filesetup: abstract out fallocate helper
[fio.git] / HOWTO
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1How fio works
2-------------
3
4The first step in getting fio to simulate a desired I/O workload, is writing a
5job file describing that specific setup. A job file may contain any number of
6threads and/or files -- the typical contents of the job file is a *global*
7section defining shared parameters, and one or more job sections describing the
8jobs involved. When run, fio parses this file and sets everything up as
9described. If we break down a job from top to bottom, it contains the following
10basic parameters:
11
12`I/O type`_
13
14 Defines the I/O pattern issued to the file(s). We may only be reading
15 sequentially from this file(s), or we may be writing randomly. Or even
16 mixing reads and writes, sequentially or randomly.
17 Should we be doing buffered I/O, or direct/raw I/O?
18
19`Block size`_
20
21 In how large chunks are we issuing I/O? This may be a single value,
22 or it may describe a range of block sizes.
23
24`I/O size`_
25
26 How much data are we going to be reading/writing.
27
28`I/O engine`_
29
30 How do we issue I/O? We could be memory mapping the file, we could be
31 using regular read/write, we could be using splice, async I/O, or even
32 SG (SCSI generic sg).
33
34`I/O depth`_
35
36 If the I/O engine is async, how large a queuing depth do we want to
37 maintain?
38
39
40`Target file/device`_
41
42 How many files are we spreading the workload over.
43
44`Threads, processes and job synchronization`_
45
46 How many threads or processes should we spread this workload over.
47
48The above are the basic parameters defined for a workload, in addition there's a
49multitude of parameters that modify other aspects of how this job behaves.
50
51
52Command line options
53--------------------
54
55.. option:: --debug=type
56
57 Enable verbose tracing of various fio actions. May be ``all`` for all types
c60ebc45 58 or individual types separated by a comma (e.g. ``--debug=file,mem`` will
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59 enable file and memory debugging). Currently, additional logging is
60 available for:
61
62 *process*
63 Dump info related to processes.
64 *file*
65 Dump info related to file actions.
66 *io*
67 Dump info related to I/O queuing.
68 *mem*
69 Dump info related to memory allocations.
70 *blktrace*
71 Dump info related to blktrace setup.
72 *verify*
73 Dump info related to I/O verification.
74 *all*
75 Enable all debug options.
76 *random*
77 Dump info related to random offset generation.
78 *parse*
79 Dump info related to option matching and parsing.
80 *diskutil*
81 Dump info related to disk utilization updates.
82 *job:x*
83 Dump info only related to job number x.
84 *mutex*
85 Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops.
86 *profile*
87 Dump info related to profile extensions.
88 *time*
89 Dump info related to internal time keeping.
90 *net*
91 Dump info related to networking connections.
92 *rate*
93 Dump info related to I/O rate switching.
94 *compress*
95 Dump info related to log compress/decompress.
96 *?* or *help*
97 Show available debug options.
98
99.. option:: --parse-only
100
101 Parse options only, don\'t start any I/O.
102
103.. option:: --output=filename
104
105 Write output to file `filename`.
106
107.. option:: --bandwidth-log
108
109 Generate aggregate bandwidth logs.
110
111.. option:: --minimal
112
113 Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
114
115.. option:: --append-terse
116
117 Print statistics in selected mode AND terse, semicolon-delimited format.
118 **deprecated**, use :option:`--output-format` instead to select multiple
119 formats.
120
121.. option:: --output-format=type
122
123 Set the reporting format to `normal`, `terse`, `json`, or `json+`. Multiple
4502cb42 124 formats can be selected, separated by a comma. `terse` is a CSV based
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125 format. `json+` is like `json`, except it adds a full dump of the latency
126 buckets.
127
128.. option:: --terse-version=type
129
a2c95580 130 Set terse version output format (default 3, or 2 or 4 or 5).
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131
132.. option:: --version
133
134 Print version info and exit.
135
136.. option:: --help
137
113f0e7c 138 Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
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139
140.. option:: --cpuclock-test
141
142 Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock.
143
113f0e7c 144.. option:: --crctest=[test]
f80dba8d 145
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146 Test the speed of the built-in checksumming functions. If no argument is
147 given all of them are tested. Alternatively, a comma separated list can be passed, in
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148 which case the given ones are tested.
149
150.. option:: --cmdhelp=command
151
152 Print help information for `command`. May be ``all`` for all commands.
153
154.. option:: --enghelp=[ioengine[,command]]
155
156 List all commands defined by :option:`ioengine`, or print help for `command`
157 defined by :option:`ioengine`. If no :option:`ioengine` is given, list all
158 available ioengines.
159
160.. option:: --showcmd=jobfile
161
162 Turn a job file into command line options.
163
164.. option:: --readonly
165
166 Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing writes. The ``--readonly``
167 option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from accidentally starting
168 a write workload when that is not desired. Fio will only write if
169 `rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw` is given. This extra safety net can be used
170 as an extra precaution as ``--readonly`` will also enable a write check in
171 the I/O engine core to prevent writes due to unknown user space bug(s).
172
173.. option:: --eta=when
174
175 When real-time ETA estimate should be printed. May be `always`, `never` or
176 `auto`.
177
178.. option:: --eta-newline=time
179
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180 Force a new line for every `time` period passed. When the unit is omitted,
181 the value is interpreted in seconds.
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182
183.. option:: --status-interval=time
184
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185 Force full status dump every `time` period passed. When the unit is
186 omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
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187
188.. option:: --section=name
189
190 Only run specified section in job file. Multiple sections can be specified.
191 The ``--section`` option allows one to combine related jobs into one file.
192 E.g. one job file could define light, moderate, and heavy sections. Tell
193 fio to run only the "heavy" section by giving ``--section=heavy``
194 command line option. One can also specify the "write" operations in one
195 section and "verify" operation in another section. The ``--section`` option
196 only applies to job sections. The reserved *global* section is always
197 parsed and used.
198
199.. option:: --alloc-size=kb
200
113f0e7c 201 Set the internal smalloc pool to this size in KiB. The
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202 ``--alloc-size`` switch allows one to use a larger pool size for smalloc.
203 If running large jobs with randommap enabled, fio can run out of memory.
204 Smalloc is an internal allocator for shared structures from a fixed size
113f0e7c 205 memory pool and can grow to 16 pools. The pool size defaults to 16MiB.
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206
207 NOTE: While running :file:`.fio_smalloc.*` backing store files are visible
208 in :file:`/tmp`.
209
210.. option:: --warnings-fatal
211
212 All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an
213 error.
214
215.. option:: --max-jobs=nr
216
217 Maximum number of threads/processes to support.
218
219.. option:: --server=args
220
221 Start a backend server, with `args` specifying what to listen to.
222 See `Client/Server`_ section.
223
224.. option:: --daemonize=pidfile
225
226 Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given `pidfile` file.
227
228.. option:: --client=hostname
229
230 Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host or
231 set of hosts. See `Client/Server`_ section.
232
233.. option:: --remote-config=file
234
235 Tell fio server to load this local file.
236
237.. option:: --idle-prof=option
238
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239 Report CPU idleness. *option* is one of the following:
240
241 **calibrate**
242 Run unit work calibration only and exit.
243
244 **system**
245 Show aggregate system idleness and unit work.
246
247 **percpu**
248 As **system** but also show per CPU idleness.
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249
250.. option:: --inflate-log=log
251
252 Inflate and output compressed log.
253
254.. option:: --trigger-file=file
255
256 Execute trigger cmd when file exists.
257
258.. option:: --trigger-timeout=t
259
260 Execute trigger at this time.
261
262.. option:: --trigger=cmd
263
264 Set this command as local trigger.
265
266.. option:: --trigger-remote=cmd
267
268 Set this command as remote trigger.
269
270.. option:: --aux-path=path
271
272 Use this path for fio state generated files.
273
274Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, unless
275they match a job file parameter. Multiple job files can be listed and each job
276file will be regarded as a separate group. Fio will :option:`stonewall`
277execution between each group.
278
279
280Job file format
281---------------
282
283As previously described, fio accepts one or more job files describing what it is
284supposed to do. The job file format is the classic ini file, where the names
c60ebc45 285enclosed in [] brackets define the job name. You are free to use any ASCII name
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286you want, except *global* which has special meaning. Following the job name is
287a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the behavior of
288the job. If the first character in a line is a ';' or a '#', the entire line is
289discarded as a comment.
290
291A *global* section sets defaults for the jobs described in that file. A job may
292override a *global* section parameter, and a job file may even have several
293*global* sections if so desired. A job is only affected by a *global* section
294residing above it.
295
296The :option:`--cmdhelp` option also lists all options. If used with an `option`
297argument, :option:`--cmdhelp` will detail the given `option`.
298
299See the `examples/` directory for inspiration on how to write job files. Note
300the copyright and license requirements currently apply to `examples/` files.
301
302So let's look at a really simple job file that defines two processes, each
303randomly reading from a 128MiB file:
304
305.. code-block:: ini
306
307 ; -- start job file --
308 [global]
309 rw=randread
310 size=128m
311
312 [job1]
313
314 [job2]
315
316 ; -- end job file --
317
318As you can see, the job file sections themselves are empty as all the described
319parameters are shared. As no :option:`filename` option is given, fio makes up a
320`filename` for each of the jobs as it sees fit. On the command line, this job
321would look as follows::
322
323$ fio --name=global --rw=randread --size=128m --name=job1 --name=job2
324
325
326Let's look at an example that has a number of processes writing randomly to
327files:
328
329.. code-block:: ini
330
331 ; -- start job file --
332 [random-writers]
333 ioengine=libaio
334 iodepth=4
335 rw=randwrite
336 bs=32k
337 direct=0
338 size=64m
339 numjobs=4
340 ; -- end job file --
341
342Here we have no *global* section, as we only have one job defined anyway. We
343want to use async I/O here, with a depth of 4 for each file. We also increased
344the buffer size used to 32KiB and define numjobs to 4 to fork 4 identical
345jobs. The result is 4 processes each randomly writing to their own 64MiB
346file. Instead of using the above job file, you could have given the parameters
347on the command line. For this case, you would specify::
348
349$ fio --name=random-writers --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=randwrite --bs=32k --direct=0 --size=64m --numjobs=4
350
351When fio is utilized as a basis of any reasonably large test suite, it might be
352desirable to share a set of standardized settings across multiple job files.
353Instead of copy/pasting such settings, any section may pull in an external
354:file:`filename.fio` file with *include filename* directive, as in the following
355example::
356
357 ; -- start job file including.fio --
358 [global]
359 filename=/tmp/test
360 filesize=1m
361 include glob-include.fio
362
363 [test]
364 rw=randread
365 bs=4k
366 time_based=1
367 runtime=10
368 include test-include.fio
369 ; -- end job file including.fio --
370
371.. code-block:: ini
372
373 ; -- start job file glob-include.fio --
374 thread=1
375 group_reporting=1
376 ; -- end job file glob-include.fio --
377
378.. code-block:: ini
379
380 ; -- start job file test-include.fio --
381 ioengine=libaio
382 iodepth=4
383 ; -- end job file test-include.fio --
384
385Settings pulled into a section apply to that section only (except *global*
386section). Include directives may be nested in that any included file may contain
387further include directive(s). Include files may not contain [] sections.
388
389
390Environment variables
391~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
392
393Fio also supports environment variable expansion in job files. Any sub-string of
394the form ``${VARNAME}`` as part of an option value (in other words, on the right
395of the '='), will be expanded to the value of the environment variable called
396`VARNAME`. If no such environment variable is defined, or `VARNAME` is the
397empty string, the empty string will be substituted.
398
399As an example, let's look at a sample fio invocation and job file::
400
401$ SIZE=64m NUMJOBS=4 fio jobfile.fio
402
403.. code-block:: ini
404
405 ; -- start job file --
406 [random-writers]
407 rw=randwrite
408 size=${SIZE}
409 numjobs=${NUMJOBS}
410 ; -- end job file --
411
412This will expand to the following equivalent job file at runtime:
413
414.. code-block:: ini
415
416 ; -- start job file --
417 [random-writers]
418 rw=randwrite
419 size=64m
420 numjobs=4
421 ; -- end job file --
422
423Fio ships with a few example job files, you can also look there for inspiration.
424
425Reserved keywords
426~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
427
428Additionally, fio has a set of reserved keywords that will be replaced
429internally with the appropriate value. Those keywords are:
430
431**$pagesize**
432
433 The architecture page size of the running system.
434
435**$mb_memory**
436
437 Megabytes of total memory in the system.
438
439**$ncpus**
440
441 Number of online available CPUs.
442
443These can be used on the command line or in the job file, and will be
444automatically substituted with the current system values when the job is
445run. Simple math is also supported on these keywords, so you can perform actions
446like::
447
448 size=8*$mb_memory
449
450and get that properly expanded to 8 times the size of memory in the machine.
451
452
453Job file parameters
454-------------------
455
456This section describes in details each parameter associated with a job. Some
457parameters take an option of a given type, such as an integer or a
458string. Anywhere a numeric value is required, an arithmetic expression may be
459used, provided it is surrounded by parentheses. Supported operators are:
460
461 - addition (+)
462 - subtraction (-)
463 - multiplication (*)
464 - division (/)
465 - modulus (%)
466 - exponentiation (^)
467
468For time values in expressions, units are microseconds by default. This is
469different than for time values not in expressions (not enclosed in
470parentheses). The following types are used:
471
472
473Parameter types
474~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
475
476**str**
477 String. This is a sequence of alpha characters.
478
479**time**
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480 Integer with possible time suffix. Without a unit value is interpreted as
481 seconds unless otherwise specified. Accepts a suffix of 'd' for days, 'h' for
482 hours, 'm' for minutes, 's' for seconds, 'ms' (or 'msec') for milliseconds and
483 'us' (or 'usec') for microseconds. For example, use 10m for 10 minutes.
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484
485.. _int:
486
487**int**
488 Integer. A whole number value, which may contain an integer prefix
489 and an integer suffix:
490
491 [*integer prefix*] **number** [*integer suffix*]
492
493 The optional *integer prefix* specifies the number's base. The default
494 is decimal. *0x* specifies hexadecimal.
495
496 The optional *integer suffix* specifies the number's units, and includes an
497 optional unit prefix and an optional unit. For quantities of data, the
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498 default unit is bytes. For quantities of time, the default unit is seconds
499 unless otherwise specified.
f80dba8d 500
9207a0cb 501 With :option:`kb_base`\=1000, fio follows international standards for unit
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502 prefixes. To specify power-of-10 decimal values defined in the
503 International System of Units (SI):
504
505 * *Ki* -- means kilo (K) or 1000
506 * *Mi* -- means mega (M) or 1000**2
507 * *Gi* -- means giga (G) or 1000**3
508 * *Ti* -- means tera (T) or 1000**4
509 * *Pi* -- means peta (P) or 1000**5
510
511 To specify power-of-2 binary values defined in IEC 80000-13:
512
513 * *k* -- means kibi (Ki) or 1024
514 * *M* -- means mebi (Mi) or 1024**2
515 * *G* -- means gibi (Gi) or 1024**3
516 * *T* -- means tebi (Ti) or 1024**4
517 * *P* -- means pebi (Pi) or 1024**5
518
9207a0cb 519 With :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (the default), the unit prefixes are opposite
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520 from those specified in the SI and IEC 80000-13 standards to provide
521 compatibility with old scripts. For example, 4k means 4096.
522
523 For quantities of data, an optional unit of 'B' may be included
524 (e.g., 'kB' is the same as 'k').
525
526 The *integer suffix* is not case sensitive (e.g., m/mi mean mebi/mega,
527 not milli). 'b' and 'B' both mean byte, not bit.
528
9207a0cb 529 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1000:
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530
531 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4ki, 4kib, 4kiB, 4Ki, 4KiB
532 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1mi, 1024ki
533 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1m, 1000k
534 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1ti, 1024gi, 1048576mi
535 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1t, 1000m, 1000000k
536
9207a0cb 537 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (default):
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538
539 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4k, 4kb, 4kB, 4K, 4KB
540 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1m, 1024k
541 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1mi, 1000ki
542 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1t, 1024g, 1048576m
543 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1ti, 1000mi, 1000000ki
544
545 To specify times (units are not case sensitive):
546
547 * *D* -- means days
548 * *H* -- means hours
4502cb42 549 * *M* -- means minutes
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550 * *s* -- or sec means seconds (default)
551 * *ms* -- or *msec* means milliseconds
552 * *us* -- or *usec* means microseconds
553
554 If the option accepts an upper and lower range, use a colon ':' or
555 minus '-' to separate such values. See :ref:`irange <irange>`.
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556 If the lower value specified happens to be larger than the upper value
557 the two values are swapped.
