engines/xnvme: user space vfio based backend
[fio.git] / fio.1
... / ...
CommitLineData
1.TH fio 1 "August 2017" "User Manual"
2.SH NAME
3fio \- flexible I/O tester
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B fio
6[\fIoptions\fR] [\fIjobfile\fR]...
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B fio
9is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
10particular type of I/O action as specified by the user.
11The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the I/O load
12one wants to simulate.
13.SH OPTIONS
14.TP
15.BI \-\-debug \fR=\fPtype
16Enable verbose tracing \fItype\fR of various fio actions. May be `all' for all \fItype\fRs
17or individual types separated by a comma (e.g. `\-\-debug=file,mem' will enable
18file and memory debugging). `help' will list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-parse\-only
21Parse options only, don't start any I/O.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-merge\-blktrace\-only
24Merge blktraces only, don't start any I/O.
25.TP
26.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
27Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
28.TP
29.BI \-\-output\-format \fR=\fPformat
30Set the reporting \fIformat\fR to `normal', `terse', `json', or
31`json+'. Multiple formats can be selected, separate by a comma. `terse'
32is a CSV based format. `json+' is like `json', except it adds a full
33dump of the latency buckets.
34.TP
35.BI \-\-bandwidth\-log
36Generate aggregate bandwidth logs.
37.TP
38.BI \-\-minimal
39Print statistics in a terse, semicolon\-delimited format.
40.TP
41.BI \-\-append\-terse
42Print statistics in selected mode AND terse, semicolon\-delimited format.
43\fBDeprecated\fR, use \fB\-\-output\-format\fR instead to select multiple formats.
44.TP
45.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
46Set terse \fIversion\fR output format (default `3', or `2', `4', `5').
47.TP
48.BI \-\-version
49Print version information and exit.
50.TP
51.BI \-\-help
52Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
53.TP
54.BI \-\-cpuclock\-test
55Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock.
56.TP
57.BI \-\-crctest \fR=\fP[test]
58Test the speed of the built\-in checksumming functions. If no argument is given,
59all of them are tested. Alternatively, a comma separated list can be passed, in which
60case the given ones are tested.
61.TP
62.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
63Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
64.TP
65.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fP[ioengine[,command]]
66List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR
67defined by \fIioengine\fR. If no \fIioengine\fR is given, list all
68available ioengines.
69.TP
70.BI \-\-showcmd
71Convert given \fIjobfile\fRs to a set of command\-line options.
72.TP
73.BI \-\-readonly
74Turn on safety read\-only checks, preventing writes and trims. The \fB\-\-readonly\fR
75option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from accidentally starting
76a write or trim workload when that is not desired. Fio will only modify the
77device under test if `rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw/trim/randtrim/trimwrite'
78is given. This safety net can be used as an extra precaution.
79.TP
80.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
81Specifies when real\-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
82be `always', `never' or `auto'. `auto' is the default, it prints ETA when
83requested if the output is a TTY. `always' disregards the output type, and
84prints ETA when requested. `never' never prints ETA.
85.TP
86.BI \-\-eta\-interval \fR=\fPtime
87By default, fio requests client ETA status roughly every second. With this
88option, the interval is configurable. Fio imposes a minimum allowed time to
89avoid flooding the console, less than 250 msec is not supported.
90.TP
91.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
92Force a new line for every \fItime\fR period passed. When the unit is omitted,
93the value is interpreted in seconds.
94.TP
95.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
96Force a full status dump of cumulative (from job start) values at \fItime\fR
97intervals. This option does *not* provide per-period measurements. So
98values such as bandwidth are running averages. When the time unit is omitted,
99\fItime\fR is interpreted in seconds. Note that using this option with
100`\-\-output-format=json' will yield output that technically isn't valid json,
101since the output will be collated sets of valid json. It will need to be split
102into valid sets of json after the run.
103.TP
104.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPname
105Only run specified section \fIname\fR in job file. Multiple sections can be specified.
106The \fB\-\-section\fR option allows one to combine related jobs into one file.
107E.g. one job file could define light, moderate, and heavy sections. Tell
108fio to run only the "heavy" section by giving `\-\-section=heavy'
109command line option. One can also specify the "write" operations in one
110section and "verify" operation in another section. The \fB\-\-section\fR option
111only applies to job sections. The reserved *global* section is always
112parsed and used.
113.TP
114.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
115Allocate additional internal smalloc pools of size \fIkb\fR in KiB. The
116\fB\-\-alloc\-size\fR option increases shared memory set aside for use by fio.
117If running large jobs with randommap enabled, fio can run out of memory.
118Smalloc is an internal allocator for shared structures from a fixed size
119memory pool and can grow to 16 pools. The pool size defaults to 16MiB.
120NOTE: While running `.fio_smalloc.*' backing store files are visible
121in `/tmp'.
122.TP
123.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
124All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
125.TP
126.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
127Set the maximum number of threads/processes to support to \fInr\fR.
128NOTE: On Linux, it may be necessary to increase the shared-memory limit
129(`/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax') if fio runs into errors while creating jobs.
130.TP
131.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
132Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fR specifying what to listen to.
133See \fBCLIENT/SERVER\fR section.
134.TP
135.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
136Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given \fIpidfile\fR file.
137.TP
138.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhostname
139Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given \fIhostname\fR
140or set of \fIhostname\fRs. See \fBCLIENT/SERVER\fR section.
141.TP
142.BI \-\-remote\-config \fR=\fPfile
143Tell fio server to load this local \fIfile\fR.
144.TP
145.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
146Report CPU idleness. \fIoption\fR is one of the following:
147.RS
148.RS
149.TP
150.B calibrate
151Run unit work calibration only and exit.
152.TP
153.B system
154Show aggregate system idleness and unit work.
155.TP
156.B percpu
157As \fBsystem\fR but also show per CPU idleness.
158.RE
159.RE
160.TP
161.BI \-\-inflate\-log \fR=\fPlog
162Inflate and output compressed \fIlog\fR.
163.TP
164.BI \-\-trigger\-file \fR=\fPfile
165Execute trigger command when \fIfile\fR exists.
166.TP
167.BI \-\-trigger\-timeout \fR=\fPtime
168Execute trigger at this \fItime\fR.
169.TP
170.BI \-\-trigger \fR=\fPcommand
171Set this \fIcommand\fR as local trigger.
172.TP
173.BI \-\-trigger\-remote \fR=\fPcommand
174Set this \fIcommand\fR as remote trigger.
175.TP
176.BI \-\-aux\-path \fR=\fPpath
177Use the directory specified by \fIpath\fP for generated state files instead
178of the current working directory.
179.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
180Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, unless
181they match a job file parameter. Multiple job files can be listed and each job
182file will be regarded as a separate group. Fio will \fBstonewall\fR execution
183between each group.
184
185Fio accepts one or more job files describing what it is
186supposed to do. The job file format is the classic ini file, where the names
187enclosed in [] brackets define the job name. You are free to use any ASCII name
188you want, except *global* which has special meaning. Following the job name is
189a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the behavior of
190the job. If the first character in a line is a ';' or a '#', the entire line is
191discarded as a comment.
192
193A *global* section sets defaults for the jobs described in that file. A job may
194override a *global* section parameter, and a job file may even have several
195*global* sections if so desired. A job is only affected by a *global* section
196residing above it.
197
198The \fB\-\-cmdhelp\fR option also lists all options. If used with an \fIcommand\fR
199argument, \fB\-\-cmdhelp\fR will detail the given \fIcommand\fR.
200
201See the `examples/' directory for inspiration on how to write job files. Note
202the copyright and license requirements currently apply to
203`examples/' files.
204
205Note that the maximum length of a line in the job file is 8192 bytes.
206.SH "JOB FILE PARAMETERS"
207Some parameters take an option of a given type, such as an integer or a
208string. Anywhere a numeric value is required, an arithmetic expression may be
209used, provided it is surrounded by parentheses. Supported operators are:
210.RS
211.P
212.B addition (+)
213.P
214.B subtraction (\-)
215.P
216.B multiplication (*)
217.P
218.B division (/)
219.P
220.B modulus (%)
221.P
222.B exponentiation (^)
223.RE
224.P
225For time values in expressions, units are microseconds by default. This is
226different than for time values not in expressions (not enclosed in
227parentheses).
228.SH "PARAMETER TYPES"
229The following parameter types are used.
230.TP
231.I str
232String. A sequence of alphanumeric characters.
233.TP
234.I time
235Integer with possible time suffix. Without a unit value is interpreted as
236seconds unless otherwise specified. Accepts a suffix of 'd' for days, 'h' for
237hours, 'm' for minutes, 's' for seconds, 'ms' (or 'msec') for milliseconds and 'us'
238(or 'usec') for microseconds. For example, use 10m for 10 minutes.
239.TP
240.I int
241Integer. A whole number value, which may contain an integer prefix
242and an integer suffix.
243.RS
244.RS
245.P
246[*integer prefix*] **number** [*integer suffix*]
247.RE
248.P
249The optional *integer prefix* specifies the number's base. The default
250is decimal. *0x* specifies hexadecimal.
251.P
252The optional *integer suffix* specifies the number's units, and includes an
253optional unit prefix and an optional unit. For quantities of data, the
254default unit is bytes. For quantities of time, the default unit is seconds
255unless otherwise specified.
256.P
257With `kb_base=1000', fio follows international standards for unit
258prefixes. To specify power-of-10 decimal values defined in the
259International System of Units (SI):
260.RS
261.P
262.PD 0
263K means kilo (K) or 1000
264.P
265M means mega (M) or 1000**2
266.P
267G means giga (G) or 1000**3
268.P
269T means tera (T) or 1000**4
270.P
271P means peta (P) or 1000**5
272.PD
273.RE
274.P
275To specify power-of-2 binary values defined in IEC 80000-13:
276.RS
277.P
278.PD 0
279Ki means kibi (Ki) or 1024
280.P
281Mi means mebi (Mi) or 1024**2
282.P
283Gi means gibi (Gi) or 1024**3
284.P
285Ti means tebi (Ti) or 1024**4
286.P
287Pi means pebi (Pi) or 1024**5
288.PD
289.RE
290.P
291For Zone Block Device Mode:
292.RS
293.P
294.PD 0
295z means Zone
296.P
297.PD
298.RE
299.P
300With `kb_base=1024' (the default), the unit prefixes are opposite
301from those specified in the SI and IEC 80000-13 standards to provide
302compatibility with old scripts. For example, 4k means 4096.
303.P
304For quantities of data, an optional unit of 'B' may be included
305(e.g., 'kB' is the same as 'k').
306.P
307The *integer suffix* is not case sensitive (e.g., m/mi mean mebi/mega,
308not milli). 'b' and 'B' both mean byte, not bit.
309.P
310Examples with `kb_base=1000':
311.RS
312.P
313.PD 0
3144 KiB: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4k, 4kb, 4kB, 4K, 4KB
315.P
3161 MiB: 1048576, 1m, 1024k
317.P
3181 MB: 1000000, 1mi, 1000ki
319.P
3201 TiB: 1073741824, 1t, 1024m, 1048576k
321.P
3221 TB: 1000000000, 1ti, 1000mi, 1000000ki
323.PD
324.RE
325.P
326Examples with `kb_base=1024' (default):
327.RS
328.P
329.PD 0
3304 KiB: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4k, 4kb, 4kB, 4K, 4KB
331.P
3321 MiB: 1048576, 1m, 1024k
333.P
3341 MB: 1000000, 1mi, 1000ki
335.P
3361 TiB: 1073741824, 1t, 1024m, 1048576k
337.P
3381 TB: 1000000000, 1ti, 1000mi, 1000000ki
339.PD
340.RE
341.P
342To specify times (units are not case sensitive):
343.RS
344.P
345.PD 0
346D means days
347.P
348H means hours
349.P
350M mean minutes
351.P
352s or sec means seconds (default)
353.P
354ms or msec means milliseconds
355.P
356us or usec means microseconds
357.PD
358.RE
359.P
360`z' suffix specifies that the value is measured in zones.
361Value is recalculated once block device's zone size becomes known.
362.P
363If the option accepts an upper and lower range, use a colon ':' or
364minus '\-' to separate such values. See \fIirange\fR parameter type.
365If the lower value specified happens to be larger than the upper value
366the two values are swapped.
367.RE
368.TP
369.I bool
370Boolean. Usually parsed as an integer, however only defined for
371true and false (1 and 0).
372.TP
373.I irange
374Integer range with suffix. Allows value range to be given, such as
3751024\-4096. A colon may also be used as the separator, e.g. 1k:4k. If the
376option allows two sets of ranges, they can be specified with a ',' or '/'
377delimiter: 1k\-4k/8k\-32k. Also see \fIint\fR parameter type.
378.TP
379.I float_list
380A list of floating point numbers, separated by a ':' character.
381.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
382With the above in mind, here follows the complete list of fio job parameters.
383.SS "Units"
384.TP
385.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
386Select the interpretation of unit prefixes in input parameters.
387.RS
388.RS
389.TP
390.B 1000
391Inputs comply with IEC 80000-13 and the International
392System of Units (SI). Use:
393.RS
394.P
395.PD 0
396\- power-of-2 values with IEC prefixes (e.g., KiB)
397.P
398\- power-of-10 values with SI prefixes (e.g., kB)
399.PD
400.RE
401.TP
402.B 1024
403Compatibility mode (default). To avoid breaking old scripts:
404.P
405.RS
406.PD 0
407\- power-of-2 values with SI prefixes
408.P
409\- power-of-10 values with IEC prefixes
410.PD
411.RE
412.RE
413.P
414See \fBbs\fR for more details on input parameters.
415.P
416Outputs always use correct prefixes. Most outputs include both
417side-by-side, like:
418.P
419.RS
420bw=2383.3kB/s (2327.4KiB/s)
421.RE
422.P
423If only one value is reported, then kb_base selects the one to use:
424.P
425.RS
426.PD 0
4271000 \-\- SI prefixes
428.P
4291024 \-\- IEC prefixes
430.PD
431.RE
432.RE
433.TP
434.BI unit_base \fR=\fPint
435Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
436.RS
437.RS
438.TP
439.B 0
440Use auto-detection (default).
441.TP
442.B 8
443Byte based.
444.TP
445.B 1
446Bit based.
447.RE
448.RE
449.SS "Job description"
450.TP
451.BI name \fR=\fPstr
452ASCII name of the job. This may be used to override the name printed by fio
453for this job. Otherwise the job name is used. On the command line this
454parameter has the special purpose of also signaling the start of a new job.
455.TP
456.BI description \fR=\fPstr
457Text description of the job. Doesn't do anything except dump this text
458description when this job is run. It's not parsed.
459.TP
460.BI loops \fR=\fPint
461Run the specified number of iterations of this job. Used to repeat the same
462workload a given number of times. Defaults to 1.
463.TP
464.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
465Create the specified number of clones of this job. Each clone of job
466is spawned as an independent thread or process. May be used to setup a
467larger number of threads/processes doing the same thing. Each thread is
468reported separately; to see statistics for all clones as a whole, use
469\fBgroup_reporting\fR in conjunction with \fBnew_group\fR.
470See \fB\-\-max\-jobs\fR. Default: 1.
471.SS "Time related parameters"
472.TP
473.BI runtime \fR=\fPtime
474Tell fio to terminate processing after the specified period of time. It
475can be quite hard to determine for how long a specified job will run, so
476this parameter is handy to cap the total runtime to a given time. When
477the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
478.TP
479.BI time_based
480If set, fio will run for the duration of the \fBruntime\fR specified
481even if the file(s) are completely read or written. It will simply loop over
482the same workload as many times as the \fBruntime\fR allows.
483.TP
484.BI startdelay \fR=\fPirange(int)
485Delay the start of job for the specified amount of time. Can be a single
486value or a range. When given as a range, each thread will choose a value
487randomly from within the range. Value is in seconds if a unit is omitted.
488.TP
489.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPtime
490If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
491logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle
492before logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable
493results. Note that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job,
494thus it will increase the total runtime if a special timeout or
495\fBruntime\fR is specified. When the unit is omitted, the value is
496given in seconds.
497.TP
498.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
499Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
500.RS
501.RS
502.TP
503.B gettimeofday
504\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2)
505.TP
506.B clock_gettime
507\fBclock_gettime\fR\|(2)
508.TP
509.B cpu
510Internal CPU clock source
511.RE
512.P
513\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast (and
514fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource if
515it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
516unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86\-64 CPUs, this
517means supporting TSC Invariant.
518.RE
519.TP
520.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
521Enable all of the \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) reducing options
522(\fBdisable_clat\fR, \fBdisable_slat\fR, \fBdisable_bw_measurement\fR) plus
523reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
524\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call count. With this option enabled, we only do
525about 0.4% of the \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) calls we would have done if all
526time keeping was enabled.
527.TP
528.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
529Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just
530getting the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very
531intensive on \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) calls. With this option, you can set
532one CPU aside for doing nothing but logging current time to a shared memory
533location. Then the other threads/processes that run I/O workloads need only
534copy that segment, instead of entering the kernel with a
535\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call. The CPU set aside for doing these time
536calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it from the
537CPU mask of other jobs.
538.SS "Target file/device"
539.TP
540.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
541Prefix \fBfilename\fRs with this directory. Used to place files in a different
542location than `./'. You can specify a number of directories by
543separating the names with a ':' character. These directories will be
544assigned equally distributed to job clones created by \fBnumjobs\fR as
545long as they are using generated filenames. If specific \fBfilename\fR(s) are
546set fio will use the first listed directory, and thereby matching the
547\fBfilename\fR semantic (which generates a file for each clone if not
548specified, but lets all clones use the same file if set).
549.RS
550.P
551See the \fBfilename\fR option for information on how to escape ':'
552characters within the directory path itself.
553.P
554Note: To control the directory fio will use for internal state files
555use \fB\-\-aux\-path\fR.
556.RE
557.TP
558.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
559Fio normally makes up a \fBfilename\fR based on the job name, thread number, and
560file number (see \fBfilename_format\fR). If you want to share files
561between threads in a job or several
562jobs with fixed file paths, specify a \fBfilename\fR for each of them to override
563the default. If the ioengine is file based, you can specify a number of files
564by separating the names with a ':' colon. So if you wanted a job to open
565`/dev/sda' and `/dev/sdb' as the two working files, you would use
566`filename=/dev/sda:/dev/sdb'. This also means that whenever this option is
567specified, \fBnrfiles\fR is ignored. The size of regular files specified
568by this option will be \fBsize\fR divided by number of files unless an
569explicit size is specified by \fBfilesize\fR.
570.RS
571.P
572Each colon in the wanted path must be escaped with a '\e'
573character. For instance, if the path is `/dev/dsk/foo@3,0:c' then you
574would use `filename=/dev/dsk/foo@3,0\\:c' and if the path is
575`F:\\filename' then you would use `filename=F\\:\\filename'.
576.P
577On Windows, disk devices are accessed as `\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive0' for
578the first device, `\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive1' for the second etc.
579Note: Windows and FreeBSD prevent write access to areas
580of the disk containing in-use data (e.g. filesystems).
581.P
582The filename `\-' is a reserved name, meaning *stdin* or *stdout*. Which
583of the two depends on the read/write direction set.
584.RE
585.TP
586.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
587If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have fio
588generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
589based on the default file format specification of
590`jobname.jobnumber.filenumber'. With this option, that can be
591customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
592string:
593.RS
594.RS
595.TP
596.B $jobname
597The name of the worker thread or process.
598.TP
599.B $clientuid
600IP of the fio process when using client/server mode.
601.TP
602.B $jobnum
603The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
604.TP
605.B $filenum
606The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
607.RE
608.P
609To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to have
610fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance, if
611`testfiles.$filenum' is specified, file number 4 for any job will be
612named `testfiles.4'. The default of `$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum'
613will be used if no other format specifier is given.
614.P
615If you specify a path then the directories will be created up to the main
616directory for the file. So for example if you specify `a/b/c/$jobnum` then the
617directories a/b/c will be created before the file setup part of the job. If you
618specify \fBdirectory\fR then the path will be relative that directory, otherwise
619it is treated as the absolute path.
620.RE
621.TP
622.BI unique_filename \fR=\fPbool
623To avoid collisions between networked clients, fio defaults to prefixing any
624generated filenames (with a directory specified) with the source of the
625client connecting. To disable this behavior, set this option to 0.
626.TP
627.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
628Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
629.TP
630.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
631Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does I/O to them. If a file
632or file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize I/O to that file to make the
633end result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share
634files. The lock modes are:
635.RS
636.RS
637.TP
638.B none
639No locking. The default.
640.TP
641.B exclusive
642Only one thread or process may do I/O at a time, excluding all others.
643.TP
644.B readwrite
645Read\-write locking on the file. Many readers may
646access the file at the same time, but writes get exclusive access.
647.RE
648.RE
649.TP
650.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
651Number of files to use for this job. Defaults to 1. The size of files
652will be \fBsize\fR divided by this unless explicit size is specified by
653\fBfilesize\fR. Files are created for each thread separately, and each
654file will have a file number within its name by default, as explained in
655\fBfilename\fR section.
656.TP
657.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
658Number of files to keep open at the same time. Defaults to the same as
659\fBnrfiles\fR, can be set smaller to limit the number simultaneous
660opens.
661.TP
662.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
663Defines how fio decides which file from a job to service next. The following
664types are defined:
665.RS
666.RS
667.TP
668.B random
669Choose a file at random.
670.TP
671.B roundrobin
672Round robin over opened files. This is the default.
673.TP
674.B sequential
675Finish one file before moving on to the next. Multiple files can
676still be open depending on \fBopenfiles\fR.
677.TP
678.B zipf
679Use a Zipf distribution to decide what file to access.
680.TP
681.B pareto
682Use a Pareto distribution to decide what file to access.
683.TP
684.B normal
685Use a Gaussian (normal) distribution to decide what file to access.
