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1.TH fio 1 "December 2014" "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 of various fio actions. May be `all' for all types
17or individual types separated by a comma (eg \-\-debug=io,file). `help' will
18list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
21Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-output-format \fR=\fPformat
24Set the reporting format to \fInormal\fR, \fIterse\fR, or \fIjson\fR.
25Multiple formats can be selected, separate by a comma.
26.TP
27.BI \-\-runtime \fR=\fPruntime
28Limit run time to \fIruntime\fR seconds.
29.TP
30.B \-\-bandwidth\-log
31Generate per-job bandwidth logs.
32.TP
33.B \-\-minimal
34Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
35.TP
36.B \-\-version
37Display version information and exit.
38.TP
39.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
40Set terse version output format (Current version 3, or older version 2).
41.TP
42.B \-\-help
43Display usage information and exit.
44.TP
45.B \-\-cpuclock-test
46Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock
47.TP
48.BI \-\-crctest[\fR=\fPtest]
49Test the speed of the builtin checksumming functions. If no argument is given,
50all of them are tested. Or a comma separated list can be passed, in which
51case the given ones are tested.
52.TP
53.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
54Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
55.TP
56.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fPioengine[,command]
57List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR defined by \fIioengine\fR.
58.TP
59.BI \-\-showcmd \fR=\fPjobfile
60Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command-line options.
61.TP
62.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
63Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
64be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
65.TP
66.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
67Force an ETA newline for every `time` period passed.
68.TP
69.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
70Report full output status every `time` period passed.
71.TP
72.BI \-\-readonly
73Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
74.TP
75.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
76Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. This option can be used multiple times to add more sections to run.
77.TP
78.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
79Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
80.TP
81.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
82All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
83.TP
84.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
85Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
86.TP
87.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
88Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
89.TP
90.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
91Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
92.TP
93.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
94Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host or set of hosts. See client/server section.
95.TP
96.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
97Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
98.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
99Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
100job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
101extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
102except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
103a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
104behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
105considered a comment and ignored.
106.P
107If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
108standard input.
109.SS "Global Section"
110The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
111job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
112and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
113may override any parameter set in global sections.
114.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
115.SS Types
116Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type.
117Anywhere a numeric value is required, an arithmetic expression may be used,
118provided it is surrounded by parentheses. Supported operators are:
119.RS
120.RS
121.TP
122.B addition (+)
123.TP
124.B subtraction (-)
125.TP
126.B multiplication (*)
127.TP
128.B division (/)
129.TP
130.B modulus (%)
131.TP
132.B exponentiation (^)
133.RE
134.RE
135.P
136For time values in expressions, units are microseconds by default. This is
137different than for time values not in expressions (not enclosed in
138parentheses). The types used are:
139.TP
140.I str
141String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
142.TP
143.I int
144SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
145of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
146kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
147respectively. If prefixed with '0x', the value is assumed to be base 16
148(hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b', for instance 'kb' is
149identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value by using 'KiB', 'MiB','GiB',
150etc. This is useful for disk drives where values are often given in base 10
151values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you 30*1000^3 bytes.
152When specifying times the default suffix meaning changes, still denoting the
153base unit of the value, but accepted suffixes are 'D' (days), 'H' (hours), 'M'
154(minutes), 'S' Seconds, 'ms' (or msec) milli seconds, 'us' (or 'usec') micro
155seconds. Time values without a unit specify seconds.
156The suffixes are not case sensitive.
157.TP
158.I bool
159Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
160.TP
161.I irange
162Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
163\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
164\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
165sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
166`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
167.TP
168.I float_list
169List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
170a ':' character.
171.SS "Parameter List"
172.TP
173.BI name \fR=\fPstr
174May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
175has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
176.TP
177.BI description \fR=\fPstr
178Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
179otherwise has no special purpose.
180.TP
181.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
182Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
183than `./'.
184You can specify a number of directories by separating the names with a ':'
185character. These directories will be assigned equally distributed to job clones
186creates with \fInumjobs\fR as long as they are using generated filenames.
187If specific \fIfilename(s)\fR are set fio will use the first listed directory,
188and thereby matching the \fIfilename\fR semantic which generates a file each
189clone if not specified, but let all clones use the same if set. See
190\fIfilename\fR for considerations regarding escaping certain characters on
191some platforms.
192.TP
193.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
194.B fio
195normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
196number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
197specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
198If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
199a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
200reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
201set. On Windows, disk devices are accessed as \\.\PhysicalDrive0 for the first
202device, \\.\PhysicalDrive1 for the second etc. Note: Windows and FreeBSD
203prevent write access to areas of the disk containing in-use data
204(e.g. filesystems). If the wanted filename does need to include a colon, then
205escape that with a '\\' character. For instance, if the filename is
206"/dev/dsk/foo@3,0:c", then you would use filename="/dev/dsk/foo@3,0\\:c".
207.TP
208.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
209If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
210fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
211based on the default file format specification of
212\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
213customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
214string:
215.RS
216.RS
217.TP
218.B $jobname
219The name of the worker thread or process.
220.TP
221.B $jobnum
222The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
223.TP
224.B $filenum
225The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
226.RE
227.P
228To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
229have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
230if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
231be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
232will be used if no other format specifier is given.
233.RE
234.P
235.TP
236.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
237Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
238file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
239result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
240The lock modes are:
241.RS
242.RS
243.TP
244.B none
245No locking. This is the default.
246.TP
247.B exclusive
248Only one thread or process may do IO at a time, excluding all others.
249.TP
250.B readwrite
251Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
252time, but writes get exclusive access.