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558
559.. _bool:
560
561**bool**
562 Boolean. Usually parsed as an integer, however only defined for
563 true and false (1 and 0).
564
565.. _irange:
566
567**irange**
568 Integer range with suffix. Allows value range to be given, such as
c60ebc45 569 1024-4096. A colon may also be used as the separator, e.g. 1k:4k. If the
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570 option allows two sets of ranges, they can be specified with a ',' or '/'
571 delimiter: 1k-4k/8k-32k. Also see :ref:`int <int>`.
572
573**float_list**
574 A list of floating point numbers, separated by a ':' character.
575
576
577Units
578~~~~~
579
580.. option:: kb_base=int
581
582 Select the interpretation of unit prefixes in input parameters.
583
584 **1000**
585 Inputs comply with IEC 80000-13 and the International
586 System of Units (SI). Use:
587
588 - power-of-2 values with IEC prefixes (e.g., KiB)
589 - power-of-10 values with SI prefixes (e.g., kB)
590
591 **1024**
592 Compatibility mode (default). To avoid breaking old scripts:
593
594 - power-of-2 values with SI prefixes
595 - power-of-10 values with IEC prefixes
596
597 See :option:`bs` for more details on input parameters.
598
599 Outputs always use correct prefixes. Most outputs include both
600 side-by-side, like::
601
602 bw=2383.3kB/s (2327.4KiB/s)
603
604 If only one value is reported, then kb_base selects the one to use:
605
606 **1000** -- SI prefixes
607
608 **1024** -- IEC prefixes
609
610.. option:: unit_base=int
611
612 Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
613
614 **0**
615 Use auto-detection (default).
616 **8**
617 Byte based.
618 **1**
619 Bit based.
620
621
622With the above in mind, here follows the complete list of fio job parameters.
623
624
625Job description
626~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
627
628.. option:: name=str
629
630 ASCII name of the job. This may be used to override the name printed by fio
631 for this job. Otherwise the job name is used. On the command line this
632 parameter has the special purpose of also signaling the start of a new job.
633
634.. option:: description=str
635
636 Text description of the job. Doesn't do anything except dump this text
637 description when this job is run. It's not parsed.
638
639.. option:: loops=int
640
641 Run the specified number of iterations of this job. Used to repeat the same
642 workload a given number of times. Defaults to 1.
643
644.. option:: numjobs=int
645
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646 Create the specified number of clones of this job. Each clone of job
647 is spawned as an independent thread or process. May be used to setup a
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648 larger number of threads/processes doing the same thing. Each thread is
649 reported separately; to see statistics for all clones as a whole, use
650 :option:`group_reporting` in conjunction with :option:`new_group`.
a47b697c 651 See :option:`--max-jobs`. Default: 1.
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652
653
654Time related parameters
655~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
656
657.. option:: runtime=time
658
f75ede1d 659 Tell fio to terminate processing after the specified period of time. It
f80dba8d 660 can be quite hard to determine for how long a specified job will run, so
f75ede1d 661 this parameter is handy to cap the total runtime to a given time. When
947e0fe0 662 the unit is omitted, the value is intepreted in seconds.
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663
664.. option:: time_based
665
666 If set, fio will run for the duration of the :option:`runtime` specified
667 even if the file(s) are completely read or written. It will simply loop over
668 the same workload as many times as the :option:`runtime` allows.
669
a881438b 670.. option:: startdelay=irange(time)
f80dba8d 671
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672 Delay the start of job for the specified amount of time. Can be a single
673 value or a range. When given as a range, each thread will choose a value
674 randomly from within the range. Value is in seconds if a unit is omitted.
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675
676.. option:: ramp_time=time
677
678 If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
679 logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle
680 before logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable
681 results. Note that the ``ramp_time`` is considered lead in time for a job,
682 thus it will increase the total runtime if a special timeout or
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683 :option:`runtime` is specified. When the unit is omitted, the value is
684 given in seconds.
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685
686.. option:: clocksource=str
687
688 Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
689
690 **gettimeofday**
691 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`
692
693 **clock_gettime**
694 :manpage:`clock_gettime(2)`
695
696 **cpu**
697 Internal CPU clock source
698
699 cpu is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast (and
700 fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource if
701 it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
702 unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
703 means supporting TSC Invariant.
704
705.. option:: gtod_reduce=bool
706
707 Enable all of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` reducing options
f75ede1d 708 (:option:`disable_clat`, :option:`disable_slat`, :option:`disable_bw_measurement`) plus
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709 reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
710 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call count. With this option enabled, we only do
711 about 0.4% of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls we would have done if all
712 time keeping was enabled.
713
714.. option:: gtod_cpu=int
715
716 Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just
717 getting the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very
718 intensive on :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls. With this option, you can set
719 one CPU aside for doing nothing but logging current time to a shared memory
720 location. Then the other threads/processes that run I/O workloads need only
721 copy that segment, instead of entering the kernel with a
722 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call. The CPU set aside for doing these time
723 calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it from the
724 CPU mask of other jobs.
725
726
727Target file/device
728~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
729
730.. option:: directory=str
731
732 Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a different
733 location than :file:`./`. You can specify a number of directories by
734 separating the names with a ':' character. These directories will be
02dd2689 735 assigned equally distributed to job clones created by :option:`numjobs` as
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736 long as they are using generated filenames. If specific `filename(s)` are
737 set fio will use the first listed directory, and thereby matching the
738 `filename` semantic which generates a file each clone if not specified, but
739 let all clones use the same if set.
740
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741 See the :option:`filename` option for information on how to escape "``:``" and
742 "``\``" characters within the directory path itself.
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743
744.. option:: filename=str
745
746 Fio normally makes up a `filename` based on the job name, thread number, and
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747 file number (see :option:`filename_format`). If you want to share files
748 between threads in a job or several
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749 jobs with fixed file paths, specify a `filename` for each of them to override
750 the default. If the ioengine is file based, you can specify a number of files
751 by separating the names with a ':' colon. So if you wanted a job to open
752 :file:`/dev/sda` and :file:`/dev/sdb` as the two working files, you would use
753 ``filename=/dev/sda:/dev/sdb``. This also means that whenever this option is
754 specified, :option:`nrfiles` is ignored. The size of regular files specified
02dd2689 755 by this option will be :option:`size` divided by number of files unless an
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756 explicit size is specified by :option:`filesize`.
757
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758 Each colon and backslash in the wanted path must be escaped with a ``\``
759 character. For instance, if the path is :file:`/dev/dsk/foo@3,0:c` then you
760 would use ``filename=/dev/dsk/foo@3,0\:c`` and if the path is
761 :file:`F:\\filename` then you would use ``filename=F\:\\filename``.
762
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763 On Windows, disk devices are accessed as :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive0` for
764 the first device, :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive1` for the second etc.
765 Note: Windows and FreeBSD prevent write access to areas
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766 of the disk containing in-use data (e.g. filesystems).
767
768 The filename "`-`" is a reserved name, meaning *stdin* or *stdout*. Which
769 of the two depends on the read/write direction set.
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770
771.. option:: filename_format=str
772
773 If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have fio
774 generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
775 based on the default file format specification of
776 :file:`jobname.jobnumber.filenumber`. With this option, that can be
777 customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
778 string:
779
780 **$jobname**
781 The name of the worker thread or process.
782 **$jobnum**
783 The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
784 **$filenum**
785 The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or
786 process.
787
788 To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to have
789 fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance, if
790 :file:`testfiles.$filenum` is specified, file number 4 for any job will be
791 named :file:`testfiles.4`. The default of :file:`$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum`
792 will be used if no other format specifier is given.
793
794.. option:: unique_filename=bool
795
796 To avoid collisions between networked clients, fio defaults to prefixing any
797 generated filenames (with a directory specified) with the source of the
798 client connecting. To disable this behavior, set this option to 0.
799
800.. option:: opendir=str
801
802 Recursively open any files below directory `str`.
803
804.. option:: lockfile=str
805
806 Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does I/O to them. If a file
807 or file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize I/O to that file to make the
808 end result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share
809 files. The lock modes are:
810
811 **none**
812 No locking. The default.
813 **exclusive**
814 Only one thread or process may do I/O at a time, excluding all
815 others.
816 **readwrite**
817 Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may
818 access the file at the same time, but writes get exclusive access.
819
820.. option:: nrfiles=int
821
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822 Number of files to use for this job. Defaults to 1. The size of files
823 will be :option:`size` divided by this unless explicit size is specified by
824 :option:`filesize`. Files are created for each thread separately, and each
825 file will have a file number within its name by default, as explained in
826 :option:`filename` section.
827
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828
829.. option:: openfiles=int
830
831 Number of files to keep open at the same time. Defaults to the same as
832 :option:`nrfiles`, can be set smaller to limit the number simultaneous
833 opens.
834
835.. option:: file_service_type=str
836
837 Defines how fio decides which file from a job to service next. The following
838 types are defined:
839
840 **random**
841 Choose a file at random.
842
843 **roundrobin**
844 Round robin over opened files. This is the default.
845
846 **sequential**
847 Finish one file before moving on to the next. Multiple files can
848 still be open depending on 'openfiles'.
849
850 **zipf**
c60ebc45 851 Use a *Zipf* distribution to decide what file to access.
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852
853 **pareto**
c60ebc45 854 Use a *Pareto* distribution to decide what file to access.
f80dba8d 855
dd3503d3 856 **normal**
c60ebc45 857 Use a *Gaussian* (normal) distribution to decide what file to
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858 access.
859
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860 **gauss**
861 Alias for normal.
862
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863 For *random*, *roundrobin*, and *sequential*, a postfix can be appended to
864 tell fio how many I/Os to issue before switching to a new file. For example,
865 specifying ``file_service_type=random:8`` would cause fio to issue
866 8 I/Os before selecting a new file at random. For the non-uniform
867 distributions, a floating point postfix can be given to influence how the
868 distribution is skewed. See :option:`random_distribution` for a description
869 of how that would work.
870
871.. option:: ioscheduler=str
872
873 Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler
874 before running.
875
876.. option:: create_serialize=bool
877
878 If true, serialize the file creation for the jobs. This may be handy to
879 avoid interleaving of data files, which may greatly depend on the filesystem
a47b697c 880 used and even the number of processors in the system. Default: true.
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881
882.. option:: create_fsync=bool
883
22413915 884 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the data file after creation. This is the default.
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885
886.. option:: create_on_open=bool
887
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888 If true, don't pre-create files but allow the job's open() to create a file
889 when it's time to do I/O. Default: false -- pre-create all necessary files
890 when the job starts.
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891
892.. option:: create_only=bool
893
894 If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
4502cb42 895 laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done -- the actual job contents
a47b697c 896 are not executed. Default: false.
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897
898.. option:: allow_file_create=bool
899
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900 If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. If this
901 option is false, then fio will error out if
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902 the files it needs to use don't already exist. Default: true.
903
904.. option:: allow_mounted_write=bool
905
c60ebc45 906 If this isn't set, fio will abort jobs that are destructive (e.g. that write)
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907 to what appears to be a mounted device or partition. This should help catch
908 creating inadvertently destructive tests, not realizing that the test will
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909 destroy data on the mounted file system. Note that some platforms don't allow
910 writing against a mounted device regardless of this option. Default: false.
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911
912.. option:: pre_read=bool
913
914 If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the
915 given I/O operation. This will also clear the :option:`invalidate` flag,
916 since it is pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only
917 work for I/O engines that are seek-able, since they allow you to read the
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918 same data multiple times. Thus it will not work on non-seekable I/O engines
919 (e.g. network, splice). Default: false.
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920
921.. option:: unlink=bool
922
923 Unlink the job files when done. Not the default, as repeated runs of that
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924 job would then waste time recreating the file set again and again. Default:
925 false.
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926
927.. option:: unlink_each_loop=bool
928
a47b697c 929 Unlink job files after each iteration or loop. Default: false.
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930
931.. option:: zonesize=int
932
933 Divide a file into zones of the specified size. See :option:`zoneskip`.
934
935.. option:: zonerange=int
936
937 Give size of an I/O zone. See :option:`zoneskip`.
938
939.. option:: zoneskip=int
940
941 Skip the specified number of bytes when :option:`zonesize` data has been
942 read. The two zone options can be used to only do I/O on zones of a file.
943
944
945I/O type
946~~~~~~~~
947
948.. option:: direct=bool
949
950 If value is true, use non-buffered I/O. This is usually O_DIRECT. Note that
951 ZFS on Solaris doesn't support direct I/O. On Windows the synchronous
952 ioengines don't support direct I/O. Default: false.
953
954.. option:: atomic=bool
955
956 If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
957 guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
958 Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
959
960.. option:: buffered=bool
961
962 If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
963 :option:`direct` option. Defaults to true.
964
965.. option:: readwrite=str, rw=str
966
967 Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
968
969 **read**
970 Sequential reads.
971 **write**
972 Sequential writes.
973 **trim**
974 Sequential trims (Linux block devices only).
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975 **randread**
976 Random reads.
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977 **randwrite**
978 Random writes.
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979 **randtrim**
980 Random trims (Linux block devices only).
981 **rw,readwrite**
982 Sequential mixed reads and writes.
983 **randrw**
984 Random mixed reads and writes.
985 **trimwrite**
986 Sequential trim+write sequences. Blocks will be trimmed first,
987 then the same blocks will be written to.
988
989 Fio defaults to read if the option is not specified. For the mixed I/O
990 types, the default is to split them 50/50. For certain types of I/O the
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991 result may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different.
992
993 It is possible to specify the number of I/Os to do before getting a new
994 offset by appending ``:<nr>`` to the end of the string given. For a
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995 random read, it would look like ``rw=randread:8`` for passing in an offset
996 modifier with a value of 8. If the suffix is used with a sequential I/O
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997 pattern, then the *<nr>* value specified will be **added** to the generated
998 offset for each I/O turning sequential I/O into sequential I/O with holes.
999 For instance, using ``rw=write:4k`` will skip 4k for every write. Also see
1000 the :option:`rw_sequencer` option.
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1001
1002.. option:: rw_sequencer=str
1003
1004 If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the ``rw=<str>``
1005 line, then this option controls how that number modifies the I/O offset
1006 being generated. Accepted values are:
1007
1008 **sequential**
1009 Generate sequential offset.
1010 **identical**
1011 Generate the same offset.
1012
1013 ``sequential`` is only useful for random I/O, where fio would normally
c60ebc45 1014 generate a new random offset for every I/O. If you append e.g. 8 to randread,
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1015 you would get a new random offset for every 8 I/O's. The result would be a
1016 seek for only every 8 I/O's, instead of for every I/O. Use ``rw=randread:8``
1017 to specify that. As sequential I/O is already sequential, setting
1018 ``sequential`` for that would not result in any differences. ``identical``
1019 behaves in a similar fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of
1020 times before generating a new offset.
1021
1022.. option:: unified_rw_reporting=bool
1023
1024 Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
1025 reads, writes, and trims are accounted and reported separately. If this
1026 option is set fio sums the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
1027
1028.. option:: randrepeat=bool
1029
1030 Seed the random number generator used for random I/O patterns in a
1031 predictable way so the pattern is repeatable across runs. Default: true.
1032
1033.. option:: allrandrepeat=bool
1034
1035 Seed all random number generators in a predictable way so results are
1036 repeatable across runs. Default: false.
1037
1038.. option:: randseed=int
1039
1040 Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
1041 control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
1042 sequence depends on the :option:`randrepeat` setting.
1043
1044.. option:: fallocate=str
1045
1046 Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files.
1047 Accepted values are:
1048
1049 **none**
1050 Do not pre-allocate space.
1051
1052 **posix**
1053 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`posix_fallocate(3)`.
1054
1055 **keep**
1056 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`fallocate(2)` with
1057 FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
1058
1059 **0**
1060 Backward-compatible alias for **none**.
1061
1062 **1**
1063 Backward-compatible alias for **posix**.
1064
1065 May not be available on all supported platforms. **keep** is only available
1066 on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to **none** because ZFS
1067 doesn't support it. Default: **posix**.
1068
1069.. option:: fadvise_hint=str
1070
1071 Use :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` to advise the kernel on what I/O patterns
1072 are likely to be issued. Accepted values are:
1073
1074 **0**
1075 Backwards-compatible hint for "no hint".
1076
1077 **1**
1078 Backwards compatible hint for "advise with fio workload type". This
1079 uses **FADV_RANDOM** for a random workload, and **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**
1080 for a sequential workload.
1081
1082 **sequential**
1083 Advise using **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**.
1084
1085 **random**
1086 Advise using **FADV_RANDOM**.
1087
1088.. option:: fadvise_stream=int
1089
1090 Use :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` to advise the kernel what stream ID the
1091 writes issued belong to. Only supported on Linux. Note, this option may
1092 change going forward.
