tools/fiograph: update config file
[fio.git] / HOWTO.rst
... / ...
CommitLineData
1How fio works
2-------------
3
4The first step in getting fio to simulate a desired I/O workload, is writing a
5job file describing that specific setup. A job file may contain any number of
6threads and/or files -- the typical contents of the job file is a *global*
7section defining shared parameters, and one or more job sections describing the
8jobs involved. When run, fio parses this file and sets everything up as
9described. If we break down a job from top to bottom, it contains the following
10basic parameters:
11
12`I/O type`_
13
14 Defines the I/O pattern issued to the file(s). We may only be reading
15 sequentially from this file(s), or we may be writing randomly. Or even
16 mixing reads and writes, sequentially or randomly.
17 Should we be doing buffered I/O, or direct/raw I/O?
18
19`Block size`_
20
21 In how large chunks are we issuing I/O? This may be a single value,
22 or it may describe a range of block sizes.
23
24`I/O size`_
25
26 How much data are we going to be reading/writing.
27
28`I/O engine`_
29
30 How do we issue I/O? We could be memory mapping the file, we could be
31 using regular read/write, we could be using splice, async I/O, or even
32 SG (SCSI generic sg).
33
34`I/O depth`_
35
36 If the I/O engine is async, how large a queuing depth do we want to
37 maintain?
38
39
40`Target file/device`_
41
42 How many files are we spreading the workload over.
43
44`Threads, processes and job synchronization`_
45
46 How many threads or processes should we spread this workload over.
47
48The above are the basic parameters defined for a workload, in addition there's a
49multitude of parameters that modify other aspects of how this job behaves.
50
51
52Command line options
53--------------------
54
55.. option:: --debug=type
56
57 Enable verbose tracing `type` of various fio actions. May be ``all`` for all types
58 or individual types separated by a comma (e.g. ``--debug=file,mem`` will
59 enable file and memory debugging). Currently, additional logging is
60 available for:
61
62 *process*
63 Dump info related to processes.
64 *file*
65 Dump info related to file actions.
66 *io*
67 Dump info related to I/O queuing.
68 *mem*
69 Dump info related to memory allocations.
70 *blktrace*
71 Dump info related to blktrace setup.
72 *verify*
73 Dump info related to I/O verification.
74 *all*
75 Enable all debug options.
76 *random*
77 Dump info related to random offset generation.
78 *parse*
79 Dump info related to option matching and parsing.
80 *diskutil*
81 Dump info related to disk utilization updates.
82 *job:x*
83 Dump info only related to job number x.
84 *mutex*
85 Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops.
86 *profile*
87 Dump info related to profile extensions.
88 *time*
89 Dump info related to internal time keeping.
90 *net*
91 Dump info related to networking connections.
92 *rate*
93 Dump info related to I/O rate switching.
94 *compress*
95 Dump info related to log compress/decompress.
96 *steadystate*
97 Dump info related to steadystate detection.
98 *helperthread*
99 Dump info related to the helper thread.
100 *zbd*
101 Dump info related to support for zoned block devices.
102 *?* or *help*
103 Show available debug options.
104
105.. option:: --parse-only
106
107 Parse options only, don't start any I/O.
108
109.. option:: --merge-blktrace-only
110
111 Merge blktraces only, don't start any I/O.
112
113.. option:: --output=filename
114
115 Write output to file `filename`.
116
117.. option:: --output-format=format
118
119 Set the reporting `format` to `normal`, `terse`, `json`, or `json+`. Multiple
120 formats can be selected, separated by a comma. `terse` is a CSV based
121 format. `json+` is like `json`, except it adds a full dump of the latency
122 buckets.
123
124.. option:: --bandwidth-log
125
126 Generate aggregate bandwidth logs.
127
128.. option:: --minimal
129
130 Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
131
132.. option:: --append-terse
133
134 Print statistics in selected mode AND terse, semicolon-delimited format.
135 **Deprecated**, use :option:`--output-format` instead to select multiple
136 formats.
137
138.. option:: --terse-version=version
139
140 Set terse `version` output format (default 3, or 2 or 4 or 5).
141
142.. option:: --version
143
144 Print version information and exit.
145
146.. option:: --help
147
148 Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
149
150.. option:: --cpuclock-test
151
152 Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock.
153
154.. option:: --crctest=[test]
155
156 Test the speed of the built-in checksumming functions. If no argument is
157 given, all of them are tested. Alternatively, a comma separated list can
158 be passed, in which case the given ones are tested.
159
160.. option:: --cmdhelp=command
161
162 Print help information for `command`. May be ``all`` for all commands.
163
164.. option:: --enghelp=[ioengine[,command]]
165
166 List all commands defined by `ioengine`, or print help for `command`
167 defined by `ioengine`. If no `ioengine` is given, list all
168 available ioengines.
169
170.. option:: --showcmd
171
172 Convert given job files to a set of command-line options.
173
174.. option:: --readonly
175
176 Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing writes and trims. The
177 ``--readonly`` option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from
178 accidentally starting a write or trim workload when that is not desired.
179 Fio will only modify the device under test if
180 `rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw/trim/randtrim/trimwrite` is given. This
181 safety net can be used as an extra precaution.
182
183.. option:: --eta=when
184
185 Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. `when` may be
186 `always`, `never` or `auto`. `auto` is the default, it prints ETA
187 when requested if the output is a TTY. `always` disregards the output
188 type, and prints ETA when requested. `never` never prints ETA.
189
190.. option:: --eta-interval=time
191
192 By default, fio requests client ETA status roughly every second. With
193 this option, the interval is configurable. Fio imposes a minimum
194 allowed time to avoid flooding the console, less than 250 msec is
195 not supported.
196
197.. option:: --eta-newline=time
198
199 Force a new line for every `time` period passed. When the unit is omitted,
200 the value is interpreted in seconds.
201
202.. option:: --status-interval=time
203
204 Force a full status dump of cumulative (from job start) values at `time`
205 intervals. This option does *not* provide per-period measurements. So
206 values such as bandwidth are running averages. When the time unit is omitted,
207 `time` is interpreted in seconds. Note that using this option with
208 ``--output-format=json`` will yield output that technically isn't valid
209 json, since the output will be collated sets of valid json. It will need
210 to be split into valid sets of json after the run.
211
212.. option:: --section=name
213
214 Only run specified section `name` in job file. Multiple sections can be specified.
215 The ``--section`` option allows one to combine related jobs into one file.
216 E.g. one job file could define light, moderate, and heavy sections. Tell
217 fio to run only the "heavy" section by giving ``--section=heavy``
218 command line option. One can also specify the "write" operations in one
219 section and "verify" operation in another section. The ``--section`` option
220 only applies to job sections. The reserved *global* section is always
221 parsed and used.
222
223.. option:: --alloc-size=kb
224
225 Allocate additional internal smalloc pools of size `kb` in KiB. The
226 ``--alloc-size`` option increases shared memory set aside for use by fio.
227 If running large jobs with randommap enabled, fio can run out of memory.
228 Smalloc is an internal allocator for shared structures from a fixed size
229 memory pool and can grow to 16 pools. The pool size defaults to 16MiB.
230
231 NOTE: While running :file:`.fio_smalloc.*` backing store files are visible
232 in :file:`/tmp`.
233
234.. option:: --warnings-fatal
235
236 All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an
237 error.
238
239.. option:: --max-jobs=nr
240
241 Set the maximum number of threads/processes to support to `nr`.
242 NOTE: On Linux, it may be necessary to increase the shared-memory
243 limit (:file:`/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax`) if fio runs into errors while
244 creating jobs.
245
246.. option:: --server=args
247
248 Start a backend server, with `args` specifying what to listen to.
249 See `Client/Server`_ section.
250
251.. option:: --daemonize=pidfile
252
253 Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given `pidfile` file.
254
255.. option:: --client=hostname
256
257 Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given `hostname`
258 or set of `hostname`\s. See `Client/Server`_ section.
259
260.. option:: --remote-config=file
261
262 Tell fio server to load this local `file`.
263
264.. option:: --idle-prof=option
265
266 Report CPU idleness. `option` is one of the following:
267
268 **calibrate**
269 Run unit work calibration only and exit.
270
271 **system**
272 Show aggregate system idleness and unit work.
273
274 **percpu**
275 As **system** but also show per CPU idleness.
276
277.. option:: --inflate-log=log
278
279 Inflate and output compressed `log`.
280
281.. option:: --trigger-file=file
282
283 Execute trigger command when `file` exists.
284
285.. option:: --trigger-timeout=time
286
287 Execute trigger at this `time`.
288
289.. option:: --trigger=command
290
291 Set this `command` as local trigger.
292
293.. option:: --trigger-remote=command
294
295 Set this `command` as remote trigger.
296
297.. option:: --aux-path=path
298
299 Use the directory specified by `path` for generated state files instead
300 of the current working directory.
301
302Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, unless
303they match a job file parameter. Multiple job files can be listed and each job
304file will be regarded as a separate group. Fio will :option:`stonewall`
305execution between each group.
306
307
308Job file format
309---------------
310
311As previously described, fio accepts one or more job files describing what it is
312supposed to do. The job file format is the classic ini file, where the names
313enclosed in [] brackets define the job name. You are free to use any ASCII name
314you want, except *global* which has special meaning. Following the job name is
315a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the behavior of
316the job. If the first character in a line is a ';' or a '#', the entire line is
317discarded as a comment.
318
319A *global* section sets defaults for the jobs described in that file. A job may
320override a *global* section parameter, and a job file may even have several
321*global* sections if so desired. A job is only affected by a *global* section
322residing above it.
323
324The :option:`--cmdhelp` option also lists all options. If used with a `command`
325argument, :option:`--cmdhelp` will detail the given `command`.
326
327See the `examples/` directory for inspiration on how to write job files. Note
328the copyright and license requirements currently apply to `examples/` files.
329
330So let's look at a really simple job file that defines two processes, each
331randomly reading from a 128MiB file:
332
333.. code-block:: ini
334
335 ; -- start job file --
336 [global]
337 rw=randread
338 size=128m
339
340 [job1]
341
342 [job2]
343
344 ; -- end job file --
345
346As you can see, the job file sections themselves are empty as all the described
347parameters are shared. As no :option:`filename` option is given, fio makes up a
348`filename` for each of the jobs as it sees fit. On the command line, this job
349would look as follows::
350
351$ fio --name=global --rw=randread --size=128m --name=job1 --name=job2
352
353
354Let's look at an example that has a number of processes writing randomly to
355files:
356
357.. code-block:: ini
358
359 ; -- start job file --
360 [random-writers]
361 ioengine=libaio
362 iodepth=4
363 rw=randwrite
364 bs=32k
365 direct=0
366 size=64m
367 numjobs=4
368 ; -- end job file --
369
370Here we have no *global* section, as we only have one job defined anyway. We
371want to use async I/O here, with a depth of 4 for each file. We also increased
372the buffer size used to 32KiB and define numjobs to 4 to fork 4 identical
373jobs. The result is 4 processes each randomly writing to their own 64MiB
374file. Instead of using the above job file, you could have given the parameters
375on the command line. For this case, you would specify::
376
377$ fio --name=random-writers --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=randwrite --bs=32k --direct=0 --size=64m --numjobs=4
378
379When fio is utilized as a basis of any reasonably large test suite, it might be
380desirable to share a set of standardized settings across multiple job files.
381Instead of copy/pasting such settings, any section may pull in an external
382:file:`filename.fio` file with *include filename* directive, as in the following
383example::
384
385 ; -- start job file including.fio --
386 [global]
387 filename=/tmp/test
388 filesize=1m
389 include glob-include.fio
390
391 [test]
392 rw=randread
393 bs=4k
394 time_based=1
395 runtime=10
396 include test-include.fio
397 ; -- end job file including.fio --
398
399.. code-block:: ini
400
401 ; -- start job file glob-include.fio --
402 thread=1
403 group_reporting=1
404 ; -- end job file glob-include.fio --
405
406.. code-block:: ini
407
408 ; -- start job file test-include.fio --
409 ioengine=libaio
410 iodepth=4
411 ; -- end job file test-include.fio --
412
413Settings pulled into a section apply to that section only (except *global*
414section). Include directives may be nested in that any included file may contain
415further include directive(s). Include files may not contain [] sections.
416
417
418Environment variables
419~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
420
421Fio also supports environment variable expansion in job files. Any sub-string of
422the form ``${VARNAME}`` as part of an option value (in other words, on the right
423of the '='), will be expanded to the value of the environment variable called
424`VARNAME`. If no such environment variable is defined, or `VARNAME` is the
425empty string, the empty string will be substituted.
426
427As an example, let's look at a sample fio invocation and job file::
428
429$ SIZE=64m NUMJOBS=4 fio jobfile.fio
430
431.. code-block:: ini
432
433 ; -- start job file --
434 [random-writers]
435 rw=randwrite
436 size=${SIZE}
437 numjobs=${NUMJOBS}
438 ; -- end job file --
439
440This will expand to the following equivalent job file at runtime:
441
442.. code-block:: ini
443
444 ; -- start job file --
445 [random-writers]
446 rw=randwrite
447 size=64m
448 numjobs=4
449 ; -- end job file --
450
451Fio ships with a few example job files, you can also look there for inspiration.
452
453Reserved keywords
454~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
455
456Additionally, fio has a set of reserved keywords that will be replaced
457internally with the appropriate value. Those keywords are:
458
459**$pagesize**
460
461 The architecture page size of the running system.
462
463**$mb_memory**
464
465 Megabytes of total memory in the system.
466
467**$ncpus**
468
469 Number of online available CPUs.
470
471These can be used on the command line or in the job file, and will be
472automatically substituted with the current system values when the job is
473run. Simple math is also supported on these keywords, so you can perform actions
474like::
475
476 size=8*$mb_memory
477
478and get that properly expanded to 8 times the size of memory in the machine.
479
480
481Job file parameters
482-------------------
483
484This section describes in details each parameter associated with a job. Some
485parameters take an option of a given type, such as an integer or a
486string. Anywhere a numeric value is required, an arithmetic expression may be
487used, provided it is surrounded by parentheses. Supported operators are:
488
489 - addition (+)
490 - subtraction (-)
491 - multiplication (*)
492 - division (/)
493 - modulus (%)
494 - exponentiation (^)
495
496For time values in expressions, units are microseconds by default. This is
497different than for time values not in expressions (not enclosed in
498parentheses). The following types are used:
499
500
501Parameter types
502~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
503
504**str**
505 String: A sequence of alphanumeric characters.
506
507**time**
508 Integer with possible time suffix. Without a unit value is interpreted as
509 seconds unless otherwise specified. Accepts a suffix of 'd' for days, 'h' for
510 hours, 'm' for minutes, 's' for seconds, 'ms' (or 'msec') for milliseconds and
511 'us' (or 'usec') for microseconds. For example, use 10m for 10 minutes.
512
513.. _int:
514
515**int**
516 Integer. A whole number value, which may contain an integer prefix
517 and an integer suffix:
518
519 [*integer prefix*] **number** [*integer suffix*]
520
521 The optional *integer prefix* specifies the number's base. The default
522 is decimal. *0x* specifies hexadecimal.
523
524 The optional *integer suffix* specifies the number's units, and includes an
525 optional unit prefix and an optional unit. For quantities of data, the
526 default unit is bytes. For quantities of time, the default unit is seconds
527 unless otherwise specified.
528
529 With :option:`kb_base`\=1000, fio follows international standards for unit
530 prefixes. To specify power-of-10 decimal values defined in the
531 International System of Units (SI):
532
533 * *K* -- means kilo (K) or 1000
534 * *M* -- means mega (M) or 1000**2
535 * *G* -- means giga (G) or 1000**3
536 * *T* -- means tera (T) or 1000**4
537 * *P* -- means peta (P) or 1000**5
538
539 To specify power-of-2 binary values defined in IEC 80000-13:
540
541 * *Ki* -- means kibi (Ki) or 1024
542 * *Mi* -- means mebi (Mi) or 1024**2
543 * *Gi* -- means gibi (Gi) or 1024**3
544 * *Ti* -- means tebi (Ti) or 1024**4
545 * *Pi* -- means pebi (Pi) or 1024**5
546
547 For Zone Block Device Mode:
548 * *z* -- means Zone
549
550 With :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (the default), the unit prefixes are opposite
551 from those specified in the SI and IEC 80000-13 standards to provide
552 compatibility with old scripts. For example, 4k means 4096.
553
554 For quantities of data, an optional unit of 'B' may be included
555 (e.g., 'kB' is the same as 'k').
556
557 The *integer suffix* is not case sensitive (e.g., m/mi mean mebi/mega,
558 not milli). 'b' and 'B' both mean byte, not bit.
559
560 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1000:
561
562 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4ki, 4kib, 4kiB, 4Ki, 4KiB
563 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1mi, 1024ki
564 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1m, 1000k
565 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1ti, 1024gi, 1048576mi
566 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1t, 1000m, 1000000k
567
568 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (default):
569
570 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4k, 4kb, 4kB, 4K, 4KB
571 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1m, 1024k
572 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1mi, 1000ki
573 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1t, 1024g, 1048576m
574 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1ti, 1000mi, 1000000ki
575
576 To specify times (units are not case sensitive):
577
578 * *D* -- means days
579 * *H* -- means hours
580 * *M* -- means minutes
581 * *s* -- or sec means seconds (default)
582 * *ms* -- or *msec* means milliseconds
583 * *us* -- or *usec* means microseconds
584
585 If the option accepts an upper and lower range, use a colon ':' or
586 minus '-' to separate such values. See :ref:`irange <irange>`.
587 If the lower value specified happens to be larger than the upper value
588 the two values are swapped.
589
590.. _bool:
591
592**bool**
593 Boolean. Usually parsed as an integer, however only defined for
594 true and false (1 and 0).
595
596.. _irange:
597
598**irange**
599 Integer range with suffix. Allows value range to be given, such as
600 1024-4096. A colon may also be used as the separator, e.g. 1k:4k. If the
601 option allows two sets of ranges, they can be specified with a ',' or '/'
602 delimiter: 1k-4k/8k-32k. Also see :ref:`int <int>`.
603
604**float_list**
605 A list of floating point numbers, separated by a ':' character.
606
607With the above in mind, here follows the complete list of fio job parameters.
608
609
610Units
611~~~~~
612
613.. option:: kb_base=int
614
615 Select the interpretation of unit prefixes in input parameters.
616
617 **1000**
618 Inputs comply with IEC 80000-13 and the International
619 System of Units (SI). Use:
620
621 - power-of-2 values with IEC prefixes (e.g., KiB)
622 - power-of-10 values with SI prefixes (e.g., kB)
623
624 **1024**
625 Compatibility mode (default). To avoid breaking old scripts:
626
627 - power-of-2 values with SI prefixes
628 - power-of-10 values with IEC prefixes
629
630 See :option:`bs` for more details on input parameters.
631
632 Outputs always use correct prefixes. Most outputs include both
633 side-by-side, like::
634
635 bw=2383.3kB/s (2327.4KiB/s)
636
637 If only one value is reported, then kb_base selects the one to use:
638
639 **1000** -- SI prefixes
640
641 **1024** -- IEC prefixes
642
643.. option:: unit_base=int
644
645 Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
646
647 **0**
648 Use auto-detection (default).
649 **8**
650 Byte based.
651 **1**
652 Bit based.
653
654
655Job description
656~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
657
658.. option:: name=str
659
660 ASCII name of the job. This may be used to override the name printed by fio
661 for this job. Otherwise the job name is used. On the command line this
662 parameter has the special purpose of also signaling the start of a new job.
663
664.. option:: description=str
665
666 Text description of the job. Doesn't do anything except dump this text
667 description when this job is run. It's not parsed.
668
669.. option:: loops=int
670
671 Run the specified number of iterations of this job. Used to repeat the same
672 workload a given number of times. Defaults to 1.
673
674.. option:: numjobs=int
675
676 Create the specified number of clones of this job. Each clone of job
677 is spawned as an independent thread or process. May be used to setup a
678 larger number of threads/processes doing the same thing. Each thread is
679 reported separately; to see statistics for all clones as a whole, use
680 :option:`group_reporting` in conjunction with :option:`new_group`.
681 See :option:`--max-jobs`. Default: 1.
682
683
684Time related parameters
685~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
686
687.. option:: runtime=time
688
689 Tell fio to terminate processing after the specified period of time. It
690 can be quite hard to determine for how long a specified job will run, so
691 this parameter is handy to cap the total runtime to a given time. When
692 the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
693
694.. option:: time_based
695
696 If set, fio will run for the duration of the :option:`runtime` specified
697 even if the file(s) are completely read or written. It will simply loop over
698 the same workload as many times as the :option:`runtime` allows.
699
700.. option:: startdelay=irange(time)
701
702 Delay the start of job for the specified amount of time. Can be a single
703 value or a range. When given as a range, each thread will choose a value
704 randomly from within the range. Value is in seconds if a unit is omitted.
705
706.. option:: ramp_time=time
707
708 If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
709 logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle
710 before logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable
711 results. Note that the ``ramp_time`` is considered lead in time for a job,
712 thus it will increase the total runtime if a special timeout or
713 :option:`runtime` is specified. When the unit is omitted, the value is
714 given in seconds.
715
716.. option:: clocksource=str
717
718 Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
719
720 **gettimeofday**
721 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`
722
723 **clock_gettime**
724 :manpage:`clock_gettime(2)`
725
726 **cpu**
727 Internal CPU clock source
728
729 cpu is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast (and
730 fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource if
731 it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
732 unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
733 means supporting TSC Invariant.
734
735.. option:: gtod_reduce=bool
736
737 Enable all of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` reducing options
738 (:option:`disable_clat`, :option:`disable_slat`, :option:`disable_bw_measurement`) plus
739 reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
740 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call count. With this option enabled, we only do
741 about 0.4% of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls we would have done if all
742 time keeping was enabled.
743
744.. option:: gtod_cpu=int
745
746 Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just
747 getting the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very
748 intensive on :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls. With this option, you can set
749 one CPU aside for doing nothing but logging current time to a shared memory
750 location. Then the other threads/processes that run I/O workloads need only
751 copy that segment, instead of entering the kernel with a
752 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call. The CPU set aside for doing these time
753 calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it from the
754 CPU mask of other jobs.
755
756
757Target file/device
758~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
759
760.. option:: directory=str
761
762 Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a different
763 location than :file:`./`. You can specify a number of directories by
764 separating the names with a ':' character. These directories will be
765 assigned equally distributed to job clones created by :option:`numjobs` as
766 long as they are using generated filenames. If specific `filename(s)` are
767 set fio will use the first listed directory, and thereby matching the
768 `filename` semantic (which generates a file for each clone if not
769 specified, but lets all clones use the same file if set).