253.RE
254.RE
255.P
256.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
257Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
258.TP
259.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
260Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
261.RS
262.RS
263.TP
264.B read
265Sequential reads.
266.TP
267.B write
268Sequential writes.
269.TP
270.B trim
271Sequential trim (Linux block devices only).
272.TP
273.B randread
274Random reads.
275.TP
276.B randwrite
277Random writes.
278.TP
279.B randtrim
280Random trim (Linux block devices only).
281.TP
282.B rw, readwrite
283Mixed sequential reads and writes.
284.TP
285.B randrw
286Mixed random reads and writes.
287.TP
288.B trimwrite
289Trim and write mixed workload. Blocks will be trimmed first, then the same
290blocks will be written to.
291.RE
292.P
293For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
294may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
295specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
296appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
297would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
298value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
299specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
300using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
301into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
302.RE
303.TP
304.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
305If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
306then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
307generated. Accepted values are:
308.RS
309.RS
310.TP
311.B sequential
312Generate sequential offset
313.TP
314.B identical
315Generate the same offset
316.RE
317.P
318\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
319generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
320would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
321only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
322that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
323would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
324fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
325new offset.
326.RE
327.P
328.TP
329.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
330The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
331manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
332reasons. Allowed values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
333.TP
334.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
335Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
336read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
337set fio sums the results and reports them as "mixed" instead.
338.TP
339.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
340Seed the random number generator used for random I/O patterns in a predictable
341way so the pattern is repeatable across runs. Default: true.
342.TP
343.BI allrandrepeat \fR=\fPbool
344Seed all random number generators in a predictable way so results are
345repeatable across runs. Default: false.
346.TP
347.BI randseed \fR=\fPint
348Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
349control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
350sequence depends on the \fBrandrepeat\fR setting.
351.TP
352.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
353Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
354are:
355.RS
356.RS
357.TP
358.B none
359Do not pre-allocate space.
360.TP
361.B posix
362Pre-allocate via \fBposix_fallocate\fR\|(3).
363.TP
364.B keep
365Pre-allocate via \fBfallocate\fR\|(2) with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
366.TP
367.B 0
368Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
369.TP
370.B 1
371Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
372.RE
373.P
374May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
375available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
376because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
377.RE
378.TP
379.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
380Use \fBposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
381are likely to be issued. Default: true.
382.TP
383.BI fadvise_stream \fR=\fPint
384Use \fBposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what stream ID the
385writes issued belong to. Only supported on Linux. Note, this option
386may change going forward.
387.TP
388.BI size \fR=\fPint
389Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
390been transferred, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance,
391or increased/descreased by \fBio_size\fR). Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and
392\fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be divided between the
393available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the full size of the
394given files or devices. If the files do not exist, size must be given. It is
395also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and 100. If size=20% is
396given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files or devices.
397.TP
398.BI io_size \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fB io_limit \fR=\fPint
399Normally fio operates within the region set by \fBsize\fR, which means that
400the \fBsize\fR option sets both the region and size of IO to be performed.
401Sometimes that is not what you want. With this option, it is possible to
402define just the amount of IO that fio should do. For instance, if \fBsize\fR
403is set to 20G and \fBio_limit\fR is set to 5G, fio will perform IO within
404the first 20G but exit when 5G have been done. The opposite is also
405possible - if \fBsize\fR is set to 20G, and \fBio_size\fR is set to 40G, then
406fio will do 40G of IO within the 0..20G region.
407.TP
408.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
409Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
410device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
411For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
412the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
413since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
414writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
415.TP
416.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
417Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
418for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
419that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
420same size.
421.TP
422.BI file_append \fR=\fPbool
423Perform IO after the end of the file. Normally fio will operate within the
424size of a file. If this option is set, then fio will append to the file
425instead. This has identical behavior to setting \fRoffset\fP to the size
426of a file. This option is ignored on non-regular files.
427.TP
428.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
429Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads, writes, and trims
430can be specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR,\fItrim\fR
431either of which may be empty to leave that value at its default. If a trailing
432comma isn't given, the remainder will inherit the last value set.
433.TP
434.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
435Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
436multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
437to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
438separately with a comma separating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
439Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
440.TP
441.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
442This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
443not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
444block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
445block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
446optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
447Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
448blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
449splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
450\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
451comma.
452.TP
453.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
454If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
455work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
456.TP
457.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
458At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
459the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
460for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
461This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
462will turn off that option.
463.TP
464.BI bs_is_seq_rand \fR=\fPbool
465If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings as
466sequential,random instead. Any random read or write will use the WRITE
467blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will use the READ
468blocksize setting.
469.TP
470.B zero_buffers
471Initialize buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
472.TP
473.B refill_buffers
474If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
475default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
476if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
477refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
478.TP
479.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
480If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
481deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
482contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
483more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
484of blocks. Default: true.
485.TP
486.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
487If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
488that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
489random data and a fixed pattern. The fixed pattern is either zeroes, or the
490pattern specified by \fBbuffer_pattern\fR. If the pattern option is used, it
491might skew the compression ratio slightly. Note that this is per block size
492unit, for file/disk wide compression level that matches this setting. Note
493that this is per block size unit, for file/disk wide compression level that
494matches this setting, you'll also want to set refill_buffers.