1093
1094.. option:: offset=int
1095
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1096 Start I/O at the provided offset in the file, given as either a fixed size in
1097 bytes or a percentage. If a percentage is given, the next ``blockalign``-ed
1098 offset will be used. Data before the given offset will not be touched. This
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1099 effectively caps the file size at `real_size - offset`. Can be combined with
1100 :option:`size` to constrain the start and end range of the I/O workload.
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1101 A percentage can be specified by a number between 1 and 100 followed by '%',
1102 for example, ``offset=20%`` to specify 20%.
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1103
1104.. option:: offset_increment=int
1105
1106 If this is provided, then the real offset becomes `offset + offset_increment
1107 * thread_number`, where the thread number is a counter that starts at 0 and
1108 is incremented for each sub-job (i.e. when :option:`numjobs` option is
1109 specified). This option is useful if there are several jobs which are
1110 intended to operate on a file in parallel disjoint segments, with even
1111 spacing between the starting points.
1112
1113.. option:: number_ios=int
1114
c60ebc45 1115 Fio will normally perform I/Os until it has exhausted the size of the region
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1116 set by :option:`size`, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
1117 condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
c60ebc45 1118 the number of I/Os to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
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1119 normally and report status. Note that this does not extend the amount of I/O
1120 that will be done, it will only stop fio if this condition is met before
1121 other end-of-job criteria.
1122
1123.. option:: fsync=int
1124
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1125 If writing to a file, issue an :manpage:`fsync(2)` (or its equivalent) of
1126 the dirty data for every number of blocks given. For example, if you give 32
1127 as a parameter, fio will sync the file after every 32 writes issued. If fio is
1128 using non-buffered I/O, we may not sync the file. The exception is the sg
1129 I/O engine, which synchronizes the disk cache anyway. Defaults to 0, which
1130 means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a sync to complete. Also
1131 see :option:`end_fsync` and :option:`fsync_on_close`.
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1132
1133.. option:: fdatasync=int
1134
1135 Like :option:`fsync` but uses :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` to only sync data and
000a5f1c 1136 not metadata blocks. In Windows, FreeBSD, and DragonFlyBSD there is no
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1137 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` so this falls back to using :manpage:`fsync(2)`.
1138 Defaults to 0, which means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a
1139 data-only sync to complete.
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1140
1141.. option:: write_barrier=int
1142
2831be97 1143 Make every `N-th` write a barrier write.
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1144
1145.. option:: sync_file_range=str:val
1146
1147 Use :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` for every `val` number of write
1148 operations. Fio will track range of writes that have happened since the last
1149 :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` call. `str` can currently be one or more of:
1150
1151 **wait_before**
1152 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
1153 **write**
1154 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
1155 **wait_after**
1156 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER
1157
1158 So if you do ``sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8``, fio would use
1159 ``SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE`` for every 8
1160 writes. Also see the :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` man page. This option is
1161 Linux specific.
1162
1163.. option:: overwrite=bool
1164
1165 If true, writes to a file will always overwrite existing data. If the file
1166 doesn't already exist, it will be created before the write phase begins. If
1167 the file exists and is large enough for the specified write phase, nothing
a47b697c 1168 will be done. Default: false.
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1169
1170.. option:: end_fsync=bool
1171
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1172 If true, :manpage:`fsync(2)` file contents when a write stage has completed.
1173 Default: false.
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1174
1175.. option:: fsync_on_close=bool
1176
1177 If true, fio will :manpage:`fsync(2)` a dirty file on close. This differs
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1178 from :option:`end_fsync` in that it will happen on every file close, not
1179 just at the end of the job. Default: false.
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1180
1181.. option:: rwmixread=int
1182
1183 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
1184
1185.. option:: rwmixwrite=int
1186
1187 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If both
1188 :option:`rwmixread` and :option:`rwmixwrite` is given and the values do not
1189 add up to 100%, the latter of the two will be used to override the
1190 first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is asked to
1191 limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then the
1192 distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
1193
1194.. option:: random_distribution=str:float[,str:float][,str:float]
1195
1196 By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
1197 to perform random I/O. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
1198 specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
1199 fio includes the following distribution models:
1200
1201 **random**
1202 Uniform random distribution
1203
1204 **zipf**
1205 Zipf distribution
1206
1207 **pareto**
1208 Pareto distribution
1209
b2f4b559 1210 **normal**
c60ebc45 1211 Normal (Gaussian) distribution
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1212
1213 **zoned**
1214 Zoned random distribution
1215
1216 When using a **zipf** or **pareto** distribution, an input value is also
1217 needed to define the access pattern. For **zipf**, this is the `zipf
c60ebc45 1218 theta`. For **pareto**, it's the `Pareto power`. Fio includes a test
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1219 program, :command:`genzipf`, that can be used visualize what the given input
1220 values will yield in terms of hit rates. If you wanted to use **zipf** with
1221 a `theta` of 1.2, you would use ``random_distribution=zipf:1.2`` as the
1222 option. If a non-uniform model is used, fio will disable use of the random
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1223 map. For the **normal** distribution, a normal (Gaussian) deviation is
1224 supplied as a value between 0 and 100.
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1225
1226 For a **zoned** distribution, fio supports specifying percentages of I/O
1227 access that should fall within what range of the file or device. For
1228 example, given a criteria of:
1229
1230 * 60% of accesses should be to the first 10%
1231 * 30% of accesses should be to the next 20%
1232 * 8% of accesses should be to to the next 30%
1233 * 2% of accesses should be to the next 40%
1234
1235 we can define that through zoning of the random accesses. For the above
1236 example, the user would do::
1237
1238 random_distribution=zoned:60/10:30/20:8/30:2/40
1239
1240 similarly to how :option:`bssplit` works for setting ranges and percentages
1241 of block sizes. Like :option:`bssplit`, it's possible to specify separate
1242 zones for reads, writes, and trims. If just one set is given, it'll apply to
1243 all of them.
1244
1245.. option:: percentage_random=int[,int][,int]
1246
1247 For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This
1248 defaults to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set
1249 from anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
1250 sequential. Any setting in between will result in a random mix of sequential
1251 and random I/O, at the given percentages. Comma-separated values may be
1252 specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1253
1254.. option:: norandommap
1255
1256 Normally fio will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
1257 this option is given, fio will just get a new random offset without looking
1258 at past I/O history. This means that some blocks may not be read or written,
1259 and that some blocks may be read/written more than once. If this option is
1260 used with :option:`verify` and multiple blocksizes (via :option:`bsrange`),
1261 only intact blocks are verified, i.e., partially-overwritten blocks are
1262 ignored.
1263
1264.. option:: softrandommap=bool
1265
1266 See :option:`norandommap`. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and
1267 it fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without
1268 a random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps,
1269 this option is disabled by default.
1270
1271.. option:: random_generator=str
1272
1273 Fio supports the following engines for generating
1274 I/O offsets for random I/O:
1275
1276 **tausworthe**
1277 Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
1278 **lfsr**
1279 Linear feedback shift register generator
1280 **tausworthe64**
1281 Strong 64-bit 2^258 cycle random number generator
1282
1283 **tausworthe** is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking
1284 on the side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written
1285 once. **LFSR** guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and
1286 it's also less computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator,
1287 however, though for I/O purposes it's typically good enough. **LFSR** only
1288 works with single block sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block
1289 sizes. If used with such a workload, fio may read or write some blocks
1290 multiple times. The default value is **tausworthe**, unless the required
1291 space exceeds 2^32 blocks. If it does, then **tausworthe64** is
1292 selected automatically.
1293
1294
1295Block size
1296~~~~~~~~~~
1297
1298.. option:: blocksize=int[,int][,int], bs=int[,int][,int]
1299
1300 The block size in bytes used for I/O units. Default: 4096. A single value
1301 applies to reads, writes, and trims. Comma-separated values may be
1302 specified for reads, writes, and trims. A value not terminated in a comma
1303 applies to subsequent types.
1304
1305 Examples:
1306
1307 **bs=256k**
1308 means 256k for reads, writes and trims.
1309
1310 **bs=8k,32k**
1311 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes and trims.
1312
1313 **bs=8k,32k,**
1314 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes, and default for trims.
1315
1316 **bs=,8k**
1317 means default for reads, 8k for writes and trims.
1318
1319 **bs=,8k,**
b443ae44 1320 means default for reads, 8k for writes, and default for trims.
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1321
1322.. option:: blocksize_range=irange[,irange][,irange], bsrange=irange[,irange][,irange]
1323
1324 A range of block sizes in bytes for I/O units. The issued I/O unit will
1325 always be a multiple of the minimum size, unless
1326 :option:`blocksize_unaligned` is set.
1327
1328 Comma-separated ranges may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1329 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1330
1331 Example: ``bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k``.
1332
1333.. option:: bssplit=str[,str][,str]
1334
1335 Sometimes you want even finer grained control of the block sizes issued, not
1336 just an even split between them. This option allows you to weight various
1337 block sizes, so that you are able to define a specific amount of block sizes
1338 issued. The format for this option is::
1339
1340 bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
1341
1342 for as many block sizes as needed. So if you want to define a workload that
1343 has 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k blocks, and 40% 32k blocks, you would write::
1344
1345 bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40
1346
1347 Ordering does not matter. If the percentage is left blank, fio will fill in
1348 the remaining values evenly. So a bssplit option like this one::
1349
1350 bssplit=4k/50:1k/:32k/
1351
1352 would have 50% 4k ios, and 25% 1k and 32k ios. The percentages always add up
1353 to 100, if bssplit is given a range that adds up to more, it will error out.
1354
1355 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1356 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1357
1358 If you want a workload that has 50% 2k reads and 50% 4k reads, while having
1359 90% 4k writes and 10% 8k writes, you would specify::
1360
1361 bssplit=2k/50:4k/50,4k/90,8k/10
1362
1363.. option:: blocksize_unaligned, bs_unaligned
1364
1365 If set, fio will issue I/O units with any size within
1366 :option:`blocksize_range`, not just multiples of the minimum size. This
1367 typically won't work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector
1368 alignment.
1369
1370.. option:: bs_is_seq_rand
1371
1372 If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings
1373 as sequential,random blocksize settings instead. Any random read or write
1374 will use the WRITE blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will
1375 use the READ blocksize settings.
1376
1377.. option:: blockalign=int[,int][,int], ba=int[,int][,int]
1378
1379 Boundary to which fio will align random I/O units. Default:
1380 :option:`blocksize`. Minimum alignment is typically 512b for using direct
1381 I/O, though it usually depends on the hardware block size. This option is
1382 mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it will turn off
1383 that option. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and
1384 trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1385
1386
1387Buffers and memory
1388~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1389
1390.. option:: zero_buffers
1391
1392 Initialize buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
1393
1394.. option:: refill_buffers
1395
1396 If this option is given, fio will refill the I/O buffers on every
1397 submit. The default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that
1398 data. Only makes sense if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data
1399 verification is enabled, `refill_buffers` is also automatically enabled.
1400
1401.. option:: scramble_buffers=bool
1402
1403 If :option:`refill_buffers` is too costly and the target is using data
1404 deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the I/O buffer
1405 contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
1406 more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe of
1407 blocks. Default: true.
1408
1409.. option:: buffer_compress_percentage=int
1410
1411 If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide I/O buffer content (on
730bd7d9 1412 WRITEs) that compresses to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a
22413915 1413 mix of random data and a fixed pattern. The fixed pattern is either zeros,
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1414 or the pattern specified by :option:`buffer_pattern`. If the pattern option
1415 is used, it might skew the compression ratio slightly. Note that this is per
1416 block size unit, for file/disk wide compression level that matches this
1417 setting, you'll also want to set :option:`refill_buffers`.
1418
1419.. option:: buffer_compress_chunk=int
1420
1421 See :option:`buffer_compress_percentage`. This setting allows fio to manage
1422 how big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio
1423 will provide :option:`buffer_compress_percentage` of blocksize random data,
1424 followed by the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller
1425 than the block size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the
1426 I/O buffer.
1427
1428.. option:: buffer_pattern=str
1429
a1554f65
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1430 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern or with the contents
1431 of a file. If not set, the contents of I/O buffers are defined by the other
1432 options related to buffer contents. The setting can be any pattern of bytes,
1433 and can be prefixed with 0x for hex values. It may also be a string, where
1434 the string must then be wrapped with ``""``. Or it may also be a filename,
1435 where the filename must be wrapped with ``''`` in which case the file is
1436 opened and read. Note that not all the file contents will be read if that
1437 would cause the buffers to overflow. So, for example::
1438
1439 buffer_pattern='filename'
1440
1441 or::
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1442
1443 buffer_pattern="abcd"
1444
1445 or::
1446
1447 buffer_pattern=-12
1448
1449 or::
1450
1451 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface
1452
1453 Also you can combine everything together in any order::
1454
a1554f65 1455 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface"abcd"-12'filename'
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1456
1457.. option:: dedupe_percentage=int
1458
1459 If set, fio will generate this percentage of identical buffers when
1460 writing. These buffers will be naturally dedupable. The contents of the
1461 buffers depend on what other buffer compression settings have been set. It's
1462 possible to have the individual buffers either fully compressible, or not at
1463 all. This option only controls the distribution of unique buffers.
1464
1465.. option:: invalidate=bool
1466
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1467 Invalidate the buffer/page cache parts of the files to be used prior to
1468 starting I/O if the platform and file type support it. Defaults to true.
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1469 This will be ignored if :option:`pre_read` is also specified for the
1470 same job.
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1471
1472.. option:: sync=bool
1473
1474 Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
1475 this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
1476
1477.. option:: iomem=str, mem=str
1478
1479 Fio can use various types of memory as the I/O unit buffer. The allowed
1480 values are:
1481
1482 **malloc**
1483 Use memory from :manpage:`malloc(3)` as the buffers. Default memory
1484 type.
1485
1486 **shm**
1487 Use shared memory as the buffers. Allocated through
1488 :manpage:`shmget(2)`.
1489
1490 **shmhuge**
1491 Same as shm, but use huge pages as backing.
1492
1493 **mmap**
22413915 1494 Use :manpage:`mmap(2)` to allocate buffers. May either be anonymous memory, or can
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1495 be file backed if a filename is given after the option. The format
1496 is `mem=mmap:/path/to/file`.
1497
1498 **mmaphuge**
1499 Use a memory mapped huge file as the buffer backing. Append filename
1500 after mmaphuge, ala `mem=mmaphuge:/hugetlbfs/file`.
1501
1502 **mmapshared**
1503 Same as mmap, but use a MMAP_SHARED mapping.
1504
03553853
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1505 **cudamalloc**
1506 Use GPU memory as the buffers for GPUDirect RDMA benchmark.
1507
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1508 The area allocated is a function of the maximum allowed bs size for the job,
1509 multiplied by the I/O depth given. Note that for **shmhuge** and
1510 **mmaphuge** to work, the system must have free huge pages allocated. This
1511 can normally be checked and set by reading/writing
1512 :file:`/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages` on a Linux system. Fio assumes a huge page
1513 is 4MiB in size. So to calculate the number of huge pages you need for a
1514 given job file, add up the I/O depth of all jobs (normally one unless
1515 :option:`iodepth` is used) and multiply by the maximum bs set. Then divide
1516 that number by the huge page size. You can see the size of the huge pages in
1517 :file:`/proc/meminfo`. If no huge pages are allocated by having a non-zero
1518 number in `nr_hugepages`, using **mmaphuge** or **shmhuge** will fail. Also
1519 see :option:`hugepage-size`.
1520
1521 **mmaphuge** also needs to have hugetlbfs mounted and the file location
1522 should point there. So if it's mounted in :file:`/huge`, you would use
1523 `mem=mmaphuge:/huge/somefile`.
1524
1525.. option:: iomem_align=int
1526
1527 This indicates the memory alignment of the I/O memory buffers. Note that
1528 the given alignment is applied to the first I/O unit buffer, if using
1529 :option:`iodepth` the alignment of the following buffers are given by the
1530 :option:`bs` used. In other words, if using a :option:`bs` that is a
1531 multiple of the page sized in the system, all buffers will be aligned to
1532 this value. If using a :option:`bs` that is not page aligned, the alignment
1533 of subsequent I/O memory buffers is the sum of the :option:`iomem_align` and
1534 :option:`bs` used.
1535
1536.. option:: hugepage-size=int
1537
1538 Defines the size of a huge page. Must at least be equal to the system
1539 setting, see :file:`/proc/meminfo`. Defaults to 4MiB. Should probably
1540 always be a multiple of megabytes, so using ``hugepage-size=Xm`` is the
1541 preferred way to set this to avoid setting a non-pow-2 bad value.
