Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
ebac4655 JA |
1 | fio |
2 | --- | |
3 | ||
79809113 JA |
4 | fio is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a |
5 | particular type of io action as specified by the user. fio takes a | |
6 | number of global parameters, each inherited by the thread unless | |
7 | otherwise parameters given to them overriding that setting is given. | |
8 | The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the io load | |
9 | one wants to simulate. | |
ebac4655 | 10 | |
2b02b546 JA |
11 | |
12 | Source | |
13 | ------ | |
14 | ||
15 | fio resides in a git repo, the canonical place is: | |
16 | ||
6b3eccb1 | 17 | git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git |
97f049c9 | 18 | |
a9bac3f9 JA |
19 | If you are inside a corporate firewall, git:// may not always work for |
20 | you. In that case you can use the http protocol, path is the same: | |
21 | ||
22 | http://git.kernel.dk/fio.git | |
2b02b546 | 23 | |
79809113 JA |
24 | Snapshots are frequently generated and they include the git meta data as |
25 | well. You can download them here: | |
2b02b546 JA |
26 | |
27 | http://brick.kernel.dk/snaps/ | |
28 | ||
1053a106 | 29 | |
d85b1add SK |
30 | Binary packages |
31 | --------------- | |
32 | ||
33 | Debian: | |
34 | Starting with Debian "Squeeze", fio packages are part of the official | |
35 | Debian repository. http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=fio | |
36 | ||
37 | Ubuntu: | |
38 | Starting with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (aka "Lucid Lynx"), fio packages are part | |
39 | of the Ubuntu "universe" repository. | |
40 | http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=fio | |
41 | ||
42 | SUSE: | |
43 | Pascal Bleser <guru@unixtech.be> has fio RPMs in his repository for SUSE | |
44 | variants, you can find them here: | |
1053a106 JA |
45 | http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=System/fio |
46 | ||
d85b1add | 47 | Red Hat, CentOS & Co: |
a68594cb | 48 | Dag Wieërs has RPMs for Red Hat related distros, find them here: |
a68594cb JA |
49 | http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/fio/ |
50 | ||
d85b1add | 51 | Mandriva: |
244e170e JA |
52 | Mandriva has integrated fio into their package repository, so installing |
53 | on that distro should be as easy as typing 'urpmi fio'. | |
54 | ||
d85b1add SK |
55 | Solaris: |
56 | Packages for Solaris are available from OpenCSW. Install their pkgutil | |
57 | tool (http://www.opencsw.org/get-it/pkgutil/) and then install fio via | |
58 | 'pkgutil -i fio'. | |
59 | ||
ecc314ba BC |
60 | Windows: |
61 | Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk> has fio packages for Windows at | |
62 | http://www.bluestop.org/fio . | |
63 | ||
2b02b546 | 64 | |
726f6ff0 JA |
65 | Mailing list |
66 | ------------ | |
67 | ||
68 | There's a mailing list associated with fio. It's meant for general | |
2e8552b0 JA |
69 | discussion, bug reporting, questions, and development - basically anything |
70 | that has to do with fio. An automated mail detailing recent commits is | |
71 | automatically sent to the list at most daily. The list address is | |
72 | fio@vger.kernel.org, subscribe by sending an email to | |
73 | majordomo@vger.kernel.org with | |
74 | ||
75 | subscribe fio | |
76 | ||
4f5d1526 EIB |
77 | in the body of the email. Archives can be found here: |
78 | ||
79 | http://www.spinics.net/lists/fio/ | |
80 | ||
81 | and archives for the old list can be found here: | |
2e8552b0 JA |
82 | |
83 | http://maillist.kernel.dk/fio-devel/ | |
726f6ff0 JA |
84 | |
85 | ||
bbfd6b00 JA |
86 | Building |
87 | -------- | |
88 | ||
d015e398 | 89 | Just type 'make' and 'make install'. |
bbfd6b00 | 90 | |
d015e398 BC |
91 | Note that GNU make is required. On BSD it's available from devel/gmake; |
92 | on Solaris it's in the SUNWgmake package. On platforms where GNU make | |
93 | isn't the default, type 'gmake' instead of 'make'. | |
bbfd6b00 | 94 | |
6de43c1b JA |
95 | If your compile fails with an error like this: |
96 | ||
97 | CC gettime.o | |
98 | In file included from fio.h:23, | |
99 | from gettime.c:8: | |
100 | os/os.h:15:20: error: libaio.h: No such file or directory | |
101 | In file included from gettime.c:8: | |
102 | fio.h:119: error: field 'iocb' has incomplete type | |
103 | make: *** [gettime.o] Error 1 | |
104 | ||
