4 fio is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
5 particular type of io action as specified by the user. fio takes a
6 number of global parameters, each inherited by the thread unless
7 otherwise parameters given to them overriding that setting is given.
8 The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the io load
15 fio resides in a git repo, the canonical place is:
17 git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
19 If you are inside a corporate firewall, git:// may not always work for
20 you. In that case you can use the http protocol, path is the same:
22 http://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
24 Snapshots are frequently generated and they include the git meta data as
25 well. You can download them here:
27 http://brick.kernel.dk/snaps/
34 Starting with Debian "Squeeze", fio packages are part of the official
35 Debian repository. http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=fio
38 Starting with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (aka "Lucid Lynx"), fio packages are part
39 of the Ubuntu "universe" repository.
40 http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=fio
43 Pascal Bleser <guru@unixtech.be> has fio RPMs in his repository for SUSE
44 variants, you can find them here:
45 http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=System/fio
48 Dag Wieƫrs has RPMs for Red Hat related distros, find them here:
49 http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/fio/
52 Mandriva has integrated fio into their package repository, so installing
53 on that distro should be as easy as typing 'urpmi fio'.
56 Packages for Solaris are available from OpenCSW. Install their pkgutil
57 tool (http://www.opencsw.org/get-it/pkgutil/) and then install fio via
61 Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk> has fio packages for Windows at
62 http://www.bluestop.org/fio .
68 There's a mailing list associated with fio. It's meant for general
69 discussion, bug reporting, questions, and development - basically anything
70 that has to do with fio. An automated mail detailing recent commits is
71 automatically sent to the list at most daily. The list address is
72 fio@vger.kernel.org, subscribe by sending an email to
73 majordomo@vger.kernel.org with
77 in the body of the email. Archives can be found here:
79 http://www.spinics.net/lists/fio/
81 and archives for the old list can be found here:
83 http://maillist.kernel.dk/fio-devel/
89 Just type 'make' and 'make install'.
91 Note that GNU make is required. On BSD it's available from devel/gmake;
92 on Solaris it's in the SUNWgmake package. On platforms where GNU make
93 isn't the default, type 'gmake' instead of 'make'.
95 If your compile fails with an error like this:
98 In file included from fio.h:23,
100 os/os.h:15:20: error: libaio.h: No such file or directory
101 In file included from gettime.c:8:
102 fio.h:119: error: field 'iocb' has incomplete type
103 make: *** [gettime.o] Error 1
105 Check that you have the libaio development package installed. On RPM
106 based distros, it's typically called libaio-devel.
112 On Windows Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com) is required with at least
113 devel/gcc4 and devel/make installed in order to build fio, and
114 admin/cygrunsrv to run it. You can also install devel/git to fetch/update
115 the source files. To create an MSI installer package put a copy of Cygwin
116 in os\windows\fio, install WiX 3.6 from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/
117 and run dobuild.cmd from the os/windows directory.
119 Before running fio you'll need to have a copy of cygserver running. Run
120 "/usr/bin/cygserver-config" from an elevated Cygwin shell (i.e. launch the
121 Cygwin shell under the Administrator account) to configure it. Once
122 configured, run "net start cygserver" to start it, or type
123 "/usr/sbin/cygserver &" in the Cygwin shell to start a local copy.
125 If fio exits with the message "Bad system call" it normally means that
126 Cygserver isn't running.
133 --debug Enable some debugging options (see below)
134 --output Write output to file
135 --timeout Runtime in seconds
136 --latency-log Generate per-job latency logs
137 --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs
138 --minimal Minimal (terse) output
139 --version Print version info and exit
140 --terse-version=type Terse version output format (default 3, or 2).
141 --help Print this page
142 --cmdhelp=cmd Print command help, "all" for all of them
143 --enghelp=engine Print ioengine help, or list available ioengines
144 --enghelp=engine,cmd Print help for an ioengine cmd
145 --showcmd Turn a job file into command line options
146 --readonly Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing
148 --eta=when When ETA estimate should be printed
149 May be "always", "never" or "auto"
150 --section=name Only run specified section in job file.
151 Multiple sections can be specified.
152 --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024)
153 --warnings-fatal Fio parser warnings are fatal
154 --max-jobs Maximum number of threads/processes to support
155 --server=args Start backend server. See Client/Server section.
156 --client=host Connect to specified backend.
159 Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files,
160 unless they match a job file parameter. You can add as many as you want,
161 each job file will be regarded as a separate group and fio will stonewall
164 The --readonly switch is an extra safety guard to prevent accidentally
165 turning on a write setting when that is not desired. Fio will only write
166 if rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw is given, but this extra safety net can
167 be used as an extra precaution. It will also enable a write check in the
168 io engine core to prevent an accidental write due to a fio bug.