495.TP
496.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
497See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
498big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
499provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
500the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
501size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
502.TP
503.BI buffer_pattern \fR=\fPstr
504If set, fio will fill the IO buffers with this pattern. If not set, the contents
505of IO buffers is defined by the other options related to buffer contents. The
506setting can be any pattern of bytes, and can be prefixed with 0x for hex
507values. It may also be a string, where the string must then be wrapped with
508"", e.g.:
509.RS
510.RS
511\fBbuffer_pattern\fR="abcd"
512.RS
513or
514.RE
515\fBbuffer_pattern\fR=-12
516.RS
517or
518.RE
519\fBbuffer_pattern\fR=0xdeadface
520.RE
521.LP
522Also you can combine everything together in any order:
523.LP
524.RS
525\fBbuffer_pattern\fR=0xdeadface"abcd"-12
526.RE
527.RE
528.TP
529.BI dedupe_percentage \fR=\fPint
530If set, fio will generate this percentage of identical buffers when writing.
531These buffers will be naturally dedupable. The contents of the buffers depend
532on what other buffer compression settings have been set. It's possible to have
533the individual buffers either fully compressible, or not at all. This option
534only controls the distribution of unique buffers.
535.TP
536.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
537Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
538.TP
539.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
540Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
541.TP
542.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
543Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
544.RS
545.RS
546.TP
547.B random
548Choose a file at random.
549.TP
550.B roundrobin
551Round robin over opened files (default).
552.TP
553.B sequential
554Do each file in the set sequentially.
555.RE
556.P
557The number of I/Os to issue before switching to a new file can be specified by
558appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
559.RE
560.TP
561.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
562Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
563.RS
564.RS
565.TP
566.B sync
567Basic \fBread\fR\|(2) or \fBwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fBfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
568position the I/O location.
569.TP
570.B psync
571Basic \fBpread\fR\|(2) or \fBpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
572.TP
573.B vsync
574Basic \fBreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
575coalescing adjacent IOs into a single submission.
576.TP
577.B pvsync
578Basic \fBpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
579.TP
580.B libaio
581Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
582.TP
583.B posixaio
584POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fBaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fBaio_write\fR\|(3).
585.TP
586.B solarisaio
587Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
588.TP
589.B windowsaio
590Windows native asynchronous I/O.
591.TP
592.B mmap
593File is memory mapped with \fBmmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
594\fBmemcpy\fR\|(3).
595.TP
596.B splice
597\fBsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
598transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
599.TP
600.B syslet-rw
601Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
602.TP
603.B sg
604SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
605the target is an sg character device, we use \fBread\fR\|(2) and
606\fBwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
607.TP
608.B null
609Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
610itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
611.TP
612.B net
613Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
614\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
615\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
616This ioengine defines engine specific options.
617.TP
618.B netsplice
619Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fBsplice\fR\|(2) and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
620and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
621.TP
622.B cpuio
623Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
624\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
625.TP
626.B guasi
627The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
628approach to asynchronous I/O.
629.br
630See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
631.TP
632.B rdma
633The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
634and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
635.TP
636.B external
637Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
638`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
639.TP
640.B falloc
641 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate call to simulate data
642transfer as fio ioengine
643.br
644 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
645.br
646 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
647.br
648 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
649.TP
650.B e4defrag
651IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
652request to DDIR_WRITE event
653.TP
654.B rbd
655IO engine supporting direct access to Ceph Rados Block Devices (RBD) via librbd
656without the need to use the kernel rbd driver. This ioengine defines engine specific
657options.
658.TP
659.B gfapi
660Using Glusterfs libgfapi sync interface to direct access to Glusterfs volumes without
661having to go through FUSE. This ioengine defines engine specific
662options.
663.TP
664.B gfapi_async
665Using Glusterfs libgfapi async interface to direct access to Glusterfs volumes without
666having to go through FUSE. This ioengine defines engine specific
667options.
668.TP
669.B libhdfs
670Read and write through Hadoop (HDFS). The \fBfilename\fR option is used to
671specify host,port of the hdfs name-node to connect. This engine interprets
672offsets a little differently. In HDFS, files once created cannot be modified.
673So random writes are not possible. To imitate this, libhdfs engine expects
674bunch of small files to be created over HDFS, and engine will randomly pick a
675file out of those files based on the offset generated by fio backend. (see the
676example job file to create such files, use rw=write option). Please note, you
677might want to set necessary environment variables to work with hdfs/libhdfs
678properly.
679.TP
680.B mtd
681Read, write and erase an MTD character device (e.g., /dev/mtd0). Discards are
682treated as erases. Depending on the underlying device type, the I/O may have
683to go in a certain pattern, e.g., on NAND, writing sequentially to erase blocks
684and discarding before overwriting. The writetrim mode works well for this
685constraint.
686.RE
687.P
688.RE
689.TP
690.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
691Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
692iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
693degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines may impose OS
694restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
695Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
696not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
697fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
698.TP
699.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP iodepth_batch_submit" \fR=\fPint
700This defines how many pieces of IO to submit at once. It defaults to 1
701which means that we submit each IO as soon as it is available, but can
702be raised to submit bigger batches of IO at the time. If it is set to 0
703the \fBiodepth\fR value will be used.
704.TP
705.BI iodepth_batch_complete_min \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP iodepth_batch_complete" \fR=\fPint
706This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
707 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
708kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
709\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
710completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
711cost of more retrieval system calls.
712.TP
713.BI iodepth_batch_complete_max \fR=\fPint
714This defines maximum pieces of IO to
715retrieve at once. This variable should be used along with
716\fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR=int variable, specifying the range
717of min and max amount of IO which should be retrieved. By default
718it is equal to \fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR value.