1542
1543.. option:: lockmem=int
1544
1545 Pin the specified amount of memory with :manpage:`mlock(2)`. Can be used to
1546 simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1547
1548
1549I/O size
1550~~~~~~~~
1551
1552.. option:: size=int
1553
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1554 The total size of file I/O for each thread of this job. Fio will run until
1555 this many bytes has been transferred, unless runtime is limited by other options
1556 (such as :option:`runtime`, for instance, or increased/decreased by :option:`io_size`).
1557 Fio will divide this size between the available files determined by options
1558 such as :option:`nrfiles`, :option:`filename`, unless :option:`filesize` is
1559 specified by the job. If the result of division happens to be 0, the size is
c4aa2d08 1560 set to the physical size of the given files or devices if they exist.
79591fa9 1561 If this option is not specified, fio will use the full size of the given
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1562 files or devices. If the files do not exist, size must be given. It is also
1563 possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and 100. If ``size=20%`` is
1564 given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files or devices.
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1565 Can be combined with :option:`offset` to constrain the start and end range
1566 that I/O will be done within.
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1567
1568.. option:: io_size=int, io_limit=int
1569
1570 Normally fio operates within the region set by :option:`size`, which means
1571 that the :option:`size` option sets both the region and size of I/O to be
1572 performed. Sometimes that is not what you want. With this option, it is
1573 possible to define just the amount of I/O that fio should do. For instance,
1574 if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB and :option:`io_size` is set to 5GiB, fio
1575 will perform I/O within the first 20GiB but exit when 5GiB have been
1576 done. The opposite is also possible -- if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB,
1577 and :option:`io_size` is set to 40GiB, then fio will do 40GiB of I/O within
1578 the 0..20GiB region.
1579
7fdd97ca 1580.. option:: filesize=irange(int)
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1581
1582 Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case fio will select sizes
1583 for files at random within the given range and limited to :option:`size` in
1584 total (if that is given). If not given, each created file is the same size.
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1585 This option overrides :option:`size` in terms of file size, which means
1586 this value is used as a fixed size or possible range of each file.
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1587
1588.. option:: file_append=bool
1589
1590 Perform I/O after the end of the file. Normally fio will operate within the
1591 size of a file. If this option is set, then fio will append to the file
1592 instead. This has identical behavior to setting :option:`offset` to the size
1593 of a file. This option is ignored on non-regular files.
1594
1595.. option:: fill_device=bool, fill_fs=bool
1596
1597 Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
1598 device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential
1599 write. For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then I/O
1600 started on the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw
1601 device node, since the size of that is already known by the file system.
1602 Additionally, writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
1603
1604
1605I/O engine
1606~~~~~~~~~~
1607
1608.. option:: ioengine=str
1609
1610 Defines how the job issues I/O to the file. The following types are defined:
1611
1612 **sync**
1613 Basic :manpage:`read(2)` or :manpage:`write(2)`
1614 I/O. :manpage:`lseek(2)` is used to position the I/O location.
54227e6b 1615 See :option:`fsync` and :option:`fdatasync` for syncing write I/Os.
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1616
1617 **psync**
1618 Basic :manpage:`pread(2)` or :manpage:`pwrite(2)` I/O. Default on
1619 all supported operating systems except for Windows.
1620
1621 **vsync**
1622 Basic :manpage:`readv(2)` or :manpage:`writev(2)` I/O. Will emulate
c60ebc45 1623 queuing by coalescing adjacent I/Os into a single submission.
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1624
1625 **pvsync**
1626 Basic :manpage:`preadv(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev(2)` I/O.
1627
1628 **pvsync2**
1629 Basic :manpage:`preadv2(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev2(2)` I/O.
1630
1631 **libaio**
1632 Linux native asynchronous I/O. Note that Linux may only support
22413915 1633 queued behavior with non-buffered I/O (set ``direct=1`` or
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1634 ``buffered=0``).
1635 This engine defines engine specific options.
1636
1637 **posixaio**
1638 POSIX asynchronous I/O using :manpage:`aio_read(3)` and
1639 :manpage:`aio_write(3)`.
1640
1641 **solarisaio**
1642 Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
1643
1644 **windowsaio**
1645 Windows native asynchronous I/O. Default on Windows.
1646
1647 **mmap**
1648 File is memory mapped with :manpage:`mmap(2)` and data copied
1649 to/from using :manpage:`memcpy(3)`.
1650
1651 **splice**
1652 :manpage:`splice(2)` is used to transfer the data and
1653 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to transfer data from user space to the
1654 kernel.
1655
1656 **sg**
1657 SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May either be synchronous using the SG_IO
1658 ioctl, or if the target is an sg character device we use
1659 :manpage:`read(2)` and :manpage:`write(2)` for asynchronous
1660 I/O. Requires filename option to specify either block or character
1661 devices.
1662
1663 **null**
1664 Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. This is mainly used to
1665 exercise fio itself and for debugging/testing purposes.
1666
1667 **net**
1668 Transfer over the network to given ``host:port``. Depending on the
1669 :option:`protocol` used, the :option:`hostname`, :option:`port`,
1670 :option:`listen` and :option:`filename` options are used to specify
1671 what sort of connection to make, while the :option:`protocol` option
1672 determines which protocol will be used. This engine defines engine
1673 specific options.
1674
1675 **netsplice**
1676 Like **net**, but uses :manpage:`splice(2)` and
1677 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to map data and send/receive.
1678 This engine defines engine specific options.
1679
1680 **cpuio**
1681 Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to the
1682 :option:`cpuload` and :option:`cpuchunks` options. Setting
9207a0cb 1683 :option:`cpuload`\=85 will cause that job to do nothing but burn 85%
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1684 of the CPU. In case of SMP machines, use :option:`numjobs`
1685 =<no_of_cpu> to get desired CPU usage, as the cpuload only loads a
1686 single CPU at the desired rate. A job never finishes unless there is
1687 at least one non-cpuio job.
1688
1689 **guasi**
1690 The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asyncronous Syscall
1691 Interface approach to async I/O. See
1692
1693 http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi-lib.html
1694
1695 for more info on GUASI.
1696
1697 **rdma**
1698 The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics
1699 (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ) and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the
1700 InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
1701
1702 **falloc**
1703 I/O engine that does regular fallocate to simulate data transfer as
1704 fio ioengine.
1705
1706 DDIR_READ
1707 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,).
1708
1709 DDIR_WRITE
1710 does fallocate(,mode = 0).
1711
1712 DDIR_TRIM
1713 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE).
1714
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1715 **ftruncate**
1716 I/O engine that sends :manpage:`ftruncate(2)` operations in response
1717 to write (DDIR_WRITE) events. Each ftruncate issued sets the file's
1718 size to the current block offset. Block size is ignored.
1719
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1720 **e4defrag**
1721 I/O engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate
1722 defragment activity in request to DDIR_WRITE event.
1723
1724 **rbd**
1725 I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Rados Block Devices
1726 (RBD) via librbd without the need to use the kernel rbd driver. This
1727 ioengine defines engine specific options.
1728
1729 **gfapi**
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1730 Using GlusterFS libgfapi sync interface to direct access to
1731 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
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1732 defines engine specific options.
1733
1734 **gfapi_async**
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1735 Using GlusterFS libgfapi async interface to direct access to
1736 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
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1737 defines engine specific options.
1738
1739 **libhdfs**
1740 Read and write through Hadoop (HDFS). The :file:`filename` option
1741 is used to specify host,port of the hdfs name-node to connect. This
1742 engine interprets offsets a little differently. In HDFS, files once
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1743 created cannot be modified so random writes are not possible. To
1744 imitate this the libhdfs engine expects a bunch of small files to be
1745 created over HDFS and will randomly pick a file from them
1746 based on the offset generated by fio backend (see the example
f80dba8d 1747 job file to create such files, use ``rw=write`` option). Please
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1748 note, it may be necessary to set environment variables to work
1749 with HDFS/libhdfs properly. Each job uses its own connection to
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1750 HDFS.
1751
1752 **mtd**
1753 Read, write and erase an MTD character device (e.g.,
1754 :file:`/dev/mtd0`). Discards are treated as erases. Depending on the
1755 underlying device type, the I/O may have to go in a certain pattern,
1756 e.g., on NAND, writing sequentially to erase blocks and discarding
c298ee71 1757 before overwriting. The `trimwrite` mode works well for this
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1758 constraint.
1759
1760 **pmemblk**
1761 Read and write using filesystem DAX to a file on a filesystem
1762 mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the NVML
1763 libpmemblk library.
1764
1765 **dev-dax**
1766 Read and write using device DAX to a persistent memory device (e.g.,
1767 /dev/dax0.0) through the NVML libpmem library.
1768
1769 **external**
1770 Prefix to specify loading an external I/O engine object file. Append
c60ebc45 1771 the engine filename, e.g. ``ioengine=external:/tmp/foo.o`` to load
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1772 ioengine :file:`foo.o` in :file:`/tmp`.
1773
1774
1775I/O engine specific parameters
1776~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1777
1778In addition, there are some parameters which are only valid when a specific
1779ioengine is in use. These are used identically to normal parameters, with the
1780caveat that when used on the command line, they must come after the
1781:option:`ioengine` that defines them is selected.
1782
1783.. option:: userspace_reap : [libaio]
1784
1785 Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use the
1786 :manpage:`io_getevents(2)` system call to reap newly returned events. With
1787 this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly from user-space to
1788 reap events. The reaping mode is only enabled when polling for a minimum of
c60ebc45 1789 0 events (e.g. when :option:`iodepth_batch_complete` `=0`).
f80dba8d 1790
9d25d068 1791.. option:: hipri : [pvsync2]
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1792
1793 Set RWF_HIPRI on I/O, indicating to the kernel that it's of higher priority
1794 than normal.
1795
1796.. option:: cpuload=int : [cpuio]
1797
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1798 Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles. This is a mandatory
1799 option when using cpuio I/O engine.
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1800
1801.. option:: cpuchunks=int : [cpuio]
1802
1803 Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1804
1805.. option:: exit_on_io_done=bool : [cpuio]
1806
1807 Detect when I/O threads are done, then exit.
1808
1809.. option:: hostname=str : [netsplice] [net]
1810
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1811 The hostname or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based I/O. If the job is
1812 a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not used and must be omitted
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1813 unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1814
1815.. option:: namenode=str : [libhdfs]
1816
22413915 1817 The hostname or IP address of a HDFS cluster namenode to contact.
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1818
1819.. option:: port=int
1820
1821 [netsplice], [net]
1822
1823 The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to. If this is used with
1824 :option:`numjobs` to spawn multiple instances of the same job type, then
1825 this will be the starting port number since fio will use a range of
1826 ports.
1827
1828 [libhdfs]
1829
1830 the listening port of the HFDS cluster namenode.
1831
1832.. option:: interface=str : [netsplice] [net]
1833
1834 The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP
1835 multicast.
1836
1837.. option:: ttl=int : [netsplice] [net]
1838
1839 Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1.
1840
1841.. option:: nodelay=bool : [netsplice] [net]
1842
1843 Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1844
1845.. option:: protocol=str : [netsplice] [net]
1846
1847.. option:: proto=str : [netsplice] [net]
1848
1849 The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1850
1851 **tcp**
1852 Transmission control protocol.
1853 **tcpv6**
1854 Transmission control protocol V6.
1855 **udp**
1856 User datagram protocol.
1857 **udpv6**
1858 User datagram protocol V6.
1859 **unix**
1860 UNIX domain socket.
1861
1862 When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given, as well as the
1863 hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader. For unix sockets, the
1864 normal filename option should be used and the port is invalid.
1865
1866.. option:: listen : [net]
1867
1868 For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming connections
1869 rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The :option:`hostname` must
1870 be omitted if this option is used.
1871
1872.. option:: pingpong : [net]
1873
1874 Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network
1875 reader will just consume packages. If ``pingpong=1`` is set, a writer will
1876 send its normal payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the
1877 same payload back. This allows fio to measure network latencies. The
1878 submission and completion latencies then measure local time spent sending or
1879 receiving, and the completion latency measures how long it took for the
1880 other end to receive and send back. For UDP multicast traffic
1881 ``pingpong=1`` should only be set for a single reader when multiple readers
1882 are listening to the same address.
1883
1884.. option:: window_size : [net]
1885
1886 Set the desired socket buffer size for the connection.
1887
1888.. option:: mss : [net]
1889
1890 Set the TCP maximum segment size (TCP_MAXSEG).
1891
1892.. option:: donorname=str : [e4defrag]
1893
730bd7d9 1894 File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files).
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1895
1896.. option:: inplace=int : [e4defrag]
1897
1898 Configure donor file blocks allocation strategy:
1899
1900 **0**
1901 Default. Preallocate donor's file on init.
1902 **1**
1903 Allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right
1904 after event.
1905
1906.. option:: clustername=str : [rbd]
1907
1908 Specifies the name of the Ceph cluster.
1909
1910.. option:: rbdname=str : [rbd]
1911
1912 Specifies the name of the RBD.
1913
1914.. option:: pool=str : [rbd]
1915
1916 Specifies the name of the Ceph pool containing RBD.
1917
1918.. option:: clientname=str : [rbd]
1919
1920 Specifies the username (without the 'client.' prefix) used to access the
1921 Ceph cluster. If the *clustername* is specified, the *clientname* shall be
1922 the full *type.id* string. If no type. prefix is given, fio will add
1923 'client.' by default.
1924
1925.. option:: skip_bad=bool : [mtd]
1926
1927 Skip operations against known bad blocks.
1928
1929.. option:: hdfsdirectory : [libhdfs]
1930
1931 libhdfs will create chunk in this HDFS directory.
1932
1933.. option:: chunk_size : [libhdfs]
1934
1935 the size of the chunk to use for each file.
1936
1937
1938I/O depth
1939~~~~~~~~~
1940
1941.. option:: iodepth=int
1942
1943 Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that
1944 increasing *iodepth* beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except
c60ebc45 1945 for small degrees when :option:`verify_async` is in use). Even async
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1946 engines may impose OS restrictions causing the desired depth not to be
1947 achieved. This may happen on Linux when using libaio and not setting
9207a0cb 1948 :option:`direct`\=1, since buffered I/O is not async on that OS. Keep an
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1949 eye on the I/O depth distribution in the fio output to verify that the
1950 achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
1951
1952.. option:: iodepth_batch_submit=int, iodepth_batch=int
1953
1954 This defines how many pieces of I/O to submit at once. It defaults to 1
1955 which means that we submit each I/O as soon as it is available, but can be
1956 raised to submit bigger batches of I/O at the time. If it is set to 0 the
1957 :option:`iodepth` value will be used.
1958
1959.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_min=int, iodepth_batch_complete=int
1960
1961 This defines how many pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1
1962 which means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 I/O in the retrieval process
1963 from the kernel. The I/O retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
1964 :option:`iodepth_low`. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always
1965 check for completed events before queuing more I/O. This helps reduce I/O
1966 latency, at the cost of more retrieval system calls.
1967
1968.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_max=int
1969
1970 This defines maximum pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. This variable should
9207a0cb 1971 be used along with :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`\=int variable,
f80dba8d 1972 specifying the range of min and max amount of I/O which should be
730bd7d9 1973 retrieved. By default it is equal to the :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`
f80dba8d
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1974 value.
1975
1976 Example #1::
1977
1978 iodepth_batch_complete_min=1
1979 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
1980
1981 which means that we will retrieve at least 1 I/O and up to the whole
1982 submitted queue depth. If none of I/O has been completed yet, we will wait.
1983
1984 Example #2::
1985
1986 iodepth_batch_complete_min=0
1987 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
1988
1989 which means that we can retrieve up to the whole submitted queue depth, but
1990 if none of I/O has been completed yet, we will NOT wait and immediately exit
1991 the system call. In this example we simply do polling.
1992
1993.. option:: iodepth_low=int
1994
1995 The low water mark indicating when to start filling the queue
1996 again. Defaults to the same as :option:`iodepth`, meaning that fio will
1997 attempt to keep the queue full at all times. If :option:`iodepth` is set to
c60ebc45 1998 e.g. 16 and *iodepth_low* is set to 4, then after fio has filled the queue of
f80dba8d
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1999 16 requests, it will let the depth drain down to 4 before starting to fill
2000 it again.
2001
2002.. option:: io_submit_mode=str
2003
2004 This option controls how fio submits the I/O to the I/O engine. The default
2005 is `inline`, which means that the fio job threads submit and reap I/O
2006 directly. If set to `offload`, the job threads will offload I/O submission
2007 to a dedicated pool of I/O threads. This requires some coordination and thus
2008 has a bit of extra overhead, especially for lower queue depth I/O where it
2009 can increase latencies. The benefit is that fio can manage submission rates
2010 independently of the device completion rates. This avoids skewed latency
730bd7d9 2011 reporting if I/O gets backed up on the device side (the coordinated omission
f80dba8d
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2012 problem).
