
341 | time and reuse that data. Only makes sense if zero_buffers | |
41ccd845 JA |
342 | isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled, |
343 | refill_buffers is also automatically enabled. | |
5973cafb | 344 | |
71bfa161 JA |
345 | nrfiles=int Number of files to use for this job. Defaults to 1. |
346 | ||
390b1537 JA |
347 | openfiles=int Number of files to keep open at the same time. Defaults to |
348 | the same as nrfiles, can be set smaller to limit the number | |
349 | simultaneous opens. | |
350 | ||
5af1c6f3 JA |
351 | file_service_type=str Defines how fio decides which file from a job to |
352 | service next. The following types are defined: | |
353 | ||
354 | random Just choose a file at random. | |
355 | ||
356 | roundrobin Round robin over open files. This | |
357 | is the default. | |
358 | ||
1907dbc6 JA |
359 | The string can have a number appended, indicating how |
360 | often to switch to a new file. So if option random:4 is | |
361 | given, fio will switch to a new random file after 4 ios | |
362 | have been issued. | |
363 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
364 | ioengine=str Defines how the job issues io to the file. The following |
365 | types are defined: | |
366 | ||
367 | sync Basic read(2) or write(2) io. lseek(2) is | |
368 | used to position the io location. | |
369 | ||
a31041ea | 370 | psync Basic pread(2) or pwrite(2) io. |
371 | ||
e05af9e5 | 372 | vsync Basic readv(2) or writev(2) IO. |
1d2af02a | 373 | |
71bfa161 JA |
374 | libaio Linux native asynchronous io. |
375 | ||
376 | posixaio glibc posix asynchronous io. | |
377 | ||
417f0068 JA |
378 | solarisaio Solaris native asynchronous io. |
379 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
380 | mmap File is memory mapped and data copied |
381 | to/from using memcpy(3). | |
382 | ||
383 | splice splice(2) is used to transfer the data and | |
384 | vmsplice(2) to transfer data from user | |
385 | space to the kernel. | |
386 | ||
d0ff85df JA |
387 | syslet-rw Use the syslet system calls to make |
388 | regular read/write async. | |
389 | ||
71bfa161 | 390 | sg SCSI generic sg v3 io. May either be |
6c219763 | 391 | synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if |
71bfa161 JA |
392 | the target is an sg character device |
393 | we use read(2) and write(2) for asynchronous | |
394 | io. | |
395 | ||
a94ea28b JA |
396 | null Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends |
397 | to. This is mainly used to exercise fio | |
398 | itself and for debugging/testing purposes. | |
399 | ||
ed92ac0c JA |
400 | net Transfer over the network to given host:port. |
401 | 'filename' must be set appropriately to | |
9f9214f2 | 402 | filename=host/port regardless of send |
ed92ac0c JA |
403 | or receive, if the latter only the port |
404 | argument is used. | |
405 | ||
9cce02e8 JA |
406 | netsplice Like net, but uses splice/vmsplice to |
407 | map data and send/receive. | |
408 | ||
53aec0a4 | 409 | cpuio Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU |
ba0fbe10 JA |
410 | cycles according to the cpuload= and |
411 | cpucycle= options. Setting cpuload=85 | |
412 | will cause that job to do nothing but burn | |
36ecec83 GP |
413 | 85% of the CPU. In case of SMP machines, |
414 | use numjobs=<no_of_cpu> to get desired CPU | |
415 | usage, as the cpuload only loads a single | |
416 | CPU at the desired rate. | |
ba0fbe10 | 417 | |
e9a1806f JA |
418 | guasi The GUASI IO engine is the Generic Userspace |
419 | Asyncronous Syscall Interface approach | |
420 | to async IO. See | |
421 | ||
422 | http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi-lib.html | |
423 | ||
424 | for more info on GUASI. | |
425 | ||
8a7bd877 JA |
426 | external Prefix to specify loading an external |
427 | IO engine object file. Append the engine | |
428 | filename, eg ioengine=external:/tmp/foo.o | |
429 | to load ioengine foo.o in /tmp. | |