719
720Example #1:
721.RS
722.RS
723\fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR=1
724.LP
725\fBiodepth_batch_complete_max\fR=<iodepth>
726.RE
727
728which means that we will retrieve at leat 1 IO and up to the
729whole submitted queue depth. If none of IO has been completed
730yet, we will wait.
731
732Example #2:
733.RS
734\fBiodepth_batch_complete_min\fR=0
735.LP
736\fBiodepth_batch_complete_max\fR=<iodepth>
737.RE
738
739which means that we can retrieve up to the whole submitted
740queue depth, but if none of IO has been completed yet, we will
741NOT wait and immediately exit the system call. In this example
742we simply do polling.
743.RE
744.TP
745.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
746Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
747\fBiodepth\fR.
748.TP
749.BI io_submit_mode \fR=\fPstr
750This option controls how fio submits the IO to the IO engine. The default is
751\fBinline\fR, which means that the fio job threads submit and reap IO directly.
752If set to \fBoffload\fR, the job threads will offload IO submission to a
753dedicated pool of IO threads. This requires some coordination and thus has a
754bit of extra overhead, especially for lower queue depth IO where it can
755increase latencies. The benefit is that fio can manage submission rates
756independently of the device completion rates. This avoids skewed latency
757reporting if IO gets back up on the device side (the coordinated omission
758problem).
759.TP
760.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
761If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
762.TP
763.BI atomic \fR=\fPbool
764If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct IO. Atomic writes are guaranteed
765to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only Linux supports
766O_ATOMIC right now.
767.TP
768.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
769If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
770Default: true.
771.TP
772.BI offset \fR=\fPint
773Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
774.TP
775.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
776If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
777offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a
778counter that starts at 0 and is incremented for each sub-job (i.e. when
779numjobs option is specified). This option is useful if there are several jobs
780which are intended to operate on a file in parallel disjoint segments, with
781even spacing between the starting points.
782.TP
783.BI number_ios \fR=\fPint
784Fio will normally perform IOs until it has exhausted the size of the region
785set by \fBsize\fR, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
786condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
787the number of IOs to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
788normally and report status. Note that this does not extend the amount
789of IO that will be done, it will only stop fio if this condition is met
790before other end-of-job criteria.
791.TP
792.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
793How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
7940, don't sync. Default: 0.
795.TP
796.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
797Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
798data parts of the file. Default: 0.
799.TP
800.BI write_barrier \fR=\fPint
801Make every Nth write a barrier write.
802.TP
803.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
804Use \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
805track range of writes that have happened since the last \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) call.
806\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
807.RS
808.TP
809.B wait_before
810SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
811.TP
812.B write
813SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
814.TP
815.B wait_after
816SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
817.TP
818.RE
819.P
820So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
821\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
822Also see the \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
823.TP
824.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
825If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
826.TP
827.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
828Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
829.TP
830.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
831If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
832it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
833.TP
834.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
835Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
836.TP
837.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
838Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
839\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
840overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
841asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
842the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
843.TP
844.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
845By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
846to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
847specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
848Fio includes the following distribution models:
849.RS
850.TP
851.B random
852Uniform random distribution
853.TP
854.B zipf
855Zipf distribution
856.TP
857.B pareto
858Pareto distribution
859.TP
860.RE
861.P
862When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
863define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
864it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
865used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
866If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
867random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
868fio will disable use of the random map.
869.TP
870.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint
871For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This defaults
872to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set from
873anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
874sequential. It is possible to set different values for reads, writes, and
875trim. To do so, simply use a comma separated list. See \fBblocksize\fR.
876.TP
877.B norandommap
878Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
879this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
880I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
881.TP
882.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
883See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
884fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
885random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
886option is disabled by default.
887.TP
888.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
889Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
890.RS
891.TP
892.B tausworthe
893Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
894.TP
895.B lfsr
896Linear feedback shift register generator
897.TP
898.B tausworthe64
899Strong 64-bit 2^258 cycle random number generator
900.TP
901.RE
902.P
903Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
904side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
905guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
906computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
907for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
908sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
909workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
910.TP
911.BI nice \fR=\fPint
912Run job with given nice value. See \fBnice\fR\|(2).
913.TP
914.BI prio \fR=\fPint
915Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
916\fBionice\fR\|(1).
917.TP
918.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
919Set I/O priority class. See \fBionice\fR\|(1).
920.TP
921.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
922Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
923.TP
924.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
925Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
926of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
927.TP
928.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
929Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks to issue, before
930waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds. If not set, defaults to 1 which will
931make fio wait \fBthinktime\fR microseconds after every block. This
932effectively makes any queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 IO
933will be queued before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other
934words, this setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
935Default: 1.
936.TP
937.BI rate \fR=\fPint
938Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
939rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
940or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
941limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
942can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
943limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
944.TP
945.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
946Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
947Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
948as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
949.TP
950.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
951Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
952specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
953read vs write separation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
954size is used as the metric.
955.TP
956.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
957If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
958is used for read vs write separation.
959.TP
960.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
961Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
962milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
963.TP
964.BI latency_target \fR=\fPint
965If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
966workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. The
967values is given in microseconds. See \fBlatency_window\fR and
968\fBlatency_percentile\fR.
969.TP
970.BI latency_window \fR=\fPint
971Used with \fBlatency_target\fR to specify the sample window that the job
972is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. The value is given
973in microseconds.
974.TP
975.BI latency_percentile \fR=\fPfloat
976The percentage of IOs that must fall within the criteria specified by
977\fBlatency_target\fR and \fBlatency_window\fR. If not set, this defaults
978to 100.0, meaning that all IOs must be equal or below to the value set
979by \fBlatency_target\fR.