2013
2014
2015I/O rate
2016~~~~~~~~
2017
a881438b 2018.. option:: thinktime=time
f80dba8d 2019
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2020 Stall the job for the specified period of time after an I/O has completed before issuing the
2021 next. May be used to simulate processing being done by an application.
947e0fe0 2022 When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
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2023 :option:`thinktime_blocks` and :option:`thinktime_spin`.
2024
a881438b 2025.. option:: thinktime_spin=time
f80dba8d
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2026
2027 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - pretend to spend CPU time doing
2028 something with the data received, before falling back to sleeping for the
f75ede1d 2029 rest of the period specified by :option:`thinktime`. When the unit is
947e0fe0 2030 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
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2031
2032.. option:: thinktime_blocks=int
2033
2034 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control how many blocks to issue,
2035 before waiting `thinktime` usecs. If not set, defaults to 1 which will make
2036 fio wait `thinktime` usecs after every block. This effectively makes any
2037 queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 I/O will be queued
2038 before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other words, this
2039 setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
71bfa161 2040
f80dba8d 2041.. option:: rate=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2042
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2043 Cap the bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal
2044 suffix rules apply. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2045 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2046
b25b3464
SW
2047 For example, using `rate=1m,500k` would limit reads to 1MiB/sec and writes to
2048 500KiB/sec. Capping only reads or writes can be done with `rate=,500k` or
2049 `rate=500k,` where the former will only limit writes (to 500KiB/sec) and the
2050 latter will only limit reads.
2051
f80dba8d 2052.. option:: rate_min=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2053
f80dba8d
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2054 Tell fio to do whatever it can to maintain at least this bandwidth. Failing
2055 to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. Comma-separated values
2056 may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in
2057 :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2058
f80dba8d 2059.. option:: rate_iops=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2060
f80dba8d
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2061 Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as
2062 :option:`rate`, just specified independently of bandwidth. If the job is
2063 given a block size range instead of a fixed value, the smallest block size
2064 is used as the metric. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2065 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2066
f80dba8d 2067.. option:: rate_iops_min=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2068
f80dba8d
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2069 If fio doesn't meet this rate of I/O, it will cause the job to exit.
2070 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
2071 described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2072
f80dba8d 2073.. option:: rate_process=str
66c098b8 2074
f80dba8d
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2075 This option controls how fio manages rated I/O submissions. The default is
2076 `linear`, which submits I/O in a linear fashion with fixed delays between
c60ebc45 2077 I/Os that gets adjusted based on I/O completion rates. If this is set to
f80dba8d
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2078 `poisson`, fio will submit I/O based on a more real world random request
2079 flow, known as the Poisson process
2080 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_point_process). The lambda will be
2081 10^6 / IOPS for the given workload.
71bfa161
JA
2082
2083
f80dba8d
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2084I/O latency
2085~~~~~~~~~~~
71bfa161 2086
a881438b 2087.. option:: latency_target=time
71bfa161 2088
f80dba8d 2089 If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
f75ede1d 2090 workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. When
947e0fe0 2091 the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
f75ede1d 2092 :option:`latency_window` and :option:`latency_percentile`.
71bfa161 2093
a881438b 2094.. option:: latency_window=time
71bfa161 2095
f80dba8d 2096 Used with :option:`latency_target` to specify the sample window that the job
f75ede1d 2097 is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. When the unit is
947e0fe0 2098 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
b4692828 2099
f80dba8d 2100.. option:: latency_percentile=float
71bfa161 2101
c60ebc45 2102 The percentage of I/Os that must fall within the criteria specified by
f80dba8d 2103 :option:`latency_target` and :option:`latency_window`. If not set, this
c60ebc45 2104 defaults to 100.0, meaning that all I/Os must be equal or below to the value
f80dba8d 2105 set by :option:`latency_target`.
71bfa161 2106
a881438b 2107.. option:: max_latency=time
71bfa161 2108
f75ede1d 2109 If set, fio will exit the job with an ETIMEDOUT error if it exceeds this
947e0fe0 2110 maximum latency. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in
f75ede1d 2111 microseconds.
71bfa161 2112
f80dba8d 2113.. option:: rate_cycle=int
71bfa161 2114
f80dba8d 2115 Average bandwidth for :option:`rate` and :option:`rate_min` over this number
a47b697c 2116 of milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.
71bfa161 2117
71bfa161 2118
f80dba8d
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2119I/O replay
2120~~~~~~~~~~
71bfa161 2121
f80dba8d 2122.. option:: write_iolog=str
c2b1e753 2123
f80dba8d
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2124 Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. See
2125 :option:`read_iolog`. Specify a separate file for each job, otherwise the
2126 iologs will be interspersed and the file may be corrupt.
c2b1e753 2127
f80dba8d 2128.. option:: read_iolog=str
71bfa161 2129
22413915 2130 Open an iolog with the specified filename and replay the I/O patterns it
f80dba8d
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2131 contains. This can be used to store a workload and replay it sometime
2132 later. The iolog given may also be a blktrace binary file, which allows fio
2133 to replay a workload captured by :command:`blktrace`. See
2134 :manpage:`blktrace(8)` for how to capture such logging data. For blktrace
2135 replay, the file needs to be turned into a blkparse binary data file first
2136 (``blkparse <device> -o /dev/null -d file_for_fio.bin``).
71bfa161 2137
f80dba8d 2138.. option:: replay_no_stall=int
71bfa161 2139
f80dba8d 2140 When replaying I/O with :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior is to
22413915 2141 attempt to respect the timestamps within the log and replay them with the
f80dba8d
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2142 appropriate delay between IOPS. By setting this variable fio will not
2143 respect the timestamps and attempt to replay them as fast as possible while
2144 still respecting ordering. The result is the same I/O pattern to a given
2145 device, but different timings.
71bfa161 2146
f80dba8d 2147.. option:: replay_redirect=str
b4692828 2148
f80dba8d
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2149 While replaying I/O patterns using :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior
2150 is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
2151 from. This is sometimes undesirable because on a different machine those
2152 major/minor numbers can map to a different device. Changing hardware on the
2153 same system can also result in a different major/minor mapping.
730bd7d9 2154 ``replay_redirect`` causes all I/Os to be replayed onto the single specified
f80dba8d 2155 device regardless of the device it was recorded
9207a0cb 2156 from. i.e. :option:`replay_redirect`\= :file:`/dev/sdc` would cause all I/O
f80dba8d
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2157 in the blktrace or iolog to be replayed onto :file:`/dev/sdc`. This means
2158 multiple devices will be replayed onto a single device, if the trace
2159 contains multiple devices. If you want multiple devices to be replayed
2160 concurrently to multiple redirected devices you must blkparse your trace
2161 into separate traces and replay them with independent fio invocations.
2162 Unfortunately this also breaks the strict time ordering between multiple
2163 device accesses.
71bfa161 2164
f80dba8d 2165.. option:: replay_align=int
74929ac2 2166
f80dba8d
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2167 Force alignment of I/O offsets and lengths in a trace to this power of 2
2168 value.
3c54bc46 2169
f80dba8d 2170.. option:: replay_scale=int
3c54bc46 2171
f80dba8d 2172 Scale sector offsets down by this factor when replaying traces.
3c54bc46 2173
3c54bc46 2174
f80dba8d
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2175Threads, processes and job synchronization
2176~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3c54bc46 2177
f80dba8d 2178.. option:: thread
3c54bc46 2179
730bd7d9
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2180 Fio defaults to creating jobs by using fork, however if this option is
2181 given, fio will create jobs by using POSIX Threads' function
2182 :manpage:`pthread_create(3)` to create threads instead.
71bfa161 2183
f80dba8d 2184.. option:: wait_for=str
74929ac2 2185
730bd7d9
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2186 If set, the current job won't be started until all workers of the specified
2187 waitee job are done.
74929ac2 2188
f80dba8d
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2189 ``wait_for`` operates on the job name basis, so there are a few
2190 limitations. First, the waitee must be defined prior to the waiter job
2191 (meaning no forward references). Second, if a job is being referenced as a
2192 waitee, it must have a unique name (no duplicate waitees).
74929ac2 2193
f80dba8d 2194.. option:: nice=int
892a6ffc 2195
f80dba8d 2196 Run the job with the given nice value. See man :manpage:`nice(2)`.
892a6ffc 2197
f80dba8d
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2198 On Windows, values less than -15 set the process class to "High"; -1 through
2199 -15 set "Above Normal"; 1 through 15 "Below Normal"; and above 15 "Idle"
2200 priority class.
74929ac2 2201
f80dba8d 2202.. option:: prio=int
71bfa161 2203
f80dba8d
MT
2204 Set the I/O priority value of this job. Linux limits us to a positive value
2205 between 0 and 7, with 0 being the highest. See man
2206 :manpage:`ionice(1)`. Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating
2207 systems since meaning of priority may differ.
71bfa161 2208
f80dba8d 2209.. option:: prioclass=int
d59aa780 2210
f80dba8d 2211 Set the I/O priority class. See man :manpage:`ionice(1)`.
d59aa780 2212
f80dba8d 2213.. option:: cpumask=int
71bfa161 2214
22413915
SW
2215 Set the CPU affinity of this job. The parameter given is a bit mask of
2216 allowed CPUs the job may run on. So if you want the allowed CPUs to be 1
f80dba8d
MT
2217 and 5, you would pass the decimal value of (1 << 1 | 1 << 5), or 34. See man
2218 :manpage:`sched_setaffinity(2)`. This may not work on all supported
2219 operating systems or kernel versions. This option doesn't work well for a
2220 higher CPU count than what you can store in an integer mask, so it can only
2221 control cpus 1-32. For boxes with larger CPU counts, use
2222 :option:`cpus_allowed`.
6d500c2e 2223
f80dba8d 2224.. option:: cpus_allowed=str
6d500c2e 2225
730bd7d9
SW
2226 Controls the same options as :option:`cpumask`, but accepts a textual
2227 specification of the permitted CPUs instead. So to use CPUs 1 and 5 you
2228 would specify ``cpus_allowed=1,5``. This option also allows a range of CPUs
2229 to be specified -- say you wanted a binding to CPUs 1, 5, and 8 to 15, you
2230 would set ``cpus_allowed=1,5,8-15``.
6d500c2e 2231
f80dba8d 2232.. option:: cpus_allowed_policy=str
6d500c2e 2233
f80dba8d 2234 Set the policy of how fio distributes the CPUs specified by
730bd7d9 2235 :option:`cpus_allowed` or :option:`cpumask`. Two policies are supported:
6d500c2e 2236
f80dba8d
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2237 **shared**
2238 All jobs will share the CPU set specified.
2239 **split**
2240 Each job will get a unique CPU from the CPU set.
6d500c2e 2241
22413915 2242 **shared** is the default behavior, if the option isn't specified. If
f80dba8d
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2243 **split** is specified, then fio will will assign one cpu per job. If not
2244 enough CPUs are given for the jobs listed, then fio will roundrobin the CPUs
2245 in the set.
6d500c2e 2246
f80dba8d 2247.. option:: numa_cpu_nodes=str
6d500c2e 2248
f80dba8d
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2249 Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
2250 comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`. Note, to enable
ac8ca2af 2251 NUMA options support, fio must be built on a system with libnuma-dev(el)
f80dba8d 2252 installed.
61b9861d 2253
f80dba8d 2254.. option:: numa_mem_policy=str
61b9861d 2255
f80dba8d
MT
2256 Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of the
2257 arguments::
5c94b008 2258
f80dba8d 2259 <mode>[:<nodelist>]
ce35b1ec 2260
730bd7d9
SW
2261 ``mode`` is one of the following memory poicies: ``default``, ``prefer``,
2262 ``bind``, ``interleave`` or ``local``. For ``default`` and ``local`` memory
2263 policies, no node needs to be specified. For ``prefer``, only one node is
2264 allowed. For ``bind`` and ``interleave`` the ``nodelist`` may be as
2265 follows: a comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`.
71bfa161 2266
f80dba8d 2267.. option:: cgroup=str
390b1537 2268
f80dba8d
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2269 Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created. The
2270 system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
2271 your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with::
5af1c6f3 2272
f80dba8d 2273 # mount -t cgroup -o blkio none /cgroup
5af1c6f3 2274
f80dba8d 2275.. option:: cgroup_weight=int
5af1c6f3 2276
f80dba8d
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2277 Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
2278 with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
a086c257 2279
f80dba8d 2280.. option:: cgroup_nodelete=bool
8c07860d 2281
f80dba8d
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2282 Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job
2283 completion. To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the
2284 job completion, set ``cgroup_nodelete=1``. This can be useful if one wants
2285 to inspect various cgroup files after job completion. Default: false.
8c07860d 2286
f80dba8d 2287.. option:: flow_id=int
8c07860d 2288
f80dba8d
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2289 The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global
2290 flow. See :option:`flow`.
1907dbc6 2291
f80dba8d 2292.. option:: flow=int
71bfa161 2293
f80dba8d
MT
2294 Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
2295 'flow counter' which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
2296 two or more jobs. Fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
2297 ``flow`` parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
2298 flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
2299 ``flow=8`` and another job has ``flow=-1``, then there will be a roughly 1:8
2300 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
71bfa161 2301
f80dba8d 2302.. option:: flow_watermark=int
a31041ea 2303
f80dba8d
MT
2304 The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
2305 reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
82407585 2306
f80dba8d 2307.. option:: flow_sleep=int
82407585 2308
f80dba8d
MT
2309 The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has
2310 been exceeded before retrying operations.
82407585 2311
f80dba8d 2312.. option:: stonewall, wait_for_previous
82407585 2313
f80dba8d
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2314 Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit, before starting this
2315 one. Can be used to insert serialization points in the job file. A stone
2316 wall also implies starting a new reporting group, see
2317 :option:`group_reporting`.
2318
2319.. option:: exitall
2320
730bd7d9
SW
2321 By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes
2322 but sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting ``exitall`` will
2323 instead make fio terminate all other jobs when one job finishes.
f80dba8d
MT
2324
2325.. option:: exec_prerun=str
2326
2327 Before running this job, issue the command specified through
2328 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
2329 :file:`jobname.prerun.txt`.
2330
2331.. option:: exec_postrun=str
2332
2333 After the job completes, issue the command specified though
2334 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
2335 :file:`jobname.postrun.txt`.
2336
2337.. option:: uid=int
2338
2339 Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value
2340 before the thread/process does any work.
2341
2342.. option:: gid=int
2343
2344 Set group ID, see :option:`uid`.
2345
2346
2347Verification
2348~~~~~~~~~~~~
2349
2350.. option:: verify_only
2351
2352 Do not perform specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
2353 invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
2354 times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only
2355 for workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
2356 :option:`time_based` option set.
2357
2358.. option:: do_verify=bool
2359
2360 Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if :option:`verify` is
2361 set. Default: true.
2362
2363.. option:: verify=str
2364
2365 If writing to a file, fio can verify the file contents after each iteration
2366 of the job. Each verification method also implies verification of special
2367 header, which is written to the beginning of each block. This header also
2368 includes meta information, like offset of the block, block number, timestamp
2369 when block was written, etc. :option:`verify` can be combined with
2370 :option:`verify_pattern` option. The allowed values are:
2371
2372 **md5**
2373 Use an md5 sum of the data area and store it in the header of
2374 each block.
2375
2376 **crc64**
2377 Use an experimental crc64 sum of the data area and store it in the
2378 header of each block.
2379
2380 **crc32c**
a5896300
SW
2381 Use a crc32c sum of the data area and store it in the header of
2382 each block. This will automatically use hardware acceleration
2383 (e.g. SSE4.2 on an x86 or CRC crypto extensions on ARM64) but will
2384 fall back to software crc32c if none is found. Generally the
2385 fatest checksum fio supports when hardware accelerated.
f80dba8d
MT
2386
2387 **crc32c-intel**
a5896300 2388 Synonym for crc32c.
f80dba8d
MT
2389
2390 **crc32**
2391 Use a crc32 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
2392 block.
2393
2394 **crc16**
2395 Use a crc16 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
2396 block.
2397
2398 **crc7**
2399 Use a crc7 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
2400 block.
2401
2402 **xxhash**
2403 Use xxhash as the checksum function. Generally the fastest software
2404 checksum that fio supports.