430 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
431 | iodepth=int This defines how many io units to keep in flight against |
432 | the file. The default is 1 for each file defined in this | |
433 | job, can be overridden with a larger value for higher | |
434 | concurrency. | |
435 | ||
cb5ab512 | 436 | iodepth_batch=int This defines how many pieces of IO to submit at once. |
89e820f6 JA |
437 | It defaults to 1 which means that we submit each IO |
438 | as soon as it is available, but can be raised to submit | |
439 | bigger batches of IO at the time. | |
cb5ab512 | 440 | |
e916b390 JA |
441 | iodepth_low=int The low water mark indicating when to start filling |
442 | the queue again. Defaults to the same as iodepth, meaning | |
443 | that fio will attempt to keep the queue full at all times. | |
444 | If iodepth is set to eg 16 and iodepth_low is set to 4, then | |
445 | after fio has filled the queue of 16 requests, it will let | |
446 | the depth drain down to 4 before starting to fill it again. | |
447 | ||
71bfa161 | 448 | direct=bool If value is true, use non-buffered io. This is usually |
76a43db4 JA |
449 | O_DIRECT. |
450 | ||
451 | buffered=bool If value is true, use buffered io. This is the opposite | |
452 | of the 'direct' option. Defaults to true. | |
71bfa161 JA |
453 | |
454 | offset=siint Start io at the given offset in the file. The data before | |
455 | the given offset will not be touched. This effectively | |
456 | caps the file size at real_size - offset. | |
457 | ||
458 | fsync=int If writing to a file, issue a sync of the dirty data | |
459 | for every number of blocks given. For example, if you give | |
460 | 32 as a parameter, fio will sync the file for every 32 | |
461 | writes issued. If fio is using non-buffered io, we may | |
462 | not sync the file. The exception is the sg io engine, which | |
6c219763 | 463 | synchronizes the disk cache anyway. |
71bfa161 | 464 | |
5036fc1e JA |
465 | overwrite=bool If true, writes to a file will always overwrite existing |
466 | data. If the file doesn't already exist, it will be | |
467 | created before the write phase begins. If the file exists | |
468 | and is large enough for the specified write phase, nothing | |
469 | will be done. | |
71bfa161 JA |
470 | |
471 | end_fsync=bool If true, fsync file contents when the job exits. | |
472 | ||
ebb1415f JA |
473 | fsync_on_close=bool If true, fio will fsync() a dirty file on close. |
474 | This differs from end_fsync in that it will happen on every | |
475 | file close, not just at the end of the job. | |
476 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
477 | rwmixread=int How large a percentage of the mix should be reads. |
478 | ||
479 | rwmixwrite=int How large a percentage of the mix should be writes. If both | |
480 | rwmixread and rwmixwrite is given and the values do not add | |
481 | up to 100%, the latter of the two will be used to override | |
482 | the first. | |
483 | ||
bb8895e0 JA |
484 | norandommap Normally fio will cover every block of the file when doing |
485 | random IO. If this option is given, fio will just get a | |
486 | new random offset without looking at past io history. This | |
487 | means that some blocks may not be read or written, and that | |
488 | some blocks may be read/written more than once. This option | |
7616cafe JA |
489 | is mutually exclusive with verify= for that reason, since |
490 | fio doesn't track potential block rewrites which may alter | |
491 | the calculated checksum for that block. | |
bb8895e0 | 492 | |
2b386d25 JA |
493 | softrandommap See norandommap. If fio runs with the random block map enabled |
494 | and it fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it | |
495 | will continue without a random block map. As coverage will | |
496 | not be as complete as with random maps, this option is | |
497 | disabled by default. | |
498 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