170 The debug switch allows adding options that trigger certain logging
171 options in fio. Currently the options are:
173 process Dump info related to processes
174 file Dump info related to file actions
175 io Dump info related to IO queuing
176 mem Dump info related to memory allocations
177 blktrace Dump info related to blktrace setup
178 verify Dump info related to IO verification
179 all Enable all debug options
180 random Dump info related to random offset generation
181 parse Dump info related to option matching and parsing
182 diskutil Dump info related to disk utilization updates
183 job:x Dump info only related to job number x
184 mutex Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops
185 profile Dump info related to profile extensions
186 time Dump info related to internal time keeping
187 ? or help Show available debug options.
189 You can specify as many as you want, eg --debug=file,mem will enable
190 file and memory debugging.
192 The section switch is meant to make it easier to ship a bigger job file
193 instead of several smaller ones. Say you define a job file with light,
194 moderate, and heavy parts. Then you can ask fio to run the given part
195 only by giving it a --section=heavy command line option. The section
196 option only applies to job sections, the reserved 'global' section is
197 always parsed and taken into account.
199 Fio has an internal allocator for shared memory called smalloc. It
200 allocates shared structures from this pool. The pool defaults to 1024k
201 in size, and can grow to 128 pools. If running large jobs with randommap
202 enabled it can run out of memory, in which case the --alloc-size switch
203 is handy for starting with a larger pool size. The backing store is
204 files in /tmp. Fio cleans up after itself, while it is running you
205 may see .fio_smalloc.* files in /tmp.
211 See the HOWTO file for a more detailed description of parameters and what
212 they mean. This file contains the terse version. You can describe big and
213 complex setups with the command line, but generally it's a lot easier to
214 just write a simple job file to describe the workload. The job file format
215 is in the ini style format, as that is easy to read and write for the user.
217 The job file parameters are:
219 name=x Use 'x' as the identifier for this job.
220 description=x 'x' is a text description of the job.
221 directory=x Use 'x' as the top level directory for storing files
222 filename=x Force the use of 'x' as the filename for all files
223 in this thread. If not given, fio will make up
224 a suitable filename based on the thread and file
226 rw=x 'x' may be: read, randread, write, randwrite,
227 rw (read-write mix), randrw (read-write random mix)
228 rwmixcycle=x Base cycle for switching between read and write
230 rwmixread=x 'x' percentage of rw mix ios will be reads. If
231 rwmixwrite is also given, the last of the two will
232 be used if they don't add up to 100%.
233 rwmixwrite=x 'x' percentage of rw mix ios will be writes. See
235 rand_repeatable=x The sequence of random io blocks can be repeatable
236 across runs, if 'x' is 1.
237 size=x Set file size to x bytes (x string can include k/m/g)
238 ioengine=x 'x' may be: aio/libaio/linuxaio for Linux aio,
239 posixaio for POSIX aio, solarisaio for Solaris
240 native async IO, windowsaio for Windows native async IO,
241 sync for regular read/write io,
242 psync for regular pread/pwrite io, vsync for regular
243 readv/writev (with queuing emulation) mmap for mmap'ed
244 io, syslet-rw for syslet driven read/write, splice for
245 using splice/vmsplice, sg for direct SG_IO io, net
246 for network io, or cpuio for a cycler burner load. sg
247 only works on Linux on SCSI (or SCSI-like devices, such
248 as usb-storage or sata/libata driven) devices. Fio also
249 has a null io engine, which is mainly used for testing
252 iodepth=x For async io, allow 'x' ios in flight
253 overwrite=x If 'x', layout a write file first.
254 nrfiles=x Spread io load over 'x' number of files per job,
256 prio=x Run io at prio X, 0-7 is the kernel allowed range
257 prioclass=x Run io at prio class X
258 bs=x Use 'x' for thread blocksize. May include k/m postfix.
259 bsrange=x-y Mix thread block sizes randomly between x and y. May
260 also include k/m postfix.
261 direct=x 1 for direct IO, 0 for buffered IO
262 thinktime=x "Think" x usec after each io
263 rate=x Throttle rate to x KB/sec
264 ratemin=x Quit if rate of x KB/sec can't be met
265 ratecycle=x ratemin averaged over x msecs
266 cpumask=x Only allow job to run on CPUs defined by mask.
267 cpus_allowed=x Like 'cpumask', but allow text setting of CPU affinity.
268 fsync=x If writing with buffered IO, fsync after every
269 'x' blocks have been written.
270 end_fsync=x If 'x', run fsync() after end-of-job.
271 startdelay=x Start this thread x seconds after startup
272 runtime=x Terminate x seconds after startup. Can include a
273 normal time suffix if not given in seconds, such as
274 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours, and 'd' for days.