686.TP
687.B gauss
688Alias for normal.
689.RE
690.P
691For \fBrandom\fR, \fBroundrobin\fR, and \fBsequential\fR, a postfix can be appended to
692tell fio how many I/Os to issue before switching to a new file. For example,
693specifying `file_service_type=random:8' would cause fio to issue
6948 I/Os before selecting a new file at random. For the non-uniform
695distributions, a floating point postfix can be given to influence how the
696distribution is skewed. See \fBrandom_distribution\fR for a description
697of how that would work.
698.RE
699.TP
700.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
701Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler
702before running. If the file is a pipe, a character device file or if device
703hosting the file could not be determined, this option is ignored.
704.TP
705.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
706If true, serialize the file creation for the jobs. This may be handy to
707avoid interleaving of data files, which may greatly depend on the filesystem
708used and even the number of processors in the system. Default: true.
709.TP
710.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
711\fBfsync\fR\|(2) the data file after creation. This is the default.
712.TP
713.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
714If true, don't pre-create files but allow the job's open() to create a file
715when it's time to do I/O. Default: false \-\- pre-create all necessary files
716when the job starts.
717.TP
718.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
719If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
720laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done \-\- the actual job contents
721are not executed. Default: false.
722.TP
723.BI allow_file_create \fR=\fPbool
724If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. If this
725option is false, then fio will error out if
726the files it needs to use don't already exist. Default: true.
727.TP
728.BI allow_mounted_write \fR=\fPbool
729If this isn't set, fio will abort jobs that are destructive (e.g. that write)
730to what appears to be a mounted device or partition. This should help catch
731creating inadvertently destructive tests, not realizing that the test will
732destroy data on the mounted file system. Note that some platforms don't allow
733writing against a mounted device regardless of this option. Default: false.
734.TP
735.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
736If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the
737given I/O operation. This will also clear the \fBinvalidate\fR flag,
738since it is pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only
739work for I/O engines that are seek-able, since they allow you to read the
740same data multiple times. Thus it will not work on non-seekable I/O engines
741(e.g. network, splice). Default: false.
742.TP
743.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
744Unlink the job files when done. Not the default, as repeated runs of that
745job would then waste time recreating the file set again and again. Default:
746false.
747.TP
748.BI unlink_each_loop \fR=\fPbool
749Unlink job files after each iteration or loop. Default: false.
750.TP
751.BI zonemode \fR=\fPstr
752Accepted values are:
753.RS
754.RS
755.TP
756.B none
757The \fBzonerange\fR, \fBzonesize\fR \fBzonecapacity\fR and \fBzoneskip\fR
758parameters are ignored.
759.TP
760.B strided
761I/O happens in a single zone until \fBzonesize\fR bytes have been transferred.
762After that number of bytes has been transferred processing of the next zone
763starts. The \fBzonecapacity\fR parameter is ignored.
764.TP
765.B zbd
766Zoned block device mode. I/O happens sequentially in each zone, even if random
767I/O has been selected. Random I/O happens across all zones instead of being
768restricted to a single zone.
769Trim is handled using a zone reset operation. Trim only considers non-empty
770sequential write required and sequential write preferred zones.
771.RE
772.RE
773.TP
774.BI zonerange \fR=\fPint
775For \fBzonemode\fR=strided, this is the size of a single zone. See also
776\fBzonesize\fR and \fBzoneskip\fR.
777
778For \fBzonemode\fR=zbd, this parameter is ignored.
779.TP
780.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
781For \fBzonemode\fR=strided, this is the number of bytes to transfer before
782skipping \fBzoneskip\fR bytes. If this parameter is smaller than
783\fBzonerange\fR then only a fraction of each zone with \fBzonerange\fR bytes
784will be accessed. If this parameter is larger than \fBzonerange\fR then each
785zone will be accessed multiple times before skipping to the next zone.
786
787For \fBzonemode\fR=zbd, this is the size of a single zone. The
788\fBzonerange\fR parameter is ignored in this mode. For a job accessing a
789zoned block device, the specified \fBzonesize\fR must be 0 or equal to the
790device zone size. For a regular block device or file, the specified
791\fBzonesize\fR must be at least 512B.
792.TP
793.BI zonecapacity \fR=\fPint
794For \fBzonemode\fR=zbd, this defines the capacity of a single zone, which is
795the accessible area starting from the zone start address. This parameter only
796applies when using \fBzonemode\fR=zbd in combination with regular block devices.
797If not specified it defaults to the zone size. If the target device is a zoned
798block device, the zone capacity is obtained from the device information and this
799option is ignored.
800.TP
801.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint[z]
802For \fBzonemode\fR=strided, the number of bytes to skip after \fBzonesize\fR
803bytes of data have been transferred.
804
805For \fBzonemode\fR=zbd, the \fBzonesize\fR aligned number of bytes to skip
806once a zone is fully written (write workloads) or all written data in the
807zone have been read (read workloads). This parameter is valid only for
808sequential workloads and ignored for random workloads. For read workloads,
809see also \fBread_beyond_wp\fR.
810
811.TP
812.BI read_beyond_wp \fR=\fPbool
813This parameter applies to \fBzonemode=zbd\fR only.
814
815Zoned block devices are block devices that consist of multiple zones. Each
816zone has a type, e.g. conventional or sequential. A conventional zone can be
817written at any offset that is a multiple of the block size. Sequential zones
818must be written sequentially. The position at which a write must occur is
819called the write pointer. A zoned block device can be either host managed or
820host aware. For host managed devices the host must ensure that writes happen
821sequentially. Fio recognizes host managed devices and serializes writes to
822sequential zones for these devices.
823
824If a read occurs in a sequential zone beyond the write pointer then the zoned
825block device will complete the read without reading any data from the storage
826medium. Since such reads lead to unrealistically high bandwidth and IOPS
827numbers fio only reads beyond the write pointer if explicitly told to do
828so. Default: false.
829.TP
830.BI max_open_zones \fR=\fPint
831A zone of a zoned block device is in the open state when it is partially written
832(i.e. not all sectors of the zone have been written). Zoned block devices may
833have limit a on the total number of zones that can be simultaneously in the
834open state, that is, the number of zones that can be written to simultaneously.
835The \fBmax_open_zones\fR parameter limits the number of zones to which write
836commands are issued by all fio jobs, that is, limits the number of zones that
837will be in the open state. This parameter is relevant only if the
838\fBzonemode=zbd\fR is used. The default value is always equal to maximum number
839of open zones of the target zoned block device and a value higher than this
840limit cannot be specified by users unless the option \fBignore_zone_limits\fR is
841specified. When \fBignore_zone_limits\fR is specified or the target device has
842no limit on the number of zones that can be in an open state,
843\fBmax_open_zones\fR can specify 0 to disable any limit on the number of zones
844that can be simultaneously written to by all jobs.
845.TP
846.BI job_max_open_zones \fR=\fPint
847In the same manner as \fBmax_open_zones\fR, limit the number of open zones per
848fio job, that is, the number of zones that a single job can simultaneously write
849to. A value of zero indicates no limit. Default: zero.
850.TP
851.BI ignore_zone_limits \fR=\fPbool
852If this option is used, fio will ignore the maximum number of open zones limit
853of the zoned block device in use, thus allowing the option \fBmax_open_zones\fR
854value to be larger than the device reported limit. Default: false.
855.TP
856.BI zone_reset_threshold \fR=\fPfloat
857A number between zero and one that indicates the ratio of logical blocks with
858data to the total number of logical blocks in the test above which zones
859should be reset periodically.
860.TP
861.BI zone_reset_frequency \fR=\fPfloat
862A number between zero and one that indicates how often a zone reset should be
863issued if the zone reset threshold has been exceeded. A zone reset is
864submitted after each (1 / zone_reset_frequency) write requests. This and the
865previous parameter can be used to simulate garbage collection activity.
866
867.SS "I/O type"
868.TP
869.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
870If value is true, use non-buffered I/O. This is usually O_DIRECT. Note that
871OpenBSD and ZFS on Solaris don't support direct I/O. On Windows the synchronous
872ioengines don't support direct I/O. Default: false.
873.TP
874.BI atomic \fR=\fPbool
875If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
876guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
877Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
878.TP
879.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
880If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
881\fBdirect\fR option. Defaults to true.
882.TP
883.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
884Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
885.RS
886.RS
887.TP
888.B read
889Sequential reads.
890.TP
891.B write
892Sequential writes.
893.TP
894.B trim
895Sequential trims (Linux block devices and SCSI character devices only).
896.TP
897.B randread
898Random reads.
899.TP
900.B randwrite
901Random writes.
902.TP
903.B randtrim
904Random trims (Linux block devices and SCSI character devices only).
905.TP
906.B rw,readwrite
907Sequential mixed reads and writes.
908.TP
909.B randrw
910Random mixed reads and writes.
911.TP
912.B trimwrite
913Sequential trim+write sequences. Blocks will be trimmed first,
914then the same blocks will be written to. So if `io_size=64K' is specified,
915Fio will trim a total of 64K bytes and also write 64K bytes on the same
916trimmed blocks. This behaviour will be consistent with `number_ios' or
917other Fio options limiting the total bytes or number of I/O's.
918.TP
919.B randtrimwrite
920Like
921.B trimwrite ,
922but uses random offsets rather than sequential writes.
923.RE
924.P
925Fio defaults to read if the option is not specified. For the mixed I/O
926types, the default is to split them 50/50. For certain types of I/O the
927result may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different.
928.P
929It is possible to specify the number of I/Os to do before getting a new
930offset by appending `:<nr>' to the end of the string given. For a
931random read, it would look like `rw=randread:8' for passing in an offset
932modifier with a value of 8. If the suffix is used with a sequential I/O
933pattern, then the `<nr>' value specified will be added to the generated
934offset for each I/O turning sequential I/O into sequential I/O with holes.
935For instance, using `rw=write:4k' will skip 4k for every write. Also see
936the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
937.RE
938.TP
939.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
940If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the `rw=\fIstr\fR'
941line, then this option controls how that number modifies the I/O offset
942being generated. Accepted values are:
943.RS
944.RS
945.TP
946.B sequential
947Generate sequential offset.
948.TP
949.B identical
950Generate the same offset.
951.RE
952.P
953\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random I/O, where fio would normally
954generate a new random offset for every I/O. If you append e.g. 8 to randread,
955you would get a new random offset for every 8 I/Os. The result would be a
956seek for only every 8 I/Os, instead of for every I/O. Use `rw=randread:8'
957to specify that. As sequential I/O is already sequential, setting
958\fBsequential\fR for that would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR
959behaves in a similar fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of
960times before generating a new offset.
961.RE
962.TP
963.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPstr
964Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
965reads, writes, and trims are accounted and reported separately. This option
966determines whether fio reports the results normally, summed together, or as
967both options.
968Accepted values are:
969.RS
970.TP
971.B none
972Normal statistics reporting.
973.TP
974.B mixed
975Statistics are summed per data direction and reported together.
976.TP
977.B both
978Statistics are reported normally, followed by the mixed statistics.
979.TP
980.B 0
981Backward-compatible alias for \fBnone\fR.
982.TP
983.B 1
984Backward-compatible alias for \fBmixed\fR.
985.TP
986.B 2
987Alias for \fBboth\fR.
988.RE
989.TP
990.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
991Seed the random number generator used for random I/O patterns in a
992predictable way so the pattern is repeatable across runs. Default: true.
993.TP
994.BI allrandrepeat \fR=\fPbool
995Seed all random number generators in a predictable way so results are
996repeatable across runs. Default: false.
997.TP
998.BI randseed \fR=\fPint
999Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
1000control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
1001sequence depends on the \fBrandrepeat\fR setting.
1002.TP
1003.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
1004Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files.
1005Accepted values are:
1006.RS
1007.RS
1008.TP
1009.B none
1010Do not pre-allocate space.
1011.TP
1012.B native
1013Use a platform's native pre-allocation call but fall back to
1014\fBnone\fR behavior if it fails/is not implemented.
1015.TP
1016.B posix
1017Pre-allocate via \fBposix_fallocate\fR\|(3).
1018.TP
1019.B keep
1020Pre-allocate via \fBfallocate\fR\|(2) with
1021FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
1022.TP
1023.B truncate
1024Extend file to final size using \fBftruncate\fR|(2)
1025instead of allocating.
1026.TP
1027.B 0
1028Backward-compatible alias for \fBnone\fR.
1029.TP
1030.B 1
1031Backward-compatible alias for \fBposix\fR.
1032.RE
1033.P
1034May not be available on all supported platforms. \fBkeep\fR is only available
1035on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this cannot be set to \fBposix\fR
1036because ZFS doesn't support pre-allocation. Default: \fBnative\fR if any
1037pre-allocation methods except \fBtruncate\fR are available, \fBnone\fR if not.
1038.P
1039Note that using \fBtruncate\fR on Windows will interact surprisingly
1040with non-sequential write patterns. When writing to a file that has
1041been extended by setting the end-of-file information, Windows will
1042backfill the unwritten portion of the file up to that offset with
1043zeroes before issuing the new write. This means that a single small
1044write to the end of an extended file will stall until the entire
1045file has been filled with zeroes.
1046.RE
1047.TP
1048.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPstr
1049Use \fBposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) or \fBposix_madvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel
1050what I/O patterns are likely to be issued. Accepted values are:
1051.RS
1052.RS
1053.TP
1054.B 0
1055Backwards compatible hint for "no hint".
1056.TP
1057.B 1
1058Backwards compatible hint for "advise with fio workload type". This
1059uses FADV_RANDOM for a random workload, and FADV_SEQUENTIAL
1060for a sequential workload.
1061.TP
1062.B sequential
1063Advise using FADV_SEQUENTIAL.
1064.TP
1065.B random
1066Advise using FADV_RANDOM.
1067.RE
1068.RE
1069.TP
1070.BI write_hint \fR=\fPstr
1071Use \fBfcntl\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what life time to expect
1072from a write. Only supported on Linux, as of version 4.13. Accepted
1073values are:
1074.RS
1075.RS
1076.TP
1077.B none
1078No particular life time associated with this file.
1079.TP
1080.B short
1081Data written to this file has a short life time.
1082.TP
1083.B medium
1084Data written to this file has a medium life time.
1085.TP
1086.B long
1087Data written to this file has a long life time.
1088.TP
1089.B extreme
1090Data written to this file has a very long life time.
1091.RE
1092.P
1093The values are all relative to each other, and no absolute meaning
1094should be associated with them.
1095.RE
1096.TP
1097.BI offset \fR=\fPint[%|z]
1098Start I/O at the provided offset in the file, given as either a fixed size in
1099bytes, zones or a percentage. If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be
1100aligned to the minimum \fBblocksize\fR or to the value of \fBoffset_align\fR if
1101provided. Data before the given offset will not be touched. This
1102effectively caps the file size at `real_size \- offset'. Can be combined with
1103\fBsize\fR to constrain the start and end range of the I/O workload.
1104A percentage can be specified by a number between 1 and 100 followed by '%',
1105for example, `offset=20%' to specify 20%. In ZBD mode, value can be set as
1106number of zones using 'z'.
1107.TP
1108.BI offset_align \fR=\fPint
1109If set to non-zero value, the byte offset generated by a percentage \fBoffset\fR
1110is aligned upwards to this value. Defaults to 0 meaning that a percentage
1111offset is aligned to the minimum block size.
1112.TP
1113.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint[%|z]
1114If this is provided, then the real offset becomes `\fBoffset\fR + \fBoffset_increment\fR
1115* thread_number', where the thread number is a counter that starts at 0 and
1116is incremented for each sub-job (i.e. when \fBnumjobs\fR option is
1117specified). This option is useful if there are several jobs which are
1118intended to operate on a file in parallel disjoint segments, with even
1119spacing between the starting points. Percentages can be used for this option.
1120If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be aligned to the minimum
1121\fBblocksize\fR or to the value of \fBoffset_align\fR if provided.In ZBD mode, value
1122can be set as number of zones using 'z'.
1123.TP
1124.BI number_ios \fR=\fPint
1125Fio will normally perform I/Os until it has exhausted the size of the region
1126set by \fBsize\fR, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
1127condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
1128the number of I/Os to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
1129normally and report status. Note that this does not extend the amount of I/O
1130that will be done, it will only stop fio if this condition is met before
1131other end-of-job criteria.
1132.TP
1133.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
1134If writing to a file, issue an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) (or its equivalent) of
1135the dirty data for every number of blocks given. For example, if you give 32
1136as a parameter, fio will sync the file after every 32 writes issued. If fio is
1137using non-buffered I/O, we may not sync the file. The exception is the sg
1138I/O engine, which synchronizes the disk cache anyway. Defaults to 0, which
1139means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a sync to complete. Also
1140see \fBend_fsync\fR and \fBfsync_on_close\fR.
1141.TP
1142.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
1143Like \fBfsync\fR but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) to only sync data and
1144not metadata blocks. In Windows, DragonFlyBSD or OSX there is no
1145\fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) so this falls back to using \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1146Defaults to 0, which means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a
1147data-only sync to complete.
1148.TP
1149.BI write_barrier \fR=\fPint
1150Make every N\-th write a barrier write.
1151.TP
1152.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
1153Use \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) for every \fIint\fR number of write
1154operations. Fio will track range of writes that have happened since the last
1155\fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) call. \fIstr\fR can currently be one or more of:
1156.RS
1157.RS
1158.TP
1159.B wait_before
1160SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
1161.TP
1162.B write
1163SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
1164.TP
1165.B wait_after
1166SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE_AFTER
1167.RE
1168.P
1169So if you do `sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8', fio would use
1170`SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE' for every 8
1171writes. Also see the \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) man page. This option is
1172Linux specific.
1173.RE
1174.TP
1175.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
1176If true, writes to a file will always overwrite existing data. If the file
1177doesn't already exist, it will be created before the write phase begins. If
1178the file exists and is large enough for the specified write phase, nothing
1179will be done. Default: false.
1180.TP
1181.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
1182If true, \fBfsync\fR\|(2) file contents when a write stage has completed.
1183Default: false.
1184.TP
1185.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
1186If true, fio will \fBfsync\fR\|(2) a dirty file on close. This differs
1187from \fBend_fsync\fR in that it will happen on every file close, not
1188just at the end of the job. Default: false.
1189.TP
1190.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
1191Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
1192.TP
1193.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
1194Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If both
1195\fBrwmixread\fR and \fBrwmixwrite\fR is given and the values do not
1196add up to 100%, the latter of the two will be used to override the
1197first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is asked to
1198limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then the
1199distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
1200.TP
1201.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float[:float][,str:float][,str:float]
1202By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
1203to perform random I/O. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
1204specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
1205fio includes the following distribution models:
1206.RS
1207.RS
1208.TP
1209.B random
1210Uniform random distribution
1211.TP
1212.B zipf
1213Zipf distribution
1214.TP
1215.B pareto
1216Pareto distribution
1217.TP
1218.B normal
1219Normal (Gaussian) distribution
1220.TP
1221.B zoned
1222Zoned random distribution
1223.B zoned_abs
1224Zoned absolute random distribution
1225.RE
1226.P
1227When using a \fBzipf\fR or \fBpareto\fR distribution, an input value is also
1228needed to define the access pattern. For \fBzipf\fR, this is the `Zipf theta'.
1229For \fBpareto\fR, it's the `Pareto power'. Fio includes a test
1230program, \fBfio\-genzipf\fR, that can be used visualize what the given input
1231values will yield in terms of hit rates. If you wanted to use \fBzipf\fR with
1232a `theta' of 1.2, you would use `random_distribution=zipf:1.2' as the
1233option. If a non\-uniform model is used, fio will disable use of the random
1234map. For the \fBnormal\fR distribution, a normal (Gaussian) deviation is
1235supplied as a value between 0 and 100.
1236.P
1237The second, optional float is allowed for \fBpareto\fR, \fBzipf\fR and \fBnormal\fR
1238distributions. It allows one to set base of distribution in non-default place, giving
1239more control over most probable outcome. This value is in range [0-1] which maps linearly to
1240range of possible random values.
1241Defaults are: random for \fBpareto\fR and \fBzipf\fR, and 0.5 for \fBnormal\fR.
1242If you wanted to use \fBzipf\fR with a `theta` of 1.2 centered on 1/4 of allowed value range,
1243you would use `random_distribution=zipf:1.2:0.25`.
1244.P
1245For a \fBzoned\fR distribution, fio supports specifying percentages of I/O
1246access that should fall within what range of the file or device. For
1247example, given a criteria of:
1248.RS
1249.P
1250.PD 0
125160% of accesses should be to the first 10%
1252.P
125330% of accesses should be to the next 20%
1254.P
12558% of accesses should be to the next 30%
1256.P
12572% of accesses should be to the next 40%
1258.PD
1259.RE
1260.P
1261we can define that through zoning of the random accesses. For the above
1262example, the user would do:
1263.RS
1264.P
1265random_distribution=zoned:60/10:30/20:8/30:2/40
1266.RE
1267.P
1268A \fBzoned_abs\fR distribution works exactly like the\fBzoned\fR, except that
1269it takes absolute sizes. For example, let's say you wanted to define access
1270according to the following criteria:
1271.RS
1272.P
1273.PD 0
127460% of accesses should be to the first 20G
1275.P
127630% of accesses should be to the next 100G
1277.P
127810% of accesses should be to the next 500G
1279.PD
1280.RE
1281.P
1282we can define an absolute zoning distribution with:
1283.RS
1284.P
1285random_distribution=zoned:60/10:30/20:8/30:2/40
1286.RE
1287.P
1288For both \fBzoned\fR and \fBzoned_abs\fR, fio supports defining up to 256
1289separate zones.
1290.P
1291Similarly to how \fBbssplit\fR works for setting ranges and percentages
1292of block sizes. Like \fBbssplit\fR, it's possible to specify separate
1293zones for reads, writes, and trims. If just one set is given, it'll apply to
1294all of them.