499 | nice=int Run the job with the given nice value. See man nice(2). |
500 | ||
501 | prio=int Set the io priority value of this job. Linux limits us to | |
502 | a positive value between 0 and 7, with 0 being the highest. | |
503 | See man ionice(1). | |
504 | ||
505 | prioclass=int Set the io priority class. See man ionice(1). | |
506 | ||
507 | thinktime=int Stall the job x microseconds after an io has completed before | |
508 | issuing the next. May be used to simulate processing being | |
48097d5c JA |
509 | done by an application. See thinktime_blocks and |
510 | thinktime_spin. | |
511 | ||
512 | thinktime_spin=int | |
513 | Only valid if thinktime is set - pretend to spend CPU time | |
514 | doing something with the data received, before falling back | |
515 | to sleeping for the rest of the period specified by | |
516 | thinktime. | |
9c1f7434 JA |
517 | |
518 | thinktime_blocks | |
519 | Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks | |
520 | to issue, before waiting 'thinktime' usecs. If not set, | |
521 | defaults to 1 which will make fio wait 'thinktime' usecs | |
522 | after every block. | |
71bfa161 JA |
523 | |
524 | rate=int Cap the bandwidth used by this job to this number of KiB/sec. | |
525 | ||
526 | ratemin=int Tell fio to do whatever it can to maintain at least this | |
4e991c23 JA |
527 | bandwidth. Failing to meet this requirement, will cause |
528 | the job to exit. | |
529 | ||
530 | rate_iops=int Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same | |
531 | as rate, just specified independently of bandwidth. If the | |
532 | job is given a block size range instead of a fixed value, | |
533 | the smallest block size is used as the metric. | |
534 | ||
535 | rate_iops_min=int If fio doesn't meet this rate of IO, it will cause | |
536 | the job to exit. | |
71bfa161 JA |
537 | |
538 | ratecycle=int Average bandwidth for 'rate' and 'ratemin' over this number | |
6c219763 | 539 | of milliseconds. |
71bfa161 JA |
540 | |
541 | cpumask=int Set the CPU affinity of this job. The parameter given is a | |
a08bc17f JA |
542 | bitmask of allowed CPU's the job may run on. So if you want |
543 | the allowed CPUs to be 1 and 5, you would pass the decimal | |
544 | value of (1 << 1 | 1 << 5), or 34. See man | |
7dbb6eba JA |
545 | sched_setaffinity(2). This may not work on all supported |
546 | operating systems or kernel versions. | |
71bfa161 | 547 | |
d2e268b0 JA |
548 | cpus_allowed=str Controls the same options as cpumask, but it allows a text |
549 | setting of the permitted CPUs instead. So to use CPUs 1 and | |
550 | 5, you would specify cpus_allowed=1,5. | |
551 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
552 | startdelay=int Start this job the specified number of seconds after fio |
553 | has started. Only useful if the job file contains several | |
554 | jobs, and you want to delay starting some jobs to a certain | |
555 | time. | |
556 | ||
03b74b3e | 557 | runtime=int Tell fio to terminate processing after the specified number |
71bfa161 JA |
558 | of seconds. It can be quite hard to determine for how long |
559 | a specified job will run, so this parameter is handy to | |
560 | cap the total runtime to a given time. | |
561 | ||
cf4464ca JA |
562 | time_based If set, fio will run for the duration of the runtime |
563 | specified even if the file(s) are completey read or | |
564 | written. It will simply loop over the same workload | |
565 | as many times as the runtime allows. | |
566 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
567 | invalidate=bool Invalidate the buffer/page cache parts for this file prior |
568 | to starting io. Defaults to true. | |
569 | ||
570 | sync=bool Use sync io for buffered writes. For the majority of the | |
571 | io engines, this means using O_SYNC. | |
572 | ||
d3aad8f2 | 573 | iomem=str |
71bfa161 JA |
574 | mem=str Fio can use various types of memory as the io unit buffer. |