2405
2406 **sha512**
2407 Use sha512 as the checksum function.
2408
2409 **sha256**
2410 Use sha256 as the checksum function.
2411
2412 **sha1**
2413 Use optimized sha1 as the checksum function.
82407585 2414
ae3a5acc
JA
2415 **sha3-224**
2416 Use optimized sha3-224 as the checksum function.
2417
2418 **sha3-256**
2419 Use optimized sha3-256 as the checksum function.
2420
2421 **sha3-384**
2422 Use optimized sha3-384 as the checksum function.
2423
2424 **sha3-512**
2425 Use optimized sha3-512 as the checksum function.
2426
f80dba8d
MT
2427 **meta**
2428 This option is deprecated, since now meta information is included in
2429 generic verification header and meta verification happens by
2430 default. For detailed information see the description of the
2431 :option:`verify` setting. This option is kept because of
2432 compatibility's sake with old configurations. Do not use it.
2433
2434 **pattern**
2435 Verify a strict pattern. Normally fio includes a header with some
2436 basic information and checksumming, but if this option is set, only
2437 the specific pattern set with :option:`verify_pattern` is verified.
2438
2439 **null**
2440 Only pretend to verify. Useful for testing internals with
9207a0cb 2441 :option:`ioengine`\=null, not for much else.
f80dba8d
MT
2442
2443 This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
2444 that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction
2445 given is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a
2446 previously written file. If the data direction includes any form of write,
2447 the verify will be of the newly written data.
2448
2449.. option:: verifysort=bool
2450
2451 If true, fio will sort written verify blocks when it deems it faster to read
2452 them back in a sorted manner. This is often the case when overwriting an
2453 existing file, since the blocks are already laid out in the file system. You
2454 can ignore this option unless doing huge amounts of really fast I/O where
2455 the red-black tree sorting CPU time becomes significant. Default: true.
2456
2457.. option:: verifysort_nr=int
2458
2459 Pre-load and sort verify blocks for a read workload.
2460
2461.. option:: verify_offset=int
2462
2463 Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
2464 writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
2465
2466.. option:: verify_interval=int
2467
2468 Write the verification header at a finer granularity than the
2469 :option:`blocksize`. It will be written for chunks the size of
2470 ``verify_interval``. :option:`blocksize` should divide this evenly.
2471
2472.. option:: verify_pattern=str
2473
2474 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to
2475 filling with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill
2476 with a known pattern for I/O verification purposes. Depending on the width
730bd7d9 2477 of the pattern, fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time (it can
f80dba8d
MT
2478 be either a decimal or a hex number). The ``verify_pattern`` if larger than
2479 a 32-bit quantity has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or
2480 "0X". Use with :option:`verify`. Also, ``verify_pattern`` supports %o
2481 format, which means that for each block offset will be written and then
2482 verified back, e.g.::
61b9861d
RP
2483
2484 verify_pattern=%o
2485
f80dba8d
MT
2486 Or use combination of everything::
2487
61b9861d 2488 verify_pattern=0xff%o"abcd"-12
e28218f3 2489
f80dba8d
MT
2490.. option:: verify_fatal=bool
2491
2492 Normally fio will keep checking the entire contents before quitting on a
2493 block verification failure. If this option is set, fio will exit the job on
2494 the first observed failure. Default: false.
2495
2496.. option:: verify_dump=bool
2497
2498 If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block
2499 we read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what
2500 kind of data corruption occurred. Off by default.
2501
2502.. option:: verify_async=int
2503
2504 Fio will normally verify I/O inline from the submitting thread. This option
2505 takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for I/O
2506 verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying I/O
2507 contents to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even
2508 sync I/O engines can benefit from using an :option:`iodepth` setting higher
2509 than 1, as it allows them to have I/O in flight while verifies are running.
d7e6ea1c 2510 Defaults to 0 async threads, i.e. verification is not asynchronous.
f80dba8d
MT
2511
2512.. option:: verify_async_cpus=str
2513
2514 Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async I/O verification
2515 threads. See :option:`cpus_allowed` for the format used.
2516
2517.. option:: verify_backlog=int
2518
2519 Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
2520 once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
2521 everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
2522 instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with
2523 an I/O block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory
2524 would be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will
2525 write only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
2526
2527.. option:: verify_backlog_batch=int
2528
2529 Control how many blocks fio will verify if :option:`verify_backlog` is
2530 set. If not set, will default to the value of :option:`verify_backlog`
2531 (meaning the entire queue is read back and verified). If
2532 ``verify_backlog_batch`` is less than :option:`verify_backlog` then not all
2533 blocks will be verified, if ``verify_backlog_batch`` is larger than
2534 :option:`verify_backlog`, some blocks will be verified more than once.
2535
2536.. option:: verify_state_save=bool
2537
2538 When a job exits during the write phase of a verify workload, save its
2539 current state. This allows fio to replay up until that point, if the verify
2540 state is loaded for the verify read phase. The format of the filename is,
2541 roughly::
2542
2543 <type>-<jobname>-<jobindex>-verify.state.
2544
2545 <type> is "local" for a local run, "sock" for a client/server socket
2546 connection, and "ip" (192.168.0.1, for instance) for a networked
d7e6ea1c 2547 client/server connection. Defaults to true.
f80dba8d
MT
2548
2549.. option:: verify_state_load=bool
2550
2551 If a verify termination trigger was used, fio stores the current write state
2552 of each thread. This can be used at verification time so that fio knows how
2553 far it should verify. Without this information, fio will run a full
a47b697c
SW
2554 verification pass, according to the settings in the job file used. Default
2555 false.
f80dba8d
MT
2556
2557.. option:: trim_percentage=int
2558
2559 Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
2560
2561.. option:: trim_verify_zero=bool
2562
22413915 2563 Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
f80dba8d
MT
2564
2565.. option:: trim_backlog=int
2566
22413915 2567 Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
f80dba8d
MT
2568
2569.. option:: trim_backlog_batch=int
2570
2571 Trim this number of I/O blocks.
2572
2573.. option:: experimental_verify=bool
2574
2575 Enable experimental verification.
2576
2577
2578Steady state
2579~~~~~~~~~~~~
2580
2581.. option:: steadystate=str:float, ss=str:float
2582
2583 Define the criterion and limit for assessing steady state performance. The
2584 first parameter designates the criterion whereas the second parameter sets
2585 the threshold. When the criterion falls below the threshold for the
2586 specified duration, the job will stop. For example, `iops_slope:0.1%` will
2587 direct fio to terminate the job when the least squares regression slope
2588 falls below 0.1% of the mean IOPS. If :option:`group_reporting` is enabled
2589 this will apply to all jobs in the group. Below is the list of available
2590 steady state assessment criteria. All assessments are carried out using only
2591 data from the rolling collection window. Threshold limits can be expressed
2592 as a fixed value or as a percentage of the mean in the collection window.
2593
2594 **iops**
2595 Collect IOPS data. Stop the job if all individual IOPS measurements
2596 are within the specified limit of the mean IOPS (e.g., ``iops:2``
2597 means that all individual IOPS values must be within 2 of the mean,
2598 whereas ``iops:0.2%`` means that all individual IOPS values must be
2599 within 0.2% of the mean IOPS to terminate the job).
2600
2601 **iops_slope**
2602 Collect IOPS data and calculate the least squares regression
2603 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
2604
2605 **bw**
2606 Collect bandwidth data. Stop the job if all individual bandwidth
2607 measurements are within the specified limit of the mean bandwidth.
2608
2609 **bw_slope**
2610 Collect bandwidth data and calculate the least squares regression
2611 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
2612
2613.. option:: steadystate_duration=time, ss_dur=time
2614
2615 A rolling window of this duration will be used to judge whether steady state
2616 has been reached. Data will be collected once per second. The default is 0
f75ede1d 2617 which disables steady state detection. When the unit is omitted, the
947e0fe0 2618 value is interpreted in seconds.
f80dba8d
MT
2619
2620.. option:: steadystate_ramp_time=time, ss_ramp=time
2621
2622 Allow the job to run for the specified duration before beginning data
2623 collection for checking the steady state job termination criterion. The
947e0fe0 2624 default is 0. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
f80dba8d
MT
2625
2626
2627Measurements and reporting
2628~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2629
2630.. option:: per_job_logs=bool
2631
2632 If set, this generates bw/clat/iops log with per file private filenames. If
2633 not set, jobs with identical names will share the log filename. Default:
2634 true.
2635
2636.. option:: group_reporting
2637
2638 It may sometimes be interesting to display statistics for groups of jobs as
2639 a whole instead of for each individual job. This is especially true if
2640 :option:`numjobs` is used; looking at individual thread/process output
2641 quickly becomes unwieldy. To see the final report per-group instead of
2642 per-job, use :option:`group_reporting`. Jobs in a file will be part of the
2643 same reporting group, unless if separated by a :option:`stonewall`, or by
2644 using :option:`new_group`.
2645
2646.. option:: new_group
2647
2648 Start a new reporting group. See: :option:`group_reporting`. If not given,
2649 all jobs in a file will be part of the same reporting group, unless
2650 separated by a :option:`stonewall`.
2651
8243be59
JA
2652.. option:: stats
2653
2654 By default, fio collects and shows final output results for all jobs
2655 that run. If this option is set to 0, then fio will ignore it in
2656 the final stat output.
2657
f80dba8d
MT
2658.. option:: write_bw_log=str
2659
2660 If given, write a bandwidth log for this job. Can be used to store data of
2661 the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
2662 :command:`fio_generate_plots` script uses :command:`gnuplot` to turn these
22413915 2663 text files into nice graphs. See :option:`write_lat_log` for behavior of
f80dba8d
MT
2664 given filename. For this option, the postfix is :file:`_bw.x.log`, where `x`
2665 is the index of the job (`1..N`, where `N` is the number of jobs). If
2666 :option:`per_job_logs` is false, then the filename will not include the job
2667 index. See `Log File Formats`_.
2668
2669.. option:: write_lat_log=str
2670
2671 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, except that this option stores I/O
2672 submission, completion, and total latencies instead. If no filename is given
2673 with this option, the default filename of :file:`jobname_type.log` is
2674 used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of
2675 log. So if one specifies::
e3cedca7
JA
2676
2677 write_lat_log=foo
2678
f80dba8d
MT
2679 The actual log names will be :file:`foo_slat.x.log`, :file:`foo_clat.x.log`,
2680 and :file:`foo_lat.x.log`, where `x` is the index of the job (1..N, where N
2681 is the number of jobs). This helps :command:`fio_generate_plot` find the
2682 logs automatically. If :option:`per_job_logs` is false, then the filename
2683 will not include the job index. See `Log File Formats`_.
be4ecfdf 2684
f80dba8d 2685.. option:: write_hist_log=str
06842027 2686
f80dba8d
MT
2687 Same as :option:`write_lat_log`, but writes I/O completion latency
2688 histograms. If no filename is given with this option, the default filename
2689 of :file:`jobname_clat_hist.x.log` is used, where `x` is the index of the
2690 job (1..N, where `N` is the number of jobs). Even if the filename is given,
2691 fio will still append the type of log. If :option:`per_job_logs` is false,
2692 then the filename will not include the job index. See `Log File Formats`_.
06842027 2693
f80dba8d 2694.. option:: write_iops_log=str
06842027 2695
f80dba8d
MT
2696 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given
2697 with this option, the default filename of :file:`jobname_type.x.log` is
2698 used,where `x` is the index of the job (1..N, where `N` is the number of
2699 jobs). Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of
2700 log. If :option:`per_job_logs` is false, then the filename will not include
2701 the job index. See `Log File Formats`_.
06842027 2702
f80dba8d 2703.. option:: log_avg_msec=int
06842027 2704
f80dba8d
MT
2705 By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
2706 I/O that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
2707 very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
2708 over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log. See
2709 :option:`log_max_value` as well. Defaults to 0, logging all entries.
6fc82095 2710 Also see `Log File Formats`_.
06842027 2711
f80dba8d 2712.. option:: log_hist_msec=int
06842027 2713
f80dba8d
MT
2714 Same as :option:`log_avg_msec`, but logs entries for completion latency
2715 histograms. Computing latency percentiles from averages of intervals using
c60ebc45 2716 :option:`log_avg_msec` is inaccurate. Setting this option makes fio log
f80dba8d
MT
2717 histogram entries over the specified period of time, reducing log sizes for
2718 high IOPS devices while retaining percentile accuracy. See
2719 :option:`log_hist_coarseness` as well. Defaults to 0, meaning histogram
2720 logging is disabled.
06842027 2721
f80dba8d 2722.. option:: log_hist_coarseness=int
06842027 2723
f80dba8d
MT
2724 Integer ranging from 0 to 6, defining the coarseness of the resolution of
2725 the histogram logs enabled with :option:`log_hist_msec`. For each increment
2726 in coarseness, fio outputs half as many bins. Defaults to 0, for which
2727 histogram logs contain 1216 latency bins. See `Log File Formats`_.
8b28bd41 2728
f80dba8d 2729.. option:: log_max_value=bool
66c098b8 2730
f80dba8d
MT
2731 If :option:`log_avg_msec` is set, fio logs the average over that window. If
2732 you instead want to log the maximum value, set this option to 1. Defaults to
2733 0, meaning that averaged values are logged.
a696fa2a 2734
f80dba8d 2735.. option:: log_offset=int
a696fa2a 2736
f80dba8d
MT
2737 If this is set, the iolog options will include the byte offset for the I/O
2738 entry as well as the other data values.
71bfa161 2739
f80dba8d 2740.. option:: log_compression=int
7de87099 2741
f80dba8d
MT
2742 If this is set, fio will compress the I/O logs as it goes, to keep the
2743 memory footprint lower. When a log reaches the specified size, that chunk is
2744 removed and compressed in the background. Given that I/O logs are fairly
2745 highly compressible, this yields a nice memory savings for longer runs. The
2746 downside is that the compression will consume some background CPU cycles, so
2747 it may impact the run. This, however, is also true if the logging ends up
2748 consuming most of the system memory. So pick your poison. The I/O logs are
2749 saved normally at the end of a run, by decompressing the chunks and storing
2750 them in the specified log file. This feature depends on the availability of
2751 zlib.
e0b0d892 2752
f80dba8d 2753.. option:: log_compression_cpus=str
e0b0d892 2754
f80dba8d
MT
2755 Define the set of CPUs that are allowed to handle online log compression for
2756 the I/O jobs. This can provide better isolation between performance
2757 sensitive jobs, and background compression work.
9e684a49 2758
f80dba8d 2759.. option:: log_store_compressed=bool
9e684a49 2760
f80dba8d
MT
2761 If set, fio will store the log files in a compressed format. They can be
2762 decompressed with fio, using the :option:`--inflate-log` command line
2763 parameter. The files will be stored with a :file:`.fz` suffix.
9e684a49 2764
f80dba8d 2765.. option:: log_unix_epoch=bool
9e684a49 2766
f80dba8d
MT
2767 If set, fio will log Unix timestamps to the log files produced by enabling
2768 write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
2769 timestamps.
2770
2771.. option:: block_error_percentiles=bool
2772
2773 If set, record errors in trim block-sized units from writes and trims and
2774 output a histogram of how many trims it took to get to errors, and what kind
2775 of error was encountered.
2776
2777.. option:: bwavgtime=int
2778
2779 Average the calculated bandwidth over the given time. Value is specified in
2780 milliseconds. If the job also does bandwidth logging through
2781 :option:`write_bw_log`, then the minimum of this option and
2782 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
2783
2784.. option:: iopsavgtime=int
2785
2786 Average the calculated IOPS over the given time. Value is specified in
2787 milliseconds. If the job also does IOPS logging through
2788 :option:`write_iops_log`, then the minimum of this option and
2789 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
2790
2791.. option:: disk_util=bool
2792
2793 Generate disk utilization statistics, if the platform supports it.
2794 Default: true.
2795
2796.. option:: disable_lat=bool
2797
2798 Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting back
2799 the number of calls to :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`, as that does impact
2800 performance at really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a
2801 large amount of these calls, this option must be used with
f75ede1d 2802 :option:`disable_slat` and :option:`disable_bw_measurement` as well.
f80dba8d
MT
2803
2804.. option:: disable_clat=bool
2805
2806 Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See
2807 :option:`disable_lat`.
2808
2809.. option:: disable_slat=bool
2810
2811 Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See
2812 :option:`disable_slat`.
2813
f75ede1d 2814.. option:: disable_bw_measurement=bool, disable_bw=bool
f80dba8d
MT
2815
2816 Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See
2817 :option:`disable_lat`.
2818
2819.. option:: clat_percentiles=bool
2820
2821 Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
2822
2823.. option:: percentile_list=float_list
2824
2825 Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion latencies and the
2826 block error histogram. Each number is a floating number in the range
2827 (0,100], and the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ``:`` to separate the
2828 numbers, and list the numbers in ascending order. For example,
2829 ``--percentile_list=99.5:99.9`` will cause fio to report the values of
2830 completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of the observed latencies
2831 fell, respectively.