1295.RE
1296.TP
1297.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
1298For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This
1299defaults to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set
1300from anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
1301sequential. Any setting in between will result in a random mix of sequential
1302and random I/O, at the given percentages. Comma-separated values may be
1303specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in \fBblocksize\fR.
1304.TP
1305.BI norandommap
1306Normally fio will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
1307this option is given, fio will just get a new random offset without looking
1308at past I/O history. This means that some blocks may not be read or written,
1309and that some blocks may be read/written more than once. If this option is
1310used with \fBverify\fR and multiple blocksizes (via \fBbsrange\fR),
1311only intact blocks are verified, i.e., partially-overwritten blocks are
1312ignored. With an async I/O engine and an I/O depth > 1, it is possible for
1313the same block to be overwritten, which can cause verification errors. Either
1314do not use norandommap in this case, or also use the lfsr random generator.
1315.TP
1316.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
1317See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and
1318it fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without
1319a random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps,
1320this option is disabled by default.
1321.TP
1322.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
1323Fio supports the following engines for generating I/O offsets for random I/O:
1324.RS
1325.RS
1326.TP
1327.B tausworthe
1328Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator.
1329.TP
1330.B lfsr
1331Linear feedback shift register generator.
1332.TP
1333.B tausworthe64
1334Strong 64\-bit 2^258 cycle random number generator.
1335.RE
1336.P
1337\fBtausworthe\fR is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking
1338on the side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written
1339once. \fBlfsr\fR guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and
1340it's also less computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator,
1341however, though for I/O purposes it's typically good enough. \fBlfsr\fR only
1342works with single block sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block
1343sizes. If used with such a workload, fio may read or write some blocks
1344multiple times. The default value is \fBtausworthe\fR, unless the required
1345space exceeds 2^32 blocks. If it does, then \fBtausworthe64\fR is
1346selected automatically.
1347.RE
1348.SS "Block size"
1349.TP
1350.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int][,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
1351The block size in bytes used for I/O units. Default: 4096. A single value
1352applies to reads, writes, and trims. Comma-separated values may be
1353specified for reads, writes, and trims. A value not terminated in a comma
1354applies to subsequent types. Examples:
1355.RS
1356.RS
1357.P
1358.PD 0
1359bs=256k means 256k for reads, writes and trims.
1360.P
1361bs=8k,32k means 8k for reads, 32k for writes and trims.
1362.P
1363bs=8k,32k, means 8k for reads, 32k for writes, and default for trims.
1364.P
1365bs=,8k means default for reads, 8k for writes and trims.
1366.P
1367bs=,8k, means default for reads, 8k for writes, and default for trims.
1368.PD
1369.RE
1370.RE
1371.TP
1372.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange][,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange][,irange]
1373A range of block sizes in bytes for I/O units. The issued I/O unit will
1374always be a multiple of the minimum size, unless
1375\fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set.
1376Comma-separated ranges may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1377described in \fBblocksize\fR. Example:
1378.RS
1379.RS
1380.P
1381bsrange=1k\-4k,2k\-8k
1382.RE
1383.RE
1384.TP
1385.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr[,str][,str]
1386Sometimes you want even finer grained control of the block sizes issued, not
1387just an even split between them. This option allows you to weight various
1388block sizes, so that you are able to define a specific amount of block sizes
1389issued. The format for this option is:
1390.RS
1391.RS
1392.P
1393bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
1394.RE
1395.P
1396for as many block sizes as needed. So if you want to define a workload that
1397has 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k blocks, and 40% 32k blocks, you would write:
1398.RS
1399.P
1400bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40
1401.RE
1402.P
1403Ordering does not matter. If the percentage is left blank, fio will fill in
1404the remaining values evenly. So a bssplit option like this one:
1405.RS
1406.P
1407bssplit=4k/50:1k/:32k/
1408.RE
1409.P
1410would have 50% 4k ios, and 25% 1k and 32k ios. The percentages always add up
1411to 100, if bssplit is given a range that adds up to more, it will error out.
1412.P
1413Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1414described in \fBblocksize\fR.
1415.P
1416If you want a workload that has 50% 2k reads and 50% 4k reads, while having
141790% 4k writes and 10% 8k writes, you would specify:
1418.RS
1419.P
1420bssplit=2k/50:4k/50,4k/90:8k/10
1421.RE
1422.P
1423Fio supports defining up to 64 different weights for each data direction.
1424.RE
1425.TP
1426.BI blocksize_unaligned "\fR,\fB bs_unaligned"
1427If set, fio will issue I/O units with any size within
1428\fBblocksize_range\fR, not just multiples of the minimum size. This
1429typically won't work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector
1430alignment.
1431.TP
1432.BI bs_is_seq_rand \fR=\fPbool
1433If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings
1434as sequential,random blocksize settings instead. Any random read or write
1435will use the WRITE blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will
1436use the READ blocksize settings.
1437.TP
1438.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int][,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
1439Boundary to which fio will align random I/O units. Default:
1440\fBblocksize\fR. Minimum alignment is typically 512b for using direct
1441I/O, though it usually depends on the hardware block size. This option is
1442mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it will turn off
1443that option. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and
1444trims as described in \fBblocksize\fR.
1445.SS "Buffers and memory"
1446.TP
1447.BI zero_buffers
1448Initialize buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
1449.TP
1450.BI refill_buffers
1451If this option is given, fio will refill the I/O buffers on every
1452submit. The default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that
1453data. Only makes sense if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data
1454verification is enabled, \fBrefill_buffers\fR is also automatically enabled.
1455.TP
1456.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
1457If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
1458deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the I/O buffer
1459contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
1460more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe of
1461blocks. Default: true.
1462.TP
1463.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
1464If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide I/O buffer content
1465(on WRITEs) that compresses to the specified level. Fio does this by
1466providing a mix of random data followed by fixed pattern data. The
1467fixed pattern is either zeros, or the pattern specified by
1468\fBbuffer_pattern\fR. If the \fBbuffer_pattern\fR option is used, it
1469might skew the compression ratio slightly. Setting
1470\fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR to a value other than 100 will also
1471enable \fBrefill_buffers\fR in order to reduce the likelihood that
1472adjacent blocks are so similar that they over compress when seen
1473together. See \fBbuffer_compress_chunk\fR for how to set a finer or
1474coarser granularity of the random/fixed data regions. Defaults to unset
1475i.e., buffer data will not adhere to any compression level.
1476.TP
1477.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
1478This setting allows fio to manage how big the random/fixed data region
1479is when using \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. When
1480\fBbuffer_compress_chunk\fR is set to some non-zero value smaller than the
1481block size, fio can repeat the random/fixed region throughout the I/O
1482buffer at the specified interval (which particularly useful when
1483bigger block sizes are used for a job). When set to 0, fio will use a
1484chunk size that matches the block size resulting in a single
1485random/fixed region within the I/O buffer. Defaults to 512. When the
1486unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in bytes.
1487.TP
1488.BI buffer_pattern \fR=\fPstr
1489If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern or with the contents
1490of a file. If not set, the contents of I/O buffers are defined by the other
1491options related to buffer contents. The setting can be any pattern of bytes,
1492and can be prefixed with 0x for hex values. It may also be a string, where
1493the string must then be wrapped with "". Or it may also be a filename,
1494where the filename must be wrapped with '' in which case the file is
1495opened and read. Note that not all the file contents will be read if that
1496would cause the buffers to overflow. So, for example:
1497.RS
1498.RS
1499.P
1500.PD 0
1501buffer_pattern='filename'
1502.P
1503or:
1504.P
1505buffer_pattern="abcd"
1506.P
1507or:
1508.P
1509buffer_pattern=\-12
1510.P
1511or:
1512.P
1513buffer_pattern=0xdeadface
1514.PD
1515.RE
1516.P
1517Also you can combine everything together in any order:
1518.RS
1519.P
1520buffer_pattern=0xdeadface"abcd"\-12'filename'
1521.RE
1522.RE
1523.TP
1524.BI dedupe_percentage \fR=\fPint
1525If set, fio will generate this percentage of identical buffers when
1526writing. These buffers will be naturally dedupable. The contents of the
1527buffers depend on what other buffer compression settings have been set. It's
1528possible to have the individual buffers either fully compressible, or not at
1529all \-\- this option only controls the distribution of unique buffers. Setting
1530this option will also enable \fBrefill_buffers\fR to prevent every buffer
1531being identical.
1532.TP
1533.BI dedupe_mode \fR=\fPstr
1534If \fBdedupe_percentage\fR is given, then this option controls how fio
1535generates the dedupe buffers.
1536.RS
1537.RS
1538.TP
1539.B repeat
1540.P
1541.RS
1542Generate dedupe buffers by repeating previous writes
1543.RE
1544.TP
1545.B working_set
1546.P
1547.RS
1548Generate dedupe buffers from working set
1549.RE
1550.RE
1551.P
1552\fBrepeat\fR is the default option for fio. Dedupe buffers are generated
1553by repeating previous unique write.
1554
1555\fBworking_set\fR is a more realistic workload.
1556With \fBworking_set\fR, \fBdedupe_working_set_percentage\fR should be provided.
1557Given that, fio will use the initial unique write buffers as its working set.
1558Upon deciding to dedupe, fio will randomly choose a buffer from the working set.
1559Note that by using \fBworking_set\fR the dedupe percentage will converge
1560to the desired over time while \fBrepeat\fR maintains the desired percentage
1561throughout the job.
1562.RE
1563.RE
1564.TP
1565.BI dedupe_working_set_percentage \fR=\fPint
1566If \fBdedupe_mode\fR is set to \fBworking_set\fR, then this controls
1567the percentage of size of the file or device used as the buffers
1568fio will choose to generate the dedupe buffers from
1569.P
1570.RS
1571Note that \fBsize\fR needs to be explicitly provided and only 1 file
1572per job is supported
1573.RE
1574.TP
1575.BI dedupe_global \fR=\fPbool
1576This controls whether the deduplication buffers will be shared amongst
1577all jobs that have this option set. The buffers are spread evenly between
1578participating jobs.
1579.P
1580.RS
1581Note that \fBdedupe_mode\fR must be set to \fBworking_set\fR for this to work.
1582Can be used in combination with compression
1583.TP
1584.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
1585Invalidate the buffer/page cache parts of the files to be used prior to
1586starting I/O if the platform and file type support it. Defaults to true.
1587This will be ignored if \fBpre_read\fR is also specified for the
1588same job.
1589.TP
1590.BI sync \fR=\fPstr
1591Whether, and what type, of synchronous I/O to use for writes. The allowed
1592values are:
1593.RS
1594.RS
1595.TP
1596.B none
1597Do not use synchronous IO, the default.
1598.TP
1599.B 0
1600Same as \fBnone\fR.
1601.TP
1602.B sync
1603Use synchronous file IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1604this means using O_SYNC.
1605.TP
1606.B 1
1607Same as \fBsync\fR.
1608.TP
1609.B dsync
1610Use synchronous data IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1611this means using O_DSYNC.
1612.PD
1613.RE
1614.RE
1615.TP
1616.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
1617Fio can use various types of memory as the I/O unit buffer. The allowed
1618values are:
1619.RS
1620.RS
1621.TP
1622.B malloc
1623Use memory from \fBmalloc\fR\|(3) as the buffers. Default memory type.
1624.TP
1625.B shm
1626Use shared memory as the buffers. Allocated through \fBshmget\fR\|(2).
1627.TP
1628.B shmhuge
1629Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
1630.TP
1631.B mmap
1632Use \fBmmap\fR\|(2) to allocate buffers. May either be anonymous memory, or can
1633be file backed if a filename is given after the option. The format
1634is `mem=mmap:/path/to/file'.
1635.TP
1636.B mmaphuge
1637Use a memory mapped huge file as the buffer backing. Append filename
1638after mmaphuge, ala `mem=mmaphuge:/hugetlbfs/file'.
1639.TP
1640.B mmapshared
1641Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use a MMAP_SHARED mapping.
1642.TP
1643.B cudamalloc
1644Use GPU memory as the buffers for GPUDirect RDMA benchmark.
1645The \fBioengine\fR must be \fBrdma\fR.
1646.RE
1647.P
1648The area allocated is a function of the maximum allowed bs size for the job,
1649multiplied by the I/O depth given. Note that for \fBshmhuge\fR and
1650\fBmmaphuge\fR to work, the system must have free huge pages allocated. This
1651can normally be checked and set by reading/writing
1652`/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages' on a Linux system. Fio assumes a huge page
1653is 2 or 4MiB in size depending on the platform. So to calculate the number of
1654huge pages you need for a given job file, add up the I/O depth of all jobs
1655(normally one unless \fBiodepth\fR is used) and multiply by the maximum bs set.
1656Then divide that number by the huge page size. You can see the size of the huge
1657pages in `/proc/meminfo'. If no huge pages are allocated by having a non-zero
1658number in `nr_hugepages', using \fBmmaphuge\fR or \fBshmhuge\fR will fail. Also
1659see \fBhugepage\-size\fR.
1660.P
1661\fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to have hugetlbfs mounted and the file location
1662should point there. So if it's mounted in `/huge', you would use
1663`mem=mmaphuge:/huge/somefile'.
1664.RE
1665.TP
1666.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
1667This indicates the memory alignment of the I/O memory buffers. Note that
1668the given alignment is applied to the first I/O unit buffer, if using
1669\fBiodepth\fR the alignment of the following buffers are given by the
1670\fBbs\fR used. In other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a
1671multiple of the page sized in the system, all buffers will be aligned to
1672this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that is not page aligned, the alignment
1673of subsequent I/O memory buffers is the sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and
1674\fBbs\fR used.
1675.TP
1676.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
1677Defines the size of a huge page. Must at least be equal to the system setting,
1678see `/proc/meminfo' and `/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/'. Defaults to 2 or 4MiB
1679depending on the platform. Should probably always be a multiple of megabytes,
1680so using `hugepage\-size=Xm' is the preferred way to set this to avoid setting
1681a non-pow-2 bad value.
1682.TP
1683.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1684Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1685simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1686.SS "I/O size"
1687.TP
1688.BI size \fR=\fPint[%|z]
1689The total size of file I/O for each thread of this job. Fio will run until
1690this many bytes has been transferred, unless runtime is altered by other means
1691such as (1) \fBruntime\fR, (2) \fBio_size\fR, (3) \fBnumber_ios\fR, (4)
1692gaps/holes while doing I/O's such as `rw=read:16K', or (5) sequential I/O
1693reaching end of the file which is possible when \fBpercentage_random\fR is
1694less than 100.
1695Fio will divide this size between the available files determined by options
1696such as \fBnrfiles\fR, \fBfilename\fR, unless \fBfilesize\fR is
1697specified by the job. If the result of division happens to be 0, the size is
1698set to the physical size of the given files or devices if they exist.
1699If this option is not specified, fio will use the full size of the given
1700files or devices. If the files do not exist, size must be given. It is also
1701possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and 100. If `size=20%' is
1702given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files or devices. In ZBD mode,
1703size can be given in units of number of zones using 'z'. Can be combined with \fBoffset\fR to
1704constrain the start and end range that I/O will be done within.
1705.TP
1706.BI io_size \fR=\fPint[%|z] "\fR,\fB io_limit" \fR=\fPint[%|z]
1707Normally fio operates within the region set by \fBsize\fR, which means
1708that the \fBsize\fR option sets both the region and size of I/O to be
1709performed. Sometimes that is not what you want. With this option, it is
1710possible to define just the amount of I/O that fio should do. For instance,
1711if \fBsize\fR is set to 20GiB and \fBio_size\fR is set to 5GiB, fio
1712will perform I/O within the first 20GiB but exit when 5GiB have been
1713done. The opposite is also possible \-\- if \fBsize\fR is set to 20GiB,
1714and \fBio_size\fR is set to 40GiB, then fio will do 40GiB of I/O within
1715the 0..20GiB region. Value can be set as percentage: \fBio_size\fR=N%.
1716In this case \fBio_size\fR multiplies \fBsize\fR= value. In ZBD mode, value can
1717also be set as number of zones using 'z'.
1718.TP
1719.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange(int)
1720Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case fio will select sizes
1721for files at random within the given range. If not given, each created file
1722is the same size. This option overrides \fBsize\fR in terms of file size,
1723i.e. \fBsize\fR becomes merely the default for \fBio_size\fR (and
1724has no effect it all if \fBio_size\fR is set explicitly).
1725.TP
1726.BI file_append \fR=\fPbool
1727Perform I/O after the end of the file. Normally fio will operate within the
1728size of a file. If this option is set, then fio will append to the file
1729instead. This has identical behavior to setting \fBoffset\fR to the size
1730of a file. This option is ignored on non-regular files.
1731.TP
1732.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
1733Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
1734device) or EDQUOT (disk quota exceeded)
1735as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential
1736write. For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then I/O
1737started on the result.
1738.SS "I/O engine"
1739.TP
1740.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
1741Defines how the job issues I/O to the file. The following types are defined:
1742.RS
1743.RS
1744.TP
1745.B sync
1746Basic \fBread\fR\|(2) or \fBwrite\fR\|(2)
1747I/O. \fBlseek\fR\|(2) is used to position the I/O location.
1748See \fBfsync\fR and \fBfdatasync\fR for syncing write I/Os.
1749.TP
1750.B psync
1751Basic \fBpread\fR\|(2) or \fBpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. Default on
1752all supported operating systems except for Windows.
1753.TP
1754.B vsync
1755Basic \fBreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate
1756queuing by coalescing adjacent I/Os into a single submission.
1757.TP
1758.B pvsync
1759Basic \fBpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
1760.TP
1761.B pvsync2
1762Basic \fBpreadv2\fR\|(2) or \fBpwritev2\fR\|(2) I/O.
1763.TP
1764.B io_uring
1765Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O. Supports async IO
1766for both direct and buffered IO.
1767This engine defines engine specific options.
1768.TP
1769.B io_uring_cmd
1770Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O for passthrough commands.
1771This engine defines engine specific options.
1772.TP
1773.B libaio
1774Linux native asynchronous I/O. Note that Linux may only support
1775queued behavior with non-buffered I/O (set `direct=1' or
1776`buffered=0').
1777This engine defines engine specific options.
1778.TP
1779.B posixaio
1780POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fBaio_read\fR\|(3) and
1781\fBaio_write\fR\|(3).
1782.TP
1783.B solarisaio
1784Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
1785.TP
1786.B windowsaio
1787Windows native asynchronous I/O. Default on Windows.
1788.TP
1789.B mmap
1790File is memory mapped with \fBmmap\fR\|(2) and data copied
1791to/from using \fBmemcpy\fR\|(3).
1792.TP
1793.B splice
1794\fBsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and
1795\fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to transfer data from user space to the
1796kernel.
1797.TP
1798.B sg
1799SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May either be synchronous using the SG_IO
1800ioctl, or if the target is an sg character device we use
1801\fBread\fR\|(2) and \fBwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous
1802I/O. Requires \fBfilename\fR option to specify either block or
1803character devices. This engine supports trim operations. The
1804sg engine includes engine specific options.
1805.TP
1806.B libzbc
1807Read, write, trim and ZBC/ZAC operations to a zoned block device using
1808\fBlibzbc\fR library. The target can be either an SG character device or
1809a block device file.
1810.TP
1811.B null
1812Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. This is mainly used to
1813exercise fio itself and for debugging/testing purposes.
1814.TP
1815.B net
1816Transfer over the network to given `host:port'. Depending on the
1817\fBprotocol\fR used, the \fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR,
1818\fBlisten\fR and \fBfilename\fR options are used to specify
1819what sort of connection to make, while the \fBprotocol\fR option
1820determines which protocol will be used. This engine defines engine
1821specific options.
1822.TP
1823.B netsplice
1824Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fBsplice\fR\|(2) and
1825\fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data and send/receive.
1826This engine defines engine specific options.
1827.TP
1828.B cpuio
1829Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to the
1830\fBcpuload\fR, \fBcpuchunks\fR and \fBcpumode\fR options.
1831A job never finishes unless there is at least one non-cpuio job.
1832.RS
1833.P
1834.PD 0
1835\fBcpuload\fR\=85 will cause that job to do nothing but burn 85% of the CPU.
1836In case of SMP machines, use \fBnumjobs=<nr_of_cpu>\fR\ to get desired CPU usage,
1837as the cpuload only loads a single CPU at the desired rate.
1838
1839.P
1840\fBcpumode\fR\=qsort replace the default noop instructions loop
1841by a qsort algorithm to consume more energy.
1842
1843.P
1844.RE
1845.TP
1846.B rdma
1847The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics
1848(RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ) and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the
1849InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols. This engine defines engine
1850specific options.
1851.TP
1852.B falloc
1853I/O engine that does regular fallocate to simulate data transfer as
1854fio ioengine.
1855.RS
1856.P
1857.PD 0
1858DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,).
1859.P
1860DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0).
1861.P
1862DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE).
1863.PD
1864.RE
1865.TP
1866.B ftruncate
1867I/O engine that sends \fBftruncate\fR\|(2) operations in response
1868to write (DDIR_WRITE) events. Each ftruncate issued sets the file's
1869size to the current block offset. \fBblocksize\fR is ignored.
1870.TP
1871.B e4defrag
1872I/O engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate
1873defragment activity in request to DDIR_WRITE event.
1874.TP
1875.B rados
1876I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Reliable Autonomic Distributed
1877Object Store (RADOS) via librados. This ioengine defines engine specific
1878options.
1879.TP
1880.B rbd
1881I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Rados Block Devices
1882(RBD) via librbd without the need to use the kernel rbd driver. This
1883ioengine defines engine specific options.
