docs: document cpumode option for the cpuio ioengine
[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
f50fbdda 57 Enable verbose tracing `type` of various fio actions. May be ``all`` for all types
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58 or individual types separated by a comma (e.g. ``--debug=file,mem`` will
59 enable file and memory debugging). Currently, additional logging is
60 available for:
f80dba8d 61
b034c0dd 62 *process*
f80dba8d 63 Dump info related to processes.
b034c0dd 64 *file*
f80dba8d 65 Dump info related to file actions.
b034c0dd 66 *io*
f80dba8d 67 Dump info related to I/O queuing.
b034c0dd 68 *mem*
f80dba8d 69 Dump info related to memory allocations.
b034c0dd 70 *blktrace*
f80dba8d 71 Dump info related to blktrace setup.
b034c0dd 72 *verify*
f80dba8d 73 Dump info related to I/O verification.
b034c0dd 74 *all*
f80dba8d 75 Enable all debug options.
b034c0dd 76 *random*
f80dba8d 77 Dump info related to random offset generation.
b034c0dd 78 *parse*
f80dba8d 79 Dump info related to option matching and parsing.
b034c0dd 80 *diskutil*
f80dba8d 81 Dump info related to disk utilization updates.
b034c0dd 82 *job:x*
f80dba8d 83 Dump info only related to job number x.
b034c0dd 84 *mutex*
f80dba8d 85 Dump info only related to mutex up/down ops.
b034c0dd 86 *profile*
f80dba8d 87 Dump info related to profile extensions.
b034c0dd 88 *time*
f80dba8d 89 Dump info related to internal time keeping.
b034c0dd 90 *net*
f80dba8d 91 Dump info related to networking connections.
b034c0dd 92 *rate*
f80dba8d 93 Dump info related to I/O rate switching.
b034c0dd 94 *compress*
f80dba8d 95 Dump info related to log compress/decompress.
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96 *steadystate*
97 Dump info related to steadystate detection.
98 *helperthread*
99 Dump info related to the helper thread.
100 *zbd*
101 Dump info related to support for zoned block devices.
b034c0dd 102 *?* or *help*
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103 Show available debug options.
104
105.. option:: --parse-only
106
25cd4b95 107 Parse options only, don't start any I/O.
f80dba8d 108
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109.. option:: --merge-blktrace-only
110
111 Merge blktraces only, don't start any I/O.
112
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113.. option:: --output=filename
114
115 Write output to file `filename`.
116
f50fbdda 117.. option:: --output-format=format
b8f7e412 118
f50fbdda 119 Set the reporting `format` to `normal`, `terse`, `json`, or `json+`. Multiple
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120 formats can be selected, separated by a comma. `terse` is a CSV based
121 format. `json+` is like `json`, except it adds a full dump of the latency
122 buckets.
123
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124.. option:: --bandwidth-log
125
126 Generate aggregate bandwidth logs.
127
128.. option:: --minimal
129
130 Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
131
132.. option:: --append-terse
133
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134 Print statistics in selected mode AND terse, semicolon-delimited format.
135 **Deprecated**, use :option:`--output-format` instead to select multiple
136 formats.
f80dba8d 137
f50fbdda 138.. option:: --terse-version=version
f80dba8d 139
f50fbdda 140 Set terse `version` output format (default 3, or 2 or 4 or 5).
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141
142.. option:: --version
143
b8f7e412 144 Print version information and exit.
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145
146.. option:: --help
147
113f0e7c 148 Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
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149
150.. option:: --cpuclock-test
151
152 Perform test and validation of internal CPU clock.
153
113f0e7c 154.. option:: --crctest=[test]
f80dba8d 155
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156 Test the speed of the built-in checksumming functions. If no argument is
157 given, all of them are tested. Alternatively, a comma separated list can
158 be passed, in which case the given ones are tested.
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159
160.. option:: --cmdhelp=command
161
162 Print help information for `command`. May be ``all`` for all commands.
163
164.. option:: --enghelp=[ioengine[,command]]
165
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166 List all commands defined by `ioengine`, or print help for `command`
167 defined by `ioengine`. If no `ioengine` is given, list all
b034c0dd 168 available ioengines.