770
771 See the :option:`filename` option for information on how to escape "``:``"
772 characters within the directory path itself.
773
774 Note: To control the directory fio will use for internal state files
775 use :option:`--aux-path`.
776
777.. option:: filename=str
778
779 Fio normally makes up a `filename` based on the job name, thread number, and
780 file number (see :option:`filename_format`). If you want to share files
781 between threads in a job or several
782 jobs with fixed file paths, specify a `filename` for each of them to override
783 the default. If the ioengine is file based, you can specify a number of files
784 by separating the names with a ':' colon. So if you wanted a job to open
785 :file:`/dev/sda` and :file:`/dev/sdb` as the two working files, you would use
786 ``filename=/dev/sda:/dev/sdb``. This also means that whenever this option is
787 specified, :option:`nrfiles` is ignored. The size of regular files specified
788 by this option will be :option:`size` divided by number of files unless an
789 explicit size is specified by :option:`filesize`.
790
791 Each colon in the wanted path must be escaped with a ``\``
792 character. For instance, if the path is :file:`/dev/dsk/foo@3,0:c` then you
793 would use ``filename=/dev/dsk/foo@3,0\:c`` and if the path is
794 :file:`F:\\filename` then you would use ``filename=F\:\filename``.
795
796 On Windows, disk devices are accessed as :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive0` for
797 the first device, :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive1` for the second etc.
798 Note: Windows and FreeBSD prevent write access to areas
799 of the disk containing in-use data (e.g. filesystems).
800
801 The filename "`-`" is a reserved name, meaning *stdin* or *stdout*. Which
802 of the two depends on the read/write direction set.
803
804.. option:: filename_format=str
805
806 If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have fio
807 generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
808 based on the default file format specification of
809 :file:`jobname.jobnumber.filenumber`. With this option, that can be
810 customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
811 string:
812
813 **$jobname**
814 The name of the worker thread or process.
815 **$clientuid**
816 IP of the fio process when using client/server mode.
817 **$jobnum**
818 The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
819 **$filenum**
820 The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or
821 process.
822
823 To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to have
824 fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance, if
825 :file:`testfiles.$filenum` is specified, file number 4 for any job will be
826 named :file:`testfiles.4`. The default of :file:`$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum`
827 will be used if no other format specifier is given.
828
829 If you specify a path then the directories will be created up to the
830 main directory for the file. So for example if you specify
831 ``filename_format=a/b/c/$jobnum`` then the directories a/b/c will be
832 created before the file setup part of the job. If you specify
833 :option:`directory` then the path will be relative that directory,
834 otherwise it is treated as the absolute path.
835
836.. option:: unique_filename=bool
837
838 To avoid collisions between networked clients, fio defaults to prefixing any
839 generated filenames (with a directory specified) with the source of the
840 client connecting. To disable this behavior, set this option to 0.
841
842.. option:: opendir=str
843
844 Recursively open any files below directory `str`.
845
846.. option:: lockfile=str
847
848 Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does I/O to them. If a file
849 or file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize I/O to that file to make the
850 end result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share
851 files. The lock modes are:
852
853 **none**
854 No locking. The default.
855 **exclusive**
856 Only one thread or process may do I/O at a time, excluding all
857 others.
858 **readwrite**
859 Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may
860 access the file at the same time, but writes get exclusive access.
861
862.. option:: nrfiles=int
863
864 Number of files to use for this job. Defaults to 1. The size of files
865 will be :option:`size` divided by this unless explicit size is specified by
866 :option:`filesize`. Files are created for each thread separately, and each
867 file will have a file number within its name by default, as explained in
868 :option:`filename` section.
869
870
871.. option:: openfiles=int
872
873 Number of files to keep open at the same time. Defaults to the same as
874 :option:`nrfiles`, can be set smaller to limit the number simultaneous
875 opens.
876
877.. option:: file_service_type=str
878
879 Defines how fio decides which file from a job to service next. The following
880 types are defined:
881
882 **random**
883 Choose a file at random.
884
885 **roundrobin**
886 Round robin over opened files. This is the default.
887
888 **sequential**
889 Finish one file before moving on to the next. Multiple files can
890 still be open depending on :option:`openfiles`.
891
892 **zipf**
893 Use a *Zipf* distribution to decide what file to access.
894
895 **pareto**
896 Use a *Pareto* distribution to decide what file to access.
897
898 **normal**
899 Use a *Gaussian* (normal) distribution to decide what file to
900 access.
901
902 **gauss**
903 Alias for normal.
904
905 For *random*, *roundrobin*, and *sequential*, a postfix can be appended to
906 tell fio how many I/Os to issue before switching to a new file. For example,
907 specifying ``file_service_type=random:8`` would cause fio to issue
908 8 I/Os before selecting a new file at random. For the non-uniform
909 distributions, a floating point postfix can be given to influence how the
910 distribution is skewed. See :option:`random_distribution` for a description
911 of how that would work.
912
913.. option:: ioscheduler=str
914
915 Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler
916 before running.
917
918.. option:: create_serialize=bool
919
920 If true, serialize the file creation for the jobs. This may be handy to
921 avoid interleaving of data files, which may greatly depend on the filesystem
922 used and even the number of processors in the system. Default: true.
923
924.. option:: create_fsync=bool
925
926 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the data file after creation. This is the default.
927
928.. option:: create_on_open=bool
929
930 If true, don't pre-create files but allow the job's open() to create a file
931 when it's time to do I/O. Default: false -- pre-create all necessary files
932 when the job starts.
933
934.. option:: create_only=bool
935
936 If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
937 laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done -- the actual job contents
938 are not executed. Default: false.
939
940.. option:: allow_file_create=bool
941
942 If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. If this
943 option is false, then fio will error out if
944 the files it needs to use don't already exist. Default: true.
945
946.. option:: allow_mounted_write=bool
947
948 If this isn't set, fio will abort jobs that are destructive (e.g. that write)
949 to what appears to be a mounted device or partition. This should help catch
950 creating inadvertently destructive tests, not realizing that the test will
951 destroy data on the mounted file system. Note that some platforms don't allow
952 writing against a mounted device regardless of this option. Default: false.
953
954.. option:: pre_read=bool
955
956 If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the
957 given I/O operation. This will also clear the :option:`invalidate` flag,
958 since it is pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only
959 work for I/O engines that are seek-able, since they allow you to read the
960 same data multiple times. Thus it will not work on non-seekable I/O engines
961 (e.g. network, splice). Default: false.
962
963.. option:: unlink=bool
964
965 Unlink the job files when done. Not the default, as repeated runs of that
966 job would then waste time recreating the file set again and again. Default:
967 false.
968
969.. option:: unlink_each_loop=bool
970
971 Unlink job files after each iteration or loop. Default: false.
972
973.. option:: zonemode=str
974
975 Accepted values are:
976
977 **none**
978 The :option:`zonerange`, :option:`zonesize`,
979 :option `zonecapacity` and option:`zoneskip`
980 parameters are ignored.
981 **strided**
982 I/O happens in a single zone until
983 :option:`zonesize` bytes have been transferred.
984 After that number of bytes has been
985 transferred processing of the next zone
986 starts. :option `zonecapacity` is ignored.
987 **zbd**
988 Zoned block device mode. I/O happens
989 sequentially in each zone, even if random I/O
990 has been selected. Random I/O happens across
991 all zones instead of being restricted to a
992 single zone. The :option:`zoneskip` parameter
993 is ignored. :option:`zonerange` and
994 :option:`zonesize` must be identical.
995 Trim is handled using a zone reset operation.
996 Trim only considers non-empty sequential write
997 required and sequential write preferred zones.
998
999.. option:: zonerange=int
1000
1001 Size of a single zone. See also :option:`zonesize` and
1002 :option:`zoneskip`.
1003
1004.. option:: zonesize=int
1005
1006 For :option:`zonemode` =strided, this is the number of bytes to
1007 transfer before skipping :option:`zoneskip` bytes. If this parameter
1008 is smaller than :option:`zonerange` then only a fraction of each zone
1009 with :option:`zonerange` bytes will be accessed. If this parameter is
1010 larger than :option:`zonerange` then each zone will be accessed
1011 multiple times before skipping to the next zone.
1012
1013 For :option:`zonemode` =zbd, this is the size of a single zone. The
1014 :option:`zonerange` parameter is ignored in this mode.
1015
1016
1017.. option:: zonecapacity=int
1018
1019 For :option:`zonemode` =zbd, this defines the capacity of a single zone,
1020 which is the accessible area starting from the zone start address.
1021 This parameter only applies when using :option:`zonemode` =zbd in
1022 combination with regular block devices. If not specified it defaults to
1023 the zone size. If the target device is a zoned block device, the zone
1024 capacity is obtained from the device information and this option is
1025 ignored.
1026
1027.. option:: zoneskip=int
1028
1029 For :option:`zonemode` =strided, the number of bytes to skip after
1030 :option:`zonesize` bytes of data have been transferred. This parameter
1031 must be zero for :option:`zonemode` =zbd.
1032
1033.. option:: read_beyond_wp=bool
1034
1035 This parameter applies to :option:`zonemode` =zbd only.
1036
1037 Zoned block devices are block devices that consist of multiple zones.
1038 Each zone has a type, e.g. conventional or sequential. A conventional
1039 zone can be written at any offset that is a multiple of the block
1040 size. Sequential zones must be written sequentially. The position at
1041 which a write must occur is called the write pointer. A zoned block
1042 device can be either drive managed, host managed or host aware. For
1043 host managed devices the host must ensure that writes happen
1044 sequentially. Fio recognizes host managed devices and serializes
1045 writes to sequential zones for these devices.
1046
1047 If a read occurs in a sequential zone beyond the write pointer then
1048 the zoned block device will complete the read without reading any data
1049 from the storage medium. Since such reads lead to unrealistically high
1050 bandwidth and IOPS numbers fio only reads beyond the write pointer if
1051 explicitly told to do so. Default: false.
1052
1053.. option:: max_open_zones=int
1054
1055 A zone of a zoned block device is in the open state when it is partially
1056 written (i.e. not all sectors of the zone have been written). Zoned
1057 block devices may have a limit on the total number of zones that can
1058 be simultaneously in the open state, that is, the number of zones that
1059 can be written to simultaneously. The :option:`max_open_zones` parameter
1060 limits the number of zones to which write commands are issued by all fio
1061 jobs, that is, limits the number of zones that will be in the open
1062 state. This parameter is relevant only if the :option:`zonemode` =zbd is
1063 used. The default value is always equal to maximum number of open zones
1064 of the target zoned block device and a value higher than this limit
1065 cannot be specified by users unless the option
1066 :option:`ignore_zone_limits` is specified. When
1067 :option:`ignore_zone_limits` is specified or the target device has no
1068 limit on the number of zones that can be in an open state,
1069 :option:`max_open_zones` can specify 0 to disable any limit on the
1070 number of zones that can be simultaneously written to by all jobs.
1071
1072.. option:: job_max_open_zones=int
1073
1074 In the same manner as :option:`max_open_zones`, limit the number of open
1075 zones per fio job, that is, the number of zones that a single job can
1076 simultaneously write to. A value of zero indicates no limit.
1077 Default: zero.
1078
1079.. option:: ignore_zone_limits=bool
1080
1081 If this option is used, fio will ignore the maximum number of open
1082 zones limit of the zoned block device in use, thus allowing the
1083 option :option:`max_open_zones` value to be larger than the device
1084 reported limit. Default: false.
1085
1086.. option:: zone_reset_threshold=float
1087
1088 A number between zero and one that indicates the ratio of logical
1089 blocks with data to the total number of logical blocks in the test
1090 above which zones should be reset periodically.
1091
1092.. option:: zone_reset_frequency=float
1093
1094 A number between zero and one that indicates how often a zone reset
1095 should be issued if the zone reset threshold has been exceeded. A zone
1096 reset is submitted after each (1 / zone_reset_frequency) write
1097 requests. This and the previous parameter can be used to simulate
1098 garbage collection activity.
1099
1100
1101I/O type
1102~~~~~~~~
1103
1104.. option:: direct=bool
1105
1106 If value is true, use non-buffered I/O. This is usually O_DIRECT. Note that
1107 OpenBSD and ZFS on Solaris don't support direct I/O. On Windows the synchronous
1108 ioengines don't support direct I/O. Default: false.
1109
1110.. option:: atomic=bool
1111
1112 If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
1113 guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
1114 Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
1115
1116.. option:: buffered=bool
1117
1118 If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
1119 :option:`direct` option. Defaults to true.
1120
1121.. option:: readwrite=str, rw=str
1122
1123 Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
1124
1125 **read**
1126 Sequential reads.
1127 **write**
1128 Sequential writes.
1129 **trim**
1130 Sequential trims (Linux block devices and SCSI
1131 character devices only).
1132 **randread**
1133 Random reads.
1134 **randwrite**
1135 Random writes.
1136 **randtrim**
1137 Random trims (Linux block devices and SCSI
1138 character devices only).
1139 **rw,readwrite**
1140 Sequential mixed reads and writes.
1141 **randrw**
1142 Random mixed reads and writes.
1143 **trimwrite**
1144 Sequential trim+write sequences. Blocks will be trimmed first,
1145 then the same blocks will be written to. So if ``io_size=64K``
1146 is specified, Fio will trim a total of 64K bytes and also
1147 write 64K bytes on the same trimmed blocks. This behaviour
1148 will be consistent with ``number_ios`` or other Fio options
1149 limiting the total bytes or number of I/O's.
1150 **randtrimwrite**
1151 Like trimwrite, but uses random offsets rather
1152 than sequential writes.
1153
1154 Fio defaults to read if the option is not specified. For the mixed I/O
1155 types, the default is to split them 50/50. For certain types of I/O the
1156 result may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different.
1157
1158 It is possible to specify the number of I/Os to do before getting a new
1159 offset by appending ``:<nr>`` to the end of the string given. For a
1160 random read, it would look like ``rw=randread:8`` for passing in an offset
1161 modifier with a value of 8. If the suffix is used with a sequential I/O
1162 pattern, then the *<nr>* value specified will be **added** to the generated
1163 offset for each I/O turning sequential I/O into sequential I/O with holes.
1164 For instance, using ``rw=write:4k`` will skip 4k for every write. Also see
1165 the :option:`rw_sequencer` option.
1166
1167.. option:: rw_sequencer=str
1168
1169 If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the ``rw=<str>``
1170 line, then this option controls how that number modifies the I/O offset
1171 being generated. Accepted values are:
1172
1173 **sequential**
1174 Generate sequential offset.
1175 **identical**
1176 Generate the same offset.
1177
1178 ``sequential`` is only useful for random I/O, where fio would normally
1179 generate a new random offset for every I/O. If you append e.g. 8 to randread,
1180 you would get a new random offset for every 8 I/Os. The result would be a
1181 seek for only every 8 I/Os, instead of for every I/O. Use ``rw=randread:8``
1182 to specify that. As sequential I/O is already sequential, setting
1183 ``sequential`` for that would not result in any differences. ``identical``
1184 behaves in a similar fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of
1185 times before generating a new offset.
1186
1187.. option:: unified_rw_reporting=str
1188
1189 Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
1190 reads, writes, and trims are accounted and reported separately. This option
1191 determines whether fio reports the results normally, summed together, or as
1192 both options.
1193 Accepted values are:
1194
1195 **none**
1196 Normal statistics reporting.
1197
1198 **mixed**
1199 Statistics are summed per data direction and reported together.
1200
1201 **both**
1202 Statistics are reported normally, followed by the mixed statistics.
1203
1204 **0**
1205 Backward-compatible alias for **none**.
1206
1207 **1**
1208 Backward-compatible alias for **mixed**.
1209
1210 **2**
1211 Alias for **both**.
1212
1213.. option:: randrepeat=bool
1214
1215 Seed the random number generator used for random I/O patterns in a
1216 predictable way so the pattern is repeatable across runs. Default: true.
1217
1218.. option:: allrandrepeat=bool
1219
1220 Seed all random number generators in a predictable way so results are
1221 repeatable across runs. Default: false.
1222
1223.. option:: randseed=int
1224
1225 Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
1226 control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
1227 sequence depends on the :option:`randrepeat` setting.
1228
1229.. option:: fallocate=str
1230
1231 Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files.
1232 Accepted values are:
1233
1234 **none**
1235 Do not pre-allocate space.
1236
1237 **native**
1238 Use a platform's native pre-allocation call but fall back to
1239 **none** behavior if it fails/is not implemented.
1240
1241 **posix**
1242 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`posix_fallocate(3)`.
1243
1244 **keep**
1245 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`fallocate(2)` with
1246 FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
1247
1248 **truncate**
1249 Extend file to final size via :manpage:`ftruncate(2)`
1250 instead of allocating.
1251
1252 **0**
1253 Backward-compatible alias for **none**.
1254
1255 **1**
1256 Backward-compatible alias for **posix**.
1257
1258 May not be available on all supported platforms. **keep** is only available
1259 on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this cannot be set to **posix**
1260 because ZFS doesn't support pre-allocation. Default: **native** if any
1261 pre-allocation methods except **truncate** are available, **none** if not.
1262
1263 Note that using **truncate** on Windows will interact surprisingly
1264 with non-sequential write patterns. When writing to a file that has
1265 been extended by setting the end-of-file information, Windows will
1266 backfill the unwritten portion of the file up to that offset with
1267 zeroes before issuing the new write. This means that a single small
1268 write to the end of an extended file will stall until the entire
1269 file has been filled with zeroes.
1270
1271.. option:: fadvise_hint=str
1272
1273 Use :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` or :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` to
1274 advise the kernel on what I/O patterns are likely to be issued.
1275 Accepted values are:
1276
1277 **0**
1278 Backwards-compatible hint for "no hint".
1279
1280 **1**
1281 Backwards compatible hint for "advise with fio workload type". This
1282 uses **FADV_RANDOM** for a random workload, and **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**
1283 for a sequential workload.
1284
1285 **sequential**
1286 Advise using **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**.
1287
1288 **random**
1289 Advise using **FADV_RANDOM**.
1290
1291.. option:: write_hint=str
1292
1293 Use :manpage:`fcntl(2)` to advise the kernel what life time to expect
1294 from a write. Only supported on Linux, as of version 4.13. Accepted
1295 values are:
1296
1297 **none**
1298 No particular life time associated with this file.
1299
1300 **short**
1301 Data written to this file has a short life time.
1302
1303 **medium**
1304 Data written to this file has a medium life time.
1305
1306 **long**
1307 Data written to this file has a long life time.
1308
1309 **extreme**
1310 Data written to this file has a very long life time.
1311
1312 The values are all relative to each other, and no absolute meaning
1313 should be associated with them.
1314
1315.. option:: offset=int
1316
1317 Start I/O at the provided offset in the file, given as either a fixed size in
1318 bytes, zones or a percentage. If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be
1319 aligned to the minimum ``blocksize`` or to the value of ``offset_align`` if
1320 provided. Data before the given offset will not be touched. This
1321 effectively caps the file size at `real_size - offset`. Can be combined with
1322 :option:`size` to constrain the start and end range of the I/O workload.
1323 A percentage can be specified by a number between 1 and 100 followed by '%',
1324 for example, ``offset=20%`` to specify 20%. In ZBD mode, value can be set as
1325 number of zones using 'z'.
1326
1327.. option:: offset_align=int
1328
1329 If set to non-zero value, the byte offset generated by a percentage ``offset``
1330 is aligned upwards to this value. Defaults to 0 meaning that a percentage
1331 offset is aligned to the minimum block size.
1332
1333.. option:: offset_increment=int
1334
1335 If this is provided, then the real offset becomes `offset + offset_increment
1336 * thread_number`, where the thread number is a counter that starts at 0 and
1337 is incremented for each sub-job (i.e. when :option:`numjobs` option is
1338 specified). This option is useful if there are several jobs which are
1339 intended to operate on a file in parallel disjoint segments, with even
1340 spacing between the starting points. Percentages can be used for this option.
1341 If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be aligned to the minimum
1342 ``blocksize`` or to the value of ``offset_align`` if provided. In ZBD mode, value can
1343 also be set as number of zones using 'z'.
1344
1345.. option:: number_ios=int
1346
1347 Fio will normally perform I/Os until it has exhausted the size of the region
1348 set by :option:`size`, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
1349 condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
1350 the number of I/Os to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
1351 normally and report status. Note that this does not extend the amount of I/O
1352 that will be done, it will only stop fio if this condition is met before
1353 other end-of-job criteria.
1354
1355.. option:: fsync=int
1356
1357 If writing to a file, issue an :manpage:`fsync(2)` (or its equivalent) of
1358 the dirty data for every number of blocks given. For example, if you give 32
1359 as a parameter, fio will sync the file after every 32 writes issued. If fio is
1360 using non-buffered I/O, we may not sync the file. The exception is the sg
1361 I/O engine, which synchronizes the disk cache anyway. Defaults to 0, which
1362 means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a sync to complete. Also
1363 see :option:`end_fsync` and :option:`fsync_on_close`.
1364
1365.. option:: fdatasync=int
1366
1367 Like :option:`fsync` but uses :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` to only sync data and
1368 not metadata blocks. In Windows, DragonFlyBSD or OSX there is no
1369 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` so this falls back to using :manpage:`fsync(2)`.
1370 Defaults to 0, which means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a
1371 data-only sync to complete.
1372
1373.. option:: write_barrier=int
1374
1375 Make every `N-th` write a barrier write.
1376
1377.. option:: sync_file_range=str:int
1378
1379 Use :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` for every `int` number of write
1380 operations. Fio will track range of writes that have happened since the last
1381 :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` call. `str` can currently be one or more of:
1382
1383 **wait_before**
1384 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
1385 **write**
1386 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
1387 **wait_after**
1388 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER
1389
1390 So if you do ``sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8``, fio would use
1391 ``SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE`` for every 8
1392 writes. Also see the :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` man page. This option is
1393 Linux specific.
1394
1395.. option:: overwrite=bool
1396
1397 If true, writes to a file will always overwrite existing data. If the file
1398 doesn't already exist, it will be created before the write phase begins. If
1399 the file exists and is large enough for the specified write phase, nothing
1400 will be done. Default: false.