1884.TP
1885.B http
1886I/O engine supporting GET/PUT requests over HTTP(S) with libcurl to
1887a WebDAV or S3 endpoint. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
1888
1889This engine only supports direct IO of iodepth=1; you need to scale this
1890via numjobs. blocksize defines the size of the objects to be created.
1891
1892TRIM is translated to object deletion.
1893.TP
1894.B gfapi
1895Using GlusterFS libgfapi sync interface to direct access to
1896GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
1897defines engine specific options.
1898.TP
1899.B gfapi_async
1900Using GlusterFS libgfapi async interface to direct access to
1901GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
1902defines engine specific options.
1903.TP
1904.B libhdfs
1905Read and write through Hadoop (HDFS). The \fBfilename\fR option
1906is used to specify host,port of the hdfs name\-node to connect. This
1907engine interprets offsets a little differently. In HDFS, files once
1908created cannot be modified so random writes are not possible. To
1909imitate this the libhdfs engine expects a bunch of small files to be
1910created over HDFS and will randomly pick a file from them
1911based on the offset generated by fio backend (see the example
1912job file to create such files, use `rw=write' option). Please
1913note, it may be necessary to set environment variables to work
1914with HDFS/libhdfs properly. Each job uses its own connection to
1915HDFS.
1916.TP
1917.B mtd
1918Read, write and erase an MTD character device (e.g.,
1919`/dev/mtd0'). Discards are treated as erases. Depending on the
1920underlying device type, the I/O may have to go in a certain pattern,
1921e.g., on NAND, writing sequentially to erase blocks and discarding
1922before overwriting. The \fBtrimwrite\fR mode works well for this
1923constraint.
1924.TP
1925.B pmemblk
1926Read and write using filesystem DAX to a file on a filesystem
1927mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
1928libpmemblk library.
1929.TP
1930.B dev\-dax
1931Read and write using device DAX to a persistent memory device (e.g.,
1932/dev/dax0.0) through the PMDK libpmem library.
1933.TP
1934.B external
1935Prefix to specify loading an external I/O engine object file. Append
1936the engine filename, e.g. `ioengine=external:/tmp/foo.o' to load
1937ioengine `foo.o' in `/tmp'. The path can be either
1938absolute or relative. See `engines/skeleton_external.c' in the fio source for
1939details of writing an external I/O engine.
1940.TP
1941.B filecreate
1942Simply create the files and do no I/O to them. You still need to set
1943\fBfilesize\fR so that all the accounting still occurs, but no actual I/O will be
1944done other than creating the file.
1945.TP
1946.B filestat
1947Simply do stat() and do no I/O to the file. You need to set 'filesize'
1948and 'nrfiles', so that files will be created.
1949This engine is to measure file lookup and meta data access.
1950.TP
1951.B filedelete
1952Simply delete files by unlink() and do no I/O to the file. You need to set 'filesize'
1953and 'nrfiles', so that files will be created.
1954This engine is to measure file delete.
1955.TP
1956.B libpmem
1957Read and write using mmap I/O to a file on a filesystem
1958mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
1959libpmem library.
1960.TP
1961.B ime_psync
1962Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME). This
1963engine is very basic and issues calls to IME whenever an IO is queued.
1964.TP
1965.B ime_psyncv
1966Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME). This
1967engine uses iovecs and will try to stack as much IOs as possible (if the IOs
1968are "contiguous" and the IO depth is not exceeded) before issuing a call to IME.
1969.TP
1970.B ime_aio
1971Asynchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME). This
1972engine will try to stack as much IOs as possible by creating requests for IME.
1973FIO will then decide when to commit these requests.
1974.TP
1975.B libiscsi
1976Read and write iscsi lun with libiscsi.
1977.TP
1978.B nbd
1979Synchronous read and write a Network Block Device (NBD).
1980.TP
1981.B libcufile
1982I/O engine supporting libcufile synchronous access to nvidia-fs and a
1983GPUDirect Storage-supported filesystem. This engine performs
1984I/O without transferring buffers between user-space and the kernel,
1985unless \fBverify\fR is set or \fBcuda_io\fR is \fBposix\fR. \fBiomem\fR must
1986not be \fBcudamalloc\fR. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
1987.TP
1988.B dfs
1989I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to the DAOS File
1990System (DFS) via libdfs.
1991.TP
1992.B nfs
1993I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to
1994NFS filesystems from userspace via libnfs. This is useful for
1995achieving higher concurrency and thus throughput than is possible
1996via kernel NFS.
1997.TP
1998.B exec
1999Execute 3rd party tools. Could be used to perform monitoring during jobs runtime.
2000.TP
2001.B xnvme
2002I/O engine using the xNVMe C API, for NVMe devices. The xnvme engine provides
2003flexibility to access GNU/Linux Kernel NVMe driver via libaio, IOCTLs, io_uring,
2004the SPDK NVMe driver, or your own custom NVMe driver. The xnvme engine includes
2005engine specific options. (See \fIhttps://xnvme.io/\fR).
2006.TP
2007.B libblkio
2008Use the libblkio library (\fIhttps://gitlab.com/libblkio/libblkio\fR). The
2009specific driver to use must be set using \fBlibblkio_driver\fR. If
2010\fBmem\fR/\fBiomem\fR is not specified, memory allocation is delegated to
2011libblkio (and so is guaranteed to work with the selected driver). One libblkio
2012instance is used per process, so all jobs setting option \fBthread\fR will share
2013a single instance (with one queue per thread) and must specify compatible
2014options. Note that some drivers don't allow several instances to access the same
2015device or file simultaneously, but allow it for threads.
2016.SS "I/O engine specific parameters"
2017In addition, there are some parameters which are only valid when a specific
2018\fBioengine\fR is in use. These are used identically to normal parameters,
2019with the caveat that when used on the command line, they must come after the
2020\fBioengine\fR that defines them is selected.
2021.TP
2022.BI (io_uring,libaio)cmdprio_percentage \fR=\fPint[,int]
2023Set the percentage of I/O that will be issued with the highest priority.
2024Default: 0. A single value applies to reads and writes. Comma-separated
2025values may be specified for reads and writes. For this option to be effective,
2026NCQ priority must be supported and enabled, and `direct=1' option must be
2027used. fio must also be run as the root user. Unlike slat/clat/lat stats, which
2028can be tracked and reported independently, per priority stats only track and
2029report a single type of latency. By default, completion latency (clat) will be
2030reported, if \fBlat_percentiles\fR is set, total latency (lat) will be reported.
2031.TP
2032.BI (io_uring,libaio)cmdprio_class \fR=\fPint[,int]
2033Set the I/O priority class to use for I/Os that must be issued with a
2034priority when \fBcmdprio_percentage\fR or \fBcmdprio_bssplit\fR is set.
2035If not specified when \fBcmdprio_percentage\fR or \fBcmdprio_bssplit\fR
2036is set, this defaults to the highest priority class. A single value applies
2037to reads and writes. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads and
2038writes. See man \fBionice\fR\|(1). See also the \fBprioclass\fR option.
2039.TP
2040.BI (io_uring,libaio)cmdprio \fR=\fPint[,int]
2041Set the I/O priority value to use for I/Os that must be issued with a
2042priority when \fBcmdprio_percentage\fR or \fBcmdprio_bssplit\fR is set.
2043If not specified when \fBcmdprio_percentage\fR or \fBcmdprio_bssplit\fR
2044is set, this defaults to 0. Linux limits us to a positive value between
20450 and 7, with 0 being the highest. A single value applies to reads and writes.
2046Comma-separated values may be specified for reads and writes. See man
2047\fBionice\fR\|(1). Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating systems
2048since the meaning of priority may differ. See also the \fBprio\fR option.
2049.TP
2050.BI (io_uring,libaio)cmdprio_bssplit \fR=\fPstr[,str]
2051To get a finer control over I/O priority, this option allows specifying
2052the percentage of IOs that must have a priority set depending on the block
2053size of the IO. This option is useful only when used together with the option
2054\fBbssplit\fR, that is, multiple different block sizes are used for reads and
2055writes.
2056.RS
2057.P
2058The first accepted format for this option is the same as the format of the
2059\fBbssplit\fR option:
2060.RS
2061.P
2062cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
2063.RE
2064.P
2065In this case, each entry will use the priority class and priority level defined
2066by the options \fBcmdprio_class\fR and \fBcmdprio\fR respectively.
2067.P
2068The second accepted format for this option is:
2069.RS
2070.P
2071cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage/class/level:blocksize/percentage/class/level
2072.RE
2073.P
2074In this case, the priority class and priority level is defined inside each
2075entry. In comparison with the first accepted format, the second accepted format
2076does not restrict all entries to have the same priority class and priority
2077level.
2078.P
2079For both formats, only the read and write data directions are supported, values
2080for trim IOs are ignored. This option is mutually exclusive with the
2081\fBcmdprio_percentage\fR option.
2082.RE
2083.TP
2084.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd)fixedbufs
2085If fio is asked to do direct IO, then Linux will map pages for each IO call, and
2086release them when IO is done. If this option is set, the pages are pre-mapped
2087before IO is started. This eliminates the need to map and release for each IO.
2088This is more efficient, and reduces the IO latency as well.
2089.TP
2090.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd)nonvectored \fR=\fPint
2091With this option, fio will use non-vectored read/write commands, where address
2092must contain the address directly. Default is -1.
2093.TP
2094.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd)force_async
2095Normal operation for io_uring is to try and issue an sqe as non-blocking first,
2096and if that fails, execute it in an async manner. With this option set to N,
2097then every N request fio will ask sqe to be issued in an async manner. Default
2098is 0.
2099.TP
2100.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd,xnvme)hipri
2101If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions. Normal IO
2102completions generate interrupts to signal the completion of IO, polled
2103completions do not. Hence they are require active reaping by the application.
2104The benefits are more efficient IO for high IOPS scenarios, and lower latencies
2105for low queue depth IO.
2106.TP
2107.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd)registerfiles
2108With this option, fio registers the set of files being used with the kernel.
2109This avoids the overhead of managing file counts in the kernel, making the
2110submission and completion part more lightweight. Required for the below
2111sqthread_poll option.
2112.TP
2113.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd,xnvme)sqthread_poll
2114Normally fio will submit IO by issuing a system call to notify the kernel of
2115available items in the SQ ring. If this option is set, the act of submitting IO
2116will be done by a polling thread in the kernel. This frees up cycles for fio, at
2117the cost of using more CPU in the system. As submission is just the time it
2118takes to fill in the sqe entries and any syscall required to wake up the idle
2119kernel thread, fio will not report submission latencies.
2120.TP
2121.BI (io_uring,io_uring_cmd)sqthread_poll_cpu \fR=\fPint
2122When `sqthread_poll` is set, this option provides a way to define which CPU
2123should be used for the polling thread.
2124.TP
2125.BI (io_uring_cmd)cmd_type \fR=\fPstr
2126Specifies the type of uring passthrough command to be used. Supported
2127value is nvme. Default is nvme.
2128.TP
2129.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
2130Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use the
2131\fBio_getevents\fR\|(3) system call to reap newly returned events. With
2132this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly from user-space to
2133reap events. The reaping mode is only enabled when polling for a minimum of
21340 events (e.g. when `iodepth_batch_complete=0').
2135.TP
2136.BI (pvsync2)hipri
2137Set RWF_HIPRI on I/O, indicating to the kernel that it's of higher priority
2138than normal.
2139.TP
2140.BI (pvsync2)hipri_percentage
2141When hipri is set this determines the probability of a pvsync2 I/O being high
2142priority. The default is 100%.
2143.TP
2144.BI (pvsync2,libaio,io_uring,io_uring_cmd)nowait \fR=\fPbool
2145By default if a request cannot be executed immediately (e.g. resource starvation,
2146waiting on locks) it is queued and the initiating process will be blocked until
2147the required resource becomes free.
2148This option sets the RWF_NOWAIT flag (supported from the 4.14 Linux kernel) and
2149the call will return instantly with EAGAIN or a partial result rather than waiting.
2150
2151It is useful to also use \fBignore_error\fR=EAGAIN when using this option.
2152Note: glibc 2.27, 2.28 have a bug in syscall wrappers preadv2, pwritev2.
2153They return EOPNOTSUP instead of EAGAIN.
2154
2155For cached I/O, using this option usually means a request operates only with
2156cached data. Currently the RWF_NOWAIT flag does not supported for cached write.
2157For direct I/O, requests will only succeed if cache invalidation isn't required,
2158file blocks are fully allocated and the disk request could be issued immediately.
2159.TP
2160.BI (cpuio)cpuload \fR=\fPint
2161Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles. This is a mandatory
2162option when using cpuio I/O engine.
2163.TP
2164.BI (cpuio)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
2165Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
2166.TP
2167.BI (cpuio)cpumode \fR=\fPstr
2168Specify how to stress the CPU. It can take these two values:
2169.RS
2170.RS
2171.TP
2172.B noop
2173This is the default and directs the CPU to execute noop instructions.
2174.TP
2175.B qsort
2176Replace the default noop instructions with a qsort algorithm to consume more energy.
2177.RE
2178.RE
2179.TP
2180.BI (cpuio)exit_on_io_done \fR=\fPbool
2181Detect when I/O threads are done, then exit.
2182.TP
2183.BI (libhdfs)namenode \fR=\fPstr
2184The hostname or IP address of a HDFS cluster namenode to contact.
2185.TP
2186.BI (libhdfs)port \fR=\fPint
2187The listening port of the HFDS cluster namenode.
2188.TP
2189.BI (netsplice,net)port \fR=\fPint
2190The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to. If this is used with
2191\fBnumjobs\fR to spawn multiple instances of the same job type, then
2192this will be the starting port number since fio will use a range of
2193ports.
2194.TP
2195.BI (rdma,librpma_*)port \fR=\fPint
2196The port to use for RDMA-CM communication. This should be the same
2197value on the client and the server side.
2198.TP
2199.BI (netsplice,net,rdma)hostname \fR=\fPstr
2200The hostname or IP address to use for TCP, UDP or RDMA-CM based I/O.
2201If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not used
2202and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
2203.TP
2204.BI (librpma_*)serverip \fR=\fPstr
2205The IP address to be used for RDMA-CM based I/O.
2206.TP
2207.BI (librpma_*_server)direct_write_to_pmem \fR=\fPbool
2208Set to 1 only when Direct Write to PMem from the remote host is possible. Otherwise, set to 0.
2209.TP
2210.BI (librpma_*_server)busy_wait_polling \fR=\fPbool
2211Set to 0 to wait for completion instead of busy-wait polling completion.
2212Default: 1.
2213.TP
2214.BI (netsplice,net)interface \fR=\fPstr
2215The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP
2216multicast.
2217.TP
2218.BI (netsplice,net)ttl \fR=\fPint
2219Time\-to\-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1.
2220.TP
2221.BI (netsplice,net)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
2222Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
2223.TP
2224.BI (netsplice,net)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
2225The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
2226.RS
2227.RS
2228.TP
2229.B tcp
2230Transmission control protocol.
2231.TP
2232.B tcpv6
2233Transmission control protocol V6.
2234.TP
2235.B udp
2236User datagram protocol.
2237.TP
2238.B udpv6
2239User datagram protocol V6.
2240.TP
2241.B unix
2242UNIX domain socket.
2243.RE
2244.P
2245When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given, as well as the
2246hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader. For unix sockets, the
2247normal \fBfilename\fR option should be used and the port is invalid.
2248.RE
2249.TP
2250.BI (netsplice,net)listen
2251For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming connections
2252rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The \fBhostname\fR must
2253be omitted if this option is used.
2254.TP
2255.BI (netsplice,net)pingpong
2256Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network
2257reader will just consume packages. If `pingpong=1' is set, a writer will
2258send its normal payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the
2259same payload back. This allows fio to measure network latencies. The
2260submission and completion latencies then measure local time spent sending or
2261receiving, and the completion latency measures how long it took for the
2262other end to receive and send back. For UDP multicast traffic
2263`pingpong=1' should only be set for a single reader when multiple readers
2264are listening to the same address.
2265.TP
2266.BI (netsplice,net)window_size \fR=\fPint
2267Set the desired socket buffer size for the connection.
2268.TP
2269.BI (netsplice,net)mss \fR=\fPint
2270Set the TCP maximum segment size (TCP_MAXSEG).
2271.TP
2272.BI (e4defrag)donorname \fR=\fPstr
2273File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files).
2274.TP
2275.BI (e4defrag)inplace \fR=\fPint
2276Configure donor file blocks allocation strategy:
2277.RS
2278.RS
2279.TP
2280.B 0
2281Default. Preallocate donor's file on init.
2282.TP
2283.B 1
2284Allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right
2285after event.
2286.RE
2287.RE
2288.TP
2289.BI (rbd,rados)clustername \fR=\fPstr
2290Specifies the name of the Ceph cluster.
2291.TP
2292.BI (rbd)rbdname \fR=\fPstr
2293Specifies the name of the RBD.
2294.TP
2295.BI (rbd,rados)pool \fR=\fPstr
2296Specifies the name of the Ceph pool containing RBD or RADOS data.
2297.TP
2298.BI (rbd,rados)clientname \fR=\fPstr
2299Specifies the username (without the 'client.' prefix) used to access the
2300Ceph cluster. If the \fBclustername\fR is specified, the \fBclientname\fR shall be
2301the full *type.id* string. If no type. prefix is given, fio will add 'client.'
2302by default.
2303.TP
2304.BI (rados)conf \fR=\fPstr
2305Specifies the configuration path of ceph cluster, so conf file does not
2306have to be /etc/ceph/ceph.conf.
2307.TP
2308.BI (rbd,rados)busy_poll \fR=\fPbool
2309Poll store instead of waiting for completion. Usually this provides better
2310throughput at cost of higher(up to 100%) CPU utilization.
2311.TP
2312.BI (rados)touch_objects \fR=\fPbool
2313During initialization, touch (create if do not exist) all objects (files).
2314Touching all objects affects ceph caches and likely impacts test results.
2315Enabled by default.
2316.TP
2317.BI (http)http_host \fR=\fPstr
2318Hostname to connect to. For S3, this could be the bucket name. Default
2319is \fBlocalhost\fR
2320.TP
2321.BI (http)http_user \fR=\fPstr
2322Username for HTTP authentication.
2323.TP
2324.BI (http)http_pass \fR=\fPstr
2325Password for HTTP authentication.
2326.TP
2327.BI (http)https \fR=\fPstr
2328Whether to use HTTPS instead of plain HTTP. \fRon\fP enables HTTPS;
2329\fRinsecure\fP will enable HTTPS, but disable SSL peer verification (use
2330with caution!). Default is \fBoff\fR.
2331.TP
2332.BI (http)http_mode \fR=\fPstr
2333Which HTTP access mode to use: webdav, swift, or s3. Default is
2334\fBwebdav\fR.
2335.TP
2336.BI (http)http_s3_region \fR=\fPstr
2337The S3 region/zone to include in the request. Default is \fBus-east-1\fR.
2338.TP
2339.BI (http)http_s3_key \fR=\fPstr
2340The S3 secret key.
2341.TP
2342.BI (http)http_s3_keyid \fR=\fPstr
2343The S3 key/access id.
2344.TP
2345.BI (http)http_s3_sse_customer_key \fR=\fPstr
2346The encryption customer key in SSE server side.
2347.TP
2348.BI (http)http_s3_sse_customer_algorithm \fR=\fPstr
2349The encryption customer algorithm in SSE server side. Default is \fBAES256\fR
2350.TP
2351.BI (http)http_s3_storage_class \fR=\fPstr
2352Which storage class to access. User-customizable settings. Default is \fBSTANDARD\fR
2353.TP
2354.BI (http)http_swift_auth_token \fR=\fPstr
2355The Swift auth token. See the example configuration file on how to
2356retrieve this.
2357.TP
2358.BI (http)http_verbose \fR=\fPint
2359Enable verbose requests from libcurl. Useful for debugging. 1 turns on
2360verbose logging from libcurl, 2 additionally enables HTTP IO tracing.
2361Default is \fB0\fR
2362.TP
2363.BI (mtd)skip_bad \fR=\fPbool
2364Skip operations against known bad blocks.
2365.TP
2366.BI (libhdfs)hdfsdirectory
2367libhdfs will create chunk in this HDFS directory.
2368.TP
2369.BI (libhdfs)chunk_size
2370The size of the chunk to use for each file.
2371.TP
2372.BI (rdma)verb \fR=\fPstr
2373The RDMA verb to use on this side of the RDMA ioengine
2374connection. Valid values are write, read, send and recv. These
2375correspond to the equivalent RDMA verbs (e.g. write = rdma_write
2376etc.). Note that this only needs to be specified on the client side of
2377the connection. See the examples folder.
2378.TP
2379.BI (rdma)bindname \fR=\fPstr
2380The name to use to bind the local RDMA-CM connection to a local RDMA
2381device. This could be a hostname or an IPv4 or IPv6 address. On the
2382server side this will be passed into the rdma_bind_addr() function and
2383on the client site it will be used in the rdma_resolve_add()
2384function. This can be useful when multiple paths exist between the
2385client and the server or in certain loopback configurations.
2386.TP
2387.BI (filestat)stat_type \fR=\fPstr
2388Specify stat system call type to measure lookup/getattr performance.
2389Default is \fBstat\fR for \fBstat\fR\|(2).
2390.TP
2391.BI (sg)hipri
2392If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions. This
2393will have a similar effect as (io_uring)hipri. Only SCSI READ and WRITE
2394commands will have the SGV4_FLAG_HIPRI set (not UNMAP (trim) nor VERIFY).
2395Older versions of the Linux sg driver that do not support hipri will simply
2396ignore this flag and do normal IO. The Linux SCSI Low Level Driver (LLD)
2397that "owns" the device also needs to support hipri (also known as iopoll
2398and mq_poll). The MegaRAID driver is an example of a SCSI LLD.
2399Default: clear (0) which does normal (interrupted based) IO.