105 | Check that you have the libaio development package installed. On RPM | |
106 | based distros, it's typically called libaio-devel. | |
107 | ||
bbfd6b00 | 108 | |
53adf64f BC |
109 | Windows |
110 | ------- | |
111 | ||
112 | On Windows Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com) is required with at least | |
113 | devel/gcc4 and devel/make installed in order to build fio, and | |
114 | admin/cygrunsrv to run it. You can also install devel/git to fetch/update | |
5b9a7f22 BC |
115 | the source files. To create an MSI installer package put a copy of Cygwin |
116 | in os\windows\fio, install WiX 3.6 from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/ | |
117 | and run dobuild.cmd from the os/windows directory. | |
53adf64f BC |
118 | |
119 | Before running fio you'll need to have a copy of cygserver running. Run | |
120 | "/usr/bin/cygserver-config" from an elevated Cygwin shell (i.e. launch the | |
121 | Cygwin shell under the Administrator account) to configure it. Once | |
122 | configured, run "net start cygserver" to start it, or type | |
123 | "/usr/sbin/cygserver &" in the Cygwin shell to start a local copy. | |
124 | ||
125 | If fio exits with the message "Bad system call" it normally means that | |
126 | Cygserver isn't running. | |
127 | ||
128 | ||
972cfd25 JA |
129 | Command line |
130 | ------------ | |
ebac4655 JA |
131 | |
132 | $ fio | |
1cfd036f BC |
133 | --debug Enable some debugging options (see below) |
134 | --output Write output to file | |
135 | --timeout Runtime in seconds | |
bebe6398 JA |
136 | --latency-log Generate per-job latency logs |
137 | --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs | |
1cfd036f BC |
138 | --minimal Minimal (terse) output |
139 | --version Print version info and exit | |
f57a9c59 | 140 | --terse-version=type Terse version output format |
1cfd036f | 141 | --help Print this page |
bebe6398 | 142 | --cmdhelp=cmd Print command help, "all" for all of them |
1cfd036f | 143 | --showcmd Turn a job file into command line options |
ad0a2735 | 144 | --readonly Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing |
bebe6398 | 145 | writes |
1cfd036f | 146 | --eta=when When ETA estimate should be printed |
bebe6398 JA |
147 | May be "always", "never" or "auto" |
148 | --section=name Only run specified section in job file. | |
149 | Multiple sections can be specified. | |
2b386d25 | 150 | --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024) |
a9523c6f | 151 | --warnings-fatal Fio parser warnings are fatal |
fca70358 | 152 | --max-jobs Maximum number of threads/processes to support |
bebe6398 JA |
153 | --server=args Start backend server. See Client/Server section. |
154 | --client=host Connect to specified backend. | |
e592a06b | 155 | |
b4692828 JA |
156 | |
157 | Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, | |
158 | unless they match a job file parameter. You can add as many as you want, | |
159 | each job file will be regarded as a separate group and fio will stonewall | |
160 | its execution. | |
972cfd25 | 161 | |
ecc314ba | 162 | The --readonly switch is an extra safety guard to prevent accidentally |
724e4435 JA |
163 | turning on a write setting when that is not desired. Fio will only write |
164 | if rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw is given, but this extra safety net can | |
165 | be used as an extra precaution. It will also enable a write check in the | |
166 | io engine core to prevent an accidental write due to a fio bug. | |
167 | ||
ee56ad50 JA |
168 | The debug switch allows adding options that trigger certain logging |
169 | options in fio. Currently the options are: | |
170 | ||
171 | process Dump info related to processes | |
172 | file Dump info related to file actions | |
1cfd036f BC |
173 | io Dump info related to IO queuing |
174 | mem Dump info related to memory allocations | |
bd6f78b2 JA |
175 | blktrace Dump info related to blktrace setup |
176 | verify Dump info related to IO verification | |
1cfd036f | 177 | all Enable all debug options |
811a0d06 | 178 | random Dump info related to random offset generation |
a3d741fa | 179 | parse Dump info related to option matching and parsing |
cd991b9e | 180 | diskutil Dump info related to disk utilization updates |
5e1d306e | 181 | job:x Dump info only related to job number x |
29adda3c | 182 | mutex Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops |
c223da83 JA |