980.TP
981.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
982If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
983with an ETIME error.
984.TP
985.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
986Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
987may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
988.TP
989.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
990Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
991.TP
992.BI cpus_allowed_policy \fR=\fPstr
993Set the policy of how fio distributes the CPUs specified by \fBcpus_allowed\fR
994or \fBcpumask\fR. Two policies are supported:
995.RS
996.RS
997.TP
998.B shared
999All jobs will share the CPU set specified.
1000.TP
1001.B split
1002Each job will get a unique CPU from the CPU set.
1003.RE
1004.P
1005\fBshared\fR is the default behaviour, if the option isn't specified. If
1006\fBsplit\fR is specified, then fio will assign one cpu per job. If not enough
1007CPUs are given for the jobs listed, then fio will roundrobin the CPUs in
1008the set.
1009.RE
1010.P
1011.TP
1012.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
1013Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
1014comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
1015.TP
1016.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
1017Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
1018the arguments:
1019.RS
1020.TP
1021.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
1022.TP
1023.B mode
1024is one of the following memory policy:
1025.TP
1026.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
1027.TP
1028.RE
1029For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
1030needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
1031allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
1032comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
1033.TP
1034.BI startdelay \fR=\fPirange
1035Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds. Supports all time
1036suffixes to allow specification of hours, minutes, seconds and
1037milliseconds - seconds are the default if a unit is omitted.
1038Can be given as a range which causes each thread to choose randomly out of the
1039range.
1040.TP
1041.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
1042Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
1043.TP
1044.B time_based
1045If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
1046completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
1047as \fBruntime\fR allows.
1048.TP
1049.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
1050If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
1051logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
1052logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
1053that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
1054increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
1055.TP
1056.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
1057Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
1058.TP
1059.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
1060Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
1061this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
1062.TP
1063.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
1064Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
1065.RS
1066.RS
1067.TP
1068.B malloc
1069Allocate memory with \fBmalloc\fR\|(3).
1070.TP
1071.B shm
1072Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fBshmget\fR\|(2).
1073.TP
1074.B shmhuge
1075Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
1076.TP
1077.B mmap
1078Use \fBmmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
1079is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
1080.TP
1081.B mmaphuge
1082Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
1083.RE
1084.P
1085The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
1086job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
1087the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
1088have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
1089huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
1090and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
1091number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
1092use.
1093.RE
1094.TP
1095.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
1096This indicates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
1097given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
1098the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
1099other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
1100system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
1101is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
1102sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
1103.TP
1104.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
1105Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
1106Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
1107.TP
1108.B exitall
1109Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
1110.TP
1111.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
1112Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
1113500ms.
1114.TP
1115.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
1116Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
1117500ms.
1118.TP
1119.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
1120If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
1121.TP
1122.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
1123\fBfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
1124.TP
1125.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
1126If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
1127.TP
1128.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
1129If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
1130laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
1131are not executed.
1132.TP
1133.BI allow_file_create \fR=\fPbool
1134If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. This is
1135the default behavior. If this option is false, then fio will error out if the
1136files it needs to use don't already exist. Default: true.
1137.TP
1138.BI allow_mounted_write \fR=\fPbool
1139If this isn't set, fio will abort jobs that are destructive (eg that write)
1140to what appears to be a mounted device or partition. This should help catch
1141creating inadvertently destructive tests, not realizing that the test will
1142destroy data on the mounted file system. Default: false.
1143.TP
1144.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
1145If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
1146IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
1147pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
1148engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
1149multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
1150.TP
1151.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
1152Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
1153.TP
1154.BI loops \fR=\fPint
1155Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
1156Default: 1.
1157.TP
1158.BI verify_only \fR=\fPbool
1159Do not perform the specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
1160invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
1161times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only for
1162workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
1163\fBtime_based\fR option set.
1164.TP
1165.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
1166Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
1167Default: true.
1168.TP
1169.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
1170Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Each
1171verification method also implies verification of special header, which is
1172written to the beginning of each block. This header also includes meta
1173information, like offset of the block, block number, timestamp when block
1174was written, etc. \fBverify\fR=str can be combined with \fBverify_pattern\fR=str
1175option. The allowed values are:
1176.RS
1177.RS
1178.TP
1179.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1 xxhash
1180Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
1181hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
1182not supported by the system.
1183.TP
1184.B meta
1185This option is deprecated, since now meta information is included in generic
1186verification header and meta verification happens by default. For detailed
1187information see the description of the \fBverify\fR=str setting. This option
1188is kept because of compatibility's sake with old configurations. Do not use it.
1189.TP
1190.B pattern
1191Verify a strict pattern. Normally fio includes a header with some basic
1192information and checksumming, but if this option is set, only the
1193specific pattern set with \fBverify_pattern\fR is verified.
1194.TP
1195.B null
1196Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
1197.RE
1198
1199This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
1200that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
1201is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
1202written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
1203be of the newly written data.
1204.RE
1205.TP
1206.BI verifysort \fR=\fPbool
1207If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
1208read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
1209.TP
1210.BI verifysort_nr \fR=\fPint
1211Pre-load and sort verify blocks for a read workload.
1212.TP
1213.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
1214Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
1215writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
1216.TP
1217.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
1218Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
1219\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
1220.TP
1221.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
1222If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
1223with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
1224pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
1225fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
1226decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
1227has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
1228\fBverify\fP=str. Also, verify_pattern supports %o format, which means that for
1229each block offset will be written and then verifyied back, e.g.:
1230.RS
1231.RS
1232\fBverify_pattern\fR=%o
1233.RE
1234Or use combination of everything:
1235.LP
1236.RS
1237\fBverify_pattern\fR=0xff%o"abcd"-21
1238.RE
1239.RE
1240.TP
1241.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
1242If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
1243false.