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169
170.. option:: --showcmd=jobfile
171
b8f7e412 172 Convert `jobfile` to a set of command-line options.
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173
174.. option:: --readonly
175
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176 Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing writes and trims. The
177 ``--readonly`` option is an extra safety guard to prevent users from
178 accidentally starting a write or trim workload when that is not desired.
179 Fio will only modify the device under test if
180 `rw=write/randwrite/rw/randrw/trim/randtrim/trimwrite` is given. This
181 safety net can be used as an extra precaution.
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182
183.. option:: --eta=when
184
b8f7e412 185 Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. `when` may be
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186 `always`, `never` or `auto`. `auto` is the default, it prints ETA
187 when requested if the output is a TTY. `always` disregards the output
188 type, and prints ETA when requested. `never` never prints ETA.
189
190.. option:: --eta-interval=time
191
192 By default, fio requests client ETA status roughly every second. With
193 this option, the interval is configurable. Fio imposes a minimum
194 allowed time to avoid flooding the console, less than 250 msec is
195 not supported.
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196
197.. option:: --eta-newline=time
198
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199 Force a new line for every `time` period passed. When the unit is omitted,
200 the value is interpreted in seconds.
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201
202.. option:: --status-interval=time
203
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204 Force a full status dump of cumulative (from job start) values at `time`
205 intervals. This option does *not* provide per-period measurements. So
206 values such as bandwidth are running averages. When the time unit is omitted,
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207 `time` is interpreted in seconds. Note that using this option with
208 ``--output-format=json`` will yield output that technically isn't valid
209 json, since the output will be collated sets of valid json. It will need
210 to be split into valid sets of json after the run.
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211
212.. option:: --section=name
213
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214 Only run specified section `name` in job file. Multiple sections can be specified.
215 The ``--section`` option allows one to combine related jobs into one file.
216 E.g. one job file could define light, moderate, and heavy sections. Tell
217 fio to run only the "heavy" section by giving ``--section=heavy``
218 command line option. One can also specify the "write" operations in one
219 section and "verify" operation in another section. The ``--section`` option
220 only applies to job sections. The reserved *global* section is always
221 parsed and used.
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222
223.. option:: --alloc-size=kb
224
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225 Allocate additional internal smalloc pools of size `kb` in KiB. The
226 ``--alloc-size`` option increases shared memory set aside for use by fio.
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227 If running large jobs with randommap enabled, fio can run out of memory.
228 Smalloc is an internal allocator for shared structures from a fixed size
229 memory pool and can grow to 16 pools. The pool size defaults to 16MiB.
f80dba8d 230
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231 NOTE: While running :file:`.fio_smalloc.*` backing store files are visible
232 in :file:`/tmp`.
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233
234.. option:: --warnings-fatal
235
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236 All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an
237 error.
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238
239.. option:: --max-jobs=nr
240
f50fbdda 241 Set the maximum number of threads/processes to support to `nr`.
818322cc 242 NOTE: On Linux, it may be necessary to increase the shared-memory
71aa48eb 243 limit (:file:`/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax`) if fio runs into errors while
818322cc 244 creating jobs.
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245
246.. option:: --server=args
247
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248 Start a backend server, with `args` specifying what to listen to.
249 See `Client/Server`_ section.
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250
251.. option:: --daemonize=pidfile
252
b034c0dd 253 Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given `pidfile` file.
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254
255.. option:: --client=hostname
256
f50fbdda 257 Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given `hostname`
71aa48eb 258 or set of `hostname`\s. See `Client/Server`_ section.
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259
260.. option:: --remote-config=file
261
f50fbdda 262 Tell fio server to load this local `file`.
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263
264.. option:: --idle-prof=option
265
b8f7e412 266 Report CPU idleness. `option` is one of the following:
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267
268 **calibrate**
269 Run unit work calibration only and exit.
270
271 **system**
272 Show aggregate system idleness and unit work.
273
274 **percpu**
275 As **system** but also show per CPU idleness.
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276
277.. option:: --inflate-log=log
278
f50fbdda 279 Inflate and output compressed `log`.