1401
1402.. option:: end_fsync=bool
1403
1404 If true, :manpage:`fsync(2)` file contents when a write stage has completed.
1405 Default: false.
1406
1407.. option:: fsync_on_close=bool
1408
1409 If true, fio will :manpage:`fsync(2)` a dirty file on close. This differs
1410 from :option:`end_fsync` in that it will happen on every file close, not
1411 just at the end of the job. Default: false.
1412
1413.. option:: rwmixread=int
1414
1415 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
1416
1417.. option:: rwmixwrite=int
1418
1419 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If both
1420 :option:`rwmixread` and :option:`rwmixwrite` is given and the values do not
1421 add up to 100%, the latter of the two will be used to override the
1422 first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is asked to
1423 limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then the
1424 distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
1425
1426.. option:: random_distribution=str:float[:float][,str:float][,str:float]
1427
1428 By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
1429 to perform random I/O. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
1430 specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
1431 fio includes the following distribution models:
1432
1433 **random**
1434 Uniform random distribution
1435
1436 **zipf**
1437 Zipf distribution
1438
1439 **pareto**
1440 Pareto distribution
1441
1442 **normal**
1443 Normal (Gaussian) distribution
1444
1445 **zoned**
1446 Zoned random distribution
1447
1448 **zoned_abs**
1449 Zone absolute random distribution
1450
1451 When using a **zipf** or **pareto** distribution, an input value is also
1452 needed to define the access pattern. For **zipf**, this is the `Zipf
1453 theta`. For **pareto**, it's the `Pareto power`. Fio includes a test
1454 program, :command:`fio-genzipf`, that can be used visualize what the given input
1455 values will yield in terms of hit rates. If you wanted to use **zipf** with
1456 a `theta` of 1.2, you would use ``random_distribution=zipf:1.2`` as the
1457 option. If a non-uniform model is used, fio will disable use of the random
1458 map. For the **normal** distribution, a normal (Gaussian) deviation is
1459 supplied as a value between 0 and 100.
1460
1461 The second, optional float is allowed for **pareto**, **zipf** and **normal** distributions.
1462 It allows one to set base of distribution in non-default place, giving more control
1463 over most probable outcome. This value is in range [0-1] which maps linearly to
1464 range of possible random values.
1465 Defaults are: random for **pareto** and **zipf**, and 0.5 for **normal**.
1466 If you wanted to use **zipf** with a `theta` of 1.2 centered on 1/4 of allowed value range,
1467 you would use ``random_distribution=zipf:1.2:0.25``.
1468
1469 For a **zoned** distribution, fio supports specifying percentages of I/O
1470 access that should fall within what range of the file or device. For
1471 example, given a criteria of:
1472
1473 * 60% of accesses should be to the first 10%
1474 * 30% of accesses should be to the next 20%
1475 * 8% of accesses should be to the next 30%
1476 * 2% of accesses should be to the next 40%
1477
1478 we can define that through zoning of the random accesses. For the above
1479 example, the user would do::
1480
1481 random_distribution=zoned:60/10:30/20:8/30:2/40
1482
1483 A **zoned_abs** distribution works exactly like the **zoned**, except
1484 that it takes absolute sizes. For example, let's say you wanted to
1485 define access according to the following criteria:
1486
1487 * 60% of accesses should be to the first 20G
1488 * 30% of accesses should be to the next 100G
1489 * 10% of accesses should be to the next 500G
1490
1491 we can define an absolute zoning distribution with:
1492
1493 random_distribution=zoned_abs=60/20G:30/100G:10/500g
1494
1495 For both **zoned** and **zoned_abs**, fio supports defining up to
1496 256 separate zones.
1497
1498 Similarly to how :option:`bssplit` works for setting ranges and
1499 percentages of block sizes. Like :option:`bssplit`, it's possible to
1500 specify separate zones for reads, writes, and trims. If just one set
1501 is given, it'll apply to all of them. This goes for both **zoned**
1502 **zoned_abs** distributions.
1503
1504.. option:: percentage_random=int[,int][,int]
1505
1506 For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This
1507 defaults to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set
1508 from anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
1509 sequential. Any setting in between will result in a random mix of sequential
1510 and random I/O, at the given percentages. Comma-separated values may be
1511 specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1512
1513.. option:: norandommap
1514
1515 Normally fio will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
1516 this option is given, fio will just get a new random offset without looking
1517 at past I/O history. This means that some blocks may not be read or written,
1518 and that some blocks may be read/written more than once. If this option is
1519 used with :option:`verify` and multiple blocksizes (via :option:`bsrange`),
1520 only intact blocks are verified, i.e., partially-overwritten blocks are
1521 ignored. With an async I/O engine and an I/O depth > 1, it is possible for
1522 the same block to be overwritten, which can cause verification errors. Either
1523 do not use norandommap in this case, or also use the lfsr random generator.
1524
1525.. option:: softrandommap=bool
1526
1527 See :option:`norandommap`. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and
1528 it fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without
1529 a random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps,
1530 this option is disabled by default.
1531
1532.. option:: random_generator=str
1533
1534 Fio supports the following engines for generating I/O offsets for random I/O:
1535
1536 **tausworthe**
1537 Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator.
1538 **lfsr**
1539 Linear feedback shift register generator.
1540 **tausworthe64**
1541 Strong 64-bit 2^258 cycle random number generator.
1542
1543 **tausworthe** is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking
1544 on the side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written
1545 once. **lfsr** guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and
1546 it's also less computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator,
1547 however, though for I/O purposes it's typically good enough. **lfsr** only
1548 works with single block sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block
1549 sizes. If used with such a workload, fio may read or write some blocks
1550 multiple times. The default value is **tausworthe**, unless the required
1551 space exceeds 2^32 blocks. If it does, then **tausworthe64** is
1552 selected automatically.
1553
1554
1555Block size
1556~~~~~~~~~~
1557
1558.. option:: blocksize=int[,int][,int], bs=int[,int][,int]
1559
1560 The block size in bytes used for I/O units. Default: 4096. A single value
1561 applies to reads, writes, and trims. Comma-separated values may be
1562 specified for reads, writes, and trims. A value not terminated in a comma
1563 applies to subsequent types.
1564
1565 Examples:
1566
1567 **bs=256k**
1568 means 256k for reads, writes and trims.
1569
1570 **bs=8k,32k**
1571 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes and trims.
1572
1573 **bs=8k,32k,**
1574 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes, and default for trims.
1575
1576 **bs=,8k**
1577 means default for reads, 8k for writes and trims.
1578
1579 **bs=,8k,**
1580 means default for reads, 8k for writes, and default for trims.
1581
1582.. option:: blocksize_range=irange[,irange][,irange], bsrange=irange[,irange][,irange]
1583
1584 A range of block sizes in bytes for I/O units. The issued I/O unit will
1585 always be a multiple of the minimum size, unless
1586 :option:`blocksize_unaligned` is set.
1587
1588 Comma-separated ranges may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1589 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1590
1591 Example: ``bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k``.
1592
1593.. option:: bssplit=str[,str][,str]
1594
1595 Sometimes you want even finer grained control of the block sizes
1596 issued, not just an even split between them. This option allows you to
1597 weight various block sizes, so that you are able to define a specific
1598 amount of block sizes issued. The format for this option is::
1599
1600 bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
1601
1602 for as many block sizes as needed. So if you want to define a workload
1603 that has 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k blocks, and 40% 32k blocks, you would
1604 write::
1605
1606 bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40
1607
1608 Ordering does not matter. If the percentage is left blank, fio will
1609 fill in the remaining values evenly. So a bssplit option like this one::
1610
1611 bssplit=4k/50:1k/:32k/
1612
1613 would have 50% 4k ios, and 25% 1k and 32k ios. The percentages always
1614 add up to 100, if bssplit is given a range that adds up to more, it
1615 will error out.
1616
1617 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1618 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1619
1620 If you want a workload that has 50% 2k reads and 50% 4k reads, while
1621 having 90% 4k writes and 10% 8k writes, you would specify::
1622
1623 bssplit=2k/50:4k/50,4k/90:8k/10
1624
1625 Fio supports defining up to 64 different weights for each data
1626 direction.
1627
1628.. option:: blocksize_unaligned, bs_unaligned
1629
1630 If set, fio will issue I/O units with any size within
1631 :option:`blocksize_range`, not just multiples of the minimum size. This
1632 typically won't work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector
1633 alignment.
1634
1635.. option:: bs_is_seq_rand=bool
1636
1637 If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings
1638 as sequential,random blocksize settings instead. Any random read or write
1639 will use the WRITE blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will
1640 use the READ blocksize settings.
1641
1642.. option:: blockalign=int[,int][,int], ba=int[,int][,int]
1643
1644 Boundary to which fio will align random I/O units. Default:
1645 :option:`blocksize`. Minimum alignment is typically 512b for using direct
1646 I/O, though it usually depends on the hardware block size. This option is
1647 mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it will turn off
1648 that option. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and
1649 trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1650
1651
1652Buffers and memory
1653~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1654
1655.. option:: zero_buffers
1656
1657 Initialize buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
1658
1659.. option:: refill_buffers
1660
1661 If this option is given, fio will refill the I/O buffers on every
1662 submit. Only makes sense if :option:`zero_buffers` isn't specified,
1663 naturally. Defaults to being unset i.e., the buffer is only filled at
1664 init time and the data in it is reused when possible but if any of
1665 :option:`verify`, :option:`buffer_compress_percentage` or
1666 :option:`dedupe_percentage` are enabled then `refill_buffers` is also
1667 automatically enabled.
1668
1669.. option:: scramble_buffers=bool
1670
1671 If :option:`refill_buffers` is too costly and the target is using data
1672 deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the I/O buffer
1673 contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
1674 more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe of
1675 blocks. Default: true.
1676
1677.. option:: buffer_compress_percentage=int
1678
1679 If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide I/O buffer content
1680 (on WRITEs) that compresses to the specified level. Fio does this by
1681 providing a mix of random data followed by fixed pattern data. The
1682 fixed pattern is either zeros, or the pattern specified by
1683 :option:`buffer_pattern`. If the `buffer_pattern` option is used, it
1684 might skew the compression ratio slightly. Setting
1685 `buffer_compress_percentage` to a value other than 100 will also
1686 enable :option:`refill_buffers` in order to reduce the likelihood that
1687 adjacent blocks are so similar that they over compress when seen
1688 together. See :option:`buffer_compress_chunk` for how to set a finer or
1689 coarser granularity for the random/fixed data region. Defaults to unset
1690 i.e., buffer data will not adhere to any compression level.
1691
1692.. option:: buffer_compress_chunk=int
1693
1694 This setting allows fio to manage how big the random/fixed data region
1695 is when using :option:`buffer_compress_percentage`. When
1696 `buffer_compress_chunk` is set to some non-zero value smaller than the
1697 block size, fio can repeat the random/fixed region throughout the I/O
1698 buffer at the specified interval (which particularly useful when
1699 bigger block sizes are used for a job). When set to 0, fio will use a
1700 chunk size that matches the block size resulting in a single
1701 random/fixed region within the I/O buffer. Defaults to 512. When the
1702 unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in bytes.
1703
1704.. option:: buffer_pattern=str
1705
1706 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern or with the contents
1707 of a file. If not set, the contents of I/O buffers are defined by the other
1708 options related to buffer contents. The setting can be any pattern of bytes,
1709 and can be prefixed with 0x for hex values. It may also be a string, where
1710 the string must then be wrapped with ``""``. Or it may also be a filename,
1711 where the filename must be wrapped with ``''`` in which case the file is
1712 opened and read. Note that not all the file contents will be read if that
1713 would cause the buffers to overflow. So, for example::
1714
1715 buffer_pattern='filename'
1716
1717 or::
1718
1719 buffer_pattern="abcd"
1720
1721 or::
1722
1723 buffer_pattern=-12
1724
1725 or::
1726
1727 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface
1728
1729 Also you can combine everything together in any order::
1730
1731 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface"abcd"-12'filename'
1732
1733.. option:: dedupe_percentage=int
1734
1735 If set, fio will generate this percentage of identical buffers when
1736 writing. These buffers will be naturally dedupable. The contents of the
1737 buffers depend on what other buffer compression settings have been set. It's
1738 possible to have the individual buffers either fully compressible, or not at
1739 all -- this option only controls the distribution of unique buffers. Setting
1740 this option will also enable :option:`refill_buffers` to prevent every buffer
1741 being identical.
1742
1743.. option:: dedupe_mode=str
1744
1745 If ``dedupe_percentage=<int>`` is given, then this option controls how fio
1746 generates the dedupe buffers.
1747
1748 **repeat**
1749 Generate dedupe buffers by repeating previous writes
1750 **working_set**
1751 Generate dedupe buffers from working set
1752
1753 ``repeat`` is the default option for fio. Dedupe buffers are generated
1754 by repeating previous unique write.
1755
1756 ``working_set`` is a more realistic workload.
1757 With ``working_set``, ``dedupe_working_set_percentage=<int>`` should be provided.
1758 Given that, fio will use the initial unique write buffers as its working set.
1759 Upon deciding to dedupe, fio will randomly choose a buffer from the working set.
1760 Note that by using ``working_set`` the dedupe percentage will converge
1761 to the desired over time while ``repeat`` maintains the desired percentage
1762 throughout the job.
1763
1764.. option:: dedupe_working_set_percentage=int
1765
1766 If ``dedupe_mode=<str>`` is set to ``working_set``, then this controls
1767 the percentage of size of the file or device used as the buffers
1768 fio will choose to generate the dedupe buffers from
1769
1770 Note that size needs to be explicitly provided and only 1 file per
1771 job is supported
1772
1773.. option:: dedupe_global=bool
1774
1775 This controls whether the deduplication buffers will be shared amongst
1776 all jobs that have this option set. The buffers are spread evenly between
1777 participating jobs.
1778
1779.. option:: invalidate=bool
1780
1781 Invalidate the buffer/page cache parts of the files to be used prior to
1782 starting I/O if the platform and file type support it. Defaults to true.
1783 This will be ignored if :option:`pre_read` is also specified for the
1784 same job.
1785
1786.. option:: sync=str
1787
1788 Whether, and what type, of synchronous I/O to use for writes. The allowed
1789 values are:
1790
1791 **none**
1792 Do not use synchronous IO, the default.
1793
1794 **0**
1795 Same as **none**.
1796
1797 **sync**
1798 Use synchronous file IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1799 this means using O_SYNC.
1800
1801 **1**
1802 Same as **sync**.
1803
1804 **dsync**
1805 Use synchronous data IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1806 this means using O_DSYNC.
1807
1808
1809.. option:: iomem=str, mem=str
1810
1811 Fio can use various types of memory as the I/O unit buffer. The allowed
1812 values are:
1813
1814 **malloc**
1815 Use memory from :manpage:`malloc(3)` as the buffers. Default memory
1816 type.
1817
1818 **shm**
1819 Use shared memory as the buffers. Allocated through
1820 :manpage:`shmget(2)`.
1821
1822 **shmhuge**
1823 Same as shm, but use huge pages as backing.
1824
1825 **mmap**
1826 Use :manpage:`mmap(2)` to allocate buffers. May either be anonymous memory, or can
1827 be file backed if a filename is given after the option. The format
1828 is `mem=mmap:/path/to/file`.
1829
1830 **mmaphuge**
1831 Use a memory mapped huge file as the buffer backing. Append filename
1832 after mmaphuge, ala `mem=mmaphuge:/hugetlbfs/file`.
1833
1834 **mmapshared**
1835 Same as mmap, but use a MMAP_SHARED mapping.
1836
1837 **cudamalloc**
1838 Use GPU memory as the buffers for GPUDirect RDMA benchmark.
1839 The :option:`ioengine` must be `rdma`.
1840
1841 The area allocated is a function of the maximum allowed bs size for the job,
1842 multiplied by the I/O depth given. Note that for **shmhuge** and
1843 **mmaphuge** to work, the system must have free huge pages allocated. This
1844 can normally be checked and set by reading/writing
1845 :file:`/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages` on a Linux system. Fio assumes a huge page
1846 is 2 or 4MiB in size depending on the platform. So to calculate the
1847 number of huge pages you need for a given job file, add up the I/O
1848 depth of all jobs (normally one unless :option:`iodepth` is used) and
1849 multiply by the maximum bs set. Then divide that number by the huge
1850 page size. You can see the size of the huge pages in
1851 :file:`/proc/meminfo`. If no huge pages are allocated by having a
1852 non-zero number in `nr_hugepages`, using **mmaphuge** or **shmhuge**
1853 will fail. Also see :option:`hugepage-size`.
1854
1855 **mmaphuge** also needs to have hugetlbfs mounted and the file location
1856 should point there. So if it's mounted in :file:`/huge`, you would use
1857 `mem=mmaphuge:/huge/somefile`.
1858
1859.. option:: iomem_align=int, mem_align=int
1860
1861 This indicates the memory alignment of the I/O memory buffers. Note that
1862 the given alignment is applied to the first I/O unit buffer, if using
1863 :option:`iodepth` the alignment of the following buffers are given by the
1864 :option:`bs` used. In other words, if using a :option:`bs` that is a
1865 multiple of the page sized in the system, all buffers will be aligned to
1866 this value. If using a :option:`bs` that is not page aligned, the alignment
1867 of subsequent I/O memory buffers is the sum of the :option:`iomem_align` and
1868 :option:`bs` used.
1869
1870.. option:: hugepage-size=int
1871
1872 Defines the size of a huge page. Must at least be equal to the system
1873 setting, see :file:`/proc/meminfo` and
1874 :file:`/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/`. Defaults to 2 or 4MiB depending on
1875 the platform. Should probably always be a multiple of megabytes, so
1876 using ``hugepage-size=Xm`` is the preferred way to set this to avoid
1877 setting a non-pow-2 bad value.
1878
1879.. option:: lockmem=int
1880
1881 Pin the specified amount of memory with :manpage:`mlock(2)`. Can be used to
1882 simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1883
1884
1885I/O size
1886~~~~~~~~
1887
1888.. option:: size=int
1889
1890 The total size of file I/O for each thread of this job. Fio will run until
1891 this many bytes has been transferred, unless runtime is altered by other means
1892 such as (1) :option:`runtime`, (2) :option:`io_size` (3) :option:`number_ios`,
1893 (4) gaps/holes while doing I/O's such as ``rw=read:16K``, or (5) sequential
1894 I/O reaching end of the file which is possible when :option:`percentage_random`
1895 is less than 100.
1896 Fio will divide this size between the available files determined by options
1897 such as :option:`nrfiles`, :option:`filename`, unless :option:`filesize` is
1898 specified by the job. If the result of division happens to be 0, the size is
1899 set to the physical size of the given files or devices if they exist.
1900 If this option is not specified, fio will use the full size of the given
1901 files or devices. If the files do not exist, size must be given. It is also
1902 possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and 100. If ``size=20%`` is
1903 given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files or devices.
1904 In ZBD mode, value can also be set as number of zones using 'z'.
1905 Can be combined with :option:`offset` to constrain the start and end range
1906 that I/O will be done within.
1907
1908.. option:: io_size=int, io_limit=int
1909
1910 Normally fio operates within the region set by :option:`size`, which means
1911 that the :option:`size` option sets both the region and size of I/O to be
1912 performed. Sometimes that is not what you want. With this option, it is
1913 possible to define just the amount of I/O that fio should do. For instance,
1914 if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB and :option:`io_size` is set to 5GiB, fio
1915 will perform I/O within the first 20GiB but exit when 5GiB have been
1916 done. The opposite is also possible -- if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB,
1917 and :option:`io_size` is set to 40GiB, then fio will do 40GiB of I/O within
1918 the 0..20GiB region.
1919
1920.. option:: filesize=irange(int)
1921
1922 Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case fio will select sizes for
1923 files at random within the given range. If not given, each created file is the
1924 same size. This option overrides :option:`size` in terms of file size, i.e. if
1925 :option:`filesize` is specified then :option:`size` becomes merely the default
1926 for :option:`io_size` and has no effect at all if :option:`io_size` is set
1927 explicitly.
1928
1929.. option:: file_append=bool
1930
1931 Perform I/O after the end of the file. Normally fio will operate within the
1932 size of a file. If this option is set, then fio will append to the file
1933 instead. This has identical behavior to setting :option:`offset` to the size
1934 of a file. This option is ignored on non-regular files.
1935
1936.. option:: fill_device=bool, fill_fs=bool
1937
1938 Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
1939 device) or EDQUOT (disk quota exceeded)
1940 as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential
1941 write. For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then I/O
1942 started on the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw
1943 device node, since the size of that is already known by the file system.
1944 Additionally, writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
1945
1946
1947I/O engine
1948~~~~~~~~~~
1949
1950.. option:: ioengine=str
1951
1952 Defines how the job issues I/O to the file. The following types are defined:
1953
1954 **sync**
1955 Basic :manpage:`read(2)` or :manpage:`write(2)`
1956 I/O. :manpage:`lseek(2)` is used to position the I/O location.
1957 See :option:`fsync` and :option:`fdatasync` for syncing write I/Os.
1958
1959 **psync**
1960 Basic :manpage:`pread(2)` or :manpage:`pwrite(2)` I/O. Default on
1961 all supported operating systems except for Windows.
1962
1963 **vsync**
1964 Basic :manpage:`readv(2)` or :manpage:`writev(2)` I/O. Will emulate
1965 queuing by coalescing adjacent I/Os into a single submission.
1966
1967 **pvsync**
1968 Basic :manpage:`preadv(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev(2)` I/O.
1969
1970 **pvsync2**
1971 Basic :manpage:`preadv2(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev2(2)` I/O.
1972
1973 **io_uring**
1974 Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O. Supports async IO
1975 for both direct and buffered IO.
1976 This engine defines engine specific options.
1977
1978 **io_uring_cmd**
1979 Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O for pass through commands.
1980 This engine defines engine specific options.
1981
1982 **libaio**
1983 Linux native asynchronous I/O. Note that Linux may only support
1984 queued behavior with non-buffered I/O (set ``direct=1`` or
1985 ``buffered=0``).
