Commit | Line | Data |
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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 | ||
4649b352 | 17 | git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git |
97f049c9 | 18 | |
4649b352 GG |
19 | When inside a corporate firewall, git:// URL sometimes does not work. |
20 | If git:// does not work, use the http protocol instead: | |
a9bac3f9 | 21 | |
4649b352 | 22 | http://git.kernel.dk/fio.git |
2b02b546 | 23 | |
4649b352 GG |
24 | Snapshots are frequently generated and include the git meta data as well. |
25 | Snapshots can download from: | |
2b02b546 | 26 | |
4649b352 | 27 | http://brick.kernel.dk/snaps/ |
2b02b546 | 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 | ||
d85b1add | 42 | Red Hat, CentOS & Co: |
a68594cb | 43 | Dag Wieërs has RPMs for Red Hat related distros, find them here: |
a68594cb JA |
44 | http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/fio/ |
45 | ||
d85b1add | 46 | Mandriva: |
244e170e JA |
47 | Mandriva has integrated fio into their package repository, so installing |
48 | on that distro should be as easy as typing 'urpmi fio'. | |
49 | ||
d85b1add SK |
50 | Solaris: |
51 | Packages for Solaris are available from OpenCSW. Install their pkgutil | |
52 | tool (http://www.opencsw.org/get-it/pkgutil/) and then install fio via | |
53 | 'pkgutil -i fio'. | |
54 | ||
ecc314ba BC |
55 | Windows: |
56 | Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk> has fio packages for Windows at | |
78080867 | 57 | http://www.bluestop.org/fio/ . |
ecc314ba | 58 | |
2b02b546 | 59 | |
726f6ff0 JA |
60 | Mailing list |
61 | ------------ | |
62 | ||
4649b352 GG |
63 | The fio project mailing list is meant for anything related to fio including |
64 | general discussion, bug reporting, questions, and development. | |
2e8552b0 | 65 | |
4649b352 GG |
66 | An automated mail detailing recent commits is automatically sent to the |
67 | list at most daily. The list address is fio@vger.kernel.org, subscribe | |
68 | by sending an email to majordomo@vger.kernel.org with | |
69 | ||
70 | subscribe fio | |
2e8552b0 | 71 | |
4f5d1526 EIB |
72 | in the body of the email. Archives can be found here: |
73 | ||
4649b352 | 74 | http://www.spinics.net/lists/fio/ |
4f5d1526 EIB |
75 | |
76 | and archives for the old list can be found here: | |
2e8552b0 | 77 | |
4649b352 | 78 | http://maillist.kernel.dk/fio-devel/ |
726f6ff0 JA |
79 | |
80 | ||
bbfd6b00 JA |
81 | Building |
82 | -------- | |
83 | ||
6e1e384e | 84 | Just type 'configure', 'make' and 'make install'. |
bbfd6b00 | 85 | |
d015e398 BC |
86 | Note that GNU make is required. On BSD it's available from devel/gmake; |
87 | on Solaris it's in the SUNWgmake package. On platforms where GNU make | |
88 | isn't the default, type 'gmake' instead of 'make'. | |
bbfd6b00 | 89 | |
6e1e384e | 90 | Configure will print the enabled options. Note that on Linux based |
4649b352 GG |
91 | platforms, the libaio development packages must be installed to use |
92 | the libaio engine. Depending on distro, it is usually called | |
93 | libaio-devel or libaio-dev. | |
6de43c1b | 94 | |
4649b352 GG |
95 | For gfio, gtk 2.18 (or newer), associated glib threads, and cairo are required |
96 | to be installed. gfio isn't built automatically and can be enabled | |
6e1e384e | 97 | with a --enable-gfio option to configure. |
6de43c1b | 98 | |
2382dca7 AC |
99 | To build FIO with a cross-compiler: |
100 | $ make clean | |
101 | $ make CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/toolchain/prefix | |
102 | Configure will attempt to determine the target platform automatically. | |
103 | ||
bbfd6b00 | 104 | |
53adf64f BC |
105 | Windows |
106 | ------- | |
107 | ||
9aa5fe32 BC |
108 | On Windows, Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) is required in order to |
109 | build fio. To create an MSI installer package install WiX 3.8 from | |
f41862f7 | 110 | http://wixtoolset.org and run dobuild.cmd from the |
93bcfd20 | 111 | os/windows directory. |
53adf64f | 112 | |
9aa5fe32 | 113 | How to compile fio on 64-bit Windows: |
f41862f7 | 114 | |
9aa5fe32 | 115 | 1. Install Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/). Install 'make' and all |