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280
281.. option:: --trigger-file=file
282
f50fbdda 283 Execute trigger command when `file` exists.
f80dba8d 284
f50fbdda 285.. option:: --trigger-timeout=time
f80dba8d 286
f50fbdda 287 Execute trigger at this `time`.
f80dba8d 288
f50fbdda 289.. option:: --trigger=command
f80dba8d 290
f50fbdda 291 Set this `command` as local trigger.
f80dba8d 292
f50fbdda 293.. option:: --trigger-remote=command
f80dba8d 294
f50fbdda 295 Set this `command` as remote trigger.
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296
297.. option:: --aux-path=path
298
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299 Use the directory specified by `path` for generated state files instead
300 of the current working directory.
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301
302Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files, unless
303they match a job file parameter. Multiple job files can be listed and each job
304file will be regarded as a separate group. Fio will :option:`stonewall`
305execution between each group.
306
307
308Job file format
309---------------
310
311As previously described, fio accepts one or more job files describing what it is
312supposed to do. The job file format is the classic ini file, where the names
c60ebc45 313enclosed in [] brackets define the job name. You are free to use any ASCII name
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314you want, except *global* which has special meaning. Following the job name is
315a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the behavior of
316the job. If the first character in a line is a ';' or a '#', the entire line is
317discarded as a comment.
318
319A *global* section sets defaults for the jobs described in that file. A job may
320override a *global* section parameter, and a job file may even have several
321*global* sections if so desired. A job is only affected by a *global* section
322residing above it.
323
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324The :option:`--cmdhelp` option also lists all options. If used with a `command`
325argument, :option:`--cmdhelp` will detail the given `command`.
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326
327See the `examples/` directory for inspiration on how to write job files. Note
328the copyright and license requirements currently apply to `examples/` files.
329
330So let's look at a really simple job file that defines two processes, each
331randomly reading from a 128MiB file:
332
333.. code-block:: ini
334
335 ; -- start job file --
336 [global]
337 rw=randread
338 size=128m
339
340 [job1]
341
342 [job2]
343
344 ; -- end job file --
345
346As you can see, the job file sections themselves are empty as all the described
347parameters are shared. As no :option:`filename` option is given, fio makes up a
348`filename` for each of the jobs as it sees fit. On the command line, this job
349would look as follows::
350
351$ fio --name=global --rw=randread --size=128m --name=job1 --name=job2
352
353
354Let's look at an example that has a number of processes writing randomly to
355files:
356
357.. code-block:: ini
358
359 ; -- start job file --
360 [random-writers]
361 ioengine=libaio
362 iodepth=4
363 rw=randwrite
364 bs=32k
365 direct=0
366 size=64m
367 numjobs=4
368 ; -- end job file --
369
370Here we have no *global* section, as we only have one job defined anyway. We
371want to use async I/O here, with a depth of 4 for each file. We also increased
372the buffer size used to 32KiB and define numjobs to 4 to fork 4 identical
373jobs. The result is 4 processes each randomly writing to their own 64MiB
374file. Instead of using the above job file, you could have given the parameters
375on the command line. For this case, you would specify::
376
377$ fio --name=random-writers --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=randwrite --bs=32k --direct=0 --size=64m --numjobs=4
378
379When fio is utilized as a basis of any reasonably large test suite, it might be
380desirable to share a set of standardized settings across multiple job files.
381Instead of copy/pasting such settings, any section may pull in an external
382:file:`filename.fio` file with *include filename* directive, as in the following
383example::
384
385 ; -- start job file including.fio --
386 [global]
387 filename=/tmp/test
388 filesize=1m
389 include glob-include.fio
390
391 [test]
392 rw=randread
393 bs=4k
394 time_based=1
395 runtime=10
396 include test-include.fio
397 ; -- end job file including.fio --
398
399.. code-block:: ini
400
401 ; -- start job file glob-include.fio --
402 thread=1
403 group_reporting=1
404 ; -- end job file glob-include.fio --
405
406.. code-block:: ini
407
408 ; -- start job file test-include.fio --
409 ioengine=libaio
410 iodepth=4
411 ; -- end job file test-include.fio --
412
413Settings pulled into a section apply to that section only (except *global*
414section). Include directives may be nested in that any included file may contain
415further include directive(s). Include files may not contain [] sections.