1986 This engine defines engine specific options.
1987
1988 **posixaio**
1989 POSIX asynchronous I/O using :manpage:`aio_read(3)` and
1990 :manpage:`aio_write(3)`.
1991
1992 **solarisaio**
1993 Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
1994
1995 **windowsaio**
1996 Windows native asynchronous I/O. Default on Windows.
1997
1998 **mmap**
1999 File is memory mapped with :manpage:`mmap(2)` and data copied
2000 to/from using :manpage:`memcpy(3)`.
2001
2002 **splice**
2003 :manpage:`splice(2)` is used to transfer the data and
2004 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to transfer data from user space to the
2005 kernel.
2006
2007 **sg**
2008 SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May either be synchronous using the SG_IO
2009 ioctl, or if the target is an sg character device we use
2010 :manpage:`read(2)` and :manpage:`write(2)` for asynchronous
2011 I/O. Requires :option:`filename` option to specify either block or
2012 character devices. This engine supports trim operations.
2013 The sg engine includes engine specific options.
2014
2015 **libzbc**
2016 Read, write, trim and ZBC/ZAC operations to a zoned
2017 block device using libzbc library. The target can be
2018 either an SG character device or a block device file.
2019
2020 **null**
2021 Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. This is mainly used to
2022 exercise fio itself and for debugging/testing purposes.
2023
2024 **net**
2025 Transfer over the network to given ``host:port``. Depending on the
2026 :option:`protocol` used, the :option:`hostname`, :option:`port`,
2027 :option:`listen` and :option:`filename` options are used to specify
2028 what sort of connection to make, while the :option:`protocol` option
2029 determines which protocol will be used. This engine defines engine
2030 specific options.
2031
2032 **netsplice**
2033 Like **net**, but uses :manpage:`splice(2)` and
2034 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to map data and send/receive.
2035 This engine defines engine specific options.
2036
2037 **cpuio**
2038 Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to the
2039 :option:`cpuload`, :option:`cpuchunks` and :option:`cpumode` options.
2040 Setting :option:`cpuload`\=85 will cause that job to do nothing but burn 85%
2041 of the CPU. In case of SMP machines, use :option:`numjobs`\=<nr_of_cpu>
2042 to get desired CPU usage, as the cpuload only loads a
2043 single CPU at the desired rate. A job never finishes unless there is
2044 at least one non-cpuio job.
2045 Setting :option:`cpumode`\=qsort replace the default noop instructions loop
2046 by a qsort algorithm to consume more energy.
2047
2048 **rdma**
2049 The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics
2050 (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ) and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the
2051 InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols. This engine defines engine
2052 specific options.
2053
2054 **falloc**
2055 I/O engine that does regular fallocate to simulate data transfer as
2056 fio ioengine.
2057
2058 DDIR_READ
2059 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,).
2060
2061 DDIR_WRITE
2062 does fallocate(,mode = 0).
2063
2064 DDIR_TRIM
2065 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE).
2066
2067 **ftruncate**
2068 I/O engine that sends :manpage:`ftruncate(2)` operations in response
2069 to write (DDIR_WRITE) events. Each ftruncate issued sets the file's
2070 size to the current block offset. :option:`blocksize` is ignored.
2071
2072 **e4defrag**
2073 I/O engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate
2074 defragment activity in request to DDIR_WRITE event.
2075
2076 **rados**
2077 I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Reliable Autonomic
2078 Distributed Object Store (RADOS) via librados. This ioengine
2079 defines engine specific options.
2080
2081 **rbd**
2082 I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Rados Block Devices
2083 (RBD) via librbd without the need to use the kernel rbd driver. This
2084 ioengine defines engine specific options.
2085
2086 **http**
2087 I/O engine supporting GET/PUT requests over HTTP(S) with libcurl to
2088 a WebDAV or S3 endpoint. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
2089
2090 This engine only supports direct IO of iodepth=1; you need to scale this
2091 via numjobs. blocksize defines the size of the objects to be created.
2092
2093 TRIM is translated to object deletion.
2094
2095 **gfapi**
2096 Using GlusterFS libgfapi sync interface to direct access to
2097 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
2098 defines engine specific options.
2099
2100 **gfapi_async**
2101 Using GlusterFS libgfapi async interface to direct access to
2102 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
2103 defines engine specific options.
2104
2105 **libhdfs**
2106 Read and write through Hadoop (HDFS). The :option:`filename` option
2107 is used to specify host,port of the hdfs name-node to connect. This
2108 engine interprets offsets a little differently. In HDFS, files once
2109 created cannot be modified so random writes are not possible. To
2110 imitate this the libhdfs engine expects a bunch of small files to be
2111 created over HDFS and will randomly pick a file from them
2112 based on the offset generated by fio backend (see the example
2113 job file to create such files, use ``rw=write`` option). Please
2114 note, it may be necessary to set environment variables to work
2115 with HDFS/libhdfs properly. Each job uses its own connection to
2116 HDFS.
2117
2118 **mtd**
2119 Read, write and erase an MTD character device (e.g.,
2120 :file:`/dev/mtd0`). Discards are treated as erases. Depending on the
2121 underlying device type, the I/O may have to go in a certain pattern,
2122 e.g., on NAND, writing sequentially to erase blocks and discarding
2123 before overwriting. The `trimwrite` mode works well for this
2124 constraint.
2125
2126 **pmemblk**
2127 Read and write using filesystem DAX to a file on a filesystem
2128 mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
2129 libpmemblk library.
2130
2131 **dev-dax**
2132 Read and write using device DAX to a persistent memory device (e.g.,
2133 /dev/dax0.0) through the PMDK libpmem library.
2134
2135 **external**
2136 Prefix to specify loading an external I/O engine object file. Append
2137 the engine filename, e.g. ``ioengine=external:/tmp/foo.o`` to load
2138 ioengine :file:`foo.o` in :file:`/tmp`. The path can be either
2139 absolute or relative. See :file:`engines/skeleton_external.c` for
2140 details of writing an external I/O engine.
2141
2142 **filecreate**
2143 Simply create the files and do no I/O to them. You still need to
2144 set `filesize` so that all the accounting still occurs, but no
2145 actual I/O will be done other than creating the file.
2146
2147 **filestat**
2148 Simply do stat() and do no I/O to the file. You need to set 'filesize'
2149 and 'nrfiles', so that files will be created.
2150 This engine is to measure file lookup and meta data access.
2151
2152 **filedelete**
2153 Simply delete the files by unlink() and do no I/O to them. You need to set 'filesize'
2154 and 'nrfiles', so that the files will be created.
2155 This engine is to measure file delete.
2156
2157 **libpmem**
2158 Read and write using mmap I/O to a file on a filesystem
2159 mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
2160 libpmem library.
2161
2162 **ime_psync**
2163 Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2164 This engine is very basic and issues calls to IME whenever an IO is
2165 queued.
2166
2167 **ime_psyncv**
2168 Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2169 This engine uses iovecs and will try to stack as much IOs as possible
2170 (if the IOs are "contiguous" and the IO depth is not exceeded)
2171 before issuing a call to IME.
2172
2173 **ime_aio**
2174 Asynchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2175 This engine will try to stack as much IOs as possible by creating
2176 requests for IME. FIO will then decide when to commit these requests.
2177
2178 **libiscsi**
2179 Read and write iscsi lun with libiscsi.
2180
2181 **nbd**
2182 Read and write a Network Block Device (NBD).
2183
2184 **libcufile**
2185 I/O engine supporting libcufile synchronous access to nvidia-fs and a
2186 GPUDirect Storage-supported filesystem. This engine performs
2187 I/O without transferring buffers between user-space and the kernel,
2188 unless :option:`verify` is set or :option:`cuda_io` is `posix`.
2189 :option:`iomem` must not be `cudamalloc`. This ioengine defines
2190 engine specific options.
2191
2192 **dfs**
2193 I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to the
2194 DAOS File System (DFS) via libdfs.
2195
2196 **nfs**
2197 I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to
2198 NFS filesystems from userspace via libnfs. This is useful for
2199 achieving higher concurrency and thus throughput than is possible
2200 via kernel NFS.
2201
2202 **exec**
2203 Execute 3rd party tools. Could be used to perform monitoring during jobs runtime.
2204
2205 **xnvme**
2206 I/O engine using the xNVMe C API, for NVMe devices. The xnvme engine provides
2207 flexibility to access GNU/Linux Kernel NVMe driver via libaio, IOCTLs, io_uring,
2208 the SPDK NVMe driver, or your own custom NVMe driver. The xnvme engine includes
2209 engine specific options. (See https://xnvme.io).
2210
2211 **libblkio**
2212 Use the libblkio library
2213 (https://gitlab.com/libblkio/libblkio). The specific
2214 *driver* to use must be set using
2215 :option:`libblkio_driver`. If
2216 :option:`mem`/:option:`iomem` is not specified, memory
2217 allocation is delegated to libblkio (and so is
2218 guaranteed to work with the selected *driver*). One
2219 libblkio instance is used per process, so all jobs
2220 setting option :option:`thread` will share a single
2221 instance (with one queue per thread) and must specify
2222 compatible options. Note that some drivers don't allow
2223 several instances to access the same device or file
2224 simultaneously, but allow it for threads.
2225
2226I/O engine specific parameters
2227~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2228
2229In addition, there are some parameters which are only valid when a specific
2230:option:`ioengine` is in use. These are used identically to normal parameters,
2231with the caveat that when used on the command line, they must come after the
2232:option:`ioengine` that defines them is selected.
2233
2234.. option:: cmdprio_percentage=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2235
2236 Set the percentage of I/O that will be issued with the highest priority.
2237 Default: 0. A single value applies to reads and writes. Comma-separated
2238 values may be specified for reads and writes. For this option to be
2239 effective, NCQ priority must be supported and enabled, and the :option:`direct`
2240 option must be set. fio must also be run as the root user. Unlike
2241 slat/clat/lat stats, which can be tracked and reported independently, per
2242 priority stats only track and report a single type of latency. By default,
2243 completion latency (clat) will be reported, if :option:`lat_percentiles` is
2244 set, total latency (lat) will be reported.
2245
2246.. option:: cmdprio_class=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2247
2248 Set the I/O priority class to use for I/Os that must be issued with
2249 a priority when :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or
2250 :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set. If not specified when
2251 :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set,
2252 this defaults to the highest priority class. A single value applies
2253 to reads and writes. Comma-separated values may be specified for
2254 reads and writes. See :manpage:`ionice(1)`. See also the
2255 :option:`prioclass` option.
2256
2257.. option:: cmdprio=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2258
2259 Set the I/O priority value to use for I/Os that must be issued with
2260 a priority when :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or
2261 :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set. If not specified when
2262 :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set,
2263 this defaults to 0.
2264 Linux limits us to a positive value between 0 and 7, with 0 being the
2265 highest. A single value applies to reads and writes. Comma-separated
2266 values may be specified for reads and writes. See :manpage:`ionice(1)`.
2267 Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating systems since
2268 meaning of priority may differ. See also the :option:`prio` option.
2269
2270.. option:: cmdprio_bssplit=str[,str] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2271
2272 To get a finer control over I/O priority, this option allows
2273 specifying the percentage of IOs that must have a priority set
2274 depending on the block size of the IO. This option is useful only
2275 when used together with the :option:`bssplit` option, that is,
2276 multiple different block sizes are used for reads and writes.
2277
2278 The first accepted format for this option is the same as the format of
2279 the :option:`bssplit` option:
2280
2281 cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
2282
2283 In this case, each entry will use the priority class and priority
2284 level defined by the options :option:`cmdprio_class` and
2285 :option:`cmdprio` respectively.
2286
2287 The second accepted format for this option is:
2288
2289 cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage/class/level:blocksize/percentage/class/level
2290
2291 In this case, the priority class and priority level is defined inside
2292 each entry. In comparison with the first accepted format, the second
2293 accepted format does not restrict all entries to have the same priority
2294 class and priority level.
2295
2296 For both formats, only the read and write data directions are supported,
2297 values for trim IOs are ignored. This option is mutually exclusive with
2298 the :option:`cmdprio_percentage` option.
2299
2300.. option:: fixedbufs : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2301
2302 If fio is asked to do direct IO, then Linux will map pages for each
2303 IO call, and release them when IO is done. If this option is set, the
2304 pages are pre-mapped before IO is started. This eliminates the need to
2305 map and release for each IO. This is more efficient, and reduces the
2306 IO latency as well.
2307
2308.. option:: nonvectored=int : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2309
2310 With this option, fio will use non-vectored read/write commands, where
2311 address must contain the address directly. Default is -1.
2312
2313.. option:: force_async=int : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2314
2315 Normal operation for io_uring is to try and issue an sqe as
2316 non-blocking first, and if that fails, execute it in an async manner.
2317 With this option set to N, then every N request fio will ask sqe to
2318 be issued in an async manner. Default is 0.
2319
2320.. option:: registerfiles : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2321
2322 With this option, fio registers the set of files being used with the
2323 kernel. This avoids the overhead of managing file counts in the kernel,
2324 making the submission and completion part more lightweight. Required
2325 for the below :option:`sqthread_poll` option.
2326
2327.. option:: sqthread_poll : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd] [xnvme]
2328
2329 Normally fio will submit IO by issuing a system call to notify the
2330 kernel of available items in the SQ ring. If this option is set, the
2331 act of submitting IO will be done by a polling thread in the kernel.
2332 This frees up cycles for fio, at the cost of using more CPU in the
2333 system. As submission is just the time it takes to fill in the sqe
2334 entries and any syscall required to wake up the idle kernel thread,
2335 fio will not report submission latencies.
2336
2337.. option:: sqthread_poll_cpu=int : [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2338
2339 When :option:`sqthread_poll` is set, this option provides a way to
2340 define which CPU should be used for the polling thread.
2341
2342.. option:: cmd_type=str : [io_uring_cmd]
2343
2344 Specifies the type of uring passthrough command to be used. Supported
2345 value is nvme. Default is nvme.
2346
2347.. option:: hipri
2348
2349 [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd] [xnvme]
2350
2351 If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions.
2352 Normal IO completions generate interrupts to signal the completion of
2353 IO, polled completions do not. Hence they are require active reaping
2354 by the application. The benefits are more efficient IO for high IOPS
2355 scenarios, and lower latencies for low queue depth IO.
2356
2357 [libblkio]
2358
2359 Use poll queues. This is incompatible with
2360 :option:`libblkio_wait_mode=eventfd <libblkio_wait_mode>` and
2361 :option:`libblkio_force_enable_completion_eventfd`.
2362
2363 [pvsync2]
2364
2365 Set RWF_HIPRI on I/O, indicating to the kernel that it's of higher priority
2366 than normal.
2367
2368 [sg]
2369
2370 If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions.
2371 This will have a similar effect as (io_uring)hipri. Only SCSI READ and
2372 WRITE commands will have the SGV4_FLAG_HIPRI set (not UNMAP (trim) nor
2373 VERIFY). Older versions of the Linux sg driver that do not support
2374 hipri will simply ignore this flag and do normal IO. The Linux SCSI
2375 Low Level Driver (LLD) that "owns" the device also needs to support
2376 hipri (also known as iopoll and mq_poll). The MegaRAID driver is an
2377 example of a SCSI LLD. Default: clear (0) which does normal
2378 (interrupted based) IO.
2379
2380.. option:: userspace_reap : [libaio]
2381
2382 Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use the
2383 :manpage:`io_getevents(2)` system call to reap newly returned events. With
2384 this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly from user-space to
2385 reap events. The reaping mode is only enabled when polling for a minimum of
2386 0 events (e.g. when :option:`iodepth_batch_complete` `=0`).
2387
2388.. option:: hipri_percentage : [pvsync2]
2389
2390 When hipri is set this determines the probability of a pvsync2 I/O being high
2391 priority. The default is 100%.
2392
2393.. option:: nowait=bool : [pvsync2] [libaio] [io_uring] [io_uring_cmd]
2394
2395 By default if a request cannot be executed immediately (e.g. resource starvation,
2396 waiting on locks) it is queued and the initiating process will be blocked until
2397 the required resource becomes free.
2398
2399 This option sets the RWF_NOWAIT flag (supported from the 4.14 Linux kernel) and
2400 the call will return instantly with EAGAIN or a partial result rather than waiting.
2401
2402 It is useful to also use ignore_error=EAGAIN when using this option.
2403
2404 Note: glibc 2.27, 2.28 have a bug in syscall wrappers preadv2, pwritev2.
2405 They return EOPNOTSUP instead of EAGAIN.
2406
2407 For cached I/O, using this option usually means a request operates only with
2408 cached data. Currently the RWF_NOWAIT flag does not supported for cached write.
2409
2410 For direct I/O, requests will only succeed if cache invalidation isn't required,
2411 file blocks are fully allocated and the disk request could be issued immediately.
2412
2413.. option:: cpuload=int : [cpuio]
2414
2415 Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles. This is a mandatory
2416 option when using cpuio I/O engine.
2417
2418.. option:: cpuchunks=int : [cpuio]
2419
2420 Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
2421
2422.. option:: cpumode=str : [cpuio]
2423
2424 Specify how to stress the CPU. It can take these two values:
2425
2426 **noop**
2427 This is the default where the CPU executes noop instructions.
2428 **qsort**
2429 Replace the default noop instructions loop with a qsort algorithm to
2430 consume more energy.
2431
2432.. option:: exit_on_io_done=bool : [cpuio]
2433
2434 Detect when I/O threads are done, then exit.
2435
2436.. option:: namenode=str : [libhdfs]
2437
2438 The hostname or IP address of a HDFS cluster namenode to contact.
2439
2440.. option:: port=int
2441
2442 [libhdfs]
2443
2444 The listening port of the HFDS cluster namenode.
2445
2446 [netsplice], [net]
2447
2448 The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to. If this is used with
2449 :option:`numjobs` to spawn multiple instances of the same job type, then
2450 this will be the starting port number since fio will use a range of
2451 ports.
2452
2453 [rdma], [librpma_*]
2454
2455 The port to use for RDMA-CM communication. This should be the same value
2456 on the client and the server side.
2457
2458.. option:: hostname=str : [netsplice] [net] [rdma]
2459
2460 The hostname or IP address to use for TCP, UDP or RDMA-CM based I/O. If the job
2461 is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not used and must be omitted
2462 unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
2463
2464.. option:: serverip=str : [librpma_*]
2465
2466 The IP address to be used for RDMA-CM based I/O.
2467
2468.. option:: direct_write_to_pmem=bool : [librpma_*]
2469
2470 Set to 1 only when Direct Write to PMem from the remote host is possible.
2471 Otherwise, set to 0.
2472
2473.. option:: busy_wait_polling=bool : [librpma_*_server]
2474
2475 Set to 0 to wait for completion instead of busy-wait polling completion.
2476 Default: 1.
2477
2478.. option:: interface=str : [netsplice] [net]
2479
2480 The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP
2481 multicast.
2482
2483.. option:: ttl=int : [netsplice] [net]
2484
2485 Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1.
2486
2487.. option:: nodelay=bool : [netsplice] [net]
2488
2489 Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
2490
2491.. option:: protocol=str, proto=str : [netsplice] [net]
2492
2493 The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
2494
2495 **tcp**
2496 Transmission control protocol.
2497 **tcpv6**
2498 Transmission control protocol V6.
2499 **udp**
2500 User datagram protocol.
2501 **udpv6**
2502 User datagram protocol V6.
2503 **unix**
2504 UNIX domain socket.
2505
2506 When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given, as well as the
2507 hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader. For unix sockets, the
2508 normal :option:`filename` option should be used and the port is invalid.
2509
2510.. option:: listen : [netsplice] [net]
2511
2512 For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming connections
2513 rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The :option:`hostname` must
2514 be omitted if this option is used.
2515
2516.. option:: pingpong : [netsplice] [net]
2517
2518 Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network
2519 reader will just consume packages. If ``pingpong=1`` is set, a writer will
2520 send its normal payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the
2521 same payload back. This allows fio to measure network latencies. The
2522 submission and completion latencies then measure local time spent sending or
2523 receiving, and the completion latency measures how long it took for the
2524 other end to receive and send back. For UDP multicast traffic
2525 ``pingpong=1`` should only be set for a single reader when multiple readers
2526 are listening to the same address.
2527
2528.. option:: window_size : [netsplice] [net]
2529
2530 Set the desired socket buffer size for the connection.
2531
2532.. option:: mss : [netsplice] [net]
2533
2534 Set the TCP maximum segment size (TCP_MAXSEG).
2535
2536.. option:: donorname=str : [e4defrag]
2537
2538 File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files).
2539
2540.. option:: inplace=int : [e4defrag]
2541
2542 Configure donor file blocks allocation strategy:
2543
2544 **0**
2545 Default. Preallocate donor's file on init.
2546 **1**
2547 Allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right
2548 after event.
2549
2550.. option:: clustername=str : [rbd,rados]
2551
2552 Specifies the name of the Ceph cluster.
2553
2554.. option:: rbdname=str : [rbd]
2555
2556 Specifies the name of the RBD.
2557
2558.. option:: clientname=str : [rbd,rados]
2559
2560 Specifies the username (without the 'client.' prefix) used to access the
2561 Ceph cluster. If the *clustername* is specified, the *clientname* shall be
2562 the full *type.id* string. If no type. prefix is given, fio will add
2563 'client.' by default.
2564
2565.. option:: conf=str : [rados]
2566
2567 Specifies the configuration path of ceph cluster, so conf file does not
2568 have to be /etc/ceph/ceph.conf.
2569
2570.. option:: busy_poll=bool : [rbd,rados]
2571
2572 Poll store instead of waiting for completion. Usually this provides better
2573 throughput at cost of higher(up to 100%) CPU utilization.
2574
2575.. option:: touch_objects=bool : [rados]
2576
2577 During initialization, touch (create if do not exist) all objects (files).
2578 Touching all objects affects ceph caches and likely impacts test results.
2579 Enabled by default.
2580
2581.. option:: pool=str :
2582
2583 [rbd,rados]
2584
2585 Specifies the name of the Ceph pool containing RBD or RADOS data.
2586
2587 [dfs]
2588
2589 Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS pool to connect to.
2590
2591.. option:: cont=str : [dfs]
2592
2593 Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS container to open.