f41862f7 | 116 | packages starting with 'mingw64-i686' and 'mingw64-x86_64'. |
9aa5fe32 BC |
117 | 2. Open the Cygwin Terminal. |
118 | 3. Go to the fio directory (source files). | |
119 | 4. Run 'make clean && make -j'. | |
120 | ||
121 | To build fio on 32-bit Windows, run './configure --build-32bit-win' before 'make'. | |
7409711b | 122 | |
78080867 BC |
123 | It's recommended that once built or installed, fio be run in a Command Prompt |
124 | or other 'native' console such as console2, since there are known to be display | |
125 | and signal issues when running it under a Cygwin shell | |
126 | (see http://code.google.com/p/mintty/issues/detail?id=56 for details). | |
127 | ||
53adf64f | 128 | |
972cfd25 JA |
129 | Command line |
130 | ------------ | |
ebac4655 JA |
131 | |
132 | $ fio | |
1cfd036f | 133 | --debug Enable some debugging options (see below) |
111e032d | 134 | --parse-only Parse options only, don't start any IO |
1cfd036f | 135 | --output Write output to file |
b2cecdc2 | 136 | --runtime Runtime in seconds |
bebe6398 JA |
137 | --latency-log Generate per-job latency logs |
138 | --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs | |
1cfd036f | 139 | --minimal Minimal (terse) output |
f3afa57e | 140 | --output-format=type Output format (terse,json,normal) |
3449ab8c | 141 | --terse-version=type Terse version output format (default 3, or 2 or 4). |
f3afa57e | 142 | --version Print version info and exit |
1cfd036f | 143 | --help Print this page |
23893646 | 144 | --cpuclock-test Perform test/validation of CPU clock |
005f702b | 145 | --crctest[=test] Test speed of checksum functions |
bebe6398 | 146 | --cmdhelp=cmd Print command help, "all" for all of them |
de890a1e SL |
147 | --enghelp=engine Print ioengine help, or list available ioengines |
148 | --enghelp=engine,cmd Print help for an ioengine cmd | |
1cfd036f | 149 | --showcmd Turn a job file into command line options |
ad0a2735 | 150 | --readonly Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing |
bebe6398 | 151 | writes |
1cfd036f | 152 | --eta=when When ETA estimate should be printed |
bebe6398 | 153 | May be "always", "never" or "auto" |
e382e661 | 154 | --eta-newline=time Force a new line for every 'time' period passed |
06464907 | 155 | --status-interval=t Force full status dump every 't' period passed |
bebe6398 JA |
156 | --section=name Only run specified section in job file. |
157 | Multiple sections can be specified. | |
e7cb819b | 158 | --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024) |
159 | --warnings-fatal Fio parser warnings are fatal | |
fca70358 | 160 | --max-jobs Maximum number of threads/processes to support |
bebe6398 JA |
161 | --server=args Start backend server. See Client/Server section. |
162 | --client=host Connect to specified backend. | |
f2a2ce0e HL |
163 | --idle-prof=option Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis |
164 | (option=system,percpu) or run unit work | |
165 | calibration only (option=calibrate). | |
e592a06b | 166 | |
b4692828 JA |
167 | |
168 | Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, | |
4649b352 GG |
169 | unless they match a job file parameter. Multiple job files can be listed |
170 | and each job file will be regarded as a separate group. fio will stonewall | |
171 | execution between each group. | |
972cfd25 | 172 | |
4649b352 GG |
173 | The --readonly option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from |
174 | accidentally starting a write workload when that is not desired. Fio | |
175 | will only write if rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw is given. This extra | |
176 | safety net can be used as an extra precaution as --readonly will also | |
177 | enable a write check in the io engine core to prevent writes due to | |
178 | unknown user space bug(s). | |
724e4435 | 179 | |
4649b352 GG |
180 | The --debug option triggers additional logging by fio. |
181 | Currently, additional logging is available for: | |
ee56ad50 JA |
182 | |
183 | process Dump info related to processes | |
184 | file Dump info related to file actions | |
e7cb819b | 185 | io Dump info related to IO queuing |
186 | mem Dump info related to memory allocations | |
bd6f78b2 JA |