416
417
418Environment variables
419~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
420
421Fio also supports environment variable expansion in job files. Any sub-string of
422the form ``${VARNAME}`` as part of an option value (in other words, on the right
423of the '='), will be expanded to the value of the environment variable called
424`VARNAME`. If no such environment variable is defined, or `VARNAME` is the
425empty string, the empty string will be substituted.
426
427As an example, let's look at a sample fio invocation and job file::
428
429$ SIZE=64m NUMJOBS=4 fio jobfile.fio
430
431.. code-block:: ini
432
433 ; -- start job file --
434 [random-writers]
435 rw=randwrite
436 size=${SIZE}
437 numjobs=${NUMJOBS}
438 ; -- end job file --
439
440This will expand to the following equivalent job file at runtime:
441
442.. code-block:: ini
443
444 ; -- start job file --
445 [random-writers]
446 rw=randwrite
447 size=64m
448 numjobs=4
449 ; -- end job file --
450
451Fio ships with a few example job files, you can also look there for inspiration.
452
453Reserved keywords
454~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
455
456Additionally, fio has a set of reserved keywords that will be replaced
457internally with the appropriate value. Those keywords are:
458
459**$pagesize**
460
461 The architecture page size of the running system.
462
463**$mb_memory**
464
465 Megabytes of total memory in the system.
466
467**$ncpus**
468
469 Number of online available CPUs.
470
471These can be used on the command line or in the job file, and will be
472automatically substituted with the current system values when the job is
473run. Simple math is also supported on these keywords, so you can perform actions
474like::
475
b034c0dd 476 size=8*$mb_memory
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477
478and get that properly expanded to 8 times the size of memory in the machine.
479
480
481Job file parameters
482-------------------
483
484This section describes in details each parameter associated with a job. Some
485parameters take an option of a given type, such as an integer or a
486string. Anywhere a numeric value is required, an arithmetic expression may be
487used, provided it is surrounded by parentheses. Supported operators are:
488
489 - addition (+)
490 - subtraction (-)
491 - multiplication (*)
492 - division (/)
493 - modulus (%)
494 - exponentiation (^)
495
496For time values in expressions, units are microseconds by default. This is
497different than for time values not in expressions (not enclosed in
498parentheses). The following types are used:
499
500
501Parameter types
502~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
503
504**str**
b034c0dd 505 String: A sequence of alphanumeric characters.
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506
507**time**
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508 Integer with possible time suffix. Without a unit value is interpreted as
509 seconds unless otherwise specified. Accepts a suffix of 'd' for days, 'h' for
510 hours, 'm' for minutes, 's' for seconds, 'ms' (or 'msec') for milliseconds and
511 'us' (or 'usec') for microseconds. For example, use 10m for 10 minutes.
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512
513.. _int:
514
515**int**
516 Integer. A whole number value, which may contain an integer prefix
517 and an integer suffix:
518
b034c0dd 519 [*integer prefix*] **number** [*integer suffix*]
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520
521 The optional *integer prefix* specifies the number's base. The default
522 is decimal. *0x* specifies hexadecimal.
523
524 The optional *integer suffix* specifies the number's units, and includes an
525 optional unit prefix and an optional unit. For quantities of data, the
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526 default unit is bytes. For quantities of time, the default unit is seconds
527 unless otherwise specified.
f80dba8d 528
9207a0cb 529 With :option:`kb_base`\=1000, fio follows international standards for unit
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530 prefixes. To specify power-of-10 decimal values defined in the
531 International System of Units (SI):
532
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533 * *K* -- means kilo (K) or 1000
534 * *M* -- means mega (M) or 1000**2
535 * *G* -- means giga (G) or 1000**3
536 * *T* -- means tera (T) or 1000**4
537 * *P* -- means peta (P) or 1000**5
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538
539 To specify power-of-2 binary values defined in IEC 80000-13:
540
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541 * *Ki* -- means kibi (Ki) or 1024
542 * *Mi* -- means mebi (Mi) or 1024**2
543 * *Gi* -- means gibi (Gi) or 1024**3
544 * *Ti* -- means tebi (Ti) or 1024**4
545 * *Pi* -- means pebi (Pi) or 1024**5
f80dba8d 546
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547 For Zone Block Device Mode:
548 * *z* -- means Zone
549
9207a0cb 550 With :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (the default), the unit prefixes are opposite
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551 from those specified in the SI and IEC 80000-13 standards to provide
552 compatibility with old scripts. For example, 4k means 4096.