2594
2595.. option:: chunk_size=int
2596
2597 [dfs]
2598
2599 Specify a different chunk size (in bytes) for the dfs file.
2600 Use DAOS container's chunk size by default.
2601
2602 [libhdfs]
2603
2604 The size of the chunk to use for each file.
2605
2606.. option:: object_class=str : [dfs]
2607
2608 Specify a different object class for the dfs file.
2609 Use DAOS container's object class by default.
2610
2611.. option:: skip_bad=bool : [mtd]
2612
2613 Skip operations against known bad blocks.
2614
2615.. option:: hdfsdirectory : [libhdfs]
2616
2617 libhdfs will create chunk in this HDFS directory.
2618
2619.. option:: verb=str : [rdma]
2620
2621 The RDMA verb to use on this side of the RDMA ioengine connection. Valid
2622 values are write, read, send and recv. These correspond to the equivalent
2623 RDMA verbs (e.g. write = rdma_write etc.). Note that this only needs to be
2624 specified on the client side of the connection. See the examples folder.
2625
2626.. option:: bindname=str : [rdma]
2627
2628 The name to use to bind the local RDMA-CM connection to a local RDMA device.
2629 This could be a hostname or an IPv4 or IPv6 address. On the server side this
2630 will be passed into the rdma_bind_addr() function and on the client site it
2631 will be used in the rdma_resolve_add() function. This can be useful when
2632 multiple paths exist between the client and the server or in certain loopback
2633 configurations.
2634
2635.. option:: stat_type=str : [filestat]
2636
2637 Specify stat system call type to measure lookup/getattr performance.
2638 Default is **stat** for :manpage:`stat(2)`.
2639
2640.. option:: readfua=bool : [sg]
2641
2642 With readfua option set to 1, read operations include
2643 the force unit access (fua) flag. Default is 0.
2644
2645.. option:: writefua=bool : [sg]
2646
2647 With writefua option set to 1, write operations include
2648 the force unit access (fua) flag. Default is 0.
2649
2650.. option:: sg_write_mode=str : [sg]
2651
2652 Specify the type of write commands to issue. This option can take three values:
2653
2654 **write**
2655 This is the default where write opcodes are issued as usual.
2656 **write_and_verify**
2657 Issue WRITE AND VERIFY commands. The BYTCHK bit is set to 0. This
2658 directs the device to carry out a medium verification with no data
2659 comparison. The writefua option is ignored with this selection.
2660 **verify**
2661 This option is deprecated. Use write_and_verify instead.
2662 **write_same**
2663 Issue WRITE SAME commands. This transfers a single block to the device
2664 and writes this same block of data to a contiguous sequence of LBAs
2665 beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size parameter specifies
2666 the amount of data written with each command. However, the amount of data
2667 actually transferred to the device is equal to the device's block
2668 (sector) size. For a device with 512 byte sectors, blocksize=8k will
2669 write 16 sectors with each command. fio will still generate 8k of data
2670 for each command but only the first 512 bytes will be used and
2671 transferred to the device. The writefua option is ignored with this
2672 selection.
2673 **same**
2674 This option is deprecated. Use write_same instead.
2675 **write_same_ndob**
2676 Issue WRITE SAME(16) commands as above but with the No Data Output
2677 Buffer (NDOB) bit set. No data will be transferred to the device with
2678 this bit set. Data written will be a pre-determined pattern such as
2679 all zeroes.
2680 **write_stream**
2681 Issue WRITE STREAM(16) commands. Use the **stream_id** option to specify
2682 the stream identifier.
2683 **verify_bytchk_00**
2684 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 00. This directs the
2685 device to carry out a medium verification with no data comparison.
2686 **verify_bytchk_01**
2687 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 01. This directs the device to
2688 compare the data on the device with the data transferred to the device.
2689 **verify_bytchk_11**
2690 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 11. This transfers a
2691 single block to the device and compares the contents of this block with the
2692 data on the device beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size
2693 parameter specifies the total amount of data compared with this command.
2694 However, only one block (sector) worth of data is transferred to the device.
2695 This is similar to the WRITE SAME command except that data is compared instead
2696 of written.
2697
2698.. option:: stream_id=int : [sg]
2699
2700 Set the stream identifier for WRITE STREAM commands. If this is set to 0 (which is not
2701 a valid stream identifier) fio will open a stream and then close it when done. Default
2702 is 0.
2703
2704.. option:: http_host=str : [http]
2705
2706 Hostname to connect to. For S3, this could be the bucket hostname.
2707 Default is **localhost**
2708
2709.. option:: http_user=str : [http]
2710
2711 Username for HTTP authentication.
2712
2713.. option:: http_pass=str : [http]
2714
2715 Password for HTTP authentication.
2716
2717.. option:: https=str : [http]
2718
2719 Enable HTTPS instead of http. *on* enables HTTPS; *insecure*
2720 will enable HTTPS, but disable SSL peer verification (use with
2721 caution!). Default is **off**
2722
2723.. option:: http_mode=str : [http]
2724
2725 Which HTTP access mode to use: *webdav*, *swift*, or *s3*.
2726 Default is **webdav**
2727
2728.. option:: http_s3_region=str : [http]
2729
2730 The S3 region/zone string.
2731 Default is **us-east-1**
2732
2733.. option:: http_s3_key=str : [http]
2734
2735 The S3 secret key.
2736
2737.. option:: http_s3_keyid=str : [http]
2738
2739 The S3 key/access id.
2740
2741.. option:: http_s3_sse_customer_key=str : [http]
2742
2743 The encryption customer key in SSE server side.
2744
2745.. option:: http_s3_sse_customer_algorithm=str : [http]
2746
2747 The encryption customer algorithm in SSE server side.
2748 Default is **AES256**
2749
2750.. option:: http_s3_storage_class=str : [http]
2751
2752 Which storage class to access. User-customizable settings.
2753 Default is **STANDARD**
2754
2755.. option:: http_swift_auth_token=str : [http]
2756
2757 The Swift auth token. See the example configuration file on how
2758 to retrieve this.
2759
2760.. option:: http_verbose=int : [http]
2761
2762 Enable verbose requests from libcurl. Useful for debugging. 1
2763 turns on verbose logging from libcurl, 2 additionally enables
2764 HTTP IO tracing. Default is **0**
2765
2766.. option:: uri=str : [nbd]
2767
2768 Specify the NBD URI of the server to test. The string
2769 is a standard NBD URI
2770 (see https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/tree/master/doc).
2771 Example URIs: nbd://localhost:10809
2772 nbd+unix:///?socket=/tmp/socket
2773 nbds://tlshost/exportname
2774
2775.. option:: gpu_dev_ids=str : [libcufile]
2776
2777 Specify the GPU IDs to use with CUDA. This is a colon-separated list of
2778 int. GPUs are assigned to workers roundrobin. Default is 0.
2779
2780.. option:: cuda_io=str : [libcufile]
2781
2782 Specify the type of I/O to use with CUDA. Default is **cufile**.
2783
2784 **cufile**
2785 Use libcufile and nvidia-fs. This option performs I/O directly
2786 between a GPUDirect Storage filesystem and GPU buffers,
2787 avoiding use of a bounce buffer. If :option:`verify` is set,
2788 cudaMemcpy is used to copy verificaton data between RAM and GPU.
2789 Verification data is copied from RAM to GPU before a write
2790 and from GPU to RAM after a read. :option:`direct` must be 1.
2791 **posix**
2792 Use POSIX to perform I/O with a RAM buffer, and use cudaMemcpy
2793 to transfer data between RAM and the GPUs. Data is copied from
2794 GPU to RAM before a write and copied from RAM to GPU after a
2795 read. :option:`verify` does not affect use of cudaMemcpy.
2796
2797.. option:: nfs_url=str : [nfs]
2798
2799 URL in libnfs format, eg nfs://<server|ipv4|ipv6>/path[?arg=val[&arg=val]*]
2800 Refer to the libnfs README for more details.
2801
2802.. option:: program=str : [exec]
2803
2804 Specify the program to execute.
2805
2806.. option:: arguments=str : [exec]
2807
2808 Specify arguments to pass to program.
2809 Some special variables can be expanded to pass fio's job details to the program.
2810
2811 **%r**
2812 Replaced by the duration of the job in seconds.
2813 **%n**
2814 Replaced by the name of the job.
2815
2816.. option:: grace_time=int : [exec]
2817
2818 Specify the time between the SIGTERM and SIGKILL signals. Default is 1 second.
2819
2820.. option:: std_redirect=bool : [exec]
2821
2822 If set, stdout and stderr streams are redirected to files named from the job name. Default is true.
2823
2824.. option:: xnvme_async=str : [xnvme]
2825
2826 Select the xnvme async command interface. This can take these values.
2827
2828 **emu**
2829 This is default and use to emulate asynchronous I/O by using a
2830 single thread to create a queue pair on top of a synchronous
2831 I/O interface using the NVMe driver IOCTL.
2832 **thrpool**
2833 Emulate an asynchronous I/O interface with a pool of userspace
2834 threads on top of a synchronous I/O interface using the NVMe
2835 driver IOCTL. By default four threads are used.
2836 **io_uring**
2837 Linux native asynchronous I/O interface which supports both
2838 direct and buffered I/O.
2839 **io_uring_cmd**
2840 Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O interface for NVMe pass
2841 through commands. This only works with NVMe character device
2842 (/dev/ngXnY).
2843 **libaio**
2844 Use Linux aio for Asynchronous I/O.
2845 **posix**
2846 Use the posix asynchronous I/O interface to perform one or
2847 more I/O operations asynchronously.
2848 **nil**
2849 Do not transfer any data; just pretend to. This is mainly used
2850 for introspective performance evaluation.
2851
2852.. option:: xnvme_sync=str : [xnvme]
2853
2854 Select the xnvme synchronous command interface. This can take these values.
2855
2856 **nvme**
2857 This is default and uses Linux NVMe Driver ioctl() for
2858 synchronous I/O.
2859 **psync**
2860 This supports regular as well as vectored pread() and pwrite()
2861 commands.
2862 **block**
2863 This is the same as psync except that it also supports zone
2864 management commands using Linux block layer IOCTLs.
2865
2866.. option:: xnvme_admin=str : [xnvme]
2867
2868 Select the xnvme admin command interface. This can take these values.
2869
2870 **nvme**
2871 This is default and uses linux NVMe Driver ioctl() for admin
2872 commands.
2873 **block**
2874 Use Linux Block Layer ioctl() and sysfs for admin commands.
2875
2876.. option:: xnvme_dev_nsid=int : [xnvme]
2877
2878 xnvme namespace identifier for userspace NVMe driver, such as SPDK.
2879
2880.. option:: xnvme_iovec=int : [xnvme]
2881
2882 If this option is set. xnvme will use vectored read/write commands.
2883
2884.. option:: libblkio_driver=str : [libblkio]
2885
2886 The libblkio *driver* to use. Different drivers access devices through
2887 different underlying interfaces. Available drivers depend on the
2888 libblkio version in use and are listed at
2889 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers
2890
2891.. option:: libblkio_path=str : [libblkio]
2892
2893 Sets the value of the driver-specific "path" property before connecting
2894 the libblkio instance, which identifies the target device or file on
2895 which to perform I/O. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent and not
2896 all drivers may support it; see
2897 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers
2898
2899.. option:: libblkio_pre_connect_props=str : [libblkio]
2900
2901 A colon-separated list of additional libblkio properties to be set after
2902 creating but before connecting the libblkio instance. Each property must
2903 have the format ``<name>=<value>``. Colons can be escaped as ``\:``.
2904 These are set after the engine sets any other properties, so those can
2905 be overriden. Available properties depend on the libblkio version in use
2906 and are listed at
2907 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#properties
2908
2909.. option:: libblkio_num_entries=int : [libblkio]
2910
2911 Sets the value of the driver-specific "num-entries" property before
2912 starting the libblkio instance. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent
2913 and not all drivers may support it; see
2914 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers
2915
2916.. option:: libblkio_queue_size=int : [libblkio]
2917
2918 Sets the value of the driver-specific "queue-size" property before
2919 starting the libblkio instance. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent
2920 and not all drivers may support it; see
2921 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers
2922
2923.. option:: libblkio_pre_start_props=str : [libblkio]
2924
2925 A colon-separated list of additional libblkio properties to be set after
2926 connecting but before starting the libblkio instance. Each property must
2927 have the format ``<name>=<value>``. Colons can be escaped as ``\:``.
2928 These are set after the engine sets any other properties, so those can
2929 be overriden. Available properties depend on the libblkio version in use
2930 and are listed at
2931 https://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#properties
2932
2933.. option:: libblkio_vectored : [libblkio]
2934
2935 Submit vectored read and write requests.
2936
2937.. option:: libblkio_write_zeroes_on_trim : [libblkio]
2938
2939 Submit trims as "write zeroes" requests instead of discard requests.
2940
2941.. option:: libblkio_wait_mode=str : [libblkio]
2942
2943 How to wait for completions:
2944
2945 **block** (default)
2946 Use a blocking call to ``blkioq_do_io()``.
2947 **eventfd**
2948 Use a blocking call to ``read()`` on the completion eventfd.
2949 **loop**
2950 Use a busy loop with a non-blocking call to ``blkioq_do_io()``.
2951
2952.. option:: libblkio_force_enable_completion_eventfd : [libblkio]
2953
2954 Enable the queue's completion eventfd even when unused. This may impact
2955 performance. The default is to enable it only if
2956 :option:`libblkio_wait_mode=eventfd <libblkio_wait_mode>`.
2957
2958I/O depth
2959~~~~~~~~~
2960
2961.. option:: iodepth=int
2962
2963 Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that
2964 increasing *iodepth* beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except
2965 for small degrees when :option:`verify_async` is in use). Even async
2966 engines may impose OS restrictions causing the desired depth not to be
2967 achieved. This may happen on Linux when using libaio and not setting
2968 :option:`direct`\=1, since buffered I/O is not async on that OS. Keep an
2969 eye on the I/O depth distribution in the fio output to verify that the
2970 achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
2971
2972.. option:: iodepth_batch_submit=int, iodepth_batch=int
2973
2974 This defines how many pieces of I/O to submit at once. It defaults to 1
2975 which means that we submit each I/O as soon as it is available, but can be
2976 raised to submit bigger batches of I/O at the time. If it is set to 0 the
2977 :option:`iodepth` value will be used.
2978
2979.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_min=int, iodepth_batch_complete=int
2980
2981 This defines how many pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1
2982 which means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 I/O in the retrieval process
2983 from the kernel. The I/O retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
2984 :option:`iodepth_low`. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always
2985 check for completed events before queuing more I/O. This helps reduce I/O
2986 latency, at the cost of more retrieval system calls.
2987
2988.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_max=int
2989
2990 This defines maximum pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. This variable should
2991 be used along with :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`\=int variable,
2992 specifying the range of min and max amount of I/O which should be
2993 retrieved. By default it is equal to the :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`
2994 value.
2995
2996 Example #1::
2997
2998 iodepth_batch_complete_min=1
2999 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
3000
3001 which means that we will retrieve at least 1 I/O and up to the whole
3002 submitted queue depth. If none of I/O has been completed yet, we will wait.
3003
3004 Example #2::
3005
3006 iodepth_batch_complete_min=0
3007 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
3008
3009 which means that we can retrieve up to the whole submitted queue depth, but
3010 if none of I/O has been completed yet, we will NOT wait and immediately exit
3011 the system call. In this example we simply do polling.
3012
3013.. option:: iodepth_low=int
3014
3015 The low water mark indicating when to start filling the queue
3016 again. Defaults to the same as :option:`iodepth`, meaning that fio will
3017 attempt to keep the queue full at all times. If :option:`iodepth` is set to
3018 e.g. 16 and *iodepth_low* is set to 4, then after fio has filled the queue of
3019 16 requests, it will let the depth drain down to 4 before starting to fill
3020 it again.
3021
3022.. option:: serialize_overlap=bool
3023
3024 Serialize in-flight I/Os that might otherwise cause or suffer from data races.
3025 When two or more I/Os are submitted simultaneously, there is no guarantee that
3026 the I/Os will be processed or completed in the submitted order. Further, if
3027 two or more of those I/Os are writes, any overlapping region between them can
3028 become indeterminate/undefined on certain storage. These issues can cause
3029 verification to fail erratically when at least one of the racing I/Os is
3030 changing data and the overlapping region has a non-zero size. Setting
3031 ``serialize_overlap`` tells fio to avoid provoking this behavior by explicitly
3032 serializing in-flight I/Os that have a non-zero overlap. Note that setting
3033 this option can reduce both performance and the :option:`iodepth` achieved.
3034
3035 This option only applies to I/Os issued for a single job except when it is
3036 enabled along with :option:`io_submit_mode`\=offload. In offload mode, fio
3037 will check for overlap among all I/Os submitted by offload jobs with :option:`serialize_overlap`
3038 enabled.
3039
3040 Default: false.
3041
3042.. option:: io_submit_mode=str
3043
3044 This option controls how fio submits the I/O to the I/O engine. The default
3045 is `inline`, which means that the fio job threads submit and reap I/O
3046 directly. If set to `offload`, the job threads will offload I/O submission
3047 to a dedicated pool of I/O threads. This requires some coordination and thus
3048 has a bit of extra overhead, especially for lower queue depth I/O where it
3049 can increase latencies. The benefit is that fio can manage submission rates
3050 independently of the device completion rates. This avoids skewed latency
3051 reporting if I/O gets backed up on the device side (the coordinated omission
3052 problem). Note that this option cannot reliably be used with async IO
3053 engines.
3054
3055
3056I/O rate
3057~~~~~~~~
3058
3059.. option:: thinktime=time
3060
3061 Stall the job for the specified period of time after an I/O has completed before issuing the
3062 next. May be used to simulate processing being done by an application.
3063 When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
3064 :option:`thinktime_blocks`, :option:`thinktime_iotime` and :option:`thinktime_spin`.
3065
3066.. option:: thinktime_spin=time
3067
3068 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - pretend to spend CPU time doing
3069 something with the data received, before falling back to sleeping for the
3070 rest of the period specified by :option:`thinktime`. When the unit is
3071 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
3072
3073.. option:: thinktime_blocks=int
3074
3075 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control how many blocks to issue,
3076 before waiting :option:`thinktime` usecs. If not set, defaults to 1 which will make
3077 fio wait :option:`thinktime` usecs after every block. This effectively makes any
3078 queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 I/O will be queued
3079 before we have to complete it and do our :option:`thinktime`. In other words, this
3080 setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
3081
3082.. option:: thinktime_blocks_type=str
3083
3084 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control how :option:`thinktime_blocks`
3085 triggers. The default is `complete`, which triggers thinktime when fio completes
3086 :option:`thinktime_blocks` blocks. If this is set to `issue`, then the trigger happens
3087 at the issue side.
3088
3089.. option:: thinktime_iotime=time
3090
3091 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control :option:`thinktime`
3092 interval by time. The :option:`thinktime` stall is repeated after IOs
3093 are executed for :option:`thinktime_iotime`. For example,
3094 ``--thinktime_iotime=9s --thinktime=1s`` repeat 10-second cycle with IOs
3095 for 9 seconds and stall for 1 second. When the unit is omitted,
3096 :option:`thinktime_iotime` is interpreted as a number of seconds. If
3097 this option is used together with :option:`thinktime_blocks`, the
3098 :option:`thinktime` stall is repeated after :option:`thinktime_iotime`
3099 or after :option:`thinktime_blocks` IOs, whichever happens first.
3100
3101.. option:: rate=int[,int][,int]
3102
3103 Cap the bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal
3104 suffix rules apply. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
3105 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
3106
3107 For example, using `rate=1m,500k` would limit reads to 1MiB/sec and writes to
3108 500KiB/sec. Capping only reads or writes can be done with `rate=,500k` or
3109 `rate=500k,` where the former will only limit writes (to 500KiB/sec) and the
3110 latter will only limit reads.
3111
3112.. option:: rate_min=int[,int][,int]
3113
3114 Tell fio to do whatever it can to maintain at least this bandwidth. Failing
3115 to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. Comma-separated values
3116 may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in
3117 :option:`blocksize`.
3118
3119.. option:: rate_iops=int[,int][,int]
3120
3121 Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as
3122 :option:`rate`, just specified independently of bandwidth. If the job is
3123 given a block size range instead of a fixed value, the smallest block size
3124 is used as the metric. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
3125 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
3126
3127.. option:: rate_iops_min=int[,int][,int]
3128
3129 If fio doesn't meet this rate of I/O, it will cause the job to exit.
3130 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
3131 described in :option:`blocksize`.
3132
3133.. option:: rate_process=str
3134
3135 This option controls how fio manages rated I/O submissions. The default is
3136 `linear`, which submits I/O in a linear fashion with fixed delays between
3137 I/Os that gets adjusted based on I/O completion rates. If this is set to
3138 `poisson`, fio will submit I/O based on a more real world random request
3139 flow, known as the Poisson process
3140 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_point_process). The lambda will be
3141 10^6 / IOPS for the given workload.
3142
3143.. option:: rate_ignore_thinktime=bool
3144
3145 By default, fio will attempt to catch up to the specified rate setting,
3146 if any kind of thinktime setting was used. If this option is set, then
3147 fio will ignore the thinktime and continue doing IO at the specified
3148 rate, instead of entering a catch-up mode after thinktime is done.
3149
3150
3151I/O latency
3152~~~~~~~~~~~
3153
3154.. option:: latency_target=time
3155
3156 If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
3157 workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. When
3158 the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
3159 :option:`latency_window` and :option:`latency_percentile`.
3160
3161.. option:: latency_window=time
3162
3163 Used with :option:`latency_target` to specify the sample window that the job
3164 is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. When the unit is
3165 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
3166
3167.. option:: latency_percentile=float
3168
3169 The percentage of I/Os that must fall within the criteria specified by
3170 :option:`latency_target` and :option:`latency_window`. If not set, this
3171 defaults to 100.0, meaning that all I/Os must be equal or below to the value
3172 set by :option:`latency_target`.
3173
3174.. option:: latency_run=bool
3175
3176 Used with :option:`latency_target`. If false (default), fio will find
3177 the highest queue depth that meets :option:`latency_target` and exit. If
3178 true, fio will continue running and try to meet :option:`latency_target`
3179 by adjusting queue depth.
3180
3181.. option:: max_latency=time[,time][,time]
3182
3183 If set, fio will exit the job with an ETIMEDOUT error if it exceeds this
3184 maximum latency. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in
3185 microseconds. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes,
3186 and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
3187
3188.. option:: rate_cycle=int
3189
3190 Average bandwidth for :option:`rate` and :option:`rate_min` over this number
3191 of milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.