2400.TP
2401.BI (sg)readfua \fR=\fPbool
2402With readfua option set to 1, read operations include the force
2403unit access (fua) flag. Default: 0.
2404.TP
2405.BI (sg)writefua \fR=\fPbool
2406With writefua option set to 1, write operations include the force
2407unit access (fua) flag. Default: 0.
2408.TP
2409.BI (sg)sg_write_mode \fR=\fPstr
2410Specify the type of write commands to issue. This option can take multiple
2411values:
2412.RS
2413.RS
2414.TP
2415.B write (default)
2416Write opcodes are issued as usual
2417.TP
2418.B write_and_verify
2419Issue WRITE AND VERIFY commands. The BYTCHK bit is set to 00b. This directs the
2420device to carry out a medium verification with no data comparison for the data
2421that was written. The writefua option is ignored with this selection.
2422.TP
2423.B verify
2424This option is deprecated. Use write_and_verify instead.
2425.TP
2426.B write_same
2427Issue WRITE SAME commands. This transfers a single block to the device
2428and writes this same block of data to a contiguous sequence of LBAs
2429beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size parameter
2430specifies the amount of data written with each command. However, the
2431amount of data actually transferred to the device is equal to the
2432device's block (sector) size. For a device with 512 byte sectors,
2433blocksize=8k will write 16 sectors with each command. fio will still
2434generate 8k of data for each command butonly the first 512 bytes will
2435be used and transferred to the device. The writefua option is ignored
2436with this selection.
2437.TP
2438.B same
2439This option is deprecated. Use write_same instead.
2440.TP
2441.B write_same_ndob
2442Issue WRITE SAME(16) commands as above but with the No Data Output
2443Buffer (NDOB) bit set. No data will be transferred to the device with
2444this bit set. Data written will be a pre-determined pattern such as
2445all zeroes.
2446.TP
2447.B write_stream
2448Issue WRITE STREAM(16) commands. Use the stream_id option to specify
2449the stream identifier.
2450.TP
2451.B verify_bytchk_00
2452Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 00. This directs the device to carry
2453out a medium verification with no data comparison.
2454.TP
2455.B verify_bytchk_01
2456Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 01. This directs the device to
2457compare the data on the device with the data transferred to the device.
2458.TP
2459.B verify_bytchk_11
2460Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 11. This transfers a single block to
2461the device and compares the contents of this block with the data on the device
2462beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size parameter specifies the
2463total amount of data compared with this command. However, only one block
2464(sector) worth of data is transferred to the device. This is similar to the
2465WRITE SAME command except that data is compared instead of written.
2466.RE
2467.RE
2468.TP
2469.BI (sg)stream_id \fR=\fPint
2470Set the stream identifier for WRITE STREAM commands. If this is set to 0 (which is not
2471a valid stream identifier) fio will open a stream and then close it when done. Default
2472is 0.
2473.TP
2474.BI (nbd)uri \fR=\fPstr
2475Specify the NBD URI of the server to test.
2476The string is a standard NBD URI (see
2477\fIhttps://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/tree/master/doc\fR).
2478Example URIs:
2479.RS
2480.RS
2481.TP
2482\fInbd://localhost:10809\fR
2483.TP
2484\fInbd+unix:///?socket=/tmp/socket\fR
2485.TP
2486\fInbds://tlshost/exportname\fR
2487.RE
2488.RE
2489.TP
2490.BI (libcufile)gpu_dev_ids\fR=\fPstr
2491Specify the GPU IDs to use with CUDA. This is a colon-separated list of int.
2492GPUs are assigned to workers roundrobin. Default is 0.
2493.TP
2494.BI (libcufile)cuda_io\fR=\fPstr
2495Specify the type of I/O to use with CUDA. This option
2496takes the following values:
2497.RS
2498.RS
2499.TP
2500.B cufile (default)
2501Use libcufile and nvidia-fs. This option performs I/O directly
2502between a GPUDirect Storage filesystem and GPU buffers,
2503avoiding use of a bounce buffer. If \fBverify\fR is set,
2504cudaMemcpy is used to copy verification data between RAM and GPU(s).
2505Verification data is copied from RAM to GPU before a write
2506and from GPU to RAM after a read.
2507\fBdirect\fR must be 1.
2508.TP
2509.BI posix
2510Use POSIX to perform I/O with a RAM buffer, and use
2511cudaMemcpy to transfer data between RAM and the GPU(s).
2512Data is copied from GPU to RAM before a write and copied
2513from RAM to GPU after a read. \fBverify\fR does not affect
2514the use of cudaMemcpy.
2515.RE
2516.RE
2517.TP
2518.BI (dfs)pool
2519Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS pool to connect to.
2520.TP
2521.BI (dfs)cont
2522Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS container to open.
2523.TP
2524.BI (dfs)chunk_size
2525Specify a different chunk size (in bytes) for the dfs file.
2526Use DAOS container's chunk size by default.
2527.TP
2528.BI (dfs)object_class
2529Specify a different object class for the dfs file.
2530Use DAOS container's object class by default.
2531.TP
2532.BI (nfs)nfs_url
2533URL in libnfs format, eg nfs://<server|ipv4|ipv6>/path[?arg=val[&arg=val]*]
2534Refer to the libnfs README for more details.
2535.TP
2536.BI (exec)program\fR=\fPstr
2537Specify the program to execute.
2538Note the program will receive a SIGTERM when the job is reaching the time limit.
2539A SIGKILL is sent once the job is over. The delay between the two signals is defined by \fBgrace_time\fR option.
2540.TP
2541.BI (exec)arguments\fR=\fPstr
2542Specify arguments to pass to program.
2543Some special variables can be expanded to pass fio's job details to the program :
2544.RS
2545.RS
2546.TP
2547.B %r
2548replaced by the duration of the job in seconds
2549.TP
2550.BI %n
2551replaced by the name of the job
2552.RE
2553.RE
2554.TP
2555.BI (exec)grace_time\fR=\fPint
2556Defines the time between the SIGTERM and SIGKILL signals. Default is 1 second.
2557.TP
2558.BI (exec)std_redirect\fR=\fPbool
2559If set, stdout and stderr streams are redirected to files named from the job name. Default is true.
2560.TP
2561.BI (xnvme)xnvme_async\fR=\fPstr
2562Select the xnvme async command interface. This can take these values.
2563.RS
2564.RS
2565.TP
2566.B emu
2567This is default and use to emulate asynchronous I/O by using a single thread to
2568create a queue pair on top of a synchronous I/O interface using the NVMe driver
2569IOCTL.
2570.TP
2571.BI thrpool
2572Emulate an asynchronous I/O interface with a pool of userspace threads on top
2573of a synchronous I/O interface using the NVMe driver IOCTL. By default four
2574threads are used.
2575.TP
2576.BI io_uring
2577Linux native asynchronous I/O interface which supports both direct and buffered
2578I/O.
2579.TP
2580.BI libaio
2581Use Linux aio for Asynchronous I/O
2582.TP
2583.BI posix
2584Use the posix asynchronous I/O interface to perform one or more I/O operations
2585asynchronously.
2586.TP
2587.BI vfio
2588Use the user-space VFIO-based backend, implemented using libvfn instead of
2589SPDK.
2590.TP
2591.BI nil
2592Do not transfer any data; just pretend to. This is mainly used for
2593introspective performance evaluation.
2594.RE
2595.RE
2596.TP
2597.BI (xnvme)xnvme_sync\fR=\fPstr
2598Select the xnvme synchronous command interface. This can take these values.
2599.RS
2600.RS
2601.TP
2602.B nvme
2603This is default and uses Linux NVMe Driver ioctl() for synchronous I/O.
2604.TP
2605.BI psync
2606This supports regular as well as vectored pread() and pwrite() commands.
2607.TP
2608.BI block
2609This is the same as psync except that it also supports zone management
2610commands using Linux block layer IOCTLs.
2611.RE
2612.RE
2613.TP
2614.BI (xnvme)xnvme_admin\fR=\fPstr
2615Select the xnvme admin command interface. This can take these values.
2616.RS
2617.RS
2618.TP
2619.B nvme
2620This is default and uses Linux NVMe Driver ioctl() for admin commands.
2621.TP
2622.BI block
2623Use Linux Block Layer ioctl() and sysfs for admin commands.
2624.RE
2625.RE
2626.TP
2627.BI (xnvme)xnvme_dev_nsid\fR=\fPint
2628xnvme namespace identifier for userspace NVMe driver SPDK or vfio.
2629.TP
2630.BI (xnvme)xnvme_iovec
2631If this option is set, xnvme will use vectored read/write commands.
2632.TP
2633.BI (libblkio)libblkio_driver \fR=\fPstr
2634The libblkio driver to use. Different drivers access devices through different
2635underlying interfaces. Available drivers depend on the libblkio version in use
2636and are listed at \fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers\fR
2637.TP
2638.BI (libblkio)libblkio_path \fR=\fPstr
2639Sets the value of the driver-specific "path" property before connecting the
2640libblkio instance, which identifies the target device or file on which to
2641perform I/O. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent and not all drivers may
2642support it; see \fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers\fR
2643.TP
2644.BI (libblkio)libblkio_pre_connect_props \fR=\fPstr
2645A colon-separated list of additional libblkio properties to be set after
2646creating but before connecting the libblkio instance. Each property must have
2647the format \fB<name>=<value>\fR. Colons can be escaped as \fB\\:\fR. These are
2648set after the engine sets any other properties, so those can be overriden.
2649Available properties depend on the libblkio version in use and are listed at
2650\fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#properties\fR
2651.TP
2652.BI (libblkio)libblkio_num_entries \fR=\fPint
2653Sets the value of the driver-specific "num-entries" property before starting the
2654libblkio instance. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent and not all drivers
2655may support it; see \fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers\fR
2656.TP
2657.BI (libblkio)libblkio_queue_size \fR=\fPint
2658Sets the value of the driver-specific "queue-size" property before starting the
2659libblkio instance. Its exact semantics are driver-dependent and not all drivers
2660may support it; see \fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#drivers\fR
2661.TP
2662.BI (libblkio)libblkio_pre_start_props \fR=\fPstr
2663A colon-separated list of additional libblkio properties to be set after
2664connecting but before starting the libblkio instance. Each property must have
2665the format \fB<name>=<value>\fR. Colons can be escaped as \fB\\:\fR. These are
2666set after the engine sets any other properties, so those can be overriden.
2667Available properties depend on the libblkio version in use and are listed at
2668\fIhttps://libblkio.gitlab.io/libblkio/blkio.html#properties\fR
2669.TP
2670.BI (libblkio)hipri
2671Use poll queues. This is incompatible with \fBlibblkio_wait_mode=eventfd\fR and
2672\fBlibblkio_force_enable_completion_eventfd\fR.
2673.TP
2674.BI (libblkio)libblkio_vectored
2675Submit vectored read and write requests.
2676.TP
2677.BI (libblkio)libblkio_write_zeroes_on_trim
2678Submit trims as "write zeroes" requests instead of discard requests.
2679.TP
2680.BI (libblkio)libblkio_wait_mode \fR=\fPstr
2681How to wait for completions:
2682.RS
2683.RS
2684.TP
2685.B block \fR(default)
2686Use a blocking call to \fBblkioq_do_io()\fR.
2687.TP
2688.B eventfd
2689Use a blocking call to \fBread()\fR on the completion eventfd.
2690.TP
2691.B loop
2692Use a busy loop with a non-blocking call to \fBblkioq_do_io()\fR.
2693.RE
2694.RE
2695.TP
2696.BI (libblkio)libblkio_force_enable_completion_eventfd
2697Enable the queue's completion eventfd even when unused. This may impact
2698performance. The default is to enable it only if
2699\fBlibblkio_wait_mode=eventfd\fR.
2700.SS "I/O depth"
2701.TP
2702.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
2703Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that
2704increasing \fBiodepth\fR beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except
2705for small degrees when \fBverify_async\fR is in use). Even async
2706engines may impose OS restrictions causing the desired depth not to be
2707achieved. This may happen on Linux when using libaio and not setting
2708`direct=1', since buffered I/O is not async on that OS. Keep an
2709eye on the I/O depth distribution in the fio output to verify that the
2710achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
2711.TP
2712.BI iodepth_batch_submit \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP iodepth_batch" \fR=\fPint
2713This defines how many pieces of I/O to submit at once. It defaults to 1
2714which means that we submit each I/O as soon as it is available, but can be
2715raised to submit bigger batches of I/O at the time. If it is set to 0 the
2716\fBiodepth\fR value will be used.
2717.TP
2718.BI iodepth_batch_complete_min \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP iodepth_batch_complete" \fR=\fPint
2719This defines how many pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1
2720which means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 I/O in the retrieval process
2721from the kernel. The I/O retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
2722\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always
2723check for completed events before queuing more I/O. This helps reduce I/O
2724latency, at the cost of more retrieval system calls.
2725.TP
2726.BI iodepth_batch_complete_max \fR=\fPint
2727This defines maximum pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. This variable should
2728be used along with \fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR=\fIint\fR variable,
2729specifying the range of min and max amount of I/O which should be
2730retrieved. By default it is equal to \fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR
2731value. Example #1:
2732.RS
2733.RS
2734.P
2735.PD 0
2736iodepth_batch_complete_min=1
2737.P
2738iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
2739.PD
2740.RE
2741.P
2742which means that we will retrieve at least 1 I/O and up to the whole
2743submitted queue depth. If none of I/O has been completed yet, we will wait.
2744Example #2:
2745.RS
2746.P
2747.PD 0
2748iodepth_batch_complete_min=0
2749.P
2750iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
2751.PD
2752.RE
2753.P
2754which means that we can retrieve up to the whole submitted queue depth, but
2755if none of I/O has been completed yet, we will NOT wait and immediately exit
2756the system call. In this example we simply do polling.
2757.RE
2758.TP
2759.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
2760The low water mark indicating when to start filling the queue
2761again. Defaults to the same as \fBiodepth\fR, meaning that fio will
2762attempt to keep the queue full at all times. If \fBiodepth\fR is set to
2763e.g. 16 and \fBiodepth_low\fR is set to 4, then after fio has filled the queue of
276416 requests, it will let the depth drain down to 4 before starting to fill
2765it again.
2766.TP
2767.BI serialize_overlap \fR=\fPbool
2768Serialize in-flight I/Os that might otherwise cause or suffer from data races.
2769When two or more I/Os are submitted simultaneously, there is no guarantee that
2770the I/Os will be processed or completed in the submitted order. Further, if
2771two or more of those I/Os are writes, any overlapping region between them can
2772become indeterminate/undefined on certain storage. These issues can cause
2773verification to fail erratically when at least one of the racing I/Os is
2774changing data and the overlapping region has a non-zero size. Setting
2775\fBserialize_overlap\fR tells fio to avoid provoking this behavior by explicitly
2776serializing in-flight I/Os that have a non-zero overlap. Note that setting
2777this option can reduce both performance and the \fBiodepth\fR achieved.
2778.RS
2779.P
2780This option only applies to I/Os issued for a single job except when it is
2781enabled along with \fBio_submit_mode\fR=offload. In offload mode, fio
2782will check for overlap among all I/Os submitted by offload jobs with \fBserialize_overlap\fR
2783enabled.
2784.P
2785Default: false.
2786.RE
2787.TP
2788.BI io_submit_mode \fR=\fPstr
2789This option controls how fio submits the I/O to the I/O engine. The default
2790is `inline', which means that the fio job threads submit and reap I/O
2791directly. If set to `offload', the job threads will offload I/O submission
2792to a dedicated pool of I/O threads. This requires some coordination and thus
2793has a bit of extra overhead, especially for lower queue depth I/O where it
2794can increase latencies. The benefit is that fio can manage submission rates
2795independently of the device completion rates. This avoids skewed latency
2796reporting if I/O gets backed up on the device side (the coordinated omission
2797problem). Note that this option cannot reliably be used with async IO engines.
2798.SS "I/O rate"
2799.TP
2800.BI thinktime \fR=\fPtime
2801Stall the job for the specified period of time after an I/O has completed before issuing the
2802next. May be used to simulate processing being done by an application.
2803When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
2804\fBthinktime_blocks\fR, \fBthinktime_iotime\fR and \fBthinktime_spin\fR.
2805.TP
2806.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPtime
2807Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set - pretend to spend CPU time doing
2808something with the data received, before falling back to sleeping for the
2809rest of the period specified by \fBthinktime\fR. When the unit is
2810omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
2811.TP
2812.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
2813Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set - control how many blocks to issue,
2814before waiting \fBthinktime\fR usecs. If not set, defaults to 1 which will make
2815fio wait \fBthinktime\fR usecs after every block. This effectively makes any
2816queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 I/O will be queued
2817before we have to complete it and do our \fBthinktime\fR. In other words, this
2818setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
2819.TP
2820.BI thinktime_blocks_type \fR=\fPstr
2821Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set - control how \fBthinktime_blocks\fR triggers.
2822The default is `complete', which triggers \fBthinktime\fR when fio completes
2823\fBthinktime_blocks\fR blocks. If this is set to `issue', then the trigger happens
2824at the issue side.
2825.TP
2826.BI thinktime_iotime \fR=\fPtime
2827Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set - control \fBthinktime\fR interval by time.
2828The \fBthinktime\fR stall is repeated after IOs are executed for
2829\fBthinktime_iotime\fR. For example, `\-\-thinktime_iotime=9s \-\-thinktime=1s'
2830repeat 10-second cycle with IOs for 9 seconds and stall for 1 second. When the
2831unit is omitted, \fBthinktime_iotime\fR is interpreted as a number of seconds.
2832If this option is used together with \fBthinktime_blocks\fR, the \fBthinktime\fR
2833stall is repeated after \fBthinktime_iotime\fR or after \fBthinktime_blocks\fR
2834IOs, whichever happens first.
2835
2836.TP
2837.BI rate \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
2838Cap the bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal
2839suffix rules apply. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2840writes, and trims as described in \fBblocksize\fR.
2841.RS
2842.P
2843For example, using `rate=1m,500k' would limit reads to 1MiB/sec and writes to
2844500KiB/sec. Capping only reads or writes can be done with `rate=,500k' or
2845`rate=500k,' where the former will only limit writes (to 500KiB/sec) and the
2846latter will only limit reads.
2847.RE
2848.TP
2849.BI rate_min \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
2850Tell fio to do whatever it can to maintain at least this bandwidth. Failing
2851to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. Comma-separated values
2852may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in
2853\fBblocksize\fR.
2854.TP
2855.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
2856Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as
2857\fBrate\fR, just specified independently of bandwidth. If the job is
2858given a block size range instead of a fixed value, the smallest block size
2859is used as the metric. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2860writes, and trims as described in \fBblocksize\fR.
2861.TP
2862.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint[,int][,int]
2863If fio doesn't meet this rate of I/O, it will cause the job to exit.
2864Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
2865described in \fBblocksize\fR.
2866.TP
2867.BI rate_process \fR=\fPstr
2868This option controls how fio manages rated I/O submissions. The default is
2869`linear', which submits I/O in a linear fashion with fixed delays between
2870I/Os that gets adjusted based on I/O completion rates. If this is set to
2871`poisson', fio will submit I/O based on a more real world random request
2872flow, known as the Poisson process
2873(\fIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_point_process\fR). The lambda will be
287410^6 / IOPS for the given workload.
2875.TP
2876.BI rate_ignore_thinktime \fR=\fPbool
2877By default, fio will attempt to catch up to the specified rate setting, if any
2878kind of thinktime setting was used. If this option is set, then fio will
2879ignore the thinktime and continue doing IO at the specified rate, instead of
2880entering a catch-up mode after thinktime is done.
2881.SS "I/O latency"
2882.TP
2883.BI latency_target \fR=\fPtime
2884If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
2885workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. When
2886the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
2887\fBlatency_window\fR and \fBlatency_percentile\fR.
2888.TP
2889.BI latency_window \fR=\fPtime
2890Used with \fBlatency_target\fR to specify the sample window that the job
2891is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. When the unit is
2892omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
2893.TP
2894.BI latency_percentile \fR=\fPfloat
2895The percentage of I/Os that must fall within the criteria specified by
2896\fBlatency_target\fR and \fBlatency_window\fR. If not set, this
2897defaults to 100.0, meaning that all I/Os must be equal or below to the value
2898set by \fBlatency_target\fR.
2899.TP
2900.BI latency_run \fR=\fPbool
2901Used with \fBlatency_target\fR. If false (default), fio will find the highest
2902queue depth that meets \fBlatency_target\fR and exit. If true, fio will continue
2903running and try to meet \fBlatency_target\fR by adjusting queue depth.
2904.TP
2905.BI max_latency \fR=\fPtime[,time][,time]
2906If set, fio will exit the job with an ETIMEDOUT error if it exceeds this
2907maximum latency. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in
2908microseconds. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes,
2909and trims as described in \fBblocksize\fR.
2910.TP
2911.BI rate_cycle \fR=\fPint
2912Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBrate_min\fR over this number
2913of milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.
2914.SS "I/O replay"
2915.TP
2916.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
2917Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. See
2918\fBread_iolog\fR. Specify a separate file for each job, otherwise the
2919iologs will be interspersed and the file may be corrupt. This file will be
2920opened in append mode.
2921.TP
2922.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
2923Open an iolog with the specified filename and replay the I/O patterns it
2924contains. This can be used to store a workload and replay it sometime
2925later. The iolog given may also be a blktrace binary file, which allows fio
2926to replay a workload captured by blktrace. See
2927\fBblktrace\fR\|(8) for how to capture such logging data. For blktrace
2928replay, the file needs to be turned into a blkparse binary data file first
2929(`blkparse <device> \-o /dev/null \-d file_for_fio.bin').
2930You can specify a number of files by separating the names with a ':' character.