183 | profile Dump info related to profile extensions |
184 | time Dump info related to internal time keeping | |
bd6f78b2 | 185 | ? or help Show available debug options. |
ee56ad50 JA |
186 | |
187 | You can specify as many as you want, eg --debug=file,mem will enable | |
bd6f78b2 | 188 | file and memory debugging. |
ee56ad50 | 189 | |
01f06b63 JA |
190 | The section switch is meant to make it easier to ship a bigger job file |
191 | instead of several smaller ones. Say you define a job file with light, | |
192 | moderate, and heavy parts. Then you can ask fio to run the given part | |
193 | only by giving it a --section=heavy command line option. The section | |
194 | option only applies to job sections, the reserved 'global' section is | |
195 | always parsed and taken into account. | |
196 | ||
2b386d25 JA |
197 | Fio has an internal allocator for shared memory called smalloc. It |
198 | allocates shared structures from this pool. The pool defaults to 1024k | |
931823ca | 199 | in size, and can grow to 128 pools. If running large jobs with randommap |
2b386d25 | 200 | enabled it can run out of memory, in which case the --alloc-size switch |
931823ca JA |
201 | is handy for starting with a larger pool size. The backing store is |
202 | files in /tmp. Fio cleans up after itself, while it is running you | |
203 | may see .fio_smalloc.* files in /tmp. | |
2b386d25 | 204 | |
79809113 JA |
205 | |
206 | Job file | |
207 | -------- | |
208 | ||
71bfa161 | 209 | See the HOWTO file for a more detailed description of parameters and what |
4661f3d0 JA |
210 | they mean. This file contains the terse version. You can describe big and |
211 | complex setups with the command line, but generally it's a lot easier to | |
71bfa161 | 212 | just write a simple job file to describe the workload. The job file format |
4661f3d0 | 213 | is in the ini style format, as that is easy to read and write for the user. |
79809113 JA |
214 | |
215 | The job file parameters are: | |
ebac4655 | 216 | |
01452055 | 217 | name=x Use 'x' as the identifier for this job. |
61697c37 | 218 | description=x 'x' is a text description of the job. |
ebac4655 | 219 | directory=x Use 'x' as the top level directory for storing files |
b50b8755 JA |
220 | filename=x Force the use of 'x' as the filename for all files |
221 | in this thread. If not given, fio will make up | |
222 | a suitable filename based on the thread and file | |
223 | number. | |
3d60d1ed JA |
224 | rw=x 'x' may be: read, randread, write, randwrite, |
225 | rw (read-write mix), randrw (read-write random mix) | |
a6ccc7be JA |
226 | rwmixcycle=x Base cycle for switching between read and write |
227 | in msecs. | |
228 | rwmixread=x 'x' percentage of rw mix ios will be reads. If | |
229 | rwmixwrite is also given, the last of the two will | |
230 | be used if they don't add up to 100%. | |
231 | rwmixwrite=x 'x' percentage of rw mix ios will be writes. See | |
232 | rwmixread. | |
9ebc27e1 JA |
233 | rand_repeatable=x The sequence of random io blocks can be repeatable |
234 | across runs, if 'x' is 1. | |
ebac4655 JA |
235 | size=x Set file size to x bytes (x string can include k/m/g) |
236 | ioengine=x 'x' may be: aio/libaio/linuxaio for Linux aio, | |
78e7b3e7 | 237 | posixaio for POSIX aio, solarisaio for Solaris |
03e20d68 BC |
238 | native async IO, windowsaio for Windows native async IO, |
239 | sync for regular read/write io, | |
1d2af02a JA |
240 | psync for regular pread/pwrite io, vsync for regular |
241 | readv/writev (with queuing emulation) mmap for mmap'ed | |
242 | io, syslet-rw for syslet driven read/write, splice for | |
d0c70934 GP |
243 | using splice/vmsplice, sg for direct SG_IO io, net |
244 | for network io, or cpuio for a cycler burner load. sg | |
1d2af02a JA |
245 | only works on Linux on SCSI (or SCSI-like devices, such |
246 | as usb-storage or sata/libata driven) devices. Fio also | |
247 | has a null io engine, which is mainly used for testing | |
248 | fio itself. | |
249 | ||
ebac4655 JA |
250 | iodepth=x For async io, allow 'x' ios in flight |
251 | overwrite=x If 'x', layout a write file first. | |
53cdc686 JA |
252 | nrfiles=x Spread io load over 'x' number of files per job, |
253 | if possible. | |
ebac4655 JA |
254 | prio=x Run io at prio X, 0-7 is the kernel allowed range |
255 | prioclass=x Run io at prio class X | |
256 | bs=x Use 'x' for thread blocksize. May include k/m postfix. | |