3192
3193
3194I/O replay
3195~~~~~~~~~~
3196
3197.. option:: write_iolog=str
3198
3199 Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. See
3200 :option:`read_iolog`. Specify a separate file for each job, otherwise the
3201 iologs will be interspersed and the file may be corrupt. This file will
3202 be opened in append mode.
3203
3204.. option:: read_iolog=str
3205
3206 Open an iolog with the specified filename and replay the I/O patterns it
3207 contains. This can be used to store a workload and replay it sometime
3208 later. The iolog given may also be a blktrace binary file, which allows fio
3209 to replay a workload captured by :command:`blktrace`. See
3210 :manpage:`blktrace(8)` for how to capture such logging data. For blktrace
3211 replay, the file needs to be turned into a blkparse binary data file first
3212 (``blkparse <device> -o /dev/null -d file_for_fio.bin``).
3213 You can specify a number of files by separating the names with a ':'
3214 character. See the :option:`filename` option for information on how to
3215 escape ':' characters within the file names. These files will
3216 be sequentially assigned to job clones created by :option:`numjobs`.
3217 '-' is a reserved name, meaning read from stdin, notably if
3218 :option:`filename` is set to '-' which means stdin as well, then
3219 this flag can't be set to '-'.
3220
3221.. option:: read_iolog_chunked=bool
3222
3223 Determines how iolog is read. If false(default) entire :option:`read_iolog`
3224 will be read at once. If selected true, input from iolog will be read
3225 gradually. Useful when iolog is very large, or it is generated.
3226
3227.. option:: merge_blktrace_file=str
3228
3229 When specified, rather than replaying the logs passed to :option:`read_iolog`,
3230 the logs go through a merge phase which aggregates them into a single
3231 blktrace. The resulting file is then passed on as the :option:`read_iolog`
3232 parameter. The intention here is to make the order of events consistent.
3233 This limits the influence of the scheduler compared to replaying multiple
3234 blktraces via concurrent jobs.
3235
3236.. option:: merge_blktrace_scalars=float_list
3237
3238 This is a percentage based option that is index paired with the list of
3239 files passed to :option:`read_iolog`. When merging is performed, scale
3240 the time of each event by the corresponding amount. For example,
3241 ``--merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100"`` runs the first trace in halftime
3242 and the second trace in realtime. This knob is separately tunable from
3243 :option:`replay_time_scale` which scales the trace during runtime and
3244 does not change the output of the merge unlike this option.
3245
3246.. option:: merge_blktrace_iters=float_list
3247
3248 This is a whole number option that is index paired with the list of files
3249 passed to :option:`read_iolog`. When merging is performed, run each trace
3250 for the specified number of iterations. For example,
3251 ``--merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"`` runs the first trace for two iterations
3252 and the second trace for one iteration.
3253
3254.. option:: replay_no_stall=bool
3255
3256 When replaying I/O with :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior is to
3257 attempt to respect the timestamps within the log and replay them with the
3258 appropriate delay between IOPS. By setting this variable fio will not
3259 respect the timestamps and attempt to replay them as fast as possible while
3260 still respecting ordering. The result is the same I/O pattern to a given
3261 device, but different timings.
3262
3263.. option:: replay_time_scale=int
3264
3265 When replaying I/O with :option:`read_iolog`, fio will honor the
3266 original timing in the trace. With this option, it's possible to scale
3267 the time. It's a percentage option, if set to 50 it means run at 50%
3268 the original IO rate in the trace. If set to 200, run at twice the
3269 original IO rate. Defaults to 100.
3270
3271.. option:: replay_redirect=str
3272
3273 While replaying I/O patterns using :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior
3274 is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
3275 from. This is sometimes undesirable because on a different machine those
3276 major/minor numbers can map to a different device. Changing hardware on the
3277 same system can also result in a different major/minor mapping.
3278 ``replay_redirect`` causes all I/Os to be replayed onto the single specified
3279 device regardless of the device it was recorded
3280 from. i.e. :option:`replay_redirect`\= :file:`/dev/sdc` would cause all I/O
3281 in the blktrace or iolog to be replayed onto :file:`/dev/sdc`. This means
3282 multiple devices will be replayed onto a single device, if the trace
3283 contains multiple devices. If you want multiple devices to be replayed
3284 concurrently to multiple redirected devices you must blkparse your trace
3285 into separate traces and replay them with independent fio invocations.
3286 Unfortunately this also breaks the strict time ordering between multiple
3287 device accesses.
3288
3289.. option:: replay_align=int
3290
3291 Force alignment of the byte offsets in a trace to this value. The value
3292 must be a power of 2.
3293
3294.. option:: replay_scale=int
3295
3296 Scale byte offsets down by this factor when replaying traces. Should most
3297 likely use :option:`replay_align` as well.
3298
3299.. option:: replay_skip=str
3300
3301 Sometimes it's useful to skip certain IO types in a replay trace.
3302 This could be, for instance, eliminating the writes in the trace.
3303 Or not replaying the trims/discards, if you are redirecting to
3304 a device that doesn't support them. This option takes a comma
3305 separated list of read, write, trim, sync.
3306
3307
3308Threads, processes and job synchronization
3309~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3310
3311.. option:: thread
3312
3313 Fio defaults to creating jobs by using fork, however if this option is
3314 given, fio will create jobs by using POSIX Threads' function
3315 :manpage:`pthread_create(3)` to create threads instead.
3316
3317.. option:: wait_for=str
3318
3319 If set, the current job won't be started until all workers of the specified
3320 waitee job are done.
3321
3322 ``wait_for`` operates on the job name basis, so there are a few
3323 limitations. First, the waitee must be defined prior to the waiter job
3324 (meaning no forward references). Second, if a job is being referenced as a
3325 waitee, it must have a unique name (no duplicate waitees).
3326
3327.. option:: nice=int
3328
3329 Run the job with the given nice value. See man :manpage:`nice(2)`.
3330
3331 On Windows, values less than -15 set the process class to "High"; -1 through
3332 -15 set "Above Normal"; 1 through 15 "Below Normal"; and above 15 "Idle"
3333 priority class.
3334
3335.. option:: prio=int
3336
3337 Set the I/O priority value of this job. Linux limits us to a positive value
3338 between 0 and 7, with 0 being the highest. See man
3339 :manpage:`ionice(1)`. Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating
3340 systems since meaning of priority may differ. For per-command priority
3341 setting, see I/O engine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage` and
3342 :option:`cmdprio` options.
3343
3344.. option:: prioclass=int
3345
3346 Set the I/O priority class. See man :manpage:`ionice(1)`. For per-command
3347 priority setting, see I/O engine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage`
3348 and :option:`cmdprio_class` options.
3349
3350.. option:: cpus_allowed=str
3351
3352 Controls the same options as :option:`cpumask`, but accepts a textual
3353 specification of the permitted CPUs instead and CPUs are indexed from 0. So
3354 to use CPUs 0 and 5 you would specify ``cpus_allowed=0,5``. This option also
3355 allows a range of CPUs to be specified -- say you wanted a binding to CPUs
3356 0, 5, and 8 to 15, you would set ``cpus_allowed=0,5,8-15``.
3357
3358 On Windows, when ``cpus_allowed`` is unset only CPUs from fio's current
3359 processor group will be used and affinity settings are inherited from the
3360 system. An fio build configured to target Windows 7 makes options that set
3361 CPUs processor group aware and values will set both the processor group
3362 and a CPU from within that group. For example, on a system where processor
3363 group 0 has 40 CPUs and processor group 1 has 32 CPUs, ``cpus_allowed``
3364 values between 0 and 39 will bind CPUs from processor group 0 and
3365 ``cpus_allowed`` values between 40 and 71 will bind CPUs from processor
3366 group 1. When using ``cpus_allowed_policy=shared`` all CPUs specified by a
3367 single ``cpus_allowed`` option must be from the same processor group. For
3368 Windows fio builds not built for Windows 7, CPUs will only be selected from
3369 (and be relative to) whatever processor group fio happens to be running in
3370 and CPUs from other processor groups cannot be used.
3371
3372.. option:: cpus_allowed_policy=str
3373
3374 Set the policy of how fio distributes the CPUs specified by
3375 :option:`cpus_allowed` or :option:`cpumask`. Two policies are supported:
3376
3377 **shared**
3378 All jobs will share the CPU set specified.
3379 **split**
3380 Each job will get a unique CPU from the CPU set.
3381
3382 **shared** is the default behavior, if the option isn't specified. If
3383 **split** is specified, then fio will assign one cpu per job. If not
3384 enough CPUs are given for the jobs listed, then fio will roundrobin the CPUs
3385 in the set.
3386
3387.. option:: cpumask=int
3388
3389 Set the CPU affinity of this job. The parameter given is a bit mask of
3390 allowed CPUs the job may run on. So if you want the allowed CPUs to be 1
3391 and 5, you would pass the decimal value of (1 << 1 | 1 << 5), or 34. See man
3392 :manpage:`sched_setaffinity(2)`. This may not work on all supported
3393 operating systems or kernel versions. This option doesn't work well for a
3394 higher CPU count than what you can store in an integer mask, so it can only
3395 control cpus 1-32. For boxes with larger CPU counts, use
3396 :option:`cpus_allowed`.
3397
3398.. option:: numa_cpu_nodes=str
3399
3400 Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
3401 comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`. Note, to enable
3402 NUMA options support, fio must be built on a system with libnuma-dev(el)
3403 installed.
3404
3405.. option:: numa_mem_policy=str
3406
3407 Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of the
3408 arguments::
3409
3410 <mode>[:<nodelist>]
3411
3412 ``mode`` is one of the following memory policies: ``default``, ``prefer``,
3413 ``bind``, ``interleave`` or ``local``. For ``default`` and ``local`` memory
3414 policies, no node needs to be specified. For ``prefer``, only one node is
3415 allowed. For ``bind`` and ``interleave`` the ``nodelist`` may be as
3416 follows: a comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`.
3417
3418.. option:: cgroup=str
3419
3420 Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created. The
3421 system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
3422 your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with::
3423
3424 # mount -t cgroup -o blkio none /cgroup
3425
3426.. option:: cgroup_weight=int
3427
3428 Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
3429 with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
3430
3431.. option:: cgroup_nodelete=bool
3432
3433 Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job
3434 completion. To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the
3435 job completion, set ``cgroup_nodelete=1``. This can be useful if one wants
3436 to inspect various cgroup files after job completion. Default: false.
3437
3438.. option:: flow_id=int
3439
3440 The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global
3441 flow. See :option:`flow`.
3442
3443.. option:: flow=int
3444
3445 Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then fio
3446 regulates the activity between two or more jobs sharing the same
3447 flow_id. Fio attempts to keep each job activity proportional to other
3448 jobs' activities in the same flow_id group, with respect to requested
3449 weight per job. That is, if one job has `flow=3', another job has
3450 `flow=2' and another with `flow=1`, then there will be a roughly 3:2:1
3451 ratio in how much one runs vs the others.
3452
3453.. option:: flow_sleep=int
3454
3455 The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow counter
3456 has exceeded its proportion before retrying operations.
3457
3458.. option:: stonewall, wait_for_previous
3459
3460 Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit, before starting this
3461 one. Can be used to insert serialization points in the job file. A stone
3462 wall also implies starting a new reporting group, see
3463 :option:`group_reporting`.
3464
3465.. option:: exitall
3466
3467 By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3468 Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting ``exitall`` will instead
3469 make fio terminate all jobs in the same group, as soon as one job of that
3470 group finishes.
3471
3472.. option:: exit_what=str
3473
3474 By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3475 Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting ``exitall`` will
3476 instead make fio terminate all jobs in the same group. The option
3477 ``exit_what`` allows to control which jobs get terminated when ``exitall`` is
3478 enabled. The default is ``group`` and does not change the behaviour of
3479 ``exitall``. The setting ``all`` terminates all jobs. The setting ``stonewall``
3480 terminates all currently running jobs across all groups and continues execution
3481 with the next stonewalled group.
3482
3483.. option:: exec_prerun=str
3484
3485 Before running this job, issue the command specified through
3486 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
3487 :file:`jobname.prerun.txt`.
3488
3489.. option:: exec_postrun=str
3490
3491 After the job completes, issue the command specified though
3492 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
3493 :file:`jobname.postrun.txt`.
3494
3495.. option:: uid=int
3496
3497 Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value
3498 before the thread/process does any work.
3499
3500.. option:: gid=int
3501
3502 Set group ID, see :option:`uid`.
3503
3504
3505Verification
3506~~~~~~~~~~~~
3507
3508.. option:: verify_only
3509
3510 Do not perform specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
3511 invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
3512 times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only
3513 for workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
3514 :option:`time_based` option set.
3515
3516.. option:: do_verify=bool
3517
3518 Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if :option:`verify` is
3519 set. Default: true.
3520
3521.. option:: verify=str
3522
3523 If writing to a file, fio can verify the file contents after each iteration
3524 of the job. Each verification method also implies verification of special
3525 header, which is written to the beginning of each block. This header also
3526 includes meta information, like offset of the block, block number, timestamp
3527 when block was written, etc. :option:`verify` can be combined with
3528 :option:`verify_pattern` option. The allowed values are:
3529
3530 **md5**
3531 Use an md5 sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3532 each block.
3533
3534 **crc64**
3535 Use an experimental crc64 sum of the data area and store it in the
3536 header of each block.
3537
3538 **crc32c**
3539 Use a crc32c sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3540 each block. This will automatically use hardware acceleration
3541 (e.g. SSE4.2 on an x86 or CRC crypto extensions on ARM64) but will
3542 fall back to software crc32c if none is found. Generally the
3543 fastest checksum fio supports when hardware accelerated.
3544
3545 **crc32c-intel**
3546 Synonym for crc32c.
3547
3548 **crc32**
3549 Use a crc32 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3550 block.
3551
3552 **crc16**
3553 Use a crc16 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3554 block.
3555
3556 **crc7**
3557 Use a crc7 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3558 block.
3559
3560 **xxhash**
3561 Use xxhash as the checksum function. Generally the fastest software
3562 checksum that fio supports.
3563
3564 **sha512**
3565 Use sha512 as the checksum function.
3566
3567 **sha256**
3568 Use sha256 as the checksum function.
3569
3570 **sha1**
3571 Use optimized sha1 as the checksum function.
3572
3573 **sha3-224**
3574 Use optimized sha3-224 as the checksum function.
3575
3576 **sha3-256**
3577 Use optimized sha3-256 as the checksum function.
3578
3579 **sha3-384**
3580 Use optimized sha3-384 as the checksum function.
3581
3582 **sha3-512**
3583 Use optimized sha3-512 as the checksum function.
3584
3585 **meta**
3586 This option is deprecated, since now meta information is included in
3587 generic verification header and meta verification happens by
3588 default. For detailed information see the description of the
3589 :option:`verify` setting. This option is kept because of
3590 compatibility's sake with old configurations. Do not use it.
3591
3592 **pattern**
3593 Verify a strict pattern. Normally fio includes a header with some
3594 basic information and checksumming, but if this option is set, only
3595 the specific pattern set with :option:`verify_pattern` is verified.
3596
3597 **null**
3598 Only pretend to verify. Useful for testing internals with
3599 :option:`ioengine`\=null, not for much else.
3600
3601 This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
3602 that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction
3603 given is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a
3604 previously written file. If the data direction includes any form of write,
3605 the verify will be of the newly written data.
3606
3607 To avoid false verification errors, do not use the norandommap option when
3608 verifying data with async I/O engines and I/O depths > 1. Or use the
3609 norandommap and the lfsr random generator together to avoid writing to the
3610 same offset with multiple outstanding I/Os.
3611
3612.. option:: verify_offset=int
3613
3614 Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
3615 writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
3616
3617.. option:: verify_interval=int
3618
3619 Write the verification header at a finer granularity than the
3620 :option:`blocksize`. It will be written for chunks the size of
3621 ``verify_interval``. :option:`blocksize` should divide this evenly.
3622
3623.. option:: verify_pattern=str
3624
3625 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to
3626 filling with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill
3627 with a known pattern for I/O verification purposes. Depending on the width
3628 of the pattern, fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time (it can
3629 be either a decimal or a hex number). The ``verify_pattern`` if larger than
3630 a 32-bit quantity has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or
3631 "0X". Use with :option:`verify`. Also, ``verify_pattern`` supports %o
3632 format, which means that for each block offset will be written and then
3633 verified back, e.g.::
3634
3635 verify_pattern=%o
3636
3637 Or use combination of everything::
3638
3639 verify_pattern=0xff%o"abcd"-12
3640
3641.. option:: verify_fatal=bool
3642
3643 Normally fio will keep checking the entire contents before quitting on a
3644 block verification failure. If this option is set, fio will exit the job on
3645 the first observed failure. Default: false.
3646
3647.. option:: verify_dump=bool
3648
3649 If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block
3650 we read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what
3651 kind of data corruption occurred. Off by default.
3652
3653.. option:: verify_async=int
3654
3655 Fio will normally verify I/O inline from the submitting thread. This option
3656 takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for I/O
3657 verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying I/O
3658 contents to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even
3659 sync I/O engines can benefit from using an :option:`iodepth` setting higher
3660 than 1, as it allows them to have I/O in flight while verifies are running.
3661 Defaults to 0 async threads, i.e. verification is not asynchronous.
3662
3663.. option:: verify_async_cpus=str
3664
3665 Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async I/O verification
3666 threads. See :option:`cpus_allowed` for the format used.
3667
3668.. option:: verify_backlog=int
3669
3670 Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
3671 once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
3672 everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
3673 instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with
3674 an I/O block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory
3675 would be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will
3676 write only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
3677
3678.. option:: verify_backlog_batch=int
3679
3680 Control how many blocks fio will verify if :option:`verify_backlog` is
3681 set. If not set, will default to the value of :option:`verify_backlog`
3682 (meaning the entire queue is read back and verified). If
3683 ``verify_backlog_batch`` is less than :option:`verify_backlog` then not all
3684 blocks will be verified, if ``verify_backlog_batch`` is larger than
3685 :option:`verify_backlog`, some blocks will be verified more than once.
3686
3687.. option:: verify_state_save=bool
3688
3689 When a job exits during the write phase of a verify workload, save its
3690 current state. This allows fio to replay up until that point, if the verify
3691 state is loaded for the verify read phase. The format of the filename is,
3692 roughly::
3693
3694 <type>-<jobname>-<jobindex>-verify.state.
3695
3696 <type> is "local" for a local run, "sock" for a client/server socket
3697 connection, and "ip" (192.168.0.1, for instance) for a networked
3698 client/server connection. Defaults to true.
3699
3700.. option:: verify_state_load=bool
3701
3702 If a verify termination trigger was used, fio stores the current write state
3703 of each thread. This can be used at verification time so that fio knows how
3704 far it should verify. Without this information, fio will run a full
3705 verification pass, according to the settings in the job file used. Default
3706 false.
3707
3708.. option:: trim_percentage=int
3709
3710 Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
3711
3712.. option:: trim_verify_zero=bool
3713
3714 Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
3715
3716.. option:: trim_backlog=int
3717
3718 Trim after this number of blocks are written.
3719
3720.. option:: trim_backlog_batch=int
3721
3722 Trim this number of I/O blocks.
3723
3724.. option:: experimental_verify=bool
3725
3726 Enable experimental verification. Standard verify records I/O metadata
3727 for later use during the verification phase. Experimental verify
3728 instead resets the file after the write phase and then replays I/Os for
3729 the verification phase.
3730
3731Steady state
3732~~~~~~~~~~~~
3733
3734.. option:: steadystate=str:float, ss=str:float
3735
3736 Define the criterion and limit for assessing steady state performance. The
3737 first parameter designates the criterion whereas the second parameter sets
3738 the threshold. When the criterion falls below the threshold for the
3739 specified duration, the job will stop. For example, `iops_slope:0.1%` will
3740 direct fio to terminate the job when the least squares regression slope
3741 falls below 0.1% of the mean IOPS. If :option:`group_reporting` is enabled
3742 this will apply to all jobs in the group. Below is the list of available
3743 steady state assessment criteria. All assessments are carried out using only
3744 data from the rolling collection window. Threshold limits can be expressed
3745 as a fixed value or as a percentage of the mean in the collection window.
3746
3747 When using this feature, most jobs should include the :option:`time_based`
3748 and :option:`runtime` options or the :option:`loops` option so that fio does not
3749 stop running after it has covered the full size of the specified file(s) or device(s).
3750
3751 **iops**
3752 Collect IOPS data. Stop the job if all individual IOPS measurements
3753 are within the specified limit of the mean IOPS (e.g., ``iops:2``
3754 means that all individual IOPS values must be within 2 of the mean,
3755 whereas ``iops:0.2%`` means that all individual IOPS values must be
3756 within 0.2% of the mean IOPS to terminate the job).
3757
3758 **iops_slope**
3759 Collect IOPS data and calculate the least squares regression
3760 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3761
3762 **bw**
3763 Collect bandwidth data. Stop the job if all individual bandwidth
3764 measurements are within the specified limit of the mean bandwidth.
3765
3766 **bw_slope**
3767 Collect bandwidth data and calculate the least squares regression
3768 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3769
3770.. option:: steadystate_duration=time, ss_dur=time
3771
3772 A rolling window of this duration will be used to judge whether steady state
3773 has been reached. Data will be collected once per second. The default is 0
3774 which disables steady state detection. When the unit is omitted, the
3775 value is interpreted in seconds.
3776
3777.. option:: steadystate_ramp_time=time, ss_ramp=time
3778
3779 Allow the job to run for the specified duration before beginning data
3780 collection for checking the steady state job termination criterion. The
3781 default is 0. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
3782
3783
3784Measurements and reporting
3785~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3786
3787.. option:: per_job_logs=bool
3788
3789 If set, this generates bw/clat/iops log with per file private filenames. If
3790 not set, jobs with identical names will share the log filename. Default:
3791 true.
3792
3793.. option:: group_reporting
3794
3795 It may sometimes be interesting to display statistics for groups of jobs as
3796 a whole instead of for each individual job. This is especially true if
3797 :option:`numjobs` is used; looking at individual thread/process output
3798 quickly becomes unwieldy. To see the final report per-group instead of
3799 per-job, use :option:`group_reporting`. Jobs in a file will be part of the
3800 same reporting group, unless if separated by a :option:`stonewall`, or by
3801 using :option:`new_group`.