575 | The allowed values are: | |
576 | ||
577 | malloc Use memory from malloc(3) as the buffers. | |
578 | ||
579 | shm Use shared memory as the buffers. Allocated | |
580 | through shmget(2). | |
581 | ||
74b025b0 JA |
582 | shmhuge Same as shm, but use huge pages as backing. |
583 | ||
313cb206 JA |
584 | mmap Use mmap to allocate buffers. May either be |
585 | anonymous memory, or can be file backed if | |
586 | a filename is given after the option. The | |
587 | format is mem=mmap:/path/to/file. | |
71bfa161 | 588 | |
d0bdaf49 JA |
589 | mmaphuge Use a memory mapped huge file as the buffer |
590 | backing. Append filename after mmaphuge, ala | |
591 | mem=mmaphuge:/hugetlbfs/file | |
592 | ||
71bfa161 | 593 | The area allocated is a function of the maximum allowed |
5394ae5f JA |
594 | bs size for the job, multiplied by the io depth given. Note |
595 | that for shmhuge and mmaphuge to work, the system must have | |
596 | free huge pages allocated. This can normally be checked | |
597 | and set by reading/writing /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages on a | |
598 | Linux system. Fio assumes a huge page is 4MiB in size. So | |
599 | to calculate the number of huge pages you need for a given | |
600 | job file, add up the io depth of all jobs (normally one unless | |
601 | iodepth= is used) and multiply by the maximum bs set. Then | |
602 | divide that number by the huge page size. You can see the | |
603 | size of the huge pages in /proc/meminfo. If no huge pages | |
604 | are allocated by having a non-zero number in nr_hugepages, | |
56bb17f2 | 605 | using mmaphuge or shmhuge will fail. Also see hugepage-size. |
5394ae5f JA |
606 | |
607 | mmaphuge also needs to have hugetlbfs mounted and the file | |
608 | location should point there. So if it's mounted in /huge, | |
609 | you would use mem=mmaphuge:/huge/somefile. | |
71bfa161 | 610 | |
56bb17f2 JA |
611 | hugepage-size=siint |
612 | Defines the size of a huge page. Must at least be equal | |
613 | to the system setting, see /proc/meminfo. Defaults to 4MiB. | |
c51074e7 JA |
614 | Should probably always be a multiple of megabytes, so using |
615 | hugepage-size=Xm is the preferred way to set this to avoid | |
616 | setting a non-pow-2 bad value. | |
56bb17f2 | 617 | |
71bfa161 JA |
618 | exitall When one job finishes, terminate the rest. The default is |
619 | to wait for each job to finish, sometimes that is not the | |
620 | desired action. | |
621 | ||
622 | bwavgtime=int Average the calculated bandwidth over the given time. Value | |
6c219763 | 623 | is specified in milliseconds. |
71bfa161 JA |
624 | |
625 | create_serialize=bool If true, serialize the file creating for the jobs. | |
626 | This may be handy to avoid interleaving of data | |
627 | files, which may greatly depend on the filesystem | |
628 | used and even the number of processors in the system. | |
629 | ||
630 | create_fsync=bool fsync the data file after creation. This is the | |
631 | default. | |
632 | ||
e545a6ce JA |
633 | unlink=bool Unlink the job files when done. Not the default, as repeated |
634 | runs of that job would then waste time recreating the fileset | |
635 | again and again. | |
71bfa161 JA |
636 | |
637 | loops=int Run the specified number of iterations of this job. Used | |
638 | to repeat the same workload a given number of times. Defaults | |
639 | to 1. | |
640 | ||
68e1f29a | 641 | do_verify=bool Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only makes sense if |
e84c73a8 SL |
642 | verify is set. Defaults to 1. |
643 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
644 | verify=str If writing to a file, fio can verify the file contents |
645 | after each iteration of the job. The allowed values are: | |
646 | ||
647 | md5 Use an md5 sum of the data area and store | |
648 | it in the header of each block. | |
649 | ||
17dc34df JA |
650 | crc64 Use an experimental crc64 sum of the data |