1244.TP
1245.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
1246If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
1247read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
1248data corruption occurred. Off by default.
1249.TP
1250.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
1251Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
1252takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
1253verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
1254to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
1255engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
1256allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
1257.TP
1258.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
1259Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
1260See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
1261.TP
1262.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
1263Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
1264once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
1265everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
1266instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
1267IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
1268be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
1269only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
1270.TP
1271.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1272Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
1273will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
1274read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
1275\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
1276\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
1277will be verified more than once.
1278.TP
1279.BI trim_percentage \fR=\fPint
1280Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
1281.TP
1282.BI trim_verify_zero \fR=\fPbool
1283Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeroes.
1284.TP
1285.BI trim_backlog \fR=\fPint
1286Trim after this number of blocks are written.
1287.TP
1288.BI trim_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1289Trim this number of IO blocks.
1290.TP
1291.BI experimental_verify \fR=\fPbool
1292Enable experimental verification.
1293.TP
1294.BI verify_state_save \fR=\fPbool
1295When a job exits during the write phase of a verify workload, save its
1296current state. This allows fio to replay up until that point, if the
1297verify state is loaded for the verify read phase.
1298.TP
1299.BI verify_state_load \fR=\fPbool
1300If a verify termination trigger was used, fio stores the current write
1301state of each thread. This can be used at verification time so that fio
1302knows how far it should verify. Without this information, fio will run
1303a full verification pass, according to the settings in the job file used.
1304.TP
1305.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
1306Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
1307\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
1308.TP
1309.B new_group
1310Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
1311of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
1312.TP
1313.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
1314Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
1315Default: 1.
1316.TP
1317.B group_reporting
1318If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
1319specified.
1320.TP
1321.B thread
1322Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
1323with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
1324.TP
1325.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
1326Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1327.TP
1328.BI zonerange \fR=\fPint
1329Give size of an IO zone. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1330.TP
1331.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
1332Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
1333read.
1334.TP
1335.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1336Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
1337for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
1338corrupt.
1339.TP
1340.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1341Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
1342\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
1343.TP
1344.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
1345While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1346attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
1347\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
1348still respecting ordering.
1349.TP
1350.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
1351While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1352is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
1353from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
1354single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
1355.TP
1356.BI replay_align \fR=\fPint
1357Force alignment of IO offsets and lengths in a trace to this power of 2 value.
1358.TP
1359.BI replay_scale \fR=\fPint
1360Scale sector offsets down by this factor when replaying traces.
1361.TP
1362.BI per_job_logs \fR=\fPbool
1363If set, this generates bw/clat/iops log with per file private filenames. If
1364not set, jobs with identical names will share the log filename. Default: true.
1365.TP
1366.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
1367If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
1368store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
1369fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1370graphs. See \fBwrite_lat_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1371option, the postfix is _bw.x.log, where x is the index of the job (1..N,
1372where N is the number of jobs). If \fBper_job_logs\fR is false, then the
1373filename will not include the job index.
1374.TP
1375.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1376Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1377filename is given with this option, the default filename of
1378"jobname_type.x.log" is used, where x is the index of the job (1..N, where
1379N is the number of jobs). Even if the filename is given, fio will still
1380append the type of log. If \fBper_job_logs\fR is false, then the filename will
1381not include the job index.
1382.TP
1383.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1384Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1385option, the default filename of "jobname_type.x.log" is used, where x is the
1386index of the job (1..N, where N is the number of jobs). Even if the filename
1387is given, fio will still append the type of log. If \fBper_job_logs\fR is false,
1388then the filename will not include the job index.
1389.TP
1390.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1391By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1392IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1393very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1394over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1395Defaults to 0.
1396.TP
1397.BI log_offset \fR=\fPbool
1398If this is set, the iolog options will include the byte offset for the IO
1399entry as well as the other data values.
1400.TP
1401.BI log_compression \fR=\fPint
1402If this is set, fio will compress the IO logs as it goes, to keep the memory
1403footprint lower. When a log reaches the specified size, that chunk is removed
1404and compressed in the background. Given that IO logs are fairly highly
1405compressible, this yields a nice memory savings for longer runs. The downside
1406is that the compression will consume some background CPU cycles, so it may
1407impact the run. This, however, is also true if the logging ends up consuming
1408most of the system memory. So pick your poison. The IO logs are saved
1409normally at the end of a run, by decompressing the chunks and storing them
1410in the specified log file. This feature depends on the availability of zlib.
1411.TP
1412.BI log_store_compressed \fR=\fPbool
1413If set, and \fBlog\fR_compression is also set, fio will store the log files in
1414a compressed format. They can be decompressed with fio, using the
1415\fB\-\-inflate-log\fR command line parameter. The files will be stored with a
1416\fB\.fz\fR suffix.
1417.TP
1418.BI block_error_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1419If set, record errors in trim block-sized units from writes and trims and output
1420a histogram of how many trims it took to get to errors, and what kind of error
1421was encountered.