3802
3803.. option:: new_group
3804
3805 Start a new reporting group. See: :option:`group_reporting`. If not given,
3806 all jobs in a file will be part of the same reporting group, unless
3807 separated by a :option:`stonewall`.
3808
3809.. option:: stats=bool
3810
3811 By default, fio collects and shows final output results for all jobs
3812 that run. If this option is set to 0, then fio will ignore it in
3813 the final stat output.
3814
3815.. option:: write_bw_log=str
3816
3817 If given, write a bandwidth log for this job. Can be used to store data of
3818 the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime.
3819
3820 If no str argument is given, the default filename of
3821 :file:`jobname_type.x.log` is used. Even when the argument is given, fio
3822 will still append the type of log. So if one specifies::
3823
3824 write_bw_log=foo
3825
3826 The actual log name will be :file:`foo_bw.x.log` where `x` is the index
3827 of the job (`1..N`, where `N` is the number of jobs). If
3828 :option:`per_job_logs` is false, then the filename will not include the
3829 `.x` job index.
3830
3831 The included :command:`fio_generate_plots` script uses :command:`gnuplot` to turn these
3832 text files into nice graphs. See `Log File Formats`_ for how data is
3833 structured within the file.
3834
3835.. option:: write_lat_log=str
3836
3837 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, except this option creates I/O
3838 submission (e.g., :file:`name_slat.x.log`), completion (e.g.,
3839 :file:`name_clat.x.log`), and total (e.g., :file:`name_lat.x.log`)
3840 latency files instead. See :option:`write_bw_log` for details about
3841 the filename format and `Log File Formats`_ for how data is structured
3842 within the files.
3843
3844.. option:: write_hist_log=str
3845
3846 Same as :option:`write_bw_log` but writes an I/O completion latency
3847 histogram file (e.g., :file:`name_hist.x.log`) instead. Note that this
3848 file will be empty unless :option:`log_hist_msec` has also been set.
3849 See :option:`write_bw_log` for details about the filename format and
3850 `Log File Formats`_ for how data is structured within the file.
3851
3852.. option:: write_iops_log=str
3853
3854 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, but writes an IOPS file (e.g.
3855 :file:`name_iops.x.log`) instead. Because fio defaults to individual
3856 I/O logging, the value entry in the IOPS log will be 1 unless windowed
3857 logging (see :option:`log_avg_msec`) has been enabled. See
3858 :option:`write_bw_log` for details about the filename format and `Log
3859 File Formats`_ for how data is structured within the file.
3860
3861.. option:: log_entries=int
3862
3863 By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for
3864 every I/O that completes. The initial number of I/O log entries is 1024.
3865 When the log entries are all used, new log entries are dynamically
3866 allocated. This dynamic log entry allocation may negatively impact
3867 time-related statistics such as I/O tail latencies (e.g. 99.9th percentile
3868 completion latency). This option allows specifying a larger initial
3869 number of log entries to avoid run-time allocations of new log entries,
3870 resulting in more precise time-related I/O statistics.
3871 Also see :option:`log_avg_msec`. Defaults to 1024.
3872
3873.. option:: log_avg_msec=int
3874
3875 By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
3876 I/O that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
3877 very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
3878 over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log. See
3879 :option:`log_max_value` as well. Defaults to 0, logging all entries.
3880 Also see `Log File Formats`_.
3881
3882.. option:: log_hist_msec=int
3883
3884 Same as :option:`log_avg_msec`, but logs entries for completion latency
3885 histograms. Computing latency percentiles from averages of intervals using
3886 :option:`log_avg_msec` is inaccurate. Setting this option makes fio log
3887 histogram entries over the specified period of time, reducing log sizes for
3888 high IOPS devices while retaining percentile accuracy. See
3889 :option:`log_hist_coarseness` and :option:`write_hist_log` as well.
3890 Defaults to 0, meaning histogram logging is disabled.
3891
3892.. option:: log_hist_coarseness=int
3893
3894 Integer ranging from 0 to 6, defining the coarseness of the resolution of
3895 the histogram logs enabled with :option:`log_hist_msec`. For each increment
3896 in coarseness, fio outputs half as many bins. Defaults to 0, for which
3897 histogram logs contain 1216 latency bins. See :option:`write_hist_log`
3898 and `Log File Formats`_.
3899
3900.. option:: log_max_value=bool
3901
3902 If :option:`log_avg_msec` is set, fio logs the average over that window. If
3903 you instead want to log the maximum value, set this option to 1. Defaults to
3904 0, meaning that averaged values are logged.
3905
3906.. option:: log_offset=bool
3907
3908 If this is set, the iolog options will include the byte offset for the I/O
3909 entry as well as the other data values. Defaults to 0 meaning that
3910 offsets are not present in logs. Also see `Log File Formats`_.
3911
3912.. option:: log_compression=int
3913
3914 If this is set, fio will compress the I/O logs as it goes, to keep the
3915 memory footprint lower. When a log reaches the specified size, that chunk is
3916 removed and compressed in the background. Given that I/O logs are fairly
3917 highly compressible, this yields a nice memory savings for longer runs. The
3918 downside is that the compression will consume some background CPU cycles, so
3919 it may impact the run. This, however, is also true if the logging ends up
3920 consuming most of the system memory. So pick your poison. The I/O logs are
3921 saved normally at the end of a run, by decompressing the chunks and storing
3922 them in the specified log file. This feature depends on the availability of
3923 zlib.
3924
3925.. option:: log_compression_cpus=str
3926
3927 Define the set of CPUs that are allowed to handle online log compression for
3928 the I/O jobs. This can provide better isolation between performance
3929 sensitive jobs, and background compression work. See
3930 :option:`cpus_allowed` for the format used.
3931
3932.. option:: log_store_compressed=bool
3933
3934 If set, fio will store the log files in a compressed format. They can be
3935 decompressed with fio, using the :option:`--inflate-log` command line
3936 parameter. The files will be stored with a :file:`.fz` suffix.
3937
3938.. option:: log_unix_epoch=bool
3939
3940 If set, fio will log Unix timestamps to the log files produced by enabling
3941 write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3942 timestamps.
3943
3944.. option:: log_alternate_epoch=bool
3945
3946 If set, fio will log timestamps based on the epoch used by the clock specified
3947 in the log_alternate_epoch_clock_id option, to the log files produced by
3948 enabling write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3949 timestamps.
3950
3951.. option:: log_alternate_epoch_clock_id=int
3952
3953 Specifies the clock_id to be used by clock_gettime to obtain the alternate epoch
3954 if either log_unix_epoch or log_alternate_epoch are true. Otherwise has no
3955 effect. Default value is 0, or CLOCK_REALTIME.
3956
3957.. option:: block_error_percentiles=bool
3958
3959 If set, record errors in trim block-sized units from writes and trims and
3960 output a histogram of how many trims it took to get to errors, and what kind
3961 of error was encountered.
3962
3963.. option:: bwavgtime=int
3964
3965 Average the calculated bandwidth over the given time. Value is specified in
3966 milliseconds. If the job also does bandwidth logging through
3967 :option:`write_bw_log`, then the minimum of this option and
3968 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
3969
3970.. option:: iopsavgtime=int
3971
3972 Average the calculated IOPS over the given time. Value is specified in
3973 milliseconds. If the job also does IOPS logging through
3974 :option:`write_iops_log`, then the minimum of this option and
3975 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
3976
3977.. option:: disk_util=bool
3978
3979 Generate disk utilization statistics, if the platform supports it.
3980 Default: true.
3981
3982.. option:: disable_lat=bool
3983
3984 Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting back
3985 the number of calls to :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`, as that does impact
3986 performance at really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a
3987 large amount of these calls, this option must be used with
3988 :option:`disable_slat` and :option:`disable_bw_measurement` as well.
3989
3990.. option:: disable_clat=bool
3991
3992 Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See
3993 :option:`disable_lat`.
3994
3995.. option:: disable_slat=bool
3996
3997 Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See
3998 :option:`disable_lat`.
3999
4000.. option:: disable_bw_measurement=bool, disable_bw=bool
4001
4002 Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See
4003 :option:`disable_lat`.
4004
4005.. option:: slat_percentiles=bool
4006
4007 Report submission latency percentiles. Submission latency is not recorded
4008 for synchronous ioengines.
4009
4010.. option:: clat_percentiles=bool
4011
4012 Report completion latency percentiles.
4013
4014.. option:: lat_percentiles=bool
4015
4016 Report total latency percentiles. Total latency is the sum of submission
4017 latency and completion latency.
4018
4019.. option:: percentile_list=float_list
4020
4021 Overwrite the default list of percentiles for latencies and the block error
4022 histogram. Each number is a floating point number in the range (0,100], and
4023 the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ``:`` to separate the numbers. For
4024 example, ``--percentile_list=99.5:99.9`` will cause fio to report the
4025 latency durations below which 99.5% and 99.9% of the observed latencies fell,
4026 respectively.
4027
4028.. option:: significant_figures=int
4029
4030 If using :option:`--output-format` of `normal`, set the significant
4031 figures to this value. Higher values will yield more precise IOPS and
4032 throughput units, while lower values will round. Requires a minimum
4033 value of 1 and a maximum value of 10. Defaults to 4.
4034
4035
4036Error handling
4037~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4038
4039.. option:: exitall_on_error
4040
4041 When one job finishes in error, terminate the rest. The default is to wait
4042 for each job to finish.
4043
4044.. option:: continue_on_error=str
4045
4046 Normally fio will exit the job on the first observed failure. If this option
4047 is set, fio will continue the job when there is a 'non-fatal error' (EIO or
4048 EILSEQ) until the runtime is exceeded or the I/O size specified is
4049 completed. If this option is used, there are two more stats that are
4050 appended, the total error count and the first error. The error field given
4051 in the stats is the first error that was hit during the run.
4052
4053 Note: a write error from the device may go unnoticed by fio when using
4054 buffered IO, as the write() (or similar) system call merely dirties the
4055 kernel pages, unless :option:`sync` or :option:`direct` is used. Device IO
4056 errors occur when the dirty data is actually written out to disk. If fully
4057 sync writes aren't desirable, :option:`fsync` or :option:`fdatasync` can be
4058 used as well. This is specific to writes, as reads are always synchronous.
4059
4060 The allowed values are:
4061
4062 **none**
4063 Exit on any I/O or verify errors.
4064
4065 **read**
4066 Continue on read errors, exit on all others.
4067
4068 **write**
4069 Continue on write errors, exit on all others.
4070
4071 **io**
4072 Continue on any I/O error, exit on all others.
4073
4074 **verify**
4075 Continue on verify errors, exit on all others.
4076
4077 **all**
4078 Continue on all errors.
4079
4080 **0**
4081 Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
4082
4083 **1**
4084 Backward-compatible alias for 'all'.
4085
4086.. option:: ignore_error=str
4087
4088 Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can
4089 specify error list for each error type, instead of only being able to
4090 ignore the default 'non-fatal error' using :option:`continue_on_error`.
4091 ``ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST`` errors for
4092 given error type is separated with ':'. Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC',
4093 'ENOMEM') or integer. Example::
4094
4095 ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122
4096
4097 This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from
4098 WRITE. This option works by overriding :option:`continue_on_error` with
4099 the list of errors for each error type if any.
4100
4101.. option:: error_dump=bool
4102
4103 If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If
4104 disabled only fatal error will be dumped.
4105
4106Running predefined workloads
4107----------------------------
4108
4109Fio includes predefined profiles that mimic the I/O workloads generated by
4110other tools.
4111
4112.. option:: profile=str
4113
4114 The predefined workload to run. Current profiles are:
4115
4116 **tiobench**
4117 Threaded I/O bench (tiotest/tiobench) like workload.
4118
4119 **act**
4120 Aerospike Certification Tool (ACT) like workload.
4121
4122To view a profile's additional options use :option:`--cmdhelp` after specifying
4123the profile. For example::
4124
4125 $ fio --profile=act --cmdhelp
4126
4127Act profile options
4128~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4129
4130.. option:: device-names=str
4131 :noindex:
4132
4133 Devices to use.
4134
4135.. option:: load=int
4136 :noindex:
4137
4138 ACT load multiplier. Default: 1.
4139
4140.. option:: test-duration=time
4141 :noindex:
4142
4143 How long the entire test takes to run. When the unit is omitted, the value
4144 is given in seconds. Default: 24h.
4145
4146.. option:: threads-per-queue=int
4147 :noindex:
4148
4149 Number of read I/O threads per device. Default: 8.
4150
4151.. option:: read-req-num-512-blocks=int
4152 :noindex:
4153
4154 Number of 512B blocks to read at the time. Default: 3.
4155
4156.. option:: large-block-op-kbytes=int
4157 :noindex:
4158
4159 Size of large block ops in KiB (writes). Default: 131072.
4160
4161.. option:: prep
4162 :noindex:
4163
4164 Set to run ACT prep phase.
4165
4166Tiobench profile options
4167~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4168
4169.. option:: size=str
4170 :noindex:
4171
4172 Size in MiB.
4173
4174.. option:: block=int
4175 :noindex:
4176
4177 Block size in bytes. Default: 4096.
4178
4179.. option:: numruns=int
4180 :noindex:
4181
4182 Number of runs.
4183
4184.. option:: dir=str
4185 :noindex:
4186
4187 Test directory.
4188
4189.. option:: threads=int
4190 :noindex:
4191
4192 Number of threads.
4193
4194Interpreting the output
4195-----------------------
4196
4197..
4198 Example output was based on the following:
4199 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --time_based \
4200 --rate=1256k --bs=14K --name=quick --runtime=1s --name=mixed \
4201 --runtime=2m --rw=rw
4202
4203Fio spits out a lot of output. While running, fio will display the status of the
4204jobs created. An example of that would be::
4205
4206 Jobs: 1 (f=1): [_(1),M(1)][24.8%][r=20.5MiB/s,w=23.5MiB/s][r=82,w=94 IOPS][eta 01m:31s]
4207
4208The characters inside the first set of square brackets denote the current status of
4209each thread. The first character is the first job defined in the job file, and so
4210forth. The possible values (in typical life cycle order) are:
4211
4212+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4213| Idle | Run | |
4214+======+=====+===========================================================+
4215| P | | Thread setup, but not started. |
4216+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4217| C | | Thread created. |
4218+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4219| I | | Thread initialized, waiting or generating necessary data. |
4220+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4221| | p | Thread running pre-reading file(s). |
4222+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4223| | / | Thread is in ramp period. |
4224+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4225| | R | Running, doing sequential reads. |
4226+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4227| | r | Running, doing random reads. |
4228+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4229| | W | Running, doing sequential writes. |
4230+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4231| | w | Running, doing random writes. |
4232+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4233| | M | Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes. |
4234+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4235| | m | Running, doing mixed random reads/writes. |
4236+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4237| | D | Running, doing sequential trims. |
4238+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4239| | d | Running, doing random trims. |
4240+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4241| | F | Running, currently waiting for :manpage:`fsync(2)`. |
4242+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4243| | V | Running, doing verification of written data. |
4244+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4245| f | | Thread finishing. |
4246+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4247| E | | Thread exited, not reaped by main thread yet. |
4248+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4249| _ | | Thread reaped. |
4250+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4251| X | | Thread reaped, exited with an error. |
4252+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4253| K | | Thread reaped, exited due to signal. |
4254+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
4255
4256..
4257 Example output was based on the following:
4258 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --runtime=58m \
4259 --time_based --rate=2512k --bs=256K --numjobs=10 \
4260 --name=readers --rw=read --name=writers --rw=write
4261
4262Fio will condense the thread string as not to take up more space on the command
4263line than needed. For instance, if you have 10 readers and 10 writers running,
4264the output would look like this::
4265
4266 Jobs: 20 (f=20): [R(10),W(10)][4.0%][r=20.5MiB/s,w=23.5MiB/s][r=82,w=94 IOPS][eta 57m:36s]
4267
4268Note that the status string is displayed in order, so it's possible to tell which of
4269the jobs are currently doing what. In the example above this means that jobs 1--10
4270are readers and 11--20 are writers.
4271
4272The other values are fairly self explanatory -- number of threads currently
4273running and doing I/O, the number of currently open files (f=), the estimated
4274completion percentage, the rate of I/O since last check (read speed listed first,
4275then write speed and optionally trim speed) in terms of bandwidth and IOPS,
4276and time to completion for the current running group. It's impossible to estimate
4277runtime of the following groups (if any).
4278
4279..
4280 Example output was based on the following:
4281 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=16 --ioengine=posixaio --filename=/tmp/fiofile \
4282 --direct=1 --size=100M --time_based --runtime=50s --rate_iops=89 \
4283 --bs=7K --name=Client1 --rw=write
4284
4285When fio is done (or interrupted by :kbd:`Ctrl-C`), it will show the data for
4286each thread, group of threads, and disks in that order. For each overall thread (or
4287group) the output looks like::
4288
4289 Client1: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=16109: Sat Jun 24 12:07:54 2017
4290 write: IOPS=88, BW=623KiB/s (638kB/s)(30.4MiB/50032msec)
4291 slat (nsec): min=500, max=145500, avg=8318.00, stdev=4781.50
4292 clat (usec): min=170, max=78367, avg=4019.02, stdev=8293.31
4293 lat (usec): min=174, max=78375, avg=4027.34, stdev=8291.79
4294 clat percentiles (usec):
4295 | 1.00th=[ 302], 5.00th=[ 326], 10.00th=[ 343], 20.00th=[ 363],
4296 | 30.00th=[ 392], 40.00th=[ 404], 50.00th=[ 416], 60.00th=[ 445],
4297 | 70.00th=[ 816], 80.00th=[ 6718], 90.00th=[12911], 95.00th=[21627],
4298 | 99.00th=[43779], 99.50th=[51643], 99.90th=[68682], 99.95th=[72877],
4299 | 99.99th=[78119]
4300 bw ( KiB/s): min= 532, max= 686, per=0.10%, avg=622.87, stdev=24.82, samples= 100
4301 iops : min= 76, max= 98, avg=88.98, stdev= 3.54, samples= 100
4302 lat (usec) : 250=0.04%, 500=64.11%, 750=4.81%, 1000=2.79%
4303 lat (msec) : 2=4.16%, 4=1.84%, 10=4.90%, 20=11.33%, 50=5.37%
4304 lat (msec) : 100=0.65%
4305 cpu : usr=0.27%, sys=0.18%, ctx=12072, majf=0, minf=21
4306 IO depths : 1=85.0%, 2=13.1%, 4=1.8%, 8=0.1%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4307 submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4308 complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4309 issued rwt: total=0,4450,0, short=0,0,0, dropped=0,0,0
4310 latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=8
4311
4312The job name (or first job's name when using :option:`group_reporting`) is printed,
4313along with the group id, count of jobs being aggregated, last error id seen (which
4314is 0 when there are no errors), pid/tid of that thread and the time the job/group
4315completed. Below are the I/O statistics for each data direction performed (showing
4316writes in the example above). In the order listed, they denote:
4317
4318**read/write/trim**
4319 The string before the colon shows the I/O direction the statistics
4320 are for. **IOPS** is the average I/Os performed per second. **BW**
4321 is the average bandwidth rate shown as: value in power of 2 format
4322 (value in power of 10 format). The last two values show: (**total
4323 I/O performed** in power of 2 format / **runtime** of that thread).
4324
4325**slat**
4326 Submission latency (**min** being the minimum, **max** being the
4327 maximum, **avg** being the average, **stdev** being the standard
4328 deviation). This is the time from when fio initialized the I/O
4329 to submission. For synchronous ioengines this includes the time
4330 up until just before the ioengine's queue function is called.
4331 For asynchronous ioengines this includes the time up through the
4332 completion of the ioengine's queue function (and commit function
4333 if it is defined). For sync I/O this row is not displayed as the
4334 slat is negligible. This value can be in nanoseconds,
4335 microseconds or milliseconds --- fio will choose the most
4336 appropriate base and print that (in the example above
4337 nanoseconds was the best scale). Note: in :option:`--minimal`
4338 mode latencies are always expressed in microseconds.
4339
4340**clat**
4341 Completion latency. Same names as slat, this denotes the time from
4342 submission to completion of the I/O pieces. For sync I/O, this
4343 represents the time from when the I/O was submitted to the
4344 operating system to when it was completed. For asynchronous
4345 ioengines this is the time from when the ioengine's queue (and
4346 commit if available) functions were completed to when the I/O's
4347 completion was reaped by fio.
4348
4349**lat**
4350 Total latency. Same names as slat and clat, this denotes the time from
4351 when fio created the I/O unit to completion of the I/O operation.
4352 It is the sum of submission and completion latency.
4353
4354**bw**
4355 Bandwidth statistics based on samples. Same names as the xlat stats,
4356 but also includes the number of samples taken (**samples**) and an
4357 approximate percentage of total aggregate bandwidth this thread
4358 received in its group (**per**). This last value is only really
4359 useful if the threads in this group are on the same disk, since they
4360 are then competing for disk access.
4361
4362**iops**
4363 IOPS statistics based on samples. Same names as bw.
4364
4365**lat (nsec/usec/msec)**
4366 The distribution of I/O completion latencies. This is the time from when
4367 I/O leaves fio and when it gets completed. Unlike the separate
4368 read/write/trim sections above, the data here and in the remaining
4369 sections apply to all I/Os for the reporting group. 250=0.04% means that
4370 0.04% of the I/Os completed in under 250us. 500=64.11% means that 64.11%
4371 of the I/Os required 250 to 499us for completion.
4372
4373**cpu**
4374 CPU usage. User and system time, along with the number of context
4375 switches this thread went through, usage of system and user time, and
4376 finally the number of major and minor page faults. The CPU utilization
4377 numbers are averages for the jobs in that reporting group, while the
4378 context and fault counters are summed.
4379
4380**IO depths**
4381 The distribution of I/O depths over the job lifetime. The numbers are
4382 divided into powers of 2 and each entry covers depths from that value
4383 up to those that are lower than the next entry -- e.g., 16= covers
4384 depths from 16 to 31. Note that the range covered by a depth
4385 distribution entry can be different to the range covered by the
4386 equivalent submit/complete distribution entry.