2832
2833
2834Error handling
2835~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2836
2837.. option:: exitall_on_error
2838
2839 When one job finishes in error, terminate the rest. The default is to wait
2840 for each job to finish.
2841
2842.. option:: continue_on_error=str
2843
2844 Normally fio will exit the job on the first observed failure. If this option
2845 is set, fio will continue the job when there is a 'non-fatal error' (EIO or
2846 EILSEQ) until the runtime is exceeded or the I/O size specified is
2847 completed. If this option is used, there are two more stats that are
2848 appended, the total error count and the first error. The error field given
2849 in the stats is the first error that was hit during the run.
2850
2851 The allowed values are:
2852
2853 **none**
2854 Exit on any I/O or verify errors.
2855
2856 **read**
2857 Continue on read errors, exit on all others.
2858
2859 **write**
2860 Continue on write errors, exit on all others.
2861
2862 **io**
2863 Continue on any I/O error, exit on all others.
2864
2865 **verify**
2866 Continue on verify errors, exit on all others.
2867
2868 **all**
2869 Continue on all errors.
2870
2871 **0**
2872 Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
2873
2874 **1**
2875 Backward-compatible alias for 'all'.
2876
2877.. option:: ignore_error=str
2878
2879 Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can
a35ef7cb
TK
2880 specify error list for each error type, instead of only being able to
2881 ignore the default 'non-fatal error' using :option:`continue_on_error`.
f80dba8d
MT
2882 ``ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST`` errors for
2883 given error type is separated with ':'. Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC',
2884 'ENOMEM') or integer. Example::
2885
2886 ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122
2887
2888 This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from
a35ef7cb
TK
2889 WRITE. This option works by overriding :option:`continue_on_error` with
2890 the list of errors for each error type if any.
f80dba8d
MT
2891
2892.. option:: error_dump=bool
2893
2894 If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If
2895 disabled only fatal error will be dumped.
2896
f75ede1d
SW
2897Running predefined workloads
2898----------------------------
2899
2900Fio includes predefined profiles that mimic the I/O workloads generated by
2901other tools.
2902
2903.. option:: profile=str
2904
2905 The predefined workload to run. Current profiles are:
2906
2907 **tiobench**
2908 Threaded I/O bench (tiotest/tiobench) like workload.
2909
2910 **act**
2911 Aerospike Certification Tool (ACT) like workload.
2912
2913To view a profile's additional options use :option:`--cmdhelp` after specifying
2914the profile. For example::
2915
2916$ fio --profile=act --cmdhelp
2917
2918Act profile options
2919~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2920
2921.. option:: device-names=str
2922 :noindex:
2923
2924 Devices to use.
2925
2926.. option:: load=int
2927 :noindex:
2928
2929 ACT load multiplier. Default: 1.
2930
2931.. option:: test-duration=time
2932 :noindex:
2933
947e0fe0
SW
2934 How long the entire test takes to run. When the unit is omitted, the value
2935 is given in seconds. Default: 24h.
f75ede1d
SW
2936
2937.. option:: threads-per-queue=int
2938 :noindex:
2939
2940 Number of read IO threads per device. Default: 8.
2941
2942.. option:: read-req-num-512-blocks=int
2943 :noindex:
2944
2945 Number of 512B blocks to read at the time. Default: 3.
2946
2947.. option:: large-block-op-kbytes=int
2948 :noindex:
2949
2950 Size of large block ops in KiB (writes). Default: 131072.
2951
2952.. option:: prep
2953 :noindex:
2954
2955 Set to run ACT prep phase.
2956
2957Tiobench profile options
2958~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2959
2960.. option:: size=str
2961 :noindex:
2962
2963 Size in MiB
2964
2965.. option:: block=int
2966 :noindex:
2967
2968 Block size in bytes. Default: 4096.
2969
2970.. option:: numruns=int
2971 :noindex:
2972
2973 Number of runs.
2974
2975.. option:: dir=str
2976 :noindex:
2977
2978 Test directory.
2979
2980.. option:: threads=int
2981 :noindex:
2982
2983 Number of threads.
f80dba8d
MT
2984
2985Interpreting the output
2986-----------------------
2987
36214730
SW
2988..
2989 Example output was based on the following:
2990 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --time_based \
2991 --rate=1256k --bs=14K --name=quick --runtime=1s --name=mixed \
2992 --runtime=2m --rw=rw
2993
f80dba8d
MT
2994Fio spits out a lot of output. While running, fio will display the status of the
2995jobs created. An example of that would be::
2996
9d25d068 2997 Jobs: 1 (f=1): [_(1),M(1)][24.8%][r=20.5MiB/s,w=23.5MiB/s][r=82,w=94 IOPS][eta 01m:31s]
f80dba8d 2998
36214730
SW
2999The characters inside the first set of square brackets denote the current status of
3000each thread. The first character is the first job defined in the job file, and so
3001forth. The possible values (in typical life cycle order) are:
f80dba8d
MT
3002
3003+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3004| Idle | Run | |
3005+======+=====+===========================================================+
3006| P | | Thread setup, but not started. |
3007+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3008| C | | Thread created. |
3009+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3010| I | | Thread initialized, waiting or generating necessary data. |
3011+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3012| | p | Thread running pre-reading file(s). |
3013+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730
SW
3014| | / | Thread is in ramp period. |
3015+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
f80dba8d
MT
3016| | R | Running, doing sequential reads. |
3017+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3018| | r | Running, doing random reads. |
3019+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3020| | W | Running, doing sequential writes. |
3021+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3022| | w | Running, doing random writes. |
3023+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3024| | M | Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes. |
3025+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3026| | m | Running, doing mixed random reads/writes. |
3027+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730
SW
3028| | D | Running, doing sequential trims. |
3029+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3030| | d | Running, doing random trims. |
3031+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3032| | F | Running, currently waiting for :manpage:`fsync(2)`. |
f80dba8d
MT
3033+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3034| | V | Running, doing verification of written data. |
3035+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730
SW
3036| f | | Thread finishing. |
3037+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
f80dba8d
MT
3038| E | | Thread exited, not reaped by main thread yet. |
3039+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730 3040| _ | | Thread reaped. |
f80dba8d
MT
3041+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3042| X | | Thread reaped, exited with an error. |
3043+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3044| K | | Thread reaped, exited due to signal. |
3045+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3046
36214730
SW
3047..
3048 Example output was based on the following:
3049 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --runtime=58m \
3050 --time_based --rate=2512k --bs=256K --numjobs=10 \
3051 --name=readers --rw=read --name=writers --rw=write
3052
f80dba8d 3053Fio will condense the thread string as not to take up more space on the command
36214730 3054line than needed. For instance, if you have 10 readers and 10 writers running,
f80dba8d
MT
3055the output would look like this::
3056
9d25d068 3057 Jobs: 20 (f=20): [R(10),W(10)][4.0%][r=20.5MiB/s,w=23.5MiB/s][r=82,w=94 IOPS][eta 57m:36s]
f80dba8d 3058
36214730
SW
3059Note that the status string is displayed in order, so it's possible to tell which of
3060the jobs are currently doing what. In the example above this means that jobs 1--10
3061are readers and 11--20 are writers.
f80dba8d
MT
3062
3063The other values are fairly self explanatory -- number of threads currently
36214730
SW
3064running and doing I/O, the number of currently open files (f=), the estimated
3065completion percentage, the rate of I/O since last check (read speed listed first,
3066then write speed and optionally trim speed) in terms of bandwidth and IOPS, and time to completion for the current
f80dba8d 3067running group. It's impossible to estimate runtime of the following groups (if
36214730
SW
3068any).
3069
3070..
3071 Example output was based on the following:
3072 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=16 --ioengine=posixaio --filename=/tmp/fiofile \
3073 --direct=1 --size=100M --time_based --runtime=50s --rate_iops=89 \
3074 --bs=7K --name=Client1 --rw=write
3075
3076When fio is done (or interrupted by :kbd:`Ctrl-C`), it will show the data for
3077each thread, group of threads, and disks in that order. For each overall thread (or
3078group) the output looks like::
3079
3080 Client1: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=16109: Sat Jun 24 12:07:54 2017
3081 write: IOPS=88, BW=623KiB/s (638kB/s)(30.4MiB/50032msec)
3082 slat (nsec): min=500, max=145500, avg=8318.00, stdev=4781.50
3083 clat (usec): min=170, max=78367, avg=4019.02, stdev=8293.31
3084 lat (usec): min=174, max=78375, avg=4027.34, stdev=8291.79
3085 clat percentiles (usec):
3086 | 1.00th=[ 302], 5.00th=[ 326], 10.00th=[ 343], 20.00th=[ 363],
3087 | 30.00th=[ 392], 40.00th=[ 404], 50.00th=[ 416], 60.00th=[ 445],
3088 | 70.00th=[ 816], 80.00th=[ 6718], 90.00th=[12911], 95.00th=[21627],
3089 | 99.00th=[43779], 99.50th=[51643], 99.90th=[68682], 99.95th=[72877],
3090 | 99.99th=[78119]
3091 bw ( KiB/s): min= 532, max= 686, per=0.10%, avg=622.87, stdev=24.82, samples= 100
3092 iops : min= 76, max= 98, avg=88.98, stdev= 3.54, samples= 100
3093 lat (usec) : 250=0.04%, 500=64.11%, 750=4.81%, 1000=2.79%
3094 lat (msec) : 2=4.16%, 4=1.84%, 10=4.90%, 20=11.33%, 50=5.37%
3095 lat (msec) : 100=0.65%
3096 cpu : usr=0.27%, sys=0.18%, ctx=12072, majf=0, minf=21
3097 IO depths : 1=85.0%, 2=13.1%, 4=1.8%, 8=0.1%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3098 submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3099 complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
3100 issued rwt: total=0,4450,0, short=0,0,0, dropped=0,0,0
3101 latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=8
3102
3103The job name (or first job's name when using :option:`group_reporting`) is printed,
3104along with the group id, count of jobs being aggregated, last error id seen (which
3105is 0 when there are no errors), pid/tid of that thread and the time the job/group
3106completed. Below are the I/O statistics for each data direction performed (showing
3107writes in the example above). In the order listed, they denote:
3108
3109**read/write/trim**
3110 The string before the colon shows the I/O direction the statistics
3111 are for. **IOPS** is the average I/Os performed per second. **BW**
3112 is the average bandwidth rate shown as: value in power of 2 format
3113 (value in power of 10 format). The last two values show: (**total
3114 I/O performed** in power of 2 format / **runtime** of that thread).
f80dba8d
MT
3115
3116**slat**
36214730
SW
3117 Submission latency (**min** being the minimum, **max** being the
3118 maximum, **avg** being the average, **stdev** being the standard
3119 deviation). This is the time it took to submit the I/O. For
3120 sync I/O this row is not displayed as the slat is really the
3121 completion latency (since queue/complete is one operation there).
3122 This value can be in nanoseconds, microseconds or milliseconds ---
3123 fio will choose the most appropriate base and print that (in the
3124 example above nanoseconds was the best scale). Note: in :option:`--minimal` mode
0d237712 3125 latencies are always expressed in microseconds.
f80dba8d
MT
3126
3127**clat**
3128 Completion latency. Same names as slat, this denotes the time from
3129 submission to completion of the I/O pieces. For sync I/O, clat will
3130 usually be equal (or very close) to 0, as the time from submit to
3131 complete is basically just CPU time (I/O has already been done, see slat
3132 explanation).
3133
3134**bw**
36214730
SW
3135 Bandwidth statistics based on samples. Same names as the xlat stats,
3136 but also includes the number of samples taken (**samples**) and an
3137 approximate percentage of total aggregate bandwidth this thread
3138 received in its group (**per**). This last value is only really
3139 useful if the threads in this group are on the same disk, since they
3140 are then competing for disk access.
3141
3142**iops**
3143 IOPS statistics based on samples. Same names as bw.
f80dba8d
MT
3144
3145**cpu**
3146 CPU usage. User and system time, along with the number of context
3147 switches this thread went through, usage of system and user time, and
3148 finally the number of major and minor page faults. The CPU utilization
3149 numbers are averages for the jobs in that reporting group, while the
23a8e176 3150 context and fault counters are summed.
f80dba8d
MT
3151
3152**IO depths**
a2140525
SW
3153 The distribution of I/O depths over the job lifetime. The numbers are
3154 divided into powers of 2 and each entry covers depths from that value
3155 up to those that are lower than the next entry -- e.g., 16= covers
3156 depths from 16 to 31. Note that the range covered by a depth
3157 distribution entry can be different to the range covered by the
3158 equivalent submit/complete distribution entry.
f80dba8d
MT
3159
3160**IO submit**
3161 How many pieces of I/O were submitting in a single submit call. Each
c60ebc45 3162 entry denotes that amount and below, until the previous entry -- e.g.,
a2140525
SW
3163 16=100% means that we submitted anywhere between 9 to 16 I/Os per submit
3164 call. Note that the range covered by a submit distribution entry can
3165 be different to the range covered by the equivalent depth distribution
3166 entry.
f80dba8d
MT
3167
3168**IO complete**
3169 Like the above submit number, but for completions instead.
3170
36214730
SW
3171**IO issued rwt**
3172 The number of read/write/trim requests issued, and how many of them were
3173 short or dropped.
f80dba8d
MT
3174
3175**IO latencies**
3176 The distribution of I/O completion latencies. This is the time from when
3177 I/O leaves fio and when it gets completed. The numbers follow the same
3178 pattern as the I/O depths, meaning that 2=1.6% means that 1.6% of the
3179 I/O completed within 2 msecs, 20=12.8% means that 12.8% of the I/O took
3180 more than 10 msecs, but less than (or equal to) 20 msecs.
71bfa161 3181
36214730
SW
3182..
3183 Example output was based on the following:
3184 TZ=UTC fio --ioengine=null --iodepth=2 --size=100M --numjobs=2 \
3185 --rate_process=poisson --io_limit=32M --name=read --bs=128k \
3186 --rate=11M --name=write --rw=write --bs=2k --rate=700k
3187
71bfa161 3188After each client has been listed, the group statistics are printed. They
f80dba8d 3189will look like this::
71bfa161 3190
f80dba8d 3191 Run status group 0 (all jobs):
36214730
SW
3192 READ: bw=20.9MiB/s (21.9MB/s), 10.4MiB/s-10.8MiB/s (10.9MB/s-11.3MB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=2973-3069msec
3193 WRITE: bw=1231KiB/s (1261kB/s), 616KiB/s-621KiB/s (630kB/s-636kB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=52747-53223msec
71bfa161 3194
36214730 3195For each data direction it prints:
71bfa161 3196
36214730
SW
3197**bw**
3198 Aggregate bandwidth of threads in this group followed by the
3199 minimum and maximum bandwidth of all the threads in this group.
3200 Values outside of brackets are power-of-2 format and those
3201 within are the equivalent value in a power-of-10 format.
f80dba8d 3202**io**
36214730
SW
3203 Aggregate I/O performed of all threads in this group. The
3204 format is the same as bw.
3205**run**
3206 The smallest and longest runtimes of the threads in this group.
71bfa161 3207
f80dba8d 3208And finally, the disk statistics are printed. They will look like this::
71bfa161 3209
f80dba8d
MT
3210 Disk stats (read/write):
3211 sda: ios=16398/16511, merge=30/162, ticks=6853/819634, in_queue=826487, util=100.00%
71bfa161
JA
3212
3213Each value is printed for both reads and writes, with reads first. The
3214numbers denote:
3215
f80dba8d 3216**ios**
c60ebc45 3217 Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
f80dba8d
MT
3218**merge**
3219 Number of merges I/O the I/O scheduler.
3220**ticks**
3221 Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
36214730 3222**in_queue**
f80dba8d
MT
3223 Total time spent in the disk queue.
3224**util**
3225 The disk utilization. A value of 100% means we kept the disk
71bfa161
JA
3226 busy constantly, 50% would be a disk idling half of the time.
3227
f80dba8d
MT
3228It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is running,
3229without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the **USR1** signal. You can
3230also get regularly timed dumps by using the :option:`--status-interval`
3231parameter, or by creating a file in :file:`/tmp` named
3232:file:`fio-dump-status`. If fio sees this file, it will unlink it and dump the
3233current output status.