651 | area and store it in the header of each | |
652 | block. | |
653 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
654 | crc32 Use a crc32 sum of the data area and store |
655 | it in the header of each block. | |
656 | ||
969f7ed3 JA |
657 | crc16 Use a crc16 sum of the data area and store |
658 | it in the header of each block. | |
659 | ||
17dc34df JA |
660 | crc7 Use a crc7 sum of the data area and store |
661 | it in the header of each block. | |
662 | ||
cd14cc10 JA |
663 | sha512 Use sha512 as the checksum function. |
664 | ||
665 | sha256 Use sha256 as the checksum function. | |
666 | ||
7437ee87 SL |
667 | meta Write extra information about each io |
668 | (timestamp, block number etc.). The block | |
669 | number is verified. | |
670 | ||
36690c9b JA |
671 | null Only pretend to verify. Useful for testing |
672 | internals with ioengine=null, not for much | |
673 | else. | |
674 | ||
6c219763 | 675 | This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a |
71bfa161 JA |
676 | system to make sure that the written data is also |
677 | correctly read back. | |
678 | ||
160b966d JA |
679 | verifysort=bool If set, fio will sort written verify blocks when it deems |
680 | it faster to read them back in a sorted manner. This is | |
681 | often the case when overwriting an existing file, since | |
682 | the blocks are already laid out in the file system. You | |
683 | can ignore this option unless doing huge amounts of really | |
684 | fast IO where the red-black tree sorting CPU time becomes | |
685 | significant. | |
3f9f4e26 | 686 | |
a59e170d | 687 | verify_offset=siint Swap the verification header with data somewhere else |
546a9142 SL |
688 | in the block before writing. Its swapped back before |
689 | verifying. | |
690 | ||
a59e170d | 691 | verify_interval=siint Write the verification header at a finer granularity |
3f9f4e26 SL |
692 | than the blocksize. It will be written for chunks the |
693 | size of header_interval. blocksize should divide this | |
694 | evenly. | |
90059d65 | 695 | |
e28218f3 SL |
696 | verify_pattern=int If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this |
697 | pattern. Fio defaults to filling with totally random | |
698 | bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known | |
699 | pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the | |
700 | width of the pattern, fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the | |
701 | buffer at the time. The verify_pattern cannot be larger than | |
702 | a 32-bit quantity. | |
703 | ||
68e1f29a | 704 | verify_fatal=bool Normally fio will keep checking the entire contents |
a12a3b4d JA |
705 | before quitting on a block verification failure. If this |
706 | option is set, fio will exit the job on the first observed | |
707 | failure. | |
160b966d | 708 | |
71bfa161 JA |
709 | stonewall Wait for preceeding jobs in the job file to exit, before |
710 | starting this one. Can be used to insert serialization | |
b3d62a75 JA |
711 | points in the job file. A stone wall also implies starting |
712 | a new reporting group. | |
713 | ||
714 | new_group Start a new reporting group. If this option isn't given, | |
715 | jobs in a file will be part of the same reporting group | |
716 | unless seperated by a stone wall (or if it's a group | |
717 | by itself, with the numjobs option). | |
71bfa161 JA |
718 | |
719 | numjobs=int Create the specified number of clones of this job. May be | |
720 | used to setup a larger number of threads/processes doing | |
fa28c85a JA |
721 | the same thing. We regard that grouping of jobs as a |
722 | specific group. | |
723 | ||
724 | group_reporting If 'numjobs' is set, it may be interesting to display | |
725 | statistics for the group as a whole instead of for each | |
726 | individual job. This is especially true of 'numjobs' is | |
727 | large, looking at individual thread/process output quickly | |