553
554 For quantities of data, an optional unit of 'B' may be included
b8f7e412 555 (e.g., 'kB' is the same as 'k').
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556
557 The *integer suffix* is not case sensitive (e.g., m/mi mean mebi/mega,
558 not milli). 'b' and 'B' both mean byte, not bit.
559
9207a0cb 560 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1000:
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561
562 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4ki, 4kib, 4kiB, 4Ki, 4KiB
563 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1mi, 1024ki
564 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1m, 1000k
565 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1ti, 1024gi, 1048576mi
566 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1t, 1000m, 1000000k
567
9207a0cb 568 Examples with :option:`kb_base`\=1024 (default):
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569
570 * *4 KiB*: 4096, 4096b, 4096B, 4k, 4kb, 4kB, 4K, 4KB
571 * *1 MiB*: 1048576, 1m, 1024k
572 * *1 MB*: 1000000, 1mi, 1000ki
573 * *1 TiB*: 1099511627776, 1t, 1024g, 1048576m
574 * *1 TB*: 1000000000, 1ti, 1000mi, 1000000ki
575
576 To specify times (units are not case sensitive):
577
578 * *D* -- means days
579 * *H* -- means hours
4502cb42 580 * *M* -- means minutes
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581 * *s* -- or sec means seconds (default)
582 * *ms* -- or *msec* means milliseconds
583 * *us* -- or *usec* means microseconds
584
585 If the option accepts an upper and lower range, use a colon ':' or
586 minus '-' to separate such values. See :ref:`irange <irange>`.
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587 If the lower value specified happens to be larger than the upper value
588 the two values are swapped.
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589
590.. _bool:
591
592**bool**
593 Boolean. Usually parsed as an integer, however only defined for
594 true and false (1 and 0).
595
596.. _irange:
597
598**irange**
599 Integer range with suffix. Allows value range to be given, such as
c60ebc45 600 1024-4096. A colon may also be used as the separator, e.g. 1k:4k. If the
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601 option allows two sets of ranges, they can be specified with a ',' or '/'
602 delimiter: 1k-4k/8k-32k. Also see :ref:`int <int>`.
603
604**float_list**
605 A list of floating point numbers, separated by a ':' character.
606
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607With the above in mind, here follows the complete list of fio job parameters.
608
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609
610Units
611~~~~~
612
613.. option:: kb_base=int
614
615 Select the interpretation of unit prefixes in input parameters.
616
617 **1000**
618 Inputs comply with IEC 80000-13 and the International
619 System of Units (SI). Use:
620
621 - power-of-2 values with IEC prefixes (e.g., KiB)
622 - power-of-10 values with SI prefixes (e.g., kB)
623
624 **1024**
625 Compatibility mode (default). To avoid breaking old scripts:
626
627 - power-of-2 values with SI prefixes
628 - power-of-10 values with IEC prefixes
629
630 See :option:`bs` for more details on input parameters.
631
632 Outputs always use correct prefixes. Most outputs include both
633 side-by-side, like::
634
635 bw=2383.3kB/s (2327.4KiB/s)
636
637 If only one value is reported, then kb_base selects the one to use:
638
639 **1000** -- SI prefixes
640
641 **1024** -- IEC prefixes
642
643.. option:: unit_base=int
644
645 Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
646
647 **0**
648 Use auto-detection (default).
649 **8**
650 Byte based.
651 **1**
652 Bit based.
653
654
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655Job description
656~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
657
658.. option:: name=str
659
660 ASCII name of the job. This may be used to override the name printed by fio
661 for this job. Otherwise the job name is used. On the command line this
662 parameter has the special purpose of also signaling the start of a new job.
663
664.. option:: description=str
665
666 Text description of the job. Doesn't do anything except dump this text
667 description when this job is run. It's not parsed.