8423bd11 3234
71bfa161 3235
f80dba8d
MT
3236Terse output
3237------------
71bfa161 3238
f80dba8d
MT
3239For scripted usage where you typically want to generate tables or graphs of the
3240results, fio can output the results in a semicolon separated format. The format
3241is one long line of values, such as::
71bfa161 3242
f80dba8d
MT
3243 2;card0;0;0;7139336;121836;60004;1;10109;27.932460;116.933948;220;126861;3495.446807;1085.368601;226;126864;3523.635629;1089.012448;24063;99944;50.275485%;59818.274627;5540.657370;7155060;122104;60004;1;8338;29.086342;117.839068;388;128077;5032.488518;1234.785715;391;128085;5061.839412;1236.909129;23436;100928;50.287926%;59964.832030;5644.844189;14.595833%;19.394167%;123706;0;7313;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;0.1%;100.0%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.01%;0.02%;0.05%;0.16%;6.04%;40.40%;52.68%;0.64%;0.01%;0.00%;0.01%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%;0.00%
3244 A description of this job goes here.
562c2d2f
DN
3245
3246The job description (if provided) follows on a second line.
71bfa161 3247
a7f77fa6
SW
3248To enable terse output, use the :option:`--minimal` or
3249:option:`--output-format`\=terse command line options. The
f80dba8d
MT
3250first value is the version of the terse output format. If the output has to be
3251changed for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
3252change.
6820cb3b 3253
a2c95580
AH
3254Split up, the format is as follows (comments in brackets denote when a
3255field was introduced or whether its specific to some terse version):
71bfa161 3256
f80dba8d
MT
3257 ::
3258
a2c95580 3259 terse version, fio version [v3], jobname, groupid, error
f80dba8d
MT
3260
3261 READ status::
3262
3263 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
3264 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
3265 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
3266 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
3267 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
a2c95580
AH
3268 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
3269 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
f80dba8d
MT
3270
3271 WRITE status:
3272
3273 ::
3274
3275 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
3276 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
247823cc 3277 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
f80dba8d
MT
3278 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
3279 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
a2c95580
AH
3280 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
3281 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
3282
3283 TRIM status [all but version 3]:
3284
3285 Fields are similar to READ/WRITE status.
f80dba8d
MT
3286
3287 CPU usage::
3288
3289 user, system, context switches, major faults, minor faults
3290
3291 I/O depths::
3292
3293 <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
3294
3295 I/O latencies microseconds::
3296
3297 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
3298
3299 I/O latencies milliseconds::
3300
3301 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
3302
a2c95580 3303 Disk utilization [v3]::
f80dba8d
MT
3304
3305 Disk name, Read ios, write ios,
3306 Read merges, write merges,
3307 Read ticks, write ticks,
3308 Time spent in queue, disk utilization percentage
3309
3310 Additional Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off)::
3311
3312 total # errors, first error code
3313
3314 Additional Info (dependent on description being set)::
3315
3316 Text description
3317
3318Completion latency percentiles can be a grouping of up to 20 sets, so for the
3319terse output fio writes all of them. Each field will look like this::
1db92cb6
JA
3320
3321 1.00%=6112
3322
f80dba8d 3323which is the Xth percentile, and the `usec` latency associated with it.
1db92cb6 3324
f80dba8d
MT
3325For disk utilization, all disks used by fio are shown. So for each disk there
3326will be a disk utilization section.
f2f788dd 3327
2fc26c3d 3328Below is a single line containing short names for each of the fields in the
2831be97 3329minimal output v3, separated by semicolons::
2fc26c3d 3330
bdb9665e 3331terse_version_3;fio_version;jobname;groupid;error;read_kb;read_bandwidth;read_iops;read_runtime_ms;read_slat_min;read_slat_max;read_slat_mean;read_slat_dev;read_clat_min;read_clat_max;read_clat_mean;read_clat_dev;read_clat_pct01;read_clat_pct02;read_clat_pct03;read_clat_pct04;read_clat_pct05;read_clat_pct06;read_clat_pct07;read_clat_pct08;read_clat_pct09;read_clat_pct10;read_clat_pct11;read_clat_pct12;read_clat_pct13;read_clat_pct14;read_clat_pct15;read_clat_pct16;read_clat_pct17;read_clat_pct18;read_clat_pct19;read_clat_pct20;read_tlat_min;read_lat_max;read_lat_mean;read_lat_dev;read_bw_min;read_bw_max;read_bw_agg_pct;read_bw_mean;read_bw_dev;write_kb;write_bandwidth;write_iops;write_runtime_ms;write_slat_min;write_slat_max;write_slat_mean;write_slat_dev;write_clat_min;write_clat_max;write_clat_mean;write_clat_dev;write_clat_pct01;write_clat_pct02;write_clat_pct03;write_clat_pct04;write_clat_pct05;write_clat_pct06;write_clat_pct07;write_clat_pct08;write_clat_pct09;write_clat_pct10;write_clat_pct11;write_clat_pct12;write_clat_pct13;write_clat_pct14;write_clat_pct15;write_clat_pct16;write_clat_pct17;write_clat_pct18;write_clat_pct19;write_clat_pct20;write_tlat_min;write_lat_max;write_lat_mean;write_lat_dev;write_bw_min;write_bw_max;write_bw_agg_pct;write_bw_mean;write_bw_dev;cpu_user;cpu_sys;cpu_csw;cpu_mjf;cpu_minf;iodepth_1;iodepth_2;iodepth_4;iodepth_8;iodepth_16;iodepth_32;iodepth_64;lat_2us;lat_4us;lat_10us;lat_20us;lat_50us;lat_100us;lat_250us;lat_500us;lat_750us;lat_1000us;lat_2ms;lat_4ms;lat_10ms;lat_20ms;lat_50ms;lat_100ms;lat_250ms;lat_500ms;lat_750ms;lat_1000ms;lat_2000ms;lat_over_2000ms;disk_name;disk_read_iops;disk_write_iops;disk_read_merges;disk_write_merges;disk_read_ticks;write_ticks;disk_queue_time;disk_util
2fc26c3d 3332
25c8b9d7 3333
f80dba8d
MT
3334Trace file format
3335-----------------
3336
3337There are two trace file format that you can encounter. The older (v1) format is
3338unsupported since version 1.20-rc3 (March 2008). It will still be described
25c8b9d7
PD
3339below in case that you get an old trace and want to understand it.
3340
3341In any case the trace is a simple text file with a single action per line.
3342
3343
f80dba8d
MT
3344Trace file format v1
3345~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3346
3347Each line represents a single I/O action in the following format::
3348
3349 rw, offset, length
25c8b9d7 3350
f80dba8d 3351where `rw=0/1` for read/write, and the offset and length entries being in bytes.
25c8b9d7 3352
22413915 3353This format is not supported in fio versions >= 1.20-rc3.
25c8b9d7 3354
25c8b9d7 3355
f80dba8d
MT
3356Trace file format v2
3357~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25c8b9d7 3358
f80dba8d
MT
3359The second version of the trace file format was added in fio version 1.17. It
3360allows to access more then one file per trace and has a bigger set of possible
3361file actions.
25c8b9d7 3362
f80dba8d 3363The first line of the trace file has to be::
25c8b9d7 3364
f80dba8d 3365 fio version 2 iolog
25c8b9d7
PD
3366
3367Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
3368
f80dba8d 3369The file management format::
25c8b9d7 3370
f80dba8d 3371 filename action
25c8b9d7
PD
3372
3373The filename is given as an absolute path. The action can be one of these:
3374
f80dba8d
MT
3375**add**
3376 Add the given filename to the trace.
3377**open**
3378 Open the file with the given filename. The filename has to have
3379 been added with the **add** action before.
3380**close**
3381 Close the file with the given filename. The file has to have been
3382 opened before.
3383
3384
3385The file I/O action format::
3386
3387 filename action offset length
3388
3389The `filename` is given as an absolute path, and has to have been added and
3390opened before it can be used with this format. The `offset` and `length` are
3391given in bytes. The `action` can be one of these:
3392
3393**wait**
3394 Wait for `offset` microseconds. Everything below 100 is discarded.
3395 The time is relative to the previous `wait` statement.
3396**read**
3397 Read `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
3398**write**
3399 Write `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
3400**sync**
3401 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the file.
3402**datasync**
3403 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` the file.
3404**trim**
3405 Trim the given file from the given `offset` for `length` bytes.
3406
3407CPU idleness profiling
3408----------------------
3409
3410In some cases, we want to understand CPU overhead in a test. For example, we
3411test patches for the specific goodness of whether they reduce CPU usage.
3412Fio implements a balloon approach to create a thread per CPU that runs at idle
3413priority, meaning that it only runs when nobody else needs the cpu.
3414By measuring the amount of work completed by the thread, idleness of each CPU
3415can be derived accordingly.
3416
3417An unit work is defined as touching a full page of unsigned characters. Mean and
3418standard deviation of time to complete an unit work is reported in "unit work"
3419section. Options can be chosen to report detailed percpu idleness or overall
3420system idleness by aggregating percpu stats.
3421
3422
3423Verification and triggers
3424-------------------------
3425
3426Fio is usually run in one of two ways, when data verification is done. The first
3427is a normal write job of some sort with verify enabled. When the write phase has
3428completed, fio switches to reads and verifies everything it wrote. The second
3429model is running just the write phase, and then later on running the same job
3430(but with reads instead of writes) to repeat the same I/O patterns and verify
3431the contents. Both of these methods depend on the write phase being completed,
3432as fio otherwise has no idea how much data was written.
3433
3434With verification triggers, fio supports dumping the current write state to
3435local files. Then a subsequent read verify workload can load this state and know
3436exactly where to stop. This is useful for testing cases where power is cut to a
3437server in a managed fashion, for instance.
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3438
3439A verification trigger consists of two things:
3440
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34411) Storing the write state of each job.
34422) Executing a trigger command.
99b9a85a 3443
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3444The write state is relatively small, on the order of hundreds of bytes to single
3445kilobytes. It contains information on the number of completions done, the last X
3446completions, etc.
99b9a85a 3447
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3448A trigger is invoked either through creation ('touch') of a specified file in
3449the system, or through a timeout setting. If fio is run with
9207a0cb 3450:option:`--trigger-file`\= :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`, then it will continually
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3451check for the existence of :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`. When it sees this file, it
3452will fire off the trigger (thus saving state, and executing the trigger
99b9a85a
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3453command).
3454
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3455For client/server runs, there's both a local and remote trigger. If fio is
3456running as a server backend, it will send the job states back to the client for
3457safe storage, then execute the remote trigger, if specified. If a local trigger
3458is specified, the server will still send back the write state, but the client
3459will then execute the trigger.
99b9a85a 3460
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3461Verification trigger example
3462~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
99b9a85a 3463
4502cb42 3464Let's say we want to run a powercut test on the remote machine 'server'. Our
f80dba8d
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3465write workload is in :file:`write-test.fio`. We want to cut power to 'server' at
3466some point during the run, and we'll run this test from the safety or our local
3467machine, 'localbox'. On the server, we'll start the fio backend normally::
99b9a85a 3468
f80dba8d 3469 server# fio --server
99b9a85a 3470
f80dba8d 3471and on the client, we'll fire off the workload::
99b9a85a 3472
f80dba8d 3473 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger-remote="bash -c \"echo b > /proc/sysrq-triger\""
99b9a85a 3474
f80dba8d 3475We set :file:`/tmp/my-trigger` as the trigger file, and we tell fio to execute::
99b9a85a 3476
f80dba8d 3477 echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger
99b9a85a 3478
f80dba8d
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3479on the server once it has received the trigger and sent us the write state. This
3480will work, but it's not **really** cutting power to the server, it's merely
3481abruptly rebooting it. If we have a remote way of cutting power to the server
3482through IPMI or similar, we could do that through a local trigger command
4502cb42 3483instead. Let's assume we have a script that does IPMI reboot of a given hostname,
f80dba8d
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3484ipmi-reboot. On localbox, we could then have run fio with a local trigger
3485instead::
99b9a85a 3486
f80dba8d 3487 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger="ipmi-reboot server"
99b9a85a 3488
f80dba8d
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3489For this case, fio would wait for the server to send us the write state, then
3490execute ``ipmi-reboot server`` when that happened.
3491
3492Loading verify state
3493~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3494
4502cb42 3495To load stored write state, a read verification job file must contain the
f80dba8d 3496:option:`verify_state_load` option. If that is set, fio will load the previously
99b9a85a 3497stored state. For a local fio run this is done by loading the files directly,
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3498and on a client/server run, the server backend will ask the client to send the
3499files over and load them from there.
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3500
3501
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3502Log File Formats
3503----------------
a3ae5b05
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3504
3505Fio supports a variety of log file formats, for logging latencies, bandwidth,
3506and IOPS. The logs share a common format, which looks like this:
3507
f80dba8d 3508 *time* (`msec`), *value*, *data direction*, *offset*
a3ae5b05 3509
f80dba8d 3510Time for the log entry is always in milliseconds. The *value* logged depends
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3511on the type of log, it will be one of the following:
3512
f80dba8d
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3513 **Latency log**
3514 Value is latency in usecs
3515 **Bandwidth log**
3516 Value is in KiB/sec
3517 **IOPS log**
3518 Value is IOPS
3519
3520*Data direction* is one of the following:
3521
3522 **0**
3523 I/O is a READ
3524 **1**
3525 I/O is a WRITE
3526 **2**
3527 I/O is a TRIM
3528
3529The *offset* is the offset, in bytes, from the start of the file, for that
3530particular I/O. The logging of the offset can be toggled with
3531:option:`log_offset`.
3532
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3533Fio defaults to logging every individual I/O. When IOPS are logged for individual
3534I/Os the value entry will always be 1. If windowed logging is enabled through
3535:option:`log_avg_msec`, fio logs the average values over the specified period of time.
3536If windowed logging is enabled and :option:`log_max_value` is set, then fio logs
3537maximum values in that window instead of averages. Since 'data direction' and
3538'offset' are per-I/O values, they aren't applicable if windowed logging is enabled.
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3539
3540Client/server
3541-------------
3542
3543Normally fio is invoked as a stand-alone application on the machine where the
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3544I/O workload should be generated. However, the backend and frontend of fio can
3545be run separately i.e., the fio server can generate an I/O workload on the "Device
3546Under Test" while being controlled by a client on another machine.
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3547
3548Start the server on the machine which has access to the storage DUT::
3549
3550 fio --server=args
3551
dbb257bb 3552where `args` defines what fio listens to. The arguments are of the form
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3553``type,hostname`` or ``IP,port``. *type* is either ``ip`` (or ip4) for TCP/IP
3554v4, ``ip6`` for TCP/IP v6, or ``sock`` for a local unix domain socket.
3555*hostname* is either a hostname or IP address, and *port* is the port to listen
3556to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
3557
35581) ``fio --server``
3559
3560 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
3561
35622) ``fio --server=ip:hostname,4444``
3563
3564 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
3565
35663) ``fio --server=ip6:::1,4444``
3567
3568 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
3569
35704) ``fio --server=,4444``
3571
3572 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
3573
35745) ``fio --server=1.2.3.4``
3575
3576 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
3577
35786) ``fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock``
3579
dbb257bb 3580 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket :file:`/tmp/fio.sock`.
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3581
3582Once a server is running, a "client" can connect to the fio server with::
3583
3584 fio <local-args> --client=<server> <remote-args> <job file(s)>
3585
3586where `local-args` are arguments for the client where it is running, `server`
3587is the connect string, and `remote-args` and `job file(s)` are sent to the
3588server. The `server` string follows the same format as it does on the server
3589side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
3590
3591Fio can connect to multiple servers this way::
3592
3593 fio --client=<server1> <job file(s)> --client=<server2> <job file(s)>
3594
3595If the job file is located on the fio server, then you can tell the server to
3596load a local file as well. This is done by using :option:`--remote-config` ::
3597
3598 fio --client=server --remote-config /path/to/file.fio
3599
3600Then fio will open this local (to the server) job file instead of being passed
3601one from the client.
3602
3603If you have many servers (example: 100 VMs/containers), you can input a pathname
3604of a file containing host IPs/names as the parameter value for the
3605:option:`--client` option. For example, here is an example :file:`host.list`
3606file containing 2 hostnames::
3607
3608 host1.your.dns.domain
3609 host2.your.dns.domain
3610
3611The fio command would then be::
a3ae5b05 3612
f80dba8d 3613 fio --client=host.list <job file(s)>
a3ae5b05 3614
f80dba8d
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3615In this mode, you cannot input server-specific parameters or job files -- all
3616servers receive the same job file.
a3ae5b05 3617
f80dba8d
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3618In order to let ``fio --client`` runs use a shared filesystem from multiple
3619hosts, ``fio --client`` now prepends the IP address of the server to the
4502cb42 3620filename. For example, if fio is using the directory :file:`/mnt/nfs/fio` and is
f80dba8d
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3621writing filename :file:`fileio.tmp`, with a :option:`--client` `hostfile`
3622containing two hostnames ``h1`` and ``h2`` with IP addresses 192.168.10.120 and
3623192.168.10.121, then fio will create two files::
a3ae5b05 3624
f80dba8d
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3625 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.120.fileio.tmp
3626 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.121.fileio.tmp