1422.TP
1423.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1424Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1425back the number of calls to \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2), as that does impact performance at
1426really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1427calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1428.TP
1429.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1430Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1431.TP
1432.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1433Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1434.TP
1435.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1436Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1437.TP
1438.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1439Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1440simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1441.TP
1442.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1443Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1444.RS
1445Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.prerun.txt\fR
1446.RE
1447.TP
1448.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1449Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1450.RS
1451Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.postrun.txt\fR
1452.RE
1453.TP
1454.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1455Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1456.TP
1457.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1458Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1459.TP
1460.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1461Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1462.RS
1463.TP
1464.B gettimeofday
1465\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2)
1466.TP
1467.B clock_gettime
1468\fBclock_gettime\fR\|(2)
1469.TP
1470.B cpu
1471Internal CPU clock source
1472.TP
1473.RE
1474.P
1475\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1476(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1477if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1478unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1479means supporting TSC Invariant.
1480.TP
1481.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1482Enable all of the \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1483disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1484\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1485the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1486.TP
1487.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1488Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1489the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1490\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1491nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1492threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1493entering the kernel with a \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call. The CPU set aside for doing
1494these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1495from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1496.TP
1497.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1498Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1499error list for each error type.
1500.br
1501ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1502.br
1503errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1504Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1505.br
1506Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1507.br
1508This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1509.TP
1510.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1511If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1512only fatal error will be dumped
1513.TP
1514.BI profile \fR=\fPstr
1515Select a specific builtin performance test.
1516.TP
1517.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1518Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1519The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1520your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1521
1522# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1523.TP
1524.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1525Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1526with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1527.TP
1528.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1529Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1530To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1531set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1532cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1533.TP
1534.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1535Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1536the thread/process does any work.
1537.TP
1538.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1539Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1540.TP
1541.BI unit_base \fR=\fPint
1542Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
1543.RS
1544.TP
1545.B 0
1546Use auto-detection (default).
1547.TP
1548.B 8
1549Byte based.
1550.TP
1551.B 1
1552Bit based.
1553.RE
1554.P
1555.TP
1556.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1557The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1558\fBflow\fR.
1559.TP
1560.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1561Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1562\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1563two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1564\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1565flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1566\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
15671:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1568.TP
1569.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1570The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1571reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1572.TP
1573.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1574The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1575exceeded before retrying operations
1576.TP
1577.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1578Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1579.TP
1580.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1581Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion latencies and the
1582block error histogram. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100],
1583and the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1584numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1585report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1586the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1587.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1588Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1589used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1590command line, they must come after the ioengine.
1591.TP
1592.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1593Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1594.TP
1595.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1596Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1597.TP
1598.BI (cpu)exit_on_io_done \fR=\fPbool
1599Detect when IO threads are done, then exit.
1600.TP
1601.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1602Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1603the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1604With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1605from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1606enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1607iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1608.TP
1609.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1610The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1611If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1612used and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1613.TP
1614.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1615The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to. If this is used with
1616\fBnumjobs\fR to spawn multiple instances of the same job type, then
1617this will be the starting port number since fio will use a range of ports.
1618.TP
1619.BI (net,netsplice)interface \fR=\fPstr
1620The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP multicast
1621packets.
1622.TP
1623.BI (net,netsplice)ttl \fR=\fPint
1624Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1
1625.TP
1626.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1627Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1628.TP
1629.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1630The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1631.RS
1632.RS
1633.TP
1634.B tcp
1635Transmission control protocol
1636.TP
1637.B tcpv6
1638Transmission control protocol V6
1639.TP
1640.B udp
1641User datagram protocol
1642.TP
1643.B udpv6
1644User datagram protocol V6
1645.TP
1646.B unix
1647UNIX domain socket
1648.RE
1649.P
1650When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1651as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1652reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1653used and the port is invalid.
1654.RE
1655.TP
1656.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1657For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1658connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1659hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1660.TP
1661.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1662Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1663will just consume packets. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1664payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1665This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1666latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1667completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1668send back. For UDP multicast traffic pingpong=1 should only be set for a single
1669reader when multiple readers are listening to the same address.
1670.TP
1671.BI (net, window_size) \fR=\fPint
1672Set the desired socket buffer size for the connection.
1673.TP
1674.BI (net, mss) \fR=\fPint
1675Set the TCP maximum segment size (TCP_MAXSEG).
1676.TP
1677.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1678File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1679.TP
1680.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1681Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1682.RS
1683.BI 0(default) :
1684Preallocate donor's file on init
1685.TP
1686.BI 1:
1687allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right after event
1688.RE
1689.TP
1690.BI (rbd)rbdname \fR=\fPstr
1691Specifies the name of the RBD.
1692.TP
1693.BI (rbd)pool \fR=\fPstr
1694Specifies the name of the Ceph pool containing the RBD.
1695.TP
1696.BI (rbd)clientname \fR=\fPstr
1697Specifies the username (without the 'client.' prefix) used to access the Ceph cluster.
1698.TP
1699.BI (mtd)skipbad \fR=\fPbool
1700Skip operations against known bad blocks.
1701.SH OUTPUT
1702While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1703example:
1704.RS
1705.P
1706Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1707.RE
1708.P
1709The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1710threads. The possible values are:
1711.P
1712.PD 0
1713.RS
1714.TP
1715.B P
1716Setup but not started.
1717.TP
1718.B C
1719Thread created.
1720.TP
1721.B I
1722Initialized, waiting.
1723.TP
1724.B R
1725Running, doing sequential reads.
1726.TP
1727.B r
1728Running, doing random reads.
1729.TP
1730.B W
1731Running, doing sequential writes.
1732.TP
1733.B w
1734Running, doing random writes.
1735.TP
1736.B M
1737Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1738.TP
1739.B m
1740Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1741.TP
1742.B F
1743Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1744.TP
1745.B V
1746Running, verifying written data.