668
669.. option:: loops=int
670
671 Run the specified number of iterations of this job. Used to repeat the same
672 workload a given number of times. Defaults to 1.
673
674.. option:: numjobs=int
675
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676 Create the specified number of clones of this job. Each clone of job
677 is spawned as an independent thread or process. May be used to setup a
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678 larger number of threads/processes doing the same thing. Each thread is
679 reported separately; to see statistics for all clones as a whole, use
680 :option:`group_reporting` in conjunction with :option:`new_group`.
a47b697c 681 See :option:`--max-jobs`. Default: 1.
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682
683
684Time related parameters
685~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
686
687.. option:: runtime=time
688
f75ede1d 689 Tell fio to terminate processing after the specified period of time. It
f80dba8d 690 can be quite hard to determine for how long a specified job will run, so
f75ede1d 691 this parameter is handy to cap the total runtime to a given time. When
804c0839 692 the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
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693
694.. option:: time_based
695
696 If set, fio will run for the duration of the :option:`runtime` specified
697 even if the file(s) are completely read or written. It will simply loop over
698 the same workload as many times as the :option:`runtime` allows.
699
a881438b 700.. option:: startdelay=irange(time)
f80dba8d 701
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702 Delay the start of job for the specified amount of time. Can be a single
703 value or a range. When given as a range, each thread will choose a value
704 randomly from within the range. Value is in seconds if a unit is omitted.
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705
706.. option:: ramp_time=time
707
708 If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
709 logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle
710 before logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable
711 results. Note that the ``ramp_time`` is considered lead in time for a job,
712 thus it will increase the total runtime if a special timeout or
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713 :option:`runtime` is specified. When the unit is omitted, the value is
714 given in seconds.
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715
716.. option:: clocksource=str
717
718 Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
719
720 **gettimeofday**
721 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`
722
723 **clock_gettime**
724 :manpage:`clock_gettime(2)`
725
726 **cpu**
727 Internal CPU clock source
728
729 cpu is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast (and
730 fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource if
731 it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
732 unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
733 means supporting TSC Invariant.
734
735.. option:: gtod_reduce=bool
736
737 Enable all of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` reducing options
f75ede1d 738 (:option:`disable_clat`, :option:`disable_slat`, :option:`disable_bw_measurement`) plus
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739 reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
740 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call count. With this option enabled, we only do
741 about 0.4% of the :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls we would have done if all
742 time keeping was enabled.
743
744.. option:: gtod_cpu=int
745
746 Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just
747 getting the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very
748 intensive on :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` calls. With this option, you can set
749 one CPU aside for doing nothing but logging current time to a shared memory
750 location. Then the other threads/processes that run I/O workloads need only
751 copy that segment, instead of entering the kernel with a
752 :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)` call. The CPU set aside for doing these time
753 calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it from the
754 CPU mask of other jobs.
755
756
757Target file/device
758~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
759
760.. option:: directory=str
761
762 Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a different
763 location than :file:`./`. You can specify a number of directories by
764 separating the names with a ':' character. These directories will be
02dd2689 765 assigned equally distributed to job clones created by :option:`numjobs` as
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766 long as they are using generated filenames. If specific `filename(s)` are
767 set fio will use the first listed directory, and thereby matching the
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768 `filename` semantic (which generates a file for each clone if not
769 specified, but lets all clones use the same file if set).
f80dba8d 770
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771 See the :option:`filename` option for information on how to escape "``:``"
772 characters within the directory path itself.
f80dba8d 773
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774 Note: To control the directory fio will use for internal state files
775 use :option:`--aux-path`.
776
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777.. option:: filename=str
778
779 Fio normally makes up a `filename` based on the job name, thread number, and
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780 file number (see :option:`filename_format`). If you want to share files
781 between threads in a job or several
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782 jobs with fixed file paths, specify a `filename` for each of them to override
783 the default. If the ioengine is file based, you can specify a number of files
784 by separating the names with a ':' colon. So if you wanted a job to open
785 :file:`/dev/sda` and :file:`/dev/sdb` as the two working files, you would use
786 ``filename=/dev/sda:/dev/sdb``. This also means that whenever this option is
787 specified, :option:`nrfiles` is ignored. The size of regular files specified
02dd2689 788 by this option will be :option:`size` divided by number of files unless an
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789 explicit size is specified by :option:`filesize`.