275 offset=x Start io at offset x (x string can include k/m/g)
276 invalidate=x Invalidate page cache for file prior to doing io
277 sync=x Use sync writes if x and writing buffered IO.
278 mem=x If x == malloc, use malloc for buffers. If x == shm,
279 use shared memory for buffers. If x == mmap, use
281 exitall When one thread quits, terminate the others
282 bwavgtime=x Average bandwidth stats over an x msec window.
283 create_serialize=x If 'x', serialize file creation.
284 create_fsync=x If 'x', run fsync() after file creation.
285 unlink If set, unlink files when done.
286 loops=x Run the job 'x' number of times.
287 verify=x If 'x' == md5, use md5 for verifies. If 'x' == crc32,
288 use crc32 for verifies. md5 is 'safer', but crc32 is
289 a lot faster. Only makes sense for writing to a file.
290 For other types of checksumming, see HOWTO.
291 stonewall Wait for preceeding jobs to end before running.
292 numjobs=x Create 'x' similar entries for this job
293 thread Use pthreads instead of forked jobs
295 zoneskip=y Zone options must be paired. If given, the job
296 will skip y bytes for every x read/written. This
297 can be used to gauge hard drive speed over the entire
298 platter, without reading everything. Both x/y can
299 include k/m/g suffix.
300 read_iolog=x Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file format
301 is described in the HOWTO.
302 write_iolog=x Write an iolog to file 'x' in the same format as iolog.
303 The iolog options are exclusive, if both given the
304 read iolog will be performed. Specify a separate file
305 for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed
306 and the file may be corrupt.
307 write_bw_log Write a bandwidth log.
308 write_lat_log Write a latency log.
309 lockmem=x Lock down x amount of memory on the machine, to
310 simulate a machine with less memory available. x can
311 include k/m/g suffix.
312 nice=x Run job at given nice value.
313 exec_prerun=x Run 'x' before job io is begun.
314 exec_postrun=x Run 'x' after job io has finished.
315 ioscheduler=x Use ioscheduler 'x' for this job.
316 cpuload=x For a CPU io thread, percentage of CPU time to attempt
318 cpuchunks=x Split burn cycles into pieces of x usecs.
325 Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
326 where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
327 run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
328 have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
329 be running, while controlling it from another machine.
331 To start the server, you would do:
335 on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
336 are of the form 'type,hostname or IP,port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
337 for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain socket.
338 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
339 listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
343 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
345 2) fio --server=ip:hostname,4444
347 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
349 3) fio --server=ip6:::1,4444
351 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
353 4) fio --server=,4444
355 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
357 5) fio --server=1.2.3.4
359 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
361 6) fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
363 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
365 When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
368 fio --local-args --client=server --remote-args <job file(s)>
370 where --local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
371 running, 'server' is the connect string, and --remote-args and <job file(s)>
372 are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
373 does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
374 You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
376 fio --client=server2 --client=server2 <job file(s)>
382 Fio works on (at least) Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OSX, NetBSD, Windows
383 and FreeBSD. Some features and/or options may only be available on some of
384 the platforms, typically because those features only apply to that platform
385 (like the solarisaio engine, or the splice engine on Linux).
387 Some features are not available on FreeBSD/Solaris even if they could be
388 implemented, I'd be happy to take patches for that. An example of that is
389 disk utility statistics and (I think) huge page support, support for that
390 does exist in FreeBSD/Solaris.
392 Fio uses pthread mutexes for signalling and locking and FreeBSD does not
393 support process shared pthread mutexes. As a result, only threads are
394 supported on FreeBSD. This could be fixed with sysv ipc locking or
395 other locking alternatives.
397 Other *BSD platforms are untested, but fio should work there almost out
398 of the box. Since I don't do test runs or even compiles on those platforms,
399 your mileage may vary. Sending me patches for other platforms is greatly
400 appreciated. There's a lot of value in having the same test/benchmark tool
401 available on all platforms.
403 Note that POSIX aio is not enabled by default on AIX. If you get messages like:
405 Symbol resolution failed for /usr/lib/libc.a(posix_aio.o) because:
406 Symbol _posix_kaio_rdwr (number 2) is not exported from dependent module /unix.
408 you need to enable POSIX aio. Run the following commands as root:
410 # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0
411 posix_aio0 Defined Posix Asynchronous I/O
412 # cfgmgr -l posix_aio0
413 # lsdev -C -l posix_aio0
414 posix_aio0 Available Posix Asynchronous I/O
416 POSIX aio should work now. To make the change permanent:
418 # chdev -l posix_aio0 -P -a autoconfig='available'
425 Fio was written by Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> to enable flexible testing
426 of the Linux IO subsystem and schedulers. He got tired of writing
427 specific test applications to simulate a given workload, and found that
428 the existing io benchmark/test tools out there weren't flexible enough
429 to do what he wanted.
431 Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> 20060905