728 | becomes unwieldy. If 'group_reporting' is specified, fio | |
729 | will show the final report per-group instead of per-job. | |
71bfa161 JA |
730 | |
731 | thread fio defaults to forking jobs, however if this option is | |
732 | given, fio will use pthread_create(3) to create threads | |
733 | instead. | |
734 | ||
735 | zonesize=siint Divide a file into zones of the specified size. See zoneskip. | |
736 | ||
737 | zoneskip=siint Skip the specified number of bytes when zonesize data has | |
738 | been read. The two zone options can be used to only do | |
739 | io on zones of a file. | |
740 | ||
076efc7c JA |
741 | write_iolog=str Write the issued io patterns to the specified file. See |
742 | read_iolog. | |
71bfa161 | 743 | |
076efc7c | 744 | read_iolog=str Open an iolog with the specified file name and replay the |
71bfa161 | 745 | io patterns it contains. This can be used to store a |
6df8adaa JA |
746 | workload and replay it sometime later. The iolog given |
747 | may also be a blktrace binary file, which allows fio | |
748 | to replay a workload captured by blktrace. See blktrace | |
749 | for how to capture such logging data. For blktrace replay, | |
750 | the file needs to be turned into a blkparse binary data | |
751 | file first (blktrace <device> -d file_for_fio.bin). | |
71bfa161 JA |
752 | |
753 | write_bw_log If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job | |
754 | file. Can be used to store data of the bandwidth of the | |
e0da9bc2 JA |
755 | jobs in their lifetime. The included fio_generate_plots |
756 | script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice | |
757 | graphs. | |
71bfa161 JA |
758 | |
759 | write_lat_log Same as write_bw_log, except that this option stores io | |
760 | completion latencies instead. | |
761 | ||
762 | lockmem=siint Pin down the specified amount of memory with mlock(2). Can | |
763 | potentially be used instead of removing memory or booting | |
764 | with less memory to simulate a smaller amount of memory. | |
765 | ||
766 | exec_prerun=str Before running this job, issue the command specified | |
767 | through system(3). | |
768 | ||
769 | exec_postrun=str After the job completes, issue the command specified | |
770 | though system(3). | |
771 | ||
772 | ioscheduler=str Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified | |
773 | io scheduler before running. | |
774 | ||
775 | cpuload=int If the job is a CPU cycle eater, attempt to use the specified | |
776 | percentage of CPU cycles. | |
777 | ||
778 | cpuchunks=int If the job is a CPU cycle eater, split the load into | |
6c219763 | 779 | cycles of the given time. In milliseconds. |
71bfa161 | 780 | |
0a839f30 JA |
781 | disk_util=bool Generate disk utilization statistics, if the platform |
782 | supports it. Defaults to on. | |
783 | ||
71bfa161 JA |
784 | |
785 | 6.0 Interpreting the output | |
786 | --------------------------- | |
787 | ||
788 | fio spits out a lot of output. While running, fio will display the | |
789 | status of the jobs created. An example of that would be: | |
790 | ||
73c8b082 | 791 | Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s] |
71bfa161 JA |
792 | |
793 | The characters inside the square brackets denote the current status of | |
794 | each thread. The possible values (in typical life cycle order) are: | |
795 | ||
796 | Idle Run | |
797 | ---- --- | |
798 | P Thread setup, but not started. | |
799 | C Thread created. | |
800 | I Thread initialized, waiting. | |
801 | R Running, doing sequential reads. | |
802 | r Running, doing random reads. | |
803 | W Running, doing sequential writes. | |
804 | w Running, doing random writes. | |
805 | M Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes. | |
806 | m Running, doing mixed random reads/writes. | |
807 | F Running, currently waiting for fsync() | |
808 | V Running, doing verification of written data. | |
809 | E Thread exited, not reaped by main thread yet. | |