257 | bsrange=x-y Mix thread block sizes randomly between x and y. May | |
258 | also include k/m postfix. | |
259 | direct=x 1 for direct IO, 0 for buffered IO | |
260 | thinktime=x "Think" x usec after each io | |
b22989b9 JA |
261 | rate=x Throttle rate to x KB/sec |
262 | ratemin=x Quit if rate of x KB/sec can't be met | |
ebac4655 JA |
263 | ratecycle=x ratemin averaged over x msecs |
264 | cpumask=x Only allow job to run on CPUs defined by mask. | |
d2e268b0 | 265 | cpus_allowed=x Like 'cpumask', but allow text setting of CPU affinity. |
795407ca JA |
266 | fsync=x If writing with buffered IO, fsync after every |
267 | 'x' blocks have been written. | |
268 | end_fsync=x If 'x', run fsync() after end-of-job. | |
ebac4655 | 269 | startdelay=x Start this thread x seconds after startup |
03b74b3e | 270 | runtime=x Terminate x seconds after startup. Can include a |
906c8d75 JA |
271 | normal time suffix if not given in seconds, such as |
272 | 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours, and 'd' for days. | |
ebac4655 JA |
273 | offset=x Start io at offset x (x string can include k/m/g) |
274 | invalidate=x Invalidate page cache for file prior to doing io | |
795407ca | 275 | sync=x Use sync writes if x and writing buffered IO. |
ebac4655 | 276 | mem=x If x == malloc, use malloc for buffers. If x == shm, |
795407ca JA |
277 | use shared memory for buffers. If x == mmap, use |
278 | anonymous mmap. | |
ebac4655 JA |
279 | exitall When one thread quits, terminate the others |
280 | bwavgtime=x Average bandwidth stats over an x msec window. | |
281 | create_serialize=x If 'x', serialize file creation. | |
282 | create_fsync=x If 'x', run fsync() after file creation. | |
f6cbb269 | 283 | unlink If set, unlink files when done. |
ebac4655 JA |
284 | loops=x Run the job 'x' number of times. |
285 | verify=x If 'x' == md5, use md5 for verifies. If 'x' == crc32, | |
286 | use crc32 for verifies. md5 is 'safer', but crc32 is | |
287 | a lot faster. Only makes sense for writing to a file. | |
bac39e0e | 288 | For other types of checksumming, see HOWTO. |
ebac4655 JA |
289 | stonewall Wait for preceeding jobs to end before running. |
290 | numjobs=x Create 'x' similar entries for this job | |
291 | thread Use pthreads instead of forked jobs | |
20dc95c4 JA |
292 | zonesize=x |
293 | zoneskip=y Zone options must be paired. If given, the job | |
294 | will skip y bytes for every x read/written. This | |
295 | can be used to gauge hard drive speed over the entire | |
296 | platter, without reading everything. Both x/y can | |
297 | include k/m/g suffix. | |
25c8b9d7 PD |
298 | read_iolog=x Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file format |
299 | is described in the HOWTO. | |
843a7413 JA |
300 | write_iolog=x Write an iolog to file 'x' in the same format as iolog. |
301 | The iolog options are exclusive, if both given the | |
5b42a488 SH |
302 | read iolog will be performed. Specify a separate file |
303 | for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed | |
304 | and the file may be corrupt. | |
ec94ec56 JA |
305 | write_bw_log Write a bandwidth log. |
306 | write_lat_log Write a latency log. | |
c04f7ec3 JA |
307 | lockmem=x Lock down x amount of memory on the machine, to |
308 | simulate a machine with less memory available. x can | |
309 | include k/m/g suffix. | |
b6f4d880 | 310 | nice=x Run job at given nice value. |
4e0ba8af JA |
311 | exec_prerun=x Run 'x' before job io is begun. |
312 | exec_postrun=x Run 'x' after job io has finished. | |
da86774e | 313 | ioscheduler=x Use ioscheduler 'x' for this job. |
b990b5c0 JA |
314 | cpuload=x For a CPU io thread, percentage of CPU time to attempt |
315 | to burn. | |
ba0fbe10 | 316 | cpuchunks=x Split burn cycles into pieces of x usecs. |
ebac4655 | 317 | |
79809113 | 318 | |
217bc04b | 319 | |
bebe6398 JA |
320 | Client/server |
321 | ------------ | |
322 | ||
323 | Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine | |
324 | where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to | |
325 | run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to | |
326 | have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should | |
327 | be running, while controlling it from another machine. | |
328 | ||
329 | To start the server, you would do: | |
330 | ||
331 | fio --server=args | |
332 | ||
333 | on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments | |
334 | are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' for | |
335 | TCP/IP, or 'sock' for a local unix domain socket. 'hostname' is either | |
336 | a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to listen to (only valid | |
337 | for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples: | |
338 | ||
339 | 1) fio --server | |
340 | ||
341 | Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765). | |
342 | ||
343 | 2) fio --server=ip:hostname:4444 | |
344 | ||
345 | Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444. | |
346 | ||
347 | 3) fio --server=:4444 | |
348 | ||
349 | Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444. | |
350 | ||
351 | 4) fio --server=1.2.3.4 | |
352 | ||
353 | Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port. | |
354 | ||
355 | 5) fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock | |
356 | ||
357 | Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock. | |
358 | ||
359 | When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client | |
360 | is run with: | |
361 | ||
362 | fio --local-args --client=server --remote-args <job file(s)> | |
363 | ||
364 | where --local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is | |
365 | running, 'server' is the connect string, and --remote-args and <job file(s)> | |
366 | are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it | |
367 | does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings. | |
368 | You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run: | |
369 | ||
370 | fio --client=server2 --client=server2 <job file(s)> | |
371 | ||
372 | ||
217bc04b JA |
373 | Platforms |
374 | --------- | |
375 | ||
ce600ac9 JA |
376 | Fio works on (at least) Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OSX, NetBSD, Windows |
377 | and FreeBSD. Some features and/or options may only be available on some of | |
378 | the platforms, typically because those features only apply to that platform | |
379 | (like the solarisaio engine, or the splice engine on Linux). | |
217bc04b JA |
380 | |
381 | Some features are not available on FreeBSD/Solaris even if they could be | |
382 | implemented, I'd be happy to take patches for that. An example of that is | |
383 | disk utility statistics and (I think) huge page support, support for that | |
384 | does exist in FreeBSD/Solaris. | |
385 | ||
386 | Fio uses pthread mutexes for signalling and locking and FreeBSD does not | |
387 | support process shared pthread mutexes. As a result, only threads are | |
388 | supported on FreeBSD. This could be fixed with sysv ipc locking or | |
389 | other locking alternatives. | |
390 | ||
391 | Other *BSD platforms are untested, but fio should work there almost out | |
392 | of the box. Since I don't do test runs or even compiles on those platforms, | |
393 | your mileage may vary. Sending me patches for other platforms is greatly | |
394 | appreciated. There's a lot of value in having the same test/benchmark tool | |
395 | available on all platforms. | |
396 | ||
bf2e821a CC |
397 | Note that POSIX aio is not enabled by default on AIX. If you get messages like: |
398 | ||
399 | Symbol resolution failed for /usr/lib/libc.a(posix_aio.o) because: | |
400 | Symbol _posix_kaio_rdwr (number 2) is not exported from dependent module /unix. | |
401 | ||
402 | you need to enable POSIX aio. Run the following commands as root: | |
403 | ||
404 | # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0 | |
405 | posix_aio0 Defined Posix Asynchronous I/O | |
406 | # cfgmgr -l posix_aio0 | |
407 | # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0 | |
408 | posix_aio0 Available Posix Asynchronous I/O | |
409 | ||
410 | POSIX aio should work now. To make the change permanent: | |
411 | ||
412 | # chdev -l posix_aio0 -P -a autoconfig='available' | |
413 | posix_aio0 changed | |
217bc04b JA |
414 | |
415 | ||
79809113 JA |
416 | Author |
417 | ------ | |
418 | ||
aae22ca7 | 419 | Fio was written by Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> to enable flexible testing |
79809113 JA |
420 | of the Linux IO subsystem and schedulers. He got tired of writing |
421 | specific test applications to simulate a given workload, and found that | |
422 | the existing io benchmark/test tools out there weren't flexible enough | |
423 | to do what he wanted. | |
424 | ||
aae22ca7 | 425 | Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> 20060905 |
79809113 | 426 |