4387
4388**IO submit**
4389 How many pieces of I/O were submitting in a single submit call. Each
4390 entry denotes that amount and below, until the previous entry -- e.g.,
4391 16=100% means that we submitted anywhere between 9 to 16 I/Os per submit
4392 call. Note that the range covered by a submit distribution entry can
4393 be different to the range covered by the equivalent depth distribution
4394 entry.
4395
4396**IO complete**
4397 Like the above submit number, but for completions instead.
4398
4399**IO issued rwt**
4400 The number of read/write/trim requests issued, and how many of them were
4401 short or dropped.
4402
4403**IO latency**
4404 These values are for :option:`latency_target` and related options. When
4405 these options are engaged, this section describes the I/O depth required
4406 to meet the specified latency target.
4407
4408..
4409 Example output was based on the following:
4410 TZ=UTC fio --ioengine=null --iodepth=2 --size=100M --numjobs=2 \
4411 --rate_process=poisson --io_limit=32M --name=read --bs=128k \
4412 --rate=11M --name=write --rw=write --bs=2k --rate=700k
4413
4414After each client has been listed, the group statistics are printed. They
4415will look like this::
4416
4417 Run status group 0 (all jobs):
4418 READ: bw=20.9MiB/s (21.9MB/s), 10.4MiB/s-10.8MiB/s (10.9MB/s-11.3MB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=2973-3069msec
4419 WRITE: bw=1231KiB/s (1261kB/s), 616KiB/s-621KiB/s (630kB/s-636kB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=52747-53223msec
4420
4421For each data direction it prints:
4422
4423**bw**
4424 Aggregate bandwidth of threads in this group followed by the
4425 minimum and maximum bandwidth of all the threads in this group.
4426 Values outside of brackets are power-of-2 format and those
4427 within are the equivalent value in a power-of-10 format.
4428**io**
4429 Aggregate I/O performed of all threads in this group. The
4430 format is the same as bw.
4431**run**
4432 The smallest and longest runtimes of the threads in this group.
4433
4434And finally, the disk statistics are printed. This is Linux specific. They will look like this::
4435
4436 Disk stats (read/write):
4437 sda: ios=16398/16511, merge=30/162, ticks=6853/819634, in_queue=826487, util=100.00%
4438
4439Each value is printed for both reads and writes, with reads first. The
4440numbers denote:
4441
4442**ios**
4443 Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
4444**merge**
4445 Number of merges performed by the I/O scheduler.
4446**ticks**
4447 Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
4448**in_queue**
4449 Total time spent in the disk queue.
4450**util**
4451 The disk utilization. A value of 100% means we kept the disk
4452 busy constantly, 50% would be a disk idling half of the time.
4453
4454It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is running,
4455without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the **USR1** signal. You can
4456also get regularly timed dumps by using the :option:`--status-interval`
4457parameter, or by creating a file in :file:`/tmp` named
4458:file:`fio-dump-status`. If fio sees this file, it will unlink it and dump the
4459current output status.
4460
4461
4462Terse output
4463------------
4464
4465For scripted usage where you typically want to generate tables or graphs of the
4466results, fio can output the results in a semicolon separated format. The format
4467is one long line of values, such as::
4468
4469 2;card0;0;0;7139336;121836;60004;1;10109;27.932460;116.933948;220;126861;3495.446807;1085.368601;226;126864;3523.635629;1089.012448;24063;99944;50.275485%;59818.274627;5540.657370;7155060;122104;60004;1;8338;29.086342;117.839068;388;128077;5032.488518;1234.785715;391;128085;5061.839412;1236.909129;23436;100928;50.287926%;59964.832030;5644.844189;14.595833%;19.394167%;123706;0;7313;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;100.0%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.01%;0.02%;0.05%;0.16%;6.04%;40.40%;52.68%;0.64%;0.01%;0.00%;0.01%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%
4470 A description of this job goes here.
4471
4472The job description (if provided) follows on a second line for terse v2.
4473It appears on the same line for other terse versions.
4474
4475To enable terse output, use the :option:`--minimal` or
4476:option:`--output-format`\=terse command line options. The
4477first value is the version of the terse output format. If the output has to be
4478changed for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
4479change.
4480
4481Split up, the format is as follows (comments in brackets denote when a
4482field was introduced or whether it's specific to some terse version):
4483
4484 ::
4485
4486 terse version, fio version [v3], jobname, groupid, error
4487
4488 READ status::
4489
4490 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4491 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4492 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4493 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4494 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4495 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4496 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
4497
4498 WRITE status:
4499
4500 ::
4501
4502 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4503 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4504 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4505 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4506 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4507 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4508 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
4509
4510 TRIM status [all but version 3]:
4511
4512 Fields are similar to READ/WRITE status.
4513
4514 CPU usage::
4515
4516 user, system, context switches, major faults, minor faults
4517
4518 I/O depths::
4519
4520 <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
4521
4522 I/O latencies microseconds::
4523
4524 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
4525
4526 I/O latencies milliseconds::
4527
4528 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
4529
4530 Disk utilization [v3]::
4531
4532 disk name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks,
4533 time spent in queue, disk utilization percentage
4534
4535 Additional Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off)::
4536
4537 total # errors, first error code
4538
4539 Additional Info (dependent on description being set)::
4540
4541 Text description
4542
4543Completion latency percentiles can be a grouping of up to 20 sets, so for the
4544terse output fio writes all of them. Each field will look like this::
4545
4546 1.00%=6112
4547
4548which is the Xth percentile, and the `usec` latency associated with it.
4549
4550For `Disk utilization`, all disks used by fio are shown. So for each disk there
4551will be a disk utilization section.
4552
4553Below is a single line containing short names for each of the fields in the
4554minimal output v3, separated by semicolons::
4555
4556 terse_version_3;fio_version;jobname;groupid;error;read_kb;read_bandwidth_kb;read_iops;read_runtime_ms;read_slat_min_us;read_slat_max_us;read_slat_mean_us;read_slat_dev_us;read_clat_min_us;read_clat_max_us;read_clat_mean_us;read_clat_dev_us;read_clat_pct01;read_clat_pct02;read_clat_pct03;read_clat_pct04;read_clat_pct05;read_clat_pct06;read_clat_pct07;read_clat_pct08;read_clat_pct09;read_clat_pct10;read_clat_pct11;read_clat_pct12;read_clat_pct13;read_clat_pct14;read_clat_pct15;read_clat_pct16;read_clat_pct17;read_clat_pct18;read_clat_pct19;read_clat_pct20;read_tlat_min_us;read_lat_max_us;read_lat_mean_us;read_lat_dev_us;read_bw_min_kb;read_bw_max_kb;read_bw_agg_pct;read_bw_mean_kb;read_bw_dev_kb;write_kb;write_bandwidth_kb;write_iops;write_runtime_ms;write_slat_min_us;write_slat_max_us;write_slat_mean_us;write_slat_dev_us;write_clat_min_us;write_clat_max_us;write_clat_mean_us;write_clat_dev_us;write_clat_pct01;write_clat_pct02;write_clat_pct03;write_clat_pct04;write_clat_pct05;write_clat_pct06;write_clat_pct07;write_clat_pct08;write_clat_pct09;write_clat_pct10;write_clat_pct11;write_clat_pct12;write_clat_pct13;write_clat_pct14;write_clat_pct15;write_clat_pct16;write_clat_pct17;write_clat_pct18;write_clat_pct19;write_clat_pct20;write_tlat_min_us;write_lat_max_us;write_lat_mean_us;write_lat_dev_us;write_bw_min_kb;write_bw_max_kb;write_bw_agg_pct;write_bw_mean_kb;write_bw_dev_kb;cpu_user;cpu_sys;cpu_csw;cpu_mjf;cpu_minf;iodepth_1;iodepth_2;iodepth_4;iodepth_8;iodepth_16;iodepth_32;iodepth_64;lat_2us;lat_4us;lat_10us;lat_20us;lat_50us;lat_100us;lat_250us;lat_500us;lat_750us;lat_1000us;lat_2ms;lat_4ms;lat_10ms;lat_20ms;lat_50ms;lat_100ms;lat_250ms;lat_500ms;lat_750ms;lat_1000ms;lat_2000ms;lat_over_2000ms;disk_name;disk_read_iops;disk_write_iops;disk_read_merges;disk_write_merges;disk_read_ticks;write_ticks;disk_queue_time;disk_util
4557
4558In client/server mode terse output differs from what appears when jobs are run
4559locally. Disk utilization data is omitted from the standard terse output and
4560for v3 and later appears on its own separate line at the end of each terse
4561reporting cycle.
4562
4563
4564JSON output
4565------------
4566
4567The `json` output format is intended to be both human readable and convenient
4568for automated parsing. For the most part its sections mirror those of the
4569`normal` output. The `runtime` value is reported in msec and the `bw` value is
4570reported in 1024 bytes per second units.
4571
4572
4573JSON+ output
4574------------
4575
4576The `json+` output format is identical to the `json` output format except that it
4577adds a full dump of the completion latency bins. Each `bins` object contains a
4578set of (key, value) pairs where keys are latency durations and values count how
4579many I/Os had completion latencies of the corresponding duration. For example,
4580consider:
4581
4582 "bins" : { "87552" : 1, "89600" : 1, "94720" : 1, "96768" : 1, "97792" : 1, "99840" : 1, "100864" : 2, "103936" : 6, "104960" : 534, "105984" : 5995, "107008" : 7529, ... }
4583
4584This data indicates that one I/O required 87,552ns to complete, two I/Os required
4585100,864ns to complete, and 7529 I/Os required 107,008ns to complete.
4586
4587Also included with fio is a Python script `fio_jsonplus_clat2csv` that takes
4588json+ output and generates CSV-formatted latency data suitable for plotting.
4589
4590The latency durations actually represent the midpoints of latency intervals.
4591For details refer to :file:`stat.h`.
4592
4593
4594Trace file format
4595-----------------
4596
4597There are two trace file format that you can encounter. The older (v1) format is
4598unsupported since version 1.20-rc3 (March 2008). It will still be described
4599below in case that you get an old trace and want to understand it.
4600
4601In any case the trace is a simple text file with a single action per line.
4602
4603
4604Trace file format v1
4605~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4606
4607Each line represents a single I/O action in the following format::
4608
4609 rw, offset, length
4610
4611where `rw=0/1` for read/write, and the `offset` and `length` entries being in bytes.
4612
4613This format is not supported in fio versions >= 1.20-rc3.
4614
4615
4616Trace file format v2
4617~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4618
4619The second version of the trace file format was added in fio version 1.17. It
4620allows one to access more than one file per trace and has a bigger set of possible
4621file actions.
4622
4623The first line of the trace file has to be::
4624
4625 fio version 2 iolog
4626
4627Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
4628
4629The file management format::
4630
4631 filename action
4632
4633The `filename` is given as an absolute path. The `action` can be one of these:
4634
4635**add**
4636 Add the given `filename` to the trace.
4637**open**
4638 Open the file with the given `filename`. The `filename` has to have
4639 been added with the **add** action before.
4640**close**
4641 Close the file with the given `filename`. The file has to have been
4642 opened before.
4643
4644
4645The file I/O action format::
4646
4647 filename action offset length
4648
4649The `filename` is given as an absolute path, and has to have been added and
4650opened before it can be used with this format. The `offset` and `length` are
4651given in bytes. The `action` can be one of these:
4652
4653**wait**
4654 Wait for `offset` microseconds. Everything below 100 is discarded.
4655 The time is relative to the previous `wait` statement. Note that
4656 action `wait` is not allowed as of version 3, as the same behavior
4657 can be achieved using timestamps.
4658**read**
4659 Read `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
4660**write**
4661 Write `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
4662**sync**
4663 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the file.
4664**datasync**
4665 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` the file.
4666**trim**
4667 Trim the given file from the given `offset` for `length` bytes.
4668
4669
4670Trace file format v3
4671~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4672
4673The third version of the trace file format was added in fio version 3.31. It
4674forces each action to have a timestamp associated with it.
4675
4676The first line of the trace file has to be::
4677
4678 fio version 3 iolog
4679
4680Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
4681
4682The file management format::
4683
4684 timestamp filename action
4685
4686The file I/O action format::
4687
4688 timestamp filename action offset length
4689
4690The `timestamp` is relative to the beginning of the run (ie starts at 0). The
4691`filename`, `action`, `offset` and `length` are identical to version 2, except
4692that version 3 does not allow the `wait` action.
4693
4694
4695I/O Replay - Merging Traces
4696---------------------------
4697
4698Colocation is a common practice used to get the most out of a machine.
4699Knowing which workloads play nicely with each other and which ones don't is
4700a much harder task. While fio can replay workloads concurrently via multiple
4701jobs, it leaves some variability up to the scheduler making results harder to
4702reproduce. Merging is a way to make the order of events consistent.
4703
4704Merging is integrated into I/O replay and done when a
4705:option:`merge_blktrace_file` is specified. The list of files passed to
4706:option:`read_iolog` go through the merge process and output a single file
4707stored to the specified file. The output file is passed on as if it were the
4708only file passed to :option:`read_iolog`. An example would look like::
4709
4710 $ fio --read_iolog="<file1>:<file2>" --merge_blktrace_file="<output_file>"
4711
4712Creating only the merged file can be done by passing the command line argument
4713:option:`--merge-blktrace-only`.
4714
4715Scaling traces can be done to see the relative impact of any particular trace
4716being slowed down or sped up. :option:`merge_blktrace_scalars` takes in a colon
4717separated list of percentage scalars. It is index paired with the files passed
4718to :option:`read_iolog`.
4719
4720With scaling, it may be desirable to match the running time of all traces.
4721This can be done with :option:`merge_blktrace_iters`. It is index paired with
4722:option:`read_iolog` just like :option:`merge_blktrace_scalars`.
4723
4724In an example, given two traces, A and B, each 60s long. If we want to see
4725the impact of trace A issuing IOs twice as fast and repeat trace A over the
4726runtime of trace B, the following can be done::
4727
4728 $ fio --read_iolog="<trace_a>:"<trace_b>" --merge_blktrace_file"<output_file>" --merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100" --merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"
4729
4730This runs trace A at 2x the speed twice for approximately the same runtime as
4731a single run of trace B.
4732
4733
4734CPU idleness profiling
4735----------------------
4736
4737In some cases, we want to understand CPU overhead in a test. For example, we
4738test patches for the specific goodness of whether they reduce CPU usage.
4739Fio implements a balloon approach to create a thread per CPU that runs at idle
4740priority, meaning that it only runs when nobody else needs the cpu.
4741By measuring the amount of work completed by the thread, idleness of each CPU
4742can be derived accordingly.
4743
4744An unit work is defined as touching a full page of unsigned characters. Mean and
4745standard deviation of time to complete an unit work is reported in "unit work"
4746section. Options can be chosen to report detailed percpu idleness or overall
4747system idleness by aggregating percpu stats.
4748
4749
4750Verification and triggers
4751-------------------------
4752
4753Fio is usually run in one of two ways, when data verification is done. The first
4754is a normal write job of some sort with verify enabled. When the write phase has
4755completed, fio switches to reads and verifies everything it wrote. The second
4756model is running just the write phase, and then later on running the same job
4757(but with reads instead of writes) to repeat the same I/O patterns and verify
4758the contents. Both of these methods depend on the write phase being completed,
4759as fio otherwise has no idea how much data was written.
4760
4761With verification triggers, fio supports dumping the current write state to
4762local files. Then a subsequent read verify workload can load this state and know
4763exactly where to stop. This is useful for testing cases where power is cut to a
4764server in a managed fashion, for instance.
4765
4766A verification trigger consists of two things:
4767
47681) Storing the write state of each job.
47692) Executing a trigger command.
4770
4771The write state is relatively small, on the order of hundreds of bytes to single
4772kilobytes. It contains information on the number of completions done, the last X
4773completions, etc.
4774
4775A trigger is invoked either through creation ('touch') of a specified file in
4776the system, or through a timeout setting. If fio is run with
4777:option:`--trigger-file`\= :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`, then it will continually
4778check for the existence of :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`. When it sees this file, it
4779will fire off the trigger (thus saving state, and executing the trigger
4780command).
4781
4782For client/server runs, there's both a local and remote trigger. If fio is
4783running as a server backend, it will send the job states back to the client for
4784safe storage, then execute the remote trigger, if specified. If a local trigger
4785is specified, the server will still send back the write state, but the client
4786will then execute the trigger.
4787
4788Verification trigger example
4789~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4790
4791Let's say we want to run a powercut test on the remote Linux machine 'server'.
4792Our write workload is in :file:`write-test.fio`. We want to cut power to 'server' at
4793some point during the run, and we'll run this test from the safety or our local
4794machine, 'localbox'. On the server, we'll start the fio backend normally::
4795
4796 server# fio --server
4797
4798and on the client, we'll fire off the workload::
4799
4800 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger-remote="bash -c \"echo b > /proc/sysrq-triger\""
4801
4802We set :file:`/tmp/my-trigger` as the trigger file, and we tell fio to execute::
4803
4804 echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger
4805
4806on the server once it has received the trigger and sent us the write state. This
4807will work, but it's not **really** cutting power to the server, it's merely
4808abruptly rebooting it. If we have a remote way of cutting power to the server
4809through IPMI or similar, we could do that through a local trigger command
4810instead. Let's assume we have a script that does IPMI reboot of a given hostname,
4811ipmi-reboot. On localbox, we could then have run fio with a local trigger
4812instead::
4813
4814 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger="ipmi-reboot server"
4815
4816For this case, fio would wait for the server to send us the write state, then
4817execute ``ipmi-reboot server`` when that happened.
4818
4819Loading verify state
4820~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4821
4822To load stored write state, a read verification job file must contain the
4823:option:`verify_state_load` option. If that is set, fio will load the previously
4824stored state. For a local fio run this is done by loading the files directly,
4825and on a client/server run, the server backend will ask the client to send the
4826files over and load them from there.
4827
4828
4829Log File Formats
4830----------------
4831
4832Fio supports a variety of log file formats, for logging latencies, bandwidth,
4833and IOPS. The logs share a common format, which looks like this:
4834
4835 *time* (`msec`), *value*, *data direction*, *block size* (`bytes`),
4836 *offset* (`bytes`), *command priority*
4837
4838*Time* for the log entry is always in milliseconds. The *value* logged depends
4839on the type of log, it will be one of the following:
4840
4841 **Latency log**
4842 Value is latency in nsecs
4843 **Bandwidth log**
4844 Value is in KiB/sec
4845 **IOPS log**
4846 Value is IOPS
4847
4848*Data direction* is one of the following:
4849
4850 **0**
4851 I/O is a READ
4852 **1**
4853 I/O is a WRITE
4854 **2**
4855 I/O is a TRIM
4856
4857The entry's *block size* is always in bytes. The *offset* is the position in bytes
4858from the start of the file for that particular I/O. The logging of the offset can be
4859toggled with :option:`log_offset`.
4860
4861*Command priority* is 0 for normal priority and 1 for high priority. This is controlled
4862by the ioengine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage`.
4863
4864Fio defaults to logging every individual I/O but when windowed logging is set
4865through :option:`log_avg_msec`, either the average (by default) or the maximum
4866(:option:`log_max_value` is set) *value* seen over the specified period of time
4867is recorded. Each *data direction* seen within the window period will aggregate
4868its values in a separate row. Further, when using windowed logging the *block
4869size* and *offset* entries will always contain 0.
4870
4871
4872Client/Server
4873-------------
4874
4875Normally fio is invoked as a stand-alone application on the machine where the
4876I/O workload should be generated. However, the backend and frontend of fio can
4877be run separately i.e., the fio server can generate an I/O workload on the "Device
4878Under Test" while being controlled by a client on another machine.
4879
4880Start the server on the machine which has access to the storage DUT::
4881
4882 $ fio --server=args
4883
4884where `args` defines what fio listens to. The arguments are of the form
4885``type,hostname`` or ``IP,port``. *type* is either ``ip`` (or ip4) for TCP/IP
4886v4, ``ip6`` for TCP/IP v6, or ``sock`` for a local unix domain socket.
4887*hostname* is either a hostname or IP address, and *port* is the port to listen
4888to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
4889
48901) ``fio --server``
4891
4892 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
4893
48942) ``fio --server=ip:hostname,4444``
4895
4896 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
4897
48983) ``fio --server=ip6:::1,4444``
4899
4900 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
4901
49024) ``fio --server=,4444``
4903
4904 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
4905
49065) ``fio --server=1.2.3.4``
4907
4908 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
4909
49106) ``fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock``
4911
4912 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket :file:`/tmp/fio.sock`.
4913
4914Once a server is running, a "client" can connect to the fio server with::
4915
4916 fio <local-args> --client=<server> <remote-args> <job file(s)>
4917
4918where `local-args` are arguments for the client where it is running, `server`
4919is the connect string, and `remote-args` and `job file(s)` are sent to the
4920server. The `server` string follows the same format as it does on the server
4921side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
4922
4923Fio can connect to multiple servers this way::
4924
4925 fio --client=<server1> <job file(s)> --client=<server2> <job file(s)>
4926
4927If the job file is located on the fio server, then you can tell the server to
4928load a local file as well. This is done by using :option:`--remote-config` ::
4929
4930 fio --client=server --remote-config /path/to/file.fio
4931
4932Then fio will open this local (to the server) job file instead of being passed
4933one from the client.
4934
4935If you have many servers (example: 100 VMs/containers), you can input a pathname
4936of a file containing host IPs/names as the parameter value for the
4937:option:`--client` option. For example, here is an example :file:`host.list`
4938file containing 2 hostnames::
4939
4940 host1.your.dns.domain
4941 host2.your.dns.domain
4942
4943The fio command would then be::
4944
4945 fio --client=host.list <job file(s)>
4946
4947In this mode, you cannot input server-specific parameters or job files -- all
4948servers receive the same job file.
4949
4950In order to let ``fio --client`` runs use a shared filesystem from multiple
4951hosts, ``fio --client`` now prepends the IP address of the server to the
4952filename. For example, if fio is using the directory :file:`/mnt/nfs/fio` and is
4953writing filename :file:`fileio.tmp`, with a :option:`--client` `hostfile`
4954containing two hostnames ``h1`` and ``h2`` with IP addresses 192.168.10.120 and
4955192.168.10.121, then fio will create two files::
4956
4957 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.120.fileio.tmp
4958 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.121.fileio.tmp
4959
4960Terse output in client/server mode will differ slightly from what is produced
4961when fio is run in stand-alone mode. See the terse output section for details.