810 | _ Thread reaped. | |
811 | ||
812 | The other values are fairly self explanatory - number of threads | |
c9f60304 JA |
813 | currently running and doing io, rate of io since last check (read speed |
814 | listed first, then write speed), and the estimated completion percentage | |
815 | and time for the running group. It's impossible to estimate runtime of | |
816 | the following groups (if any). | |
71bfa161 JA |
817 | |
818 | When fio is done (or interrupted by ctrl-c), it will show the data for | |
819 | each thread, group of threads, and disks in that order. For each data | |
820 | direction, the output looks like: | |
821 | ||
822 | Client1 (g=0): err= 0: | |
823 | write: io= 32MiB, bw= 666KiB/s, runt= 50320msec | |
6104ddb6 JA |
824 | slat (msec): min= 0, max= 136, avg= 0.03, stdev= 1.92 |
825 | clat (msec): min= 0, max= 631, avg=48.50, stdev=86.82 | |
826 | bw (KiB/s) : min= 0, max= 1196, per=51.00%, avg=664.02, stdev=681.68 | |
e7823a94 | 827 | cpu : usr=1.49%, sys=0.25%, ctx=7969, majf=0, minf=17 |
71619dc2 | 828 | IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.3%, 4=0.5%, 8=99.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >32=0.0% |
838bc709 JA |
829 | submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0% |
830 | complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0% | |
30061b97 | 831 | issued r/w: total=0/32768, short=0/0 |
8abdce66 JA |
832 | lat (msec): 2=1.6%, 4=0.0%, 10=3.2%, 20=12.8%, 50=38.4%, 100=24.8%, |
833 | lat (msec): 250=15.2%, 500=0.0%, 750=0.0%, 1000=0.0%, >=2048=0.0% | |
71bfa161 JA |
834 | |
835 | The client number is printed, along with the group id and error of that | |
836 | thread. Below is the io statistics, here for writes. In the order listed, | |
837 | they denote: | |
838 | ||
839 | io= Number of megabytes io performed | |
840 | bw= Average bandwidth rate | |
841 | runt= The runtime of that thread | |
72fbda2a | 842 | slat= Submission latency (avg being the average, stdev being the |
71bfa161 JA |
843 | standard deviation). This is the time it took to submit |
844 | the io. For sync io, the slat is really the completion | |
8a35c71e JA |
845 | latency, since queue/complete is one operation there. This |
846 | value can be in miliseconds or microseconds, fio will choose | |
847 | the most appropriate base and print that. In the example | |
848 | above, miliseconds is the best scale. | |
71bfa161 JA |
849 | clat= Completion latency. Same names as slat, this denotes the |
850 | time from submission to completion of the io pieces. For | |
851 | sync io, clat will usually be equal (or very close) to 0, | |
852 | as the time from submit to complete is basically just | |
853 | CPU time (io has already been done, see slat explanation). | |
854 | bw= Bandwidth. Same names as the xlat stats, but also includes | |
855 | an approximate percentage of total aggregate bandwidth | |
856 | this thread received in this group. This last value is | |
857 | only really useful if the threads in this group are on the | |
858 | same disk, since they are then competing for disk access. | |
859 | cpu= CPU usage. User and system time, along with the number | |
e7823a94 JA |
860 | of context switches this thread went through, usage of |
861 | system and user time, and finally the number of major | |
862 | and minor page faults. | |
71619dc2 JA |
863 | IO depths= The distribution of io depths over the job life time. The |
864 | numbers are divided into powers of 2, so for example the | |
865 | 16= entries includes depths up to that value but higher | |
866 | than the previous entry. In other words, it covers the | |
867 | range from 16 to 31. | |
838bc709 JA |
868 | IO submit= How many pieces of IO were submitting in a single submit |
869 | call. Each entry denotes that amount and below, until | |
870 | the previous entry - eg, 8=100% mean that we submitted | |
871 | anywhere in between 5-8 ios per submit call. | |