2931See the \fBfilename\fR option for information on how to escape ':'
2932characters within the file names. These files will be sequentially assigned to
2933job clones created by \fBnumjobs\fR. '-' is a reserved name, meaning read from
2934stdin, notably if \fBfilename\fR is set to '-' which means stdin as well,
2935then this flag can't be set to '-'.
2936.TP
2937.BI read_iolog_chunked \fR=\fPbool
2938Determines how iolog is read. If false (default) entire \fBread_iolog\fR will
2939be read at once. If selected true, input from iolog will be read gradually.
2940Useful when iolog is very large, or it is generated.
2941.TP
2942.BI merge_blktrace_file \fR=\fPstr
2943When specified, rather than replaying the logs passed to \fBread_iolog\fR,
2944the logs go through a merge phase which aggregates them into a single blktrace.
2945The resulting file is then passed on as the \fBread_iolog\fR parameter. The
2946intention here is to make the order of events consistent. This limits the
2947influence of the scheduler compared to replaying multiple blktraces via
2948concurrent jobs.
2949.TP
2950.BI merge_blktrace_scalars \fR=\fPfloat_list
2951This is a percentage based option that is index paired with the list of files
2952passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. When merging is performed, scale the time of each
2953event by the corresponding amount. For example,
2954`\-\-merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100"' runs the first trace in halftime and the
2955second trace in realtime. This knob is separately tunable from
2956\fBreplay_time_scale\fR which scales the trace during runtime and will not
2957change the output of the merge unlike this option.
2958.TP
2959.BI merge_blktrace_iters \fR=\fPfloat_list
2960This is a whole number option that is index paired with the list of files
2961passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. When merging is performed, run each trace for
2962the specified number of iterations. For example,
2963`\-\-merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"' runs the first trace for two iterations
2964and the second trace for one iteration.
2965.TP
2966.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPbool
2967When replaying I/O with \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior is to
2968attempt to respect the timestamps within the log and replay them with the
2969appropriate delay between IOPS. By setting this variable fio will not
2970respect the timestamps and attempt to replay them as fast as possible while
2971still respecting ordering. The result is the same I/O pattern to a given
2972device, but different timings.
2973.TP
2974.BI replay_time_scale \fR=\fPint
2975When replaying I/O with \fBread_iolog\fR, fio will honor the original timing
2976in the trace. With this option, it's possible to scale the time. It's a
2977percentage option, if set to 50 it means run at 50% the original IO rate in
2978the trace. If set to 200, run at twice the original IO rate. Defaults to 100.
2979.TP
2980.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
2981While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
2982is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
2983from. This is sometimes undesirable because on a different machine those
2984major/minor numbers can map to a different device. Changing hardware on the
2985same system can also result in a different major/minor mapping.
2986\fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all I/Os to be replayed onto the single specified
2987device regardless of the device it was recorded
2988from. i.e. `replay_redirect=/dev/sdc' would cause all I/O
2989in the blktrace or iolog to be replayed onto `/dev/sdc'. This means
2990multiple devices will be replayed onto a single device, if the trace
2991contains multiple devices. If you want multiple devices to be replayed
2992concurrently to multiple redirected devices you must blkparse your trace
2993into separate traces and replay them with independent fio invocations.
2994Unfortunately this also breaks the strict time ordering between multiple
2995device accesses.
2996.TP
2997.BI replay_align \fR=\fPint
2998Force alignment of the byte offsets in a trace to this value. The value
2999must be a power of 2.
3000.TP
3001.BI replay_scale \fR=\fPint
3002Scale bye offsets down by this factor when replaying traces. Should most
3003likely use \fBreplay_align\fR as well.
3004.SS "Threads, processes and job synchronization"
3005.TP
3006.BI replay_skip \fR=\fPstr
3007Sometimes it's useful to skip certain IO types in a replay trace. This could
3008be, for instance, eliminating the writes in the trace. Or not replaying the
3009trims/discards, if you are redirecting to a device that doesn't support them.
3010This option takes a comma separated list of read, write, trim, sync.
3011.TP
3012.BI thread
3013Fio defaults to creating jobs by using fork, however if this option is
3014given, fio will create jobs by using POSIX Threads' function
3015\fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) to create threads instead.
3016.TP
3017.BI wait_for \fR=\fPstr
3018If set, the current job won't be started until all workers of the specified
3019waitee job are done.
3020.\" ignore blank line here from HOWTO as it looks normal without it
3021\fBwait_for\fR operates on the job name basis, so there are a few
3022limitations. First, the waitee must be defined prior to the waiter job
3023(meaning no forward references). Second, if a job is being referenced as a
3024waitee, it must have a unique name (no duplicate waitees).
3025.TP
3026.BI nice \fR=\fPint
3027Run the job with the given nice value. See man \fBnice\fR\|(2).
3028.\" ignore blank line here from HOWTO as it looks normal without it
3029On Windows, values less than \-15 set the process class to "High"; \-1 through
3030\-15 set "Above Normal"; 1 through 15 "Below Normal"; and above 15 "Idle"
3031priority class.
3032.TP
3033.BI prio \fR=\fPint
3034Set the I/O priority value of this job. Linux limits us to a positive value
3035between 0 and 7, with 0 being the highest. See man
3036\fBionice\fR\|(1). Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating
3037systems since meaning of priority may differ. For per-command priority
3038setting, see the I/O engine specific `cmdprio_percentage` and
3039`cmdprio` options.
3040.TP
3041.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
3042Set the I/O priority class. See man \fBionice\fR\|(1). For per-command
3043priority setting, see the I/O engine specific `cmdprio_percentage` and
3044`cmdprio_class` options.
3045.TP
3046.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
3047Controls the same options as \fBcpumask\fR, but accepts a textual
3048specification of the permitted CPUs instead and CPUs are indexed from 0. So
3049to use CPUs 0 and 5 you would specify `cpus_allowed=0,5'. This option also
3050allows a range of CPUs to be specified \-\- say you wanted a binding to CPUs
30510, 5, and 8 to 15, you would set `cpus_allowed=0,5,8\-15'.
3052.RS
3053.P
3054On Windows, when `cpus_allowed' is unset only CPUs from fio's current
3055processor group will be used and affinity settings are inherited from the
3056system. An fio build configured to target Windows 7 makes options that set
3057CPUs processor group aware and values will set both the processor group
3058and a CPU from within that group. For example, on a system where processor
3059group 0 has 40 CPUs and processor group 1 has 32 CPUs, `cpus_allowed'
3060values between 0 and 39 will bind CPUs from processor group 0 and
3061`cpus_allowed' values between 40 and 71 will bind CPUs from processor
3062group 1. When using `cpus_allowed_policy=shared' all CPUs specified by a
3063single `cpus_allowed' option must be from the same processor group. For
3064Windows fio builds not built for Windows 7, CPUs will only be selected from
3065(and be relative to) whatever processor group fio happens to be running in
3066and CPUs from other processor groups cannot be used.
3067.RE
3068.TP
3069.BI cpus_allowed_policy \fR=\fPstr
3070Set the policy of how fio distributes the CPUs specified by
3071\fBcpus_allowed\fR or \fBcpumask\fR. Two policies are supported:
3072.RS
3073.RS
3074.TP
3075.B shared
3076All jobs will share the CPU set specified.
3077.TP
3078.B split
3079Each job will get a unique CPU from the CPU set.
3080.RE
3081.P
3082\fBshared\fR is the default behavior, if the option isn't specified. If
3083\fBsplit\fR is specified, then fio will assign one cpu per job. If not
3084enough CPUs are given for the jobs listed, then fio will roundrobin the CPUs
3085in the set.
3086.RE
3087.TP
3088.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
3089Set the CPU affinity of this job. The parameter given is a bit mask of
3090allowed CPUs the job may run on. So if you want the allowed CPUs to be 1
3091and 5, you would pass the decimal value of (1 << 1 | 1 << 5), or 34. See man
3092\fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2). This may not work on all supported
3093operating systems or kernel versions. This option doesn't work well for a
3094higher CPU count than what you can store in an integer mask, so it can only
3095control cpus 1\-32. For boxes with larger CPU counts, use
3096\fBcpus_allowed\fR.
3097.TP
3098.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
3099Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
3100comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A\-B ranges, or `all'. Note, to enable
3101NUMA options support, fio must be built on a system with libnuma\-dev(el)
3102installed.
3103.TP
3104.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
3105Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of the
3106arguments:
3107.RS
3108.RS
3109.P
3110<mode>[:<nodelist>]
3111.RE
3112.P
3113`mode' is one of the following memory policies: `default', `prefer',
3114`bind', `interleave' or `local'. For `default' and `local' memory
3115policies, no node needs to be specified. For `prefer', only one node is
3116allowed. For `bind' and `interleave' the `nodelist' may be as
3117follows: a comma delimited list of numbers, A\-B ranges, or `all'.
3118.RE
3119.TP
3120.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
3121Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created. The
3122system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
3123your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
3124.RS
3125.RS
3126.P
3127# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
3128.RE
3129.RE
3130.TP
3131.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
3132Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
3133with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
3134.TP
3135.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
3136Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job
3137completion. To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the
3138job completion, set `cgroup_nodelete=1'. This can be useful if one wants
3139to inspect various cgroup files after job completion. Default: false.
3140.TP
3141.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
3142The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global
3143flow. See \fBflow\fR.
3144.TP
3145.BI flow \fR=\fPint
3146Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used,
3147then fio regulates the activity between two or more jobs
3148sharing the same flow_id.
3149Fio attempts to keep each job activity proportional to other jobs' activities
3150in the same flow_id group, with respect to requested weight per job.
3151That is, if one job has `flow=3', another job has `flow=2'
3152and another with `flow=1`, then there will be a roughly 3:2:1 ratio
3153in how much one runs vs the others.
3154.TP
3155.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
3156The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow counter
3157has exceeded its proportion before retrying operations.
3158.TP
3159.BI stonewall "\fR,\fB wait_for_previous"
3160Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit, before starting this
3161one. Can be used to insert serialization points in the job file. A stone
3162wall also implies starting a new reporting group, see
3163\fBgroup_reporting\fR. Optionally you can use `stonewall=0` to disable or
3164`stonewall=1` to enable it.
3165.TP
3166.BI exitall
3167By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3168Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting \fBexitall\fR will instead
3169make fio terminate all jobs in the same group, as soon as one job of that
3170group finishes.
3171.TP
3172.BI exit_what \fR=\fPstr
3173By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3174Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting \fBexitall\fR will instead
3175make fio terminate all jobs in the same group. The option \fBexit_what\fR
3176allows you to control which jobs get terminated when \fBexitall\fR is enabled.
3177The default value is \fBgroup\fR.
3178The allowed values are:
3179.RS
3180.RS
3181.TP
3182.B all
3183terminates all jobs.
3184.TP
3185.B group
3186is the default and does not change the behaviour of \fBexitall\fR.
3187.TP
3188.B stonewall
3189terminates all currently running jobs across all groups and continues
3190execution with the next stonewalled group.
3191.RE
3192.RE
3193.TP
3194.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
3195Before running this job, issue the command specified through
3196\fBsystem\fR\|(3). Output is redirected in a file called `jobname.prerun.txt'.
3197.TP
3198.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
3199After the job completes, issue the command specified though
3200\fBsystem\fR\|(3). Output is redirected in a file called `jobname.postrun.txt'.
3201.TP
3202.BI uid \fR=\fPint
3203Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value
3204before the thread/process does any work.
3205.TP
3206.BI gid \fR=\fPint
3207Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
3208.SS "Verification"
3209.TP
3210.BI verify_only
3211Do not perform specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
3212invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
3213times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only
3214for workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
3215\fBtime_based\fR option set.
3216.TP
3217.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
3218Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is
3219set. Default: true.
3220.TP
3221.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
3222If writing to a file, fio can verify the file contents after each iteration
3223of the job. Each verification method also implies verification of special
3224header, which is written to the beginning of each block. This header also
3225includes meta information, like offset of the block, block number, timestamp
3226when block was written, etc. \fBverify\fR can be combined with
3227\fBverify_pattern\fR option. The allowed values are:
3228.RS
3229.RS
3230.TP
3231.B md5
3232Use an md5 sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3233each block.
3234.TP
3235.B crc64
3236Use an experimental crc64 sum of the data area and store it in the
3237header of each block.
3238.TP
3239.B crc32c
3240Use a crc32c sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3241each block. This will automatically use hardware acceleration
3242(e.g. SSE4.2 on an x86 or CRC crypto extensions on ARM64) but will
3243fall back to software crc32c if none is found. Generally the
3244fastest checksum fio supports when hardware accelerated.
3245.TP
3246.B crc32c\-intel
3247Synonym for crc32c.
3248.TP
3249.B crc32
3250Use a crc32 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3251block.
3252.TP
3253.B crc16
3254Use a crc16 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3255block.
3256.TP
3257.B crc7
3258Use a crc7 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3259block.
3260.TP
3261.B xxhash
3262Use xxhash as the checksum function. Generally the fastest software
3263checksum that fio supports.
3264.TP
3265.B sha512
3266Use sha512 as the checksum function.
3267.TP
3268.B sha256
3269Use sha256 as the checksum function.
3270.TP
3271.B sha1
3272Use optimized sha1 as the checksum function.
3273.TP
3274.B sha3\-224
3275Use optimized sha3\-224 as the checksum function.
3276.TP
3277.B sha3\-256
3278Use optimized sha3\-256 as the checksum function.
3279.TP
3280.B sha3\-384
3281Use optimized sha3\-384 as the checksum function.
3282.TP
3283.B sha3\-512
3284Use optimized sha3\-512 as the checksum function.
3285.TP
3286.B meta
3287This option is deprecated, since now meta information is included in
3288generic verification header and meta verification happens by
3289default. For detailed information see the description of the
3290\fBverify\fR setting. This option is kept because of
3291compatibility's sake with old configurations. Do not use it.
3292.TP
3293.B pattern
3294Verify a strict pattern. Normally fio includes a header with some
3295basic information and checksumming, but if this option is set, only
3296the specific pattern set with \fBverify_pattern\fR is verified.
3297.TP
3298.B null
3299Only pretend to verify. Useful for testing internals with
3300`ioengine=null', not for much else.
3301.RE
3302.P
3303This option can be used for repeated burn\-in tests of a system to make sure
3304that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction
3305given is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a
3306previously written file. If the data direction includes any form of write,
3307the verify will be of the newly written data.
3308.P
3309To avoid false verification errors, do not use the norandommap option when
3310verifying data with async I/O engines and I/O depths > 1. Or use the
3311norandommap and the lfsr random generator together to avoid writing to the
3312same offset with multiple outstanding I/Os.
3313.RE
3314.TP
3315.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
3316Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
3317writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
3318.TP
3319.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
3320Write the verification header at a finer granularity than the
3321\fBblocksize\fR. It will be written for chunks the size of
3322\fBverify_interval\fR. \fBblocksize\fR should divide this evenly.
3323.TP
3324.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
3325If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to
3326filling with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill
3327with a known pattern for I/O verification purposes. Depending on the width
3328of the pattern, fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time (it can
3329be either a decimal or a hex number). The \fBverify_pattern\fR if larger than
3330a 32\-bit quantity has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or
3331"0X". Use with \fBverify\fR. Also, \fBverify_pattern\fR supports %o
3332format, which means that for each block offset will be written and then
3333verified back, e.g.:
3334.RS
3335.RS
3336.P
3337verify_pattern=%o
3338.RE
3339.P
3340Or use combination of everything:
3341.RS
3342.P
3343verify_pattern=0xff%o"abcd"\-12
3344.RE
3345.RE
3346.TP
3347.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
3348Normally fio will keep checking the entire contents before quitting on a
3349block verification failure. If this option is set, fio will exit the job on
3350the first observed failure. Default: false.
3351.TP
3352.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
3353If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block
3354we read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what
3355kind of data corruption occurred. Off by default.
3356.TP
3357.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
3358Fio will normally verify I/O inline from the submitting thread. This option
3359takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for I/O
3360verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying I/O
3361contents to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even
3362sync I/O engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher
3363than 1, as it allows them to have I/O in flight while verifies are running.
3364Defaults to 0 async threads, i.e. verification is not asynchronous.
3365.TP
3366.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
3367Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async I/O verification
3368threads. See \fBcpus_allowed\fR for the format used.
3369.TP
3370.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
3371Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
3372once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
3373everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
3374instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with
3375an I/O block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory
3376would be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will
3377write only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
3378.TP
3379.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
3380Control how many blocks fio will verify if \fBverify_backlog\fR is
3381set. If not set, will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR
3382(meaning the entire queue is read back and verified). If
3383\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than \fBverify_backlog\fR then not all
3384blocks will be verified, if \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than
3385\fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks will be verified more than once.
3386.TP
3387.BI verify_state_save \fR=\fPbool
3388When a job exits during the write phase of a verify workload, save its
3389current state. This allows fio to replay up until that point, if the verify
3390state is loaded for the verify read phase. The format of the filename is,
3391roughly:
3392.RS
3393.RS
3394.P
3395<type>\-<jobname>\-<jobindex>\-verify.state.
3396.RE
3397.P
3398<type> is "local" for a local run, "sock" for a client/server socket
3399connection, and "ip" (192.168.0.1, for instance) for a networked
3400client/server connection. Defaults to true.
3401.RE
3402.TP
3403.BI verify_state_load \fR=\fPbool
3404If a verify termination trigger was used, fio stores the current write state
3405of each thread. This can be used at verification time so that fio knows how
3406far it should verify. Without this information, fio will run a full
3407verification pass, according to the settings in the job file used. Default
3408false.
3409.TP
3410.BI trim_percentage \fR=\fPint
3411Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
3412.TP
3413.BI trim_verify_zero \fR=\fPbool
3414Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
3415.TP
3416.BI trim_backlog \fR=\fPint
3417Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
3418.TP
3419.BI trim_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
3420Trim this number of I/O blocks.
3421.TP
3422.BI experimental_verify \fR=\fPbool
3423Enable experimental verification. Standard verify records I/O metadata for
3424later use during the verification phase. Experimental verify instead resets the
3425file after the write phase and then replays I/Os for the verification phase.
3426.SS "Steady state"
3427.TP
3428.BI steadystate \fR=\fPstr:float "\fR,\fP ss" \fR=\fPstr:float
3429Define the criterion and limit for assessing steady state performance. The
3430first parameter designates the criterion whereas the second parameter sets
3431the threshold. When the criterion falls below the threshold for the
3432specified duration, the job will stop. For example, `iops_slope:0.1%' will
3433direct fio to terminate the job when the least squares regression slope
3434falls below 0.1% of the mean IOPS. If \fBgroup_reporting\fR is enabled
3435this will apply to all jobs in the group. Below is the list of available
3436steady state assessment criteria. All assessments are carried out using only
3437data from the rolling collection window. Threshold limits can be expressed
3438as a fixed value or as a percentage of the mean in the collection window.
3439.RS
3440.P
3441When using this feature, most jobs should include the \fBtime_based\fR
3442and \fBruntime\fR options or the \fBloops\fR option so that fio does not
3443stop running after it has covered the full size of the specified file(s)
3444or device(s).
3445.RS
3446.RS
3447.TP
3448.B iops
3449Collect IOPS data. Stop the job if all individual IOPS measurements
3450are within the specified limit of the mean IOPS (e.g., `iops:2'
3451means that all individual IOPS values must be within 2 of the mean,
3452whereas `iops:0.2%' means that all individual IOPS values must be
3453within 0.2% of the mean IOPS to terminate the job).
3454.TP
3455.B iops_slope
3456Collect IOPS data and calculate the least squares regression
3457slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3458.TP
3459.B bw
3460Collect bandwidth data. Stop the job if all individual bandwidth
3461measurements are within the specified limit of the mean bandwidth.
3462.TP
3463.B bw_slope
3464Collect bandwidth data and calculate the least squares regression
3465slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3466.RE
3467.RE
3468.TP
3469.BI steadystate_duration \fR=\fPtime "\fR,\fP ss_dur" \fR=\fPtime
3470A rolling window of this duration will be used to judge whether steady state
3471has been reached. Data will be collected once per second. The default is 0
3472which disables steady state detection. When the unit is omitted, the
3473value is interpreted in seconds.
3474.TP
3475.BI steadystate_ramp_time \fR=\fPtime "\fR,\fP ss_ramp" \fR=\fPtime
3476Allow the job to run for the specified duration before beginning data
3477collection for checking the steady state job termination criterion. The
3478default is 0. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
3479.SS "Measurements and reporting"
3480.TP
3481.BI per_job_logs \fR=\fPbool
3482If set, this generates bw/clat/iops log with per file private filenames. If
3483not set, jobs with identical names will share the log filename. Default:
3484true.
3485.TP
3486.BI group_reporting
3487It may sometimes be interesting to display statistics for groups of jobs as
3488a whole instead of for each individual job. This is especially true if
3489\fBnumjobs\fR is used; looking at individual thread/process output
3490quickly becomes unwieldy. To see the final report per-group instead of
3491per-job, use \fBgroup_reporting\fR. Jobs in a file will be part of the
3492same reporting group, unless if separated by a \fBstonewall\fR, or by
3493using \fBnew_group\fR.
3494.TP
3495.BI new_group
3496Start a new reporting group. See: \fBgroup_reporting\fR. If not given,
3497all jobs in a file will be part of the same reporting group, unless
3498separated by a \fBstonewall\fR.
3499.TP
3500.BI stats \fR=\fPbool
3501By default, fio collects and shows final output results for all jobs
3502that run. If this option is set to 0, then fio will ignore it in
3503the final stat output.
3504.TP
3505.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
3506If given, write a bandwidth log for this job. Can be used to store data of
3507the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime.
3508.RS
3509.P
3510If no str argument is given, the default filename of
3511`jobname_type.x.log' is used. Even when the argument is given, fio
3512will still append the type of log. So if one specifies:
3513.RS
3514.P
3515write_bw_log=foo
3516.RE
3517.P
3518The actual log name will be `foo_bw.x.log' where `x' is the index
3519of the job (1..N, where N is the number of jobs). If
3520\fBper_job_logs\fR is false, then the filename will not include the
3521`.x` job index.