187 | blktrace Dump info related to blktrace setup |
188 | verify Dump info related to IO verification | |
e7cb819b | 189 | all Enable all debug options |
811a0d06 | 190 | random Dump info related to random offset generation |
a3d741fa | 191 | parse Dump info related to option matching and parsing |
cd991b9e | 192 | diskutil Dump info related to disk utilization updates |
5e1d306e | 193 | job:x Dump info only related to job number x |
29adda3c | 194 | mutex Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops |
c223da83 JA |
195 | profile Dump info related to profile extensions |
196 | time Dump info related to internal time keeping | |
3e260a46 JA |
197 | net Dump info related to networking connections |
198 | rate Dump info related to IO rate switching | |
bd6f78b2 | 199 | ? or help Show available debug options. |
ee56ad50 | 200 | |
4649b352 | 201 | One can specify multiple debug options: e.g. --debug=file,mem will enable |
bd6f78b2 | 202 | file and memory debugging. |
ee56ad50 | 203 | |
4649b352 GG |
204 | The --section option allows one to combine related jobs into one file. |
205 | E.g. one job file could define light, moderate, and heavy sections. Tell fio to | |
206 | run only the "heavy" section by giving --section=heavy command line option. | |
207 | One can also specify the "write" operations in one section and "verify" | |
208 | operation in another section. The --section option only applies to job | |
209 | sections. The reserved 'global' section is always parsed and used. | |
210 | ||
211 | The --alloc-size switch allows one to use a larger pool size for smalloc. | |
212 | If running large jobs with randommap enabled, fio can run out of memory. | |
213 | Smalloc is an internal allocator for shared structures from a fixed size | |
214 | memory pool. The pool size defaults to 1024k and can grow to 128 pools. | |
01f06b63 | 215 | |
4649b352 | 216 | NOTE: While running .fio_smalloc.* backing store files are visible in /tmp. |
2b386d25 | 217 | |
79809113 JA |
218 | |
219 | Job file | |
220 | -------- | |
221 | ||
4649b352 GG |
222 | See the HOWTO file for a complete description of job file syntax and |
223 | parameters. The --cmdhelp option also lists all options. If used with | |
224 | an option argument, --cmdhelp will detail the given option. The job file | |
225 | format is in the ini style format, as that is easy for the user to review | |
226 | and modify. | |
79809113 | 227 | |
4649b352 GG |
228 | This README contains the terse version. Job files can describe big and |
229 | complex setups that are not possible with the command line. Job files | |
230 | are a good practice even for simple jobs since the file provides an | |
231 | easily accessed record of the workload and can include comments. | |
232 | ||
233 | See the examples/ directory for inspiration on how to write job files. Note | |
234 | the copyright and license requirements currently apply to examples/ files. | |
79809113 | 235 | |
217bc04b | 236 | |
bebe6398 JA |
237 | Client/server |
238 | ------------ | |
239 | ||
4649b352 GG |
240 | Normally fio is invoked as a stand-alone application on the machine |
241 | where the IO workload should be generated. However, the frontend and | |
242 | backend of fio can be run separately. Ie the fio server can generate | |
243 | an IO workload on the "Device Under Test" while being controlled from | |
244 | another machine. | |
bebe6398 | 245 | |
4649b352 | 246 | Start the server on the machine which has access to the storage DUT: |
bebe6398 JA |
247 | |
248 | fio --server=args | |
249 | ||
4649b352 GG |
250 | where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments are of the form |
251 | 'type,hostname or IP,port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4) for TCP/IP v4, | |
252 | 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain socket. | |
811826be JA |
253 | 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to |
254 | listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples: | |
bebe6398 JA |
255 | |
256 | 1) fio --server | |
257 | ||
258 | Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765). | |
259 | ||
811826be | 260 | 2) fio --server=ip:hostname,4444 |
bebe6398 JA |
261 | |
262 | Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444. | |