872 | IO complete= Like the above submit number, but for completions instead. | |
30061b97 JA |
873 | IO issued= The number of read/write requests issued, and how many |
874 | of them were short. | |
ec118304 JA |
875 | IO latencies= The distribution of IO completion latencies. This is the |
876 | time from when IO leaves fio and when it gets completed. | |
877 | The numbers follow the same pattern as the IO depths, | |
878 | meaning that 2=1.6% means that 1.6% of the IO completed | |
8abdce66 JA |
879 | within 2 msecs, 20=12.8% means that 12.8% of the IO |
880 | took more than 10 msecs, but less than (or equal to) 20 msecs. | |
71bfa161 JA |
881 | |
882 | After each client has been listed, the group statistics are printed. They | |
883 | will look like this: | |
884 | ||
885 | Run status group 0 (all jobs): | |
886 | READ: io=64MiB, aggrb=22178, minb=11355, maxb=11814, mint=2840msec, maxt=2955msec | |
887 | WRITE: io=64MiB, aggrb=1302, minb=666, maxb=669, mint=50093msec, maxt=50320msec | |
888 | ||
889 | For each data direction, it prints: | |
890 | ||
891 | io= Number of megabytes io performed. | |
892 | aggrb= Aggregate bandwidth of threads in this group. | |
893 | minb= The minimum average bandwidth a thread saw. | |
894 | maxb= The maximum average bandwidth a thread saw. | |
895 | mint= The smallest runtime of the threads in that group. | |
896 | maxt= The longest runtime of the threads in that group. | |
897 | ||
898 | And finally, the disk statistics are printed. They will look like this: | |
899 | ||
900 | Disk stats (read/write): | |
901 | sda: ios=16398/16511, merge=30/162, ticks=6853/819634, in_queue=826487, util=100.00% | |
902 | ||
903 | Each value is printed for both reads and writes, with reads first. The | |
904 | numbers denote: | |
905 | ||
906 | ios= Number of ios performed by all groups. | |
907 | merge= Number of merges io the io scheduler. | |
908 | ticks= Number of ticks we kept the disk busy. | |
909 | io_queue= Total time spent in the disk queue. | |
910 | util= The disk utilization. A value of 100% means we kept the disk | |
911 | busy constantly, 50% would be a disk idling half of the time. | |
912 | ||
913 | ||
914 | 7.0 Terse output | |
915 | ---------------- | |
916 | ||
917 | For scripted usage where you typically want to generate tables or graphs | |
6af019c9 | 918 | of the results, fio can output the results in a semicolon separated format. |
71bfa161 JA |
919 | The format is one long line of values, such as: |
920 | ||
6af019c9 JA |
921 | client1;0;0;1906777;1090804;1790;0;0;0.000000;0.000000;0;0;0.000000;0.000000;929380;1152890;25.510151%;1078276.333333;128948.113404;0;0;0;0;0;0.000000;0.000000;0;0;0.000000;0.000000;0;0;0.000000%;0.000000;0.000000;100.000000%;0.000000%;324;100.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;100.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0% |
922 | ;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0%;0.0% | |
71bfa161 JA |
923 | |
924 | Split up, the format is as follows: | |
925 | ||
926 | jobname, groupid, error | |
927 | READ status: | |
928 | KiB IO, bandwidth (KiB/sec), runtime (msec) | |
929 | Submission latency: min, max, mean, deviation | |
930 | Completion latency: min, max, mean, deviation | |
6c219763 | 931 | Bw: min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, deviation |
71bfa161 JA |
932 | WRITE status: |
933 | KiB IO, bandwidth (KiB/sec), runtime (msec) | |
934 | Submission latency: min, max, mean, deviation | |
935 | Completion latency: min, max, mean, deviation | |
6c219763 | 936 | Bw: min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, deviation |
046ee302 | 937 | CPU usage: user, system, context switches, major faults, minor faults |
2270890c JA |
938 | IO depths: <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64 |
939 | IO latencies: <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, >=2000 | |
940 | Text description | |
71bfa161 | 941 |