3522.P
3523The included \fBfio_generate_plots\fR script uses gnuplot to turn these
3524text files into nice graphs. See the \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section for how data is
3525structured within the file.
3526.RE
3527.TP
3528.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
3529Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, except this option creates I/O
3530submission (e.g., `name_slat.x.log'), completion (e.g.,
3531`name_clat.x.log'), and total (e.g., `name_lat.x.log') latency
3532files instead. See \fBwrite_bw_log\fR for details about the
3533filename format and the \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section for how data is structured
3534within the files.
3535.TP
3536.BI write_hist_log \fR=\fPstr
3537Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR but writes an I/O completion latency
3538histogram file (e.g., `name_hist.x.log') instead. Note that this
3539file will be empty unless \fBlog_hist_msec\fR has also been set.
3540See \fBwrite_bw_log\fR for details about the filename format and
3541the \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section for how data is structured
3542within the file.
3543.TP
3544.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
3545Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes an IOPS file (e.g.
3546`name_iops.x.log`) instead. Because fio defaults to individual
3547I/O logging, the value entry in the IOPS log will be 1 unless windowed
3548logging (see \fBlog_avg_msec\fR) has been enabled. See
3549\fBwrite_bw_log\fR for details about the filename format and \fBLOG
3550FILE FORMATS\fR for how data is structured within the file.
3551.TP
3552.BI log_entries \fR=\fPint
3553By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for
3554every I/O that completes. The initial number of I/O log entries is 1024.
3555When the log entries are all used, new log entries are dynamically
3556allocated. This dynamic log entry allocation may negatively impact
3557time-related statistics such as I/O tail latencies (e.g. 99.9th percentile
3558completion latency). This option allows specifying a larger initial
3559number of log entries to avoid run-time allocation of new log entries,
3560resulting in more precise time-related I/O statistics.
3561Also see \fBlog_avg_msec\fR as well. Defaults to 1024.
3562.TP
3563.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
3564By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
3565I/O that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
3566very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
3567over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log. See
3568\fBlog_max_value\fR as well. Defaults to 0, logging all entries.
3569Also see \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section.
3570.TP
3571.BI log_hist_msec \fR=\fPint
3572Same as \fBlog_avg_msec\fR, but logs entries for completion latency
3573histograms. Computing latency percentiles from averages of intervals using
3574\fBlog_avg_msec\fR is inaccurate. Setting this option makes fio log
3575histogram entries over the specified period of time, reducing log sizes for
3576high IOPS devices while retaining percentile accuracy. See
3577\fBlog_hist_coarseness\fR and \fBwrite_hist_log\fR as well.
3578Defaults to 0, meaning histogram logging is disabled.
3579.TP
3580.BI log_hist_coarseness \fR=\fPint
3581Integer ranging from 0 to 6, defining the coarseness of the resolution of
3582the histogram logs enabled with \fBlog_hist_msec\fR. For each increment
3583in coarseness, fio outputs half as many bins. Defaults to 0, for which
3584histogram logs contain 1216 latency bins. See \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section.
3585.TP
3586.BI log_max_value \fR=\fPbool
3587If \fBlog_avg_msec\fR is set, fio logs the average over that window. If
3588you instead want to log the maximum value, set this option to 1. Defaults to
35890, meaning that averaged values are logged.
3590.TP
3591.BI log_offset \fR=\fPbool
3592If this is set, the iolog options will include the byte offset for the I/O
3593entry as well as the other data values. Defaults to 0 meaning that
3594offsets are not present in logs. Also see \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section.
3595.TP
3596.BI log_prio \fR=\fPbool
3597If this is set, the iolog options will include the I/O priority for the I/O
3598entry as well as the other data values. Defaults to 0 meaning that
3599I/O priorities are not present in logs. Also see \fBLOG FILE FORMATS\fR section.
3600.TP
3601.BI log_compression \fR=\fPint
3602If this is set, fio will compress the I/O logs as it goes, to keep the
3603memory footprint lower. When a log reaches the specified size, that chunk is
3604removed and compressed in the background. Given that I/O logs are fairly
3605highly compressible, this yields a nice memory savings for longer runs. The
3606downside is that the compression will consume some background CPU cycles, so
3607it may impact the run. This, however, is also true if the logging ends up
3608consuming most of the system memory. So pick your poison. The I/O logs are
3609saved normally at the end of a run, by decompressing the chunks and storing
3610them in the specified log file. This feature depends on the availability of
3611zlib.
3612.TP
3613.BI log_compression_cpus \fR=\fPstr
3614Define the set of CPUs that are allowed to handle online log compression for
3615the I/O jobs. This can provide better isolation between performance
3616sensitive jobs, and background compression work. See \fBcpus_allowed\fR for
3617the format used.
3618.TP
3619.BI log_store_compressed \fR=\fPbool
3620If set, fio will store the log files in a compressed format. They can be
3621decompressed with fio, using the \fB\-\-inflate\-log\fR command line
3622parameter. The files will be stored with a `.fz' suffix.
3623.TP
3624.BI log_unix_epoch \fR=\fPbool
3625If set, fio will log Unix timestamps to the log files produced by enabling
3626write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3627timestamps.
3628.TP
3629.BI log_alternate_epoch \fR=\fPbool
3630If set, fio will log timestamps based on the epoch used by the clock specified
3631in the \fBlog_alternate_epoch_clock_id\fR option, to the log files produced by
3632enabling write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3633timestamps.
3634.TP
3635.BI log_alternate_epoch_clock_id \fR=\fPint
3636Specifies the clock_id to be used by clock_gettime to obtain the alternate epoch
3637if either \fBBlog_unix_epoch\fR or \fBlog_alternate_epoch\fR are true. Otherwise has no
3638effect. Default value is 0, or CLOCK_REALTIME.
3639.TP
3640.BI block_error_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
3641If set, record errors in trim block-sized units from writes and trims and
3642output a histogram of how many trims it took to get to errors, and what kind
3643of error was encountered.
3644.TP
3645.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
3646Average the calculated bandwidth over the given time. Value is specified in
3647milliseconds. If the job also does bandwidth logging through
3648\fBwrite_bw_log\fR, then the minimum of this option and
3649\fBlog_avg_msec\fR will be used. Default: 500ms.
3650.TP
3651.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
3652Average the calculated IOPS over the given time. Value is specified in
3653milliseconds. If the job also does IOPS logging through
3654\fBwrite_iops_log\fR, then the minimum of this option and
3655\fBlog_avg_msec\fR will be used. Default: 500ms.
3656.TP
3657.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
3658Generate disk utilization statistics, if the platform supports it.
3659Default: true.
3660.TP
3661.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
3662Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting back
3663the number of calls to \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2), as that does impact
3664performance at really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a
3665large amount of these calls, this option must be used with
3666\fBdisable_slat\fR and \fBdisable_bw_measurement\fR as well.
3667.TP
3668.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
3669Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See
3670\fBdisable_lat\fR.
3671.TP
3672.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
3673Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See
3674\fBdisable_lat\fR.
3675.TP
3676.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fP disable_bw" \fR=\fPbool
3677Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See
3678\fBdisable_lat\fR.
3679.TP
3680.BI slat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
3681Report submission latency percentiles. Submission latency is not recorded
3682for synchronous ioengines.
3683.TP
3684.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
3685Report completion latency percentiles.
3686.TP
3687.BI lat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
3688Report total latency percentiles. Total latency is the sum of submission
3689latency and completion latency.
3690.TP
3691.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
3692Overwrite the default list of percentiles for latencies and the
3693block error histogram. Each number is a floating point number in the range
3694(0,100], and the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
3695numbers. For example, `\-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9' will cause fio to
3696report the latency durations below which 99.5% and 99.9% of the observed
3697latencies fell, respectively.
3698.TP
3699.BI significant_figures \fR=\fPint
3700If using \fB\-\-output\-format\fR of `normal', set the significant figures
3701to this value. Higher values will yield more precise IOPS and throughput
3702units, while lower values will round. Requires a minimum value of 1 and a
3703maximum value of 10. Defaults to 4.
3704.SS "Error handling"
3705.TP
3706.BI exitall_on_error
3707When one job finishes in error, terminate the rest. The default is to wait
3708for each job to finish.
3709.TP
3710.BI continue_on_error \fR=\fPstr
3711Normally fio will exit the job on the first observed failure. If this option
3712is set, fio will continue the job when there is a 'non-fatal error' (EIO or
3713EILSEQ) until the runtime is exceeded or the I/O size specified is
3714completed. If this option is used, there are two more stats that are
3715appended, the total error count and the first error. The error field given
3716in the stats is the first error that was hit during the run.
3717.RS
3718.P
3719Note: a write error from the device may go unnoticed by fio when using buffered
3720IO, as the write() (or similar) system call merely dirties the kernel pages,
3721unless `sync' or `direct' is used. Device IO errors occur when the dirty data is
3722actually written out to disk. If fully sync writes aren't desirable, `fsync' or
3723`fdatasync' can be used as well. This is specific to writes, as reads are always
3724synchronous.
3725.RS
3726.P
3727The allowed values are:
3728.RS
3729.RS
3730.TP
3731.B none
3732Exit on any I/O or verify errors.
3733.TP
3734.B read
3735Continue on read errors, exit on all others.
3736.TP
3737.B write
3738Continue on write errors, exit on all others.
3739.TP
3740.B io
3741Continue on any I/O error, exit on all others.
3742.TP
3743.B verify
3744Continue on verify errors, exit on all others.
3745.TP
3746.B all
3747Continue on all errors.
3748.TP
3749.B 0
3750Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
3751.TP
3752.B 1
3753Backward-compatible alias for 'all'.
3754.RE
3755.RE
3756.TP
3757.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
3758Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can
3759specify error list for each error type, instead of only being able to
3760ignore the default 'non-fatal error' using \fBcontinue_on_error\fR.
3761`ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST' errors for
3762given error type is separated with ':'. Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM')
3763or integer. Example:
3764.RS
3765.RS
3766.P
3767ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122
3768.RE
3769.P
3770This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from
3771WRITE. This option works by overriding \fBcontinue_on_error\fR with
3772the list of errors for each error type if any.
3773.RE
3774.TP
3775.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
3776If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If
3777disabled only fatal error will be dumped.
3778.SS "Running predefined workloads"
3779Fio includes predefined profiles that mimic the I/O workloads generated by
3780other tools.
3781.TP
3782.BI profile \fR=\fPstr
3783The predefined workload to run. Current profiles are:
3784.RS
3785.RS
3786.TP
3787.B tiobench
3788Threaded I/O bench (tiotest/tiobench) like workload.
3789.TP
3790.B act
3791Aerospike Certification Tool (ACT) like workload.
3792.RE
3793.RE
3794.P
3795To view a profile's additional options use \fB\-\-cmdhelp\fR after specifying
3796the profile. For example:
3797.RS
3798.TP
3799$ fio \-\-profile=act \-\-cmdhelp
3800.RE
3801.SS "Act profile options"
3802.TP
3803.BI device\-names \fR=\fPstr
3804Devices to use.
3805.TP
3806.BI load \fR=\fPint
3807ACT load multiplier. Default: 1.
3808.TP
3809.BI test\-duration\fR=\fPtime
3810How long the entire test takes to run. When the unit is omitted, the value
3811is given in seconds. Default: 24h.
3812.TP
3813.BI threads\-per\-queue\fR=\fPint
3814Number of read I/O threads per device. Default: 8.
3815.TP
3816.BI read\-req\-num\-512\-blocks\fR=\fPint
3817Number of 512B blocks to read at the time. Default: 3.
3818.TP
3819.BI large\-block\-op\-kbytes\fR=\fPint
3820Size of large block ops in KiB (writes). Default: 131072.
3821.TP
3822.BI prep
3823Set to run ACT prep phase.
3824.SS "Tiobench profile options"
3825.TP
3826.BI size\fR=\fPstr
3827Size in MiB.
3828.TP
3829.BI block\fR=\fPint
3830Block size in bytes. Default: 4096.
3831.TP
3832.BI numruns\fR=\fPint
3833Number of runs.
3834.TP
3835.BI dir\fR=\fPstr
3836Test directory.
3837.TP
3838.BI threads\fR=\fPint
3839Number of threads.
3840.SH OUTPUT
3841Fio spits out a lot of output. While running, fio will display the status of the
3842jobs created. An example of that would be:
3843.P
3844.nf
3845 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]
3846.fi
3847.P
3848The characters inside the first set of square brackets denote the current status of
3849each thread. The first character is the first job defined in the job file, and so
3850forth. The possible values (in typical life cycle order) are:
3851.RS
3852.TP
3853.PD 0
3854.B P
3855Thread setup, but not started.
3856.TP
3857.B C
3858Thread created.
3859.TP
3860.B I
3861Thread initialized, waiting or generating necessary data.
3862.TP
3863.B p
3864Thread running pre-reading file(s).
3865.TP
3866.B /
3867Thread is in ramp period.
3868.TP
3869.B R
3870Running, doing sequential reads.
3871.TP
3872.B r
3873Running, doing random reads.
3874.TP
3875.B W
3876Running, doing sequential writes.
3877.TP
3878.B w
3879Running, doing random writes.
3880.TP
3881.B M
3882Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
3883.TP
3884.B m
3885Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
3886.TP
3887.B D
3888Running, doing sequential trims.
3889.TP
3890.B d
3891Running, doing random trims.
3892.TP
3893.B F
3894Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
3895.TP
3896.B V
3897Running, doing verification of written data.
3898.TP
3899.B f
3900Thread finishing.
3901.TP
3902.B E
3903Thread exited, not reaped by main thread yet.
3904.TP
3905.B \-
3906Thread reaped.
3907.TP
3908.B X
3909Thread reaped, exited with an error.
3910.TP
3911.B K
3912Thread reaped, exited due to signal.
3913.PD
3914.RE
3915.P
3916Fio will condense the thread string as not to take up more space on the command
3917line than needed. For instance, if you have 10 readers and 10 writers running,
3918the output would look like this:
3919.P
3920.nf
3921 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]
3922.fi
3923.P
3924Note that the status string is displayed in order, so it's possible to tell which of
3925the jobs are currently doing what. In the example above this means that jobs 1\-\-10
3926are readers and 11\-\-20 are writers.
3927.P
3928The other values are fairly self explanatory \-\- number of threads currently
3929running and doing I/O, the number of currently open files (f=), the estimated
3930completion percentage, the rate of I/O since last check (read speed listed first,
3931then write speed and optionally trim speed) in terms of bandwidth and IOPS,
3932and time to completion for the current running group. It's impossible to estimate
3933runtime of the following groups (if any).
3934.P
3935When fio is done (or interrupted by Ctrl\-C), it will show the data for
3936each thread, group of threads, and disks in that order. For each overall thread (or
3937group) the output looks like:
3938.P
3939.nf
3940 Client1: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=16109: Sat Jun 24 12:07:54 2017
3941 write: IOPS=88, BW=623KiB/s (638kB/s)(30.4MiB/50032msec)
3942 slat (nsec): min=500, max=145500, avg=8318.00, stdev=4781.50
3943 clat (usec): min=170, max=78367, avg=4019.02, stdev=8293.31
3944 lat (usec): min=174, max=78375, avg=4027.34, stdev=8291.79
3945 clat percentiles (usec):
3946 | 1.00th=[ 302], 5.00th=[ 326], 10.00th=[ 343], 20.00th=[ 363],
3947 | 30.00th=[ 392], 40.00th=[ 404], 50.00th=[ 416], 60.00th=[ 445],
3948 | 70.00th=[ 816], 80.00th=[ 6718], 90.00th=[12911], 95.00th=[21627],
3949 | 99.00th=[43779], 99.50th=[51643], 99.90th=[68682], 99.95th=[72877],
3950 | 99.99th=[78119]
3951 bw ( KiB/s): min= 532, max= 686, per=0.10%, avg=622.87, stdev=24.82, samples= 100
3952 iops : min= 76, max= 98, avg=88.98, stdev= 3.54, samples= 100
3953 lat (usec) : 250=0.04%, 500=64.11%, 750=4.81%, 1000=2.79%
3954 lat (msec) : 2=4.16%, 4=1.84%, 10=4.90%, 20=11.33%, 50=5.37%
3955 lat (msec) : 100=0.65%
3956 cpu : usr=0.27%, sys=0.18%, ctx=12072, majf=0, minf=21
3957 IO depths : 1=85.0%, 2=13.1%, 4=1.8%, 8=0.1%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3958 submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3959 complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3960 issued rwt: total=0,4450,0, short=0,0,0, dropped=0,0,0
3961 latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=8
3962.fi
3963.P
3964The job name (or first job's name when using \fBgroup_reporting\fR) is printed,
3965along with the group id, count of jobs being aggregated, last error id seen (which
3966is 0 when there are no errors), pid/tid of that thread and the time the job/group
3967completed. Below are the I/O statistics for each data direction performed (showing
3968writes in the example above). In the order listed, they denote:
3969.RS
3970.TP
3971.B read/write/trim
3972The string before the colon shows the I/O direction the statistics
3973are for. \fIIOPS\fR is the average I/Os performed per second. \fIBW\fR
3974is the average bandwidth rate shown as: value in power of 2 format
3975(value in power of 10 format). The last two values show: (total
3976I/O performed in power of 2 format / \fIruntime\fR of that thread).
3977.TP
3978.B slat
3979Submission latency (\fImin\fR being the minimum, \fImax\fR being the
3980maximum, \fIavg\fR being the average, \fIstdev\fR being the standard
3981deviation). This is the time it took to submit the I/O. For
3982sync I/O this row is not displayed as the slat is really the
3983completion latency (since queue/complete is one operation there).
3984This value can be in nanoseconds, microseconds or milliseconds \-\-\-
3985fio will choose the most appropriate base and print that (in the
3986example above nanoseconds was the best scale). Note: in \fB\-\-minimal\fR mode
3987latencies are always expressed in microseconds.
3988.TP
3989.B clat
3990Completion latency. Same names as slat, this denotes the time from
3991submission to completion of the I/O pieces. For sync I/O, clat will
3992usually be equal (or very close) to 0, as the time from submit to
3993complete is basically just CPU time (I/O has already been done, see slat
3994explanation).
3995.TP
3996.B lat
3997Total latency. Same names as slat and clat, this denotes the time from
3998when fio created the I/O unit to completion of the I/O operation.
3999.TP
4000.B bw
4001Bandwidth statistics based on samples. Same names as the xlat stats,
4002but also includes the number of samples taken (\fIsamples\fR) and an
4003approximate percentage of total aggregate bandwidth this thread
4004received in its group (\fIper\fR). This last value is only really
4005useful if the threads in this group are on the same disk, since they
4006are then competing for disk access.
4007.TP
4008.B iops
4009IOPS statistics based on samples. Same names as \fBbw\fR.
4010.TP
4011.B lat (nsec/usec/msec)
4012The distribution of I/O completion latencies. This is the time from when
4013I/O leaves fio and when it gets completed. Unlike the separate
4014read/write/trim sections above, the data here and in the remaining
4015sections apply to all I/Os for the reporting group. 250=0.04% means that
40160.04% of the I/Os completed in under 250us. 500=64.11% means that 64.11%
4017of the I/Os required 250 to 499us for completion.
4018.TP
4019.B cpu
4020CPU usage. User and system time, along with the number of context
4021switches this thread went through, usage of system and user time, and
4022finally the number of major and minor page faults. The CPU utilization
4023numbers are averages for the jobs in that reporting group, while the
4024context and fault counters are summed.
4025.TP
4026.B IO depths
4027The distribution of I/O depths over the job lifetime. The numbers are
4028divided into powers of 2 and each entry covers depths from that value
4029up to those that are lower than the next entry \-\- e.g., 16= covers
4030depths from 16 to 31. Note that the range covered by a depth
4031distribution entry can be different to the range covered by the
4032equivalent \fBsubmit\fR/\fBcomplete\fR distribution entry.
4033.TP
4034.B IO submit
4035How many pieces of I/O were submitting in a single submit call. Each
4036entry denotes that amount and below, until the previous entry \-\- e.g.,
403716=100% means that we submitted anywhere between 9 to 16 I/Os per submit
4038call. Note that the range covered by a \fBsubmit\fR distribution entry can
4039be different to the range covered by the equivalent depth distribution
4040entry.
4041.TP
4042.B IO complete
4043Like the above \fBsubmit\fR number, but for completions instead.
4044.TP
4045.B IO issued rwt
4046The number of \fBread/write/trim\fR requests issued, and how many of them were
4047short or dropped.
4048.TP
4049.B IO latency
4050These values are for \fBlatency_target\fR and related options. When
4051these options are engaged, this section describes the I/O depth required
4052to meet the specified latency target.
4053.RE
4054.P
4055After each client has been listed, the group statistics are printed. They
4056will look like this:
4057.P
4058.nf
4059 Run status group 0 (all jobs):
4060 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
4061 WRITE: bw=1231KiB/s (1261kB/s), 616KiB/s\-621KiB/s (630kB/s\-636kB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=52747\-53223msec
4062.fi
4063.P
4064For each data direction it prints:
4065.RS
4066.TP
4067.B bw
4068Aggregate bandwidth of threads in this group followed by the
4069minimum and maximum bandwidth of all the threads in this group.
4070Values outside of brackets are power-of-2 format and those
4071within are the equivalent value in a power-of-10 format.
4072.TP
4073.B io
4074Aggregate I/O performed of all threads in this group. The
4075format is the same as \fBbw\fR.
4076.TP
4077.B run
4078The smallest and longest runtimes of the threads in this group.
4079.RE
4080.P
4081And finally, the disk statistics are printed. This is Linux specific.