263 | ||
811826be JA |
264 | 3) fio --server=ip6:::1,4444 |
265 | ||
266 | Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444. | |
267 | ||
268 | 4) fio --server=,4444 | |
bebe6398 JA |
269 | |
270 | Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444. | |
271 | ||
811826be | 272 | 5) fio --server=1.2.3.4 |
bebe6398 JA |
273 | |
274 | Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port. | |
275 | ||
811826be | 276 | 6) fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock |
bebe6398 JA |
277 | |
278 | Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock. | |
279 | ||
4649b352 | 280 | Once a server is running, a "client" can connect to the fio server with: |
bebe6398 | 281 | |
4649b352 | 282 | fio --local-args --client=<server> --remote-args <job file(s)> |
bebe6398 | 283 | |
4649b352 | 284 | where --local-args are arguments for the client where it is |
bebe6398 JA |
285 | running, 'server' is the connect string, and --remote-args and <job file(s)> |
286 | are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it | |
287 | does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings. | |
bebe6398 | 288 | |
4649b352 GG |
289 | Fio can connect to multiple servers this way: |
290 | ||
291 | fio --client=<server1> <job file(s)> --client=<server2> <job file(s)> | |
bebe6398 JA |
292 | |
293 | ||
217bc04b JA |
294 | Platforms |
295 | --------- | |
296 | ||
1b8c5af7 JA |
297 | Fio works on (at least) Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OSX, NetBSD, OpenBSD, |
298 | Windows and FreeBSD. Some features and/or options may only be available on | |
299 | some of the platforms, typically because those features only apply to that | |
300 | platform (like the solarisaio engine, or the splice engine on Linux). | |
217bc04b JA |
301 | |
302 | Some features are not available on FreeBSD/Solaris even if they could be | |
303 | implemented, I'd be happy to take patches for that. An example of that is | |
304 | disk utility statistics and (I think) huge page support, support for that | |
305 | does exist in FreeBSD/Solaris. | |
306 | ||
307 | Fio uses pthread mutexes for signalling and locking and FreeBSD does not | |
308 | support process shared pthread mutexes. As a result, only threads are | |
309 | supported on FreeBSD. This could be fixed with sysv ipc locking or | |
310 | other locking alternatives. | |
311 | ||
312 | Other *BSD platforms are untested, but fio should work there almost out | |
313 | of the box. Since I don't do test runs or even compiles on those platforms, | |
314 | your mileage may vary. Sending me patches for other platforms is greatly | |
315 | appreciated. There's a lot of value in having the same test/benchmark tool | |
316 | available on all platforms. | |
317 | ||
4649b352 | 318 | Note that POSIX aio is not enabled by default on AIX. Messages like these: |
bf2e821a CC |
319 | |
320 | Symbol resolution failed for /usr/lib/libc.a(posix_aio.o) because: | |
321 | Symbol _posix_kaio_rdwr (number 2) is not exported from dependent module /unix. | |
322 | ||
4649b352 | 323 | indicate one needs to enable POSIX aio. Run the following commands as root: |
bf2e821a CC |
324 | |
325 | # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0 | |
326 | posix_aio0 Defined Posix Asynchronous I/O | |
327 | # cfgmgr -l posix_aio0 | |
328 | # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0 | |
329 | posix_aio0 Available Posix Asynchronous I/O | |
330 | ||
331 | POSIX aio should work now. To make the change permanent: | |
332 | ||
333 | # chdev -l posix_aio0 -P -a autoconfig='available' | |
334 | posix_aio0 changed | |
217bc04b JA |
335 | |
336 | ||
79809113 JA |
337 | Author |
338 | ------ | |
339 | ||
aae22ca7 | 340 | Fio was written by Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> to enable flexible testing |
79809113 JA |
341 | of the Linux IO subsystem and schedulers. He got tired of writing |
342 | specific test applications to simulate a given workload, and found that | |
343 | the existing io benchmark/test tools out there weren't flexible enough | |
344 | to do what he wanted. | |
345 | ||
aae22ca7 | 346 | Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> 20060905 |
79809113 | 347 |