1747.TP
1748.B E
1749Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1750.TP
1751.B \-
1752Exited, thread reaped.
1753.RE
1754.PD
1755.P
1756The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1757the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1758respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1759.P
1760When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1761for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1762.P
1763Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1764error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1765.RS
1766.TP
1767.B io
1768Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1769.TP
1770.B bw
1771Average data rate (bandwidth).
1772.TP
1773.B runt
1774Threads run time.
1775.TP
1776.B slat
1777Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1778the time it took to submit the I/O.
1779.TP
1780.B clat
1781Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1782is the time between submission and completion.
1783.TP
1784.B bw
1785Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1786and standard deviation.
1787.TP
1788.B cpu
1789CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1790this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1791.TP
1792.B IO depths
1793Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1794to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1795.TP
1796.B IO issued
1797Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1798.TP
1799.B IO latencies
1800Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1801as \fBIO depths\fR.
1802.RE
1803.P
1804The group statistics show:
1805.PD 0
1806.RS
1807.TP
1808.B io
1809Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1810.TP
1811.B aggrb
1812Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1813.TP
1814.B minb
1815Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1816.TP
1817.B maxb
1818Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1819.TP
1820.B mint
1821Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1822.TP
1823.B maxt
1824Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1825.RE
1826.PD
1827.P
1828Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1829.PD 0
1830.RS
1831.TP
1832.B ios
1833Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1834.TP
1835.B merge
1836Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1837.TP
1838.B ticks
1839Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1840.TP
1841.B io_queue
1842Total time spent in the disk queue.
1843.TP
1844.B util
1845Disk utilization.
1846.RE
1847.PD
1848.P
1849It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1850running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1851signal.
1852.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1853If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR / \fB\-\-append-terse\fR options are given, the
1854results will be printed/appended in a semicolon-delimited format suitable for
1855scripted use.
1856A job description (if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1857number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1858for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1859change. The fields are:
1860.P
1861.RS
1862.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1863.P
1864Read status:
1865.RS
1866.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1867.P
1868Submission latency:
1869.RS
1870.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1871.RE
1872Completion latency:
1873.RS
1874.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1875.RE
1876Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1877.RS
1878.B Xth percentile=usec
1879.RE
1880Total latency:
1881.RS
1882.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1883.RE
1884Bandwidth:
1885.RS
1886.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1887.RE
1888.RE
1889.P
1890Write status:
1891.RS
1892.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1893.P
1894Submission latency:
1895.RS
1896.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1897.RE
1898Completion latency:
1899.RS
1900.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1901.RE
1902Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1903.RS
1904.B Xth percentile=usec
1905.RE
1906Total latency:
1907.RS
1908.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1909.RE
1910Bandwidth:
1911.RS
1912.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1913.RE
1914.RE
1915.P
1916CPU usage:
1917.RS
1918.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1919.RE
1920.P
1921IO depth distribution:
1922.RS
1923.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1924.RE
1925.P
1926IO latency distribution:
1927.RS
1928Microseconds:
1929.RS
1930.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1931.RE
1932Milliseconds:
1933.RS
1934.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1935.RE
1936.RE
1937.P
1938Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1939.RS
1940.B name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks, read in-queue time, write in-queue time, disk utilization percentage
1941.RE
1942.P
1943Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1944.RS
1945.B total # errors, first error code
1946.RE
1947.P
1948.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1949.RE
1950.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1951Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1952where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1953run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1954have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1955be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1956
1957To start the server, you would do:
1958
1959\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1960
1961on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1962are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1963for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1964socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1965listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1966
19671) fio \-\-server
1968
1969 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1970
19712) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1972
1973 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1974
19753) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1976
1977 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1978
19794) fio \-\-server=,4444
1980
1981 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1982
19835) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1984
1985 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1986
19876) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1988
1989 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1990
1991When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1992is run with:
1993
1994fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1995
1996where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1997running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1998are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1999does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
2000You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
2001
2002fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
2003
2004If the job file is located on the fio server, then you can tell the server
2005to load a local file as well. This is done by using \-\-remote-config:
2006
2007fio \-\-client=server \-\-remote-config /path/to/file.fio
2008
2009Then fio will open this local (to the server) job file instead
2010of being passed one from the client.
2011
2012If you have many servers (example: 100 VMs/containers), you can input a pathname
2013of a file containing host IPs/names as the parameter value for the \-\-client option.
2014For example, here is an example "host.list" file containing 2 hostnames:
2015
2016host1.your.dns.domain
2017.br
2018host2.your.dns.domain
2019
2020The fio command would then be:
2021
2022fio \-\-client=host.list <job file>
2023
2024In this mode, you cannot input server-specific parameters or job files, and all
2025servers receive the same job file.
2026
2027In order to enable fio \-\-client runs utilizing a shared filesystem from multiple hosts,
2028fio \-\-client now prepends the IP address of the server to the filename. For example,
2029if fio is using directory /mnt/nfs/fio and is writing filename fileio.tmp,
2030with a \-\-client hostfile
2031containing two hostnames h1 and h2 with IP addresses 192.168.10.120 and 192.168.10.121, then
2032fio will create two files:
2033
2034/mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.120.fileio.tmp
2035.br
2036/mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.121.fileio.tmp
2037
2038.SH AUTHORS
2039
2040.B fio
2041was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
2042now Jens Axboe <axboe@fb.com>.
2043.br
2044This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
2045on documentation by Jens Axboe.
2046.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
2047Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
2048See \fBREADME\fR.
2049.SH "SEE ALSO"
2050For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
2051.br
2052Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
2053