4082They will look like this:
4083.P
4084.nf
4085 Disk stats (read/write):
4086 sda: ios=16398/16511, merge=30/162, ticks=6853/819634, in_queue=826487, util=100.00%
4087.fi
4088.P
4089Each value is printed for both reads and writes, with reads first. The
4090numbers denote:
4091.RS
4092.TP
4093.B ios
4094Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
4095.TP
4096.B merge
4097Number of merges performed by the I/O scheduler.
4098.TP
4099.B ticks
4100Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
4101.TP
4102.B in_queue
4103Total time spent in the disk queue.
4104.TP
4105.B util
4106The disk utilization. A value of 100% means we kept the disk
4107busy constantly, 50% would be a disk idling half of the time.
4108.RE
4109.P
4110It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is running,
4111without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the USR1 signal. You can
4112also get regularly timed dumps by using the \fB\-\-status\-interval\fR
4113parameter, or by creating a file in `/tmp' named
4114`fio\-dump\-status'. If fio sees this file, it will unlink it and dump the
4115current output status.
4116.SH TERSE OUTPUT
4117For scripted usage where you typically want to generate tables or graphs of the
4118results, fio can output the results in a semicolon separated format. The format
4119is one long line of values, such as:
4120.P
4121.nf
4122 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%
4123 A description of this job goes here.
4124.fi
4125.P
4126The job description (if provided) follows on a second line for terse v2.
4127It appears on the same line for other terse versions.
4128.P
4129To enable terse output, use the \fB\-\-minimal\fR or
4130`\-\-output\-format=terse' command line options. The
4131first value is the version of the terse output format. If the output has to be
4132changed for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
4133change.
4134.P
4135Split up, the format is as follows (comments in brackets denote when a
4136field was introduced or whether it's specific to some terse version):
4137.P
4138.nf
4139 terse version, fio version [v3], jobname, groupid, error
4140.fi
4141.RS
4142.P
4143.B
4144READ status:
4145.RE
4146.P
4147.nf
4148 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4149 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4150 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4151 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4152 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4153 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4154 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
4155.fi
4156.RS
4157.P
4158.B
4159WRITE status:
4160.RE
4161.P
4162.nf
4163 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4164 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4165 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4166 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4167 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4168 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4169 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
4170.fi
4171.RS
4172.P
4173.B
4174TRIM status [all but version 3]:
4175.RE
4176.P
4177.nf
4178 Fields are similar to \fBREAD/WRITE\fR status.
4179.fi
4180.RS
4181.P
4182.B
4183CPU usage:
4184.RE
4185.P
4186.nf
4187 user, system, context switches, major faults, minor faults
4188.fi
4189.RS
4190.P
4191.B
4192I/O depths:
4193.RE
4194.P
4195.nf
4196 <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
4197.fi
4198.RS
4199.P
4200.B
4201I/O latencies microseconds:
4202.RE
4203.P
4204.nf
4205 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
4206.fi
4207.RS
4208.P
4209.B
4210I/O latencies milliseconds:
4211.RE
4212.P
4213.nf
4214 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
4215.fi
4216.RS
4217.P
4218.B
4219Disk utilization [v3]:
4220.RE
4221.P
4222.nf
4223 disk name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks, time spent in queue, disk utilization percentage
4224.fi
4225.RS
4226.P
4227.B
4228Additional Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
4229.RE
4230.P
4231.nf
4232 total # errors, first error code
4233.fi
4234.RS
4235.P
4236.B
4237Additional Info (dependent on description being set):
4238.RE
4239.P
4240.nf
4241 Text description
4242.fi
4243.P
4244Completion latency percentiles can be a grouping of up to 20 sets, so for the
4245terse output fio writes all of them. Each field will look like this:
4246.P
4247.nf
4248 1.00%=6112
4249.fi
4250.P
4251which is the Xth percentile, and the `usec' latency associated with it.
4252.P
4253For \fBDisk utilization\fR, all disks used by fio are shown. So for each disk there
4254will be a disk utilization section.
4255.P
4256Below is a single line containing short names for each of the fields in the
4257minimal output v3, separated by semicolons:
4258.P
4259.nf
4260 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
4261.fi
4262.P
4263In client/server mode terse output differs from what appears when jobs are run
4264locally. Disk utilization data is omitted from the standard terse output and
4265for v3 and later appears on its own separate line at the end of each terse
4266reporting cycle.
4267.SH JSON OUTPUT
4268The \fBjson\fR output format is intended to be both human readable and convenient
4269for automated parsing. For the most part its sections mirror those of the
4270\fBnormal\fR output. The \fBruntime\fR value is reported in msec and the \fBbw\fR value is
4271reported in 1024 bytes per second units.
4272.fi
4273.SH JSON+ OUTPUT
4274The \fBjson+\fR output format is identical to the \fBjson\fR output format except that it
4275adds a full dump of the completion latency bins. Each \fBbins\fR object contains a
4276set of (key, value) pairs where keys are latency durations and values count how
4277many I/Os had completion latencies of the corresponding duration. For example,
4278consider:
4279.RS
4280.P
4281"bins" : { "87552" : 1, "89600" : 1, "94720" : 1, "96768" : 1, "97792" : 1, "99840" : 1, "100864" : 2, "103936" : 6, "104960" : 534, "105984" : 5995, "107008" : 7529, ... }
4282.RE
4283.P
4284This data indicates that one I/O required 87,552ns to complete, two I/Os required
4285100,864ns to complete, and 7529 I/Os required 107,008ns to complete.
4286.P
4287Also included with fio is a Python script \fBfio_jsonplus_clat2csv\fR that takes
4288json+ output and generates CSV-formatted latency data suitable for plotting.
4289.P
4290The latency durations actually represent the midpoints of latency intervals.
4291For details refer to `stat.h' in the fio source.
4292.SH TRACE FILE FORMAT
4293There are two trace file format that you can encounter. The older (v1) format is
4294unsupported since version 1.20\-rc3 (March 2008). It will still be described
4295below in case that you get an old trace and want to understand it.
4296.P
4297In any case the trace is a simple text file with a single action per line.
4298.TP
4299.B Trace file format v1
4300Each line represents a single I/O action in the following format:
4301.RS
4302.RS
4303.P
4304rw, offset, length
4305.RE
4306.P
4307where `rw=0/1' for read/write, and the `offset' and `length' entries being in bytes.
4308.P
4309This format is not supported in fio versions >= 1.20\-rc3.
4310.RE
4311.TP
4312.B Trace file format v2
4313The second version of the trace file format was added in fio version 1.17. It
4314allows one to access more than one file per trace and has a bigger set of possible
4315file actions.
4316.RS
4317.P
4318The first line of the trace file has to be:
4319.RS
4320.P
4321"fio version 2 iolog"
4322.RE
4323.P
4324Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
4325.P
4326.B
4327The file management format:
4328.RS
4329filename action
4330.P
4331The `filename' is given as an absolute path. The `action' can be one of these:
4332.RS
4333.TP
4334.B add
4335Add the given `filename' to the trace.
4336.TP
4337.B open
4338Open the file with the given `filename'. The `filename' has to have
4339been added with the \fBadd\fR action before.
4340.TP
4341.B close
4342Close the file with the given `filename'. The file has to have been
4343\fBopen\fRed before.
4344.RE
4345.RE
4346.P
4347.B
4348The file I/O action format:
4349.RS
4350filename action offset length
4351.P
4352The `filename' is given as an absolute path, and has to have been \fBadd\fRed and
4353\fBopen\fRed before it can be used with this format. The `offset' and `length' are
4354given in bytes. The `action' can be one of these:
4355.RS
4356.TP
4357.B wait
4358Wait for `offset' microseconds. Everything below 100 is discarded.
4359The time is relative to the previous `wait' statement. Note that action `wait`
4360is not allowed as of version 3, as the same behavior can be achieved using
4361timestamps.
4362.TP
4363.B read
4364Read `length' bytes beginning from `offset'.
4365.TP
4366.B write
4367Write `length' bytes beginning from `offset'.
4368.TP
4369.B sync
4370\fBfsync\fR\|(2) the file.
4371.TP
4372.B datasync
4373\fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) the file.
4374.TP
4375.B trim
4376Trim the given file from the given `offset' for `length' bytes.
4377.RE
4378.RE
4379.RE
4380.TP
4381.B Trace file format v3
4382The third version of the trace file format was added in fio version 3.31. It
4383forces each action to have a timestamp associated with it.
4384.RS
4385.P
4386The first line of the trace file has to be:
4387.RS
4388.P
4389"fio version 3 iolog"
4390.RE
4391.P
4392Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
4393.P
4394.B
4395The file management format:
4396.RS
4397timestamp filename action
4398.P
4399.RE
4400.B
4401The file I/O action format:
4402.RS
4403timestamp filename action offset length
4404.P
4405The `timestamp` is relative to the beginning of the run (ie starts at 0). The
4406`filename`, `action`, `offset` and `length` are identical to version 2, except
4407that version 3 does not allow the `wait` action.
4408.RE
4409.RE
4410.SH I/O REPLAY \- MERGING TRACES
4411Colocation is a common practice used to get the most out of a machine.
4412Knowing which workloads play nicely with each other and which ones don't is
4413a much harder task. While fio can replay workloads concurrently via multiple
4414jobs, it leaves some variability up to the scheduler making results harder to
4415reproduce. Merging is a way to make the order of events consistent.
4416.P
4417Merging is integrated into I/O replay and done when a \fBmerge_blktrace_file\fR
4418is specified. The list of files passed to \fBread_iolog\fR go through the merge
4419process and output a single file stored to the specified file. The output file is
4420passed on as if it were the only file passed to \fBread_iolog\fR. An example would
4421look like:
4422.RS
4423.P
4424$ fio \-\-read_iolog="<file1>:<file2>" \-\-merge_blktrace_file="<output_file>"
4425.RE
4426.P
4427Creating only the merged file can be done by passing the command line argument
4428\fBmerge-blktrace-only\fR.
4429.P
4430Scaling traces can be done to see the relative impact of any particular trace
4431being slowed down or sped up. \fBmerge_blktrace_scalars\fR takes in a colon
4432separated list of percentage scalars. It is index paired with the files passed
4433to \fBread_iolog\fR.
4434.P
4435With scaling, it may be desirable to match the running time of all traces.
4436This can be done with \fBmerge_blktrace_iters\fR. It is index paired with
4437\fBread_iolog\fR just like \fBmerge_blktrace_scalars\fR.
4438.P
4439In an example, given two traces, A and B, each 60s long. If we want to see
4440the impact of trace A issuing IOs twice as fast and repeat trace A over the
4441runtime of trace B, the following can be done:
4442.RS
4443.P
4444$ fio \-\-read_iolog="<trace_a>:"<trace_b>" \-\-merge_blktrace_file"<output_file>" \-\-merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100" \-\-merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"
4445.RE
4446.P
4447This runs trace A at 2x the speed twice for approximately the same runtime as
4448a single run of trace B.
4449.SH CPU IDLENESS PROFILING
4450In some cases, we want to understand CPU overhead in a test. For example, we
4451test patches for the specific goodness of whether they reduce CPU usage.
4452Fio implements a balloon approach to create a thread per CPU that runs at idle
4453priority, meaning that it only runs when nobody else needs the cpu.
4454By measuring the amount of work completed by the thread, idleness of each CPU
4455can be derived accordingly.
4456.P
4457An unit work is defined as touching a full page of unsigned characters. Mean and
4458standard deviation of time to complete an unit work is reported in "unit work"
4459section. Options can be chosen to report detailed percpu idleness or overall
4460system idleness by aggregating percpu stats.
4461.SH VERIFICATION AND TRIGGERS
4462Fio is usually run in one of two ways, when data verification is done. The first
4463is a normal write job of some sort with verify enabled. When the write phase has
4464completed, fio switches to reads and verifies everything it wrote. The second
4465model is running just the write phase, and then later on running the same job
4466(but with reads instead of writes) to repeat the same I/O patterns and verify
4467the contents. Both of these methods depend on the write phase being completed,
4468as fio otherwise has no idea how much data was written.
4469.P
4470With verification triggers, fio supports dumping the current write state to
4471local files. Then a subsequent read verify workload can load this state and know
4472exactly where to stop. This is useful for testing cases where power is cut to a
4473server in a managed fashion, for instance.
4474.P
4475A verification trigger consists of two things:
4476.RS
4477.P
44781) Storing the write state of each job.
4479.P
44802) Executing a trigger command.
4481.RE
4482.P
4483The write state is relatively small, on the order of hundreds of bytes to single
4484kilobytes. It contains information on the number of completions done, the last X
4485completions, etc.
4486.P
4487A trigger is invoked either through creation ('touch') of a specified file in
4488the system, or through a timeout setting. If fio is run with
4489`\-\-trigger\-file=/tmp/trigger\-file', then it will continually
4490check for the existence of `/tmp/trigger\-file'. When it sees this file, it
4491will fire off the trigger (thus saving state, and executing the trigger
4492command).
4493.P
4494For client/server runs, there's both a local and remote trigger. If fio is
4495running as a server backend, it will send the job states back to the client for
4496safe storage, then execute the remote trigger, if specified. If a local trigger
4497is specified, the server will still send back the write state, but the client
4498will then execute the trigger.
4499.RE
4500.P
4501.B Verification trigger example
4502.RS
4503Let's say we want to run a powercut test on the remote Linux machine 'server'.
4504Our write workload is in `write\-test.fio'. We want to cut power to 'server' at
4505some point during the run, and we'll run this test from the safety or our local
4506machine, 'localbox'. On the server, we'll start the fio backend normally:
4507.RS
4508.P
4509server# fio \-\-server
4510.RE
4511.P
4512and on the client, we'll fire off the workload:
4513.RS
4514.P
4515localbox$ fio \-\-client=server \-\-trigger\-file=/tmp/my\-trigger \-\-trigger\-remote="bash \-c "echo b > /proc/sysrq\-triger""
4516.RE
4517.P
4518We set `/tmp/my\-trigger' as the trigger file, and we tell fio to execute:
4519.RS
4520.P
4521echo b > /proc/sysrq\-trigger
4522.RE
4523.P
4524on the server once it has received the trigger and sent us the write state. This
4525will work, but it's not really cutting power to the server, it's merely
4526abruptly rebooting it. If we have a remote way of cutting power to the server
4527through IPMI or similar, we could do that through a local trigger command
4528instead. Let's assume we have a script that does IPMI reboot of a given hostname,
4529ipmi\-reboot. On localbox, we could then have run fio with a local trigger
4530instead:
4531.RS
4532.P
4533localbox$ fio \-\-client=server \-\-trigger\-file=/tmp/my\-trigger \-\-trigger="ipmi\-reboot server"
4534.RE
4535.P
4536For this case, fio would wait for the server to send us the write state, then
4537execute `ipmi\-reboot server' when that happened.
4538.RE
4539.P
4540.B Loading verify state
4541.RS
4542To load stored write state, a read verification job file must contain the
4543\fBverify_state_load\fR option. If that is set, fio will load the previously
4544stored state. For a local fio run this is done by loading the files directly,
4545and on a client/server run, the server backend will ask the client to send the
4546files over and load them from there.
4547.RE
4548.SH LOG FILE FORMATS
4549Fio supports a variety of log file formats, for logging latencies, bandwidth,
4550and IOPS. The logs share a common format, which looks like this:
4551.RS
4552.P
4553time (msec), value, data direction, block size (bytes), offset (bytes),
4554command priority
4555.RE
4556.P
4557`Time' for the log entry is always in milliseconds. The `value' logged depends
4558on the type of log, it will be one of the following:
4559.RS
4560.TP
4561.B Latency log
4562Value is latency in nsecs
4563.TP
4564.B Bandwidth log
4565Value is in KiB/sec
4566.TP
4567.B IOPS log
4568Value is IOPS
4569.RE
4570.P
4571`Data direction' is one of the following:
4572.RS
4573.TP
4574.B 0
4575I/O is a READ
4576.TP
4577.B 1
4578I/O is a WRITE
4579.TP
4580.B 2
4581I/O is a TRIM
4582.RE
4583.P
4584The entry's `block size' is always in bytes. The `offset' is the position in bytes
4585from the start of the file for that particular I/O. The logging of the offset can be
4586toggled with \fBlog_offset\fR.
4587.P
4588If \fBlog_prio\fR is not set, the entry's `Command priority` is 1 for an IO executed
4589with the highest RT priority class (\fBprioclass\fR=1 or \fBcmdprio_class\fR=1) and 0
4590otherwise. This is controlled by the \fBprioclass\fR option and the ioengine specific
4591\fBcmdprio_percentage\fR \fBcmdprio_class\fR options. If \fBlog_prio\fR is set, the
4592entry's `Command priority` is the priority set for the IO, as a 16-bits hexadecimal
4593number with the lowest 13 bits indicating the priority value (\fBprio\fR and
4594\fBcmdprio\fR options) and the highest 3 bits indicating the IO priority class
4595(\fBprioclass\fR and \fBcmdprio_class\fR options).
4596.P
4597Fio defaults to logging every individual I/O but when windowed logging is set
4598through \fBlog_avg_msec\fR, either the average (by default) or the maximum
4599(\fBlog_max_value\fR is set) `value' seen over the specified period of time
4600is recorded. Each `data direction' seen within the window period will aggregate
4601its values in a separate row. Further, when using windowed logging the `block
4602size' and `offset' entries will always contain 0.
4603.SH CLIENT / SERVER
4604Normally fio is invoked as a stand-alone application on the machine where the
4605I/O workload should be generated. However, the backend and frontend of fio can
4606be run separately i.e., the fio server can generate an I/O workload on the "Device
4607Under Test" while being controlled by a client on another machine.
4608.P
4609Start the server on the machine which has access to the storage DUT:
4610.RS
4611.P
4612$ fio \-\-server=args
4613.RE
4614.P
4615where `args' defines what fio listens to. The arguments are of the form
4616`type,hostname' or `IP,port'. `type' is either `ip' (or ip4) for TCP/IP
4617v4, `ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or `sock' for a local unix domain socket.
4618`hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and `port' is the port to listen
4619to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
4620.RS
4621.TP
46221) \fBfio \-\-server\fR
4623Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
4624.TP
46252) \fBfio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444\fR
4626Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
4627.TP
46283) \fBfio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444\fR
4629Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
4630.TP
46314) \fBfio \-\-server=,4444\fR
4632Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
4633.TP
46345) \fBfio \-\-server=1.2.3.4\fR
4635Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
4636.TP
46376) \fBfio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock\fR
4638Start a fio server, listening on the local socket `/tmp/fio.sock'.
4639.RE
4640.P
4641Once a server is running, a "client" can connect to the fio server with:
4642.RS
4643.P
4644$ fio <local\-args> \-\-client=<server> <remote\-args> <job file(s)>
4645.RE
4646.P
4647where `local\-args' are arguments for the client where it is running, `server'
4648is the connect string, and `remote\-args' and `job file(s)' are sent to the
4649server. The `server' string follows the same format as it does on the server
4650side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
4651.P
4652Fio can connect to multiple servers this way:
4653.RS
4654.P
4655$ fio \-\-client=<server1> <job file(s)> \-\-client=<server2> <job file(s)>
4656.RE
4657.P
4658If the job file is located on the fio server, then you can tell the server to
4659load a local file as well. This is done by using \fB\-\-remote\-config\fR:
4660.RS
4661.P
4662$ fio \-\-client=server \-\-remote\-config /path/to/file.fio
4663.RE
4664.P
4665Then fio will open this local (to the server) job file instead of being passed
4666one from the client.
4667.P
4668If you have many servers (example: 100 VMs/containers), you can input a pathname
4669of a file containing host IPs/names as the parameter value for the
4670\fB\-\-client\fR option. For example, here is an example `host.list'
4671file containing 2 hostnames:
4672.RS
4673.P
4674.PD 0
4675host1.your.dns.domain
4676.P
4677host2.your.dns.domain
4678.PD
4679.RE
4680.P
4681The fio command would then be:
4682.RS
4683.P
4684$ fio \-\-client=host.list <job file(s)>
4685.RE
4686.P
4687In this mode, you cannot input server-specific parameters or job files \-\- all
4688servers receive the same job file.
4689.P
4690In order to let `fio \-\-client' runs use a shared filesystem from multiple
4691hosts, `fio \-\-client' now prepends the IP address of the server to the
4692filename. For example, if fio is using the directory `/mnt/nfs/fio' and is
4693writing filename `fileio.tmp', with a \fB\-\-client\fR `hostfile'
4694containing two hostnames `h1' and `h2' with IP addresses 192.168.10.120 and
4695192.168.10.121, then fio will create two files:
4696.RS
4697.P
4698.PD 0
4699/mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.120.fileio.tmp
4700.P
4701/mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.121.fileio.tmp
4702.PD
4703.RE
4704.P
4705Terse output in client/server mode will differ slightly from what is produced
4706when fio is run in stand-alone mode. See the terse output section for details.
4707.SH AUTHORS
4708.B fio
4709was written by Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>.
4710.br
4711This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
4712on documentation by Jens Axboe.
4713.br
4714This man page was rewritten by Tomohiro Kusumi <tkusumi@tuxera.com> based
4715on documentation by Jens Axboe.
4716.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
4717Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
4718.br
4719See \fBREPORTING\-BUGS\fR.
4720.P
4721\fBREPORTING\-BUGS\fR: \fIhttp://git.kernel.dk/cgit/fio/plain/REPORTING\-BUGS\fR
4722.SH "SEE ALSO"
4723For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
4724.br
4725Sample jobfiles are available in the `examples/' directory.
4726.br
4727These are typically located under `/usr/share/doc/fio'.
4728.P
4729\fBHOWTO\fR: \fIhttp://git.kernel.dk/cgit/fio/plain/HOWTO\fR
4730.br
4731\fBREADME\fR: \fIhttp://git.kernel.dk/cgit/fio/plain/README\fR