790
3b803fe1 791 Each colon in the wanted path must be escaped with a ``\``
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792 character. For instance, if the path is :file:`/dev/dsk/foo@3,0:c` then you
793 would use ``filename=/dev/dsk/foo@3,0\:c`` and if the path is
3b803fe1 794 :file:`F:\\filename` then you would use ``filename=F\:\filename``.
02dd2689 795
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796 On Windows, disk devices are accessed as :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive0` for
797 the first device, :file:`\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive1` for the second etc.
798 Note: Windows and FreeBSD prevent write access to areas
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799 of the disk containing in-use data (e.g. filesystems).
800
801 The filename "`-`" is a reserved name, meaning *stdin* or *stdout*. Which
802 of the two depends on the read/write direction set.
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803
804.. option:: filename_format=str
805
806 If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have fio
807 generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
808 based on the default file format specification of
809 :file:`jobname.jobnumber.filenumber`. With this option, that can be
810 customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
811 string:
812
813 **$jobname**
814 The name of the worker thread or process.
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815 **$clientuid**
816 IP of the fio process when using client/server mode.
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817 **$jobnum**
818 The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
819 **$filenum**
820 The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or
821 process.
822
823 To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to have
824 fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance, if
825 :file:`testfiles.$filenum` is specified, file number 4 for any job will be
826 named :file:`testfiles.4`. The default of :file:`$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum`
827 will be used if no other format specifier is given.
828
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829 If you specify a path then the directories will be created up to the
830 main directory for the file. So for example if you specify
831 ``filename_format=a/b/c/$jobnum`` then the directories a/b/c will be
832 created before the file setup part of the job. If you specify
833 :option:`directory` then the path will be relative that directory,
834 otherwise it is treated as the absolute path.
835
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836.. option:: unique_filename=bool
837
838 To avoid collisions between networked clients, fio defaults to prefixing any
839 generated filenames (with a directory specified) with the source of the
840 client connecting. To disable this behavior, set this option to 0.
841
842.. option:: opendir=str
843
844 Recursively open any files below directory `str`.
845
846.. option:: lockfile=str
847
848 Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does I/O to them. If a file
849 or file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize I/O to that file to make the
850 end result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share
851 files. The lock modes are:
852
853 **none**
854 No locking. The default.
855 **exclusive**
856 Only one thread or process may do I/O at a time, excluding all
857 others.
858 **readwrite**
859 Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may
860 access the file at the same time, but writes get exclusive access.
861
862.. option:: nrfiles=int
863
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864 Number of files to use for this job. Defaults to 1. The size of files
865 will be :option:`size` divided by this unless explicit size is specified by
866 :option:`filesize`. Files are created for each thread separately, and each
867 file will have a file number within its name by default, as explained in
868 :option:`filename` section.
869
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870
871.. option:: openfiles=int
872
873 Number of files to keep open at the same time. Defaults to the same as
874 :option:`nrfiles`, can be set smaller to limit the number simultaneous
875 opens.
876
877.. option:: file_service_type=str
878
879 Defines how fio decides which file from a job to service next. The following
880 types are defined:
881
882 **random**
883 Choose a file at random.
884
885 **roundrobin**
886 Round robin over opened files. This is the default.
887
888 **sequential**
889 Finish one file before moving on to the next. Multiple files can
f50fbdda 890 still be open depending on :option:`openfiles`.
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891
892 **zipf**
c60ebc45 893 Use a *Zipf* distribution to decide what file to access.
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894
895 **pareto**
c60ebc45 896 Use a *Pareto* distribution to decide what file to access.
f80dba8d 897
dd3503d3 898 **normal**
c60ebc45 899 Use a *Gaussian* (normal) distribution to decide what file to
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900 access.
901
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902 **gauss**
903 Alias for normal.
904
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905 For *random*, *roundrobin*, and *sequential*, a postfix can be appended to
906 tell fio how many I/Os to issue before switching to a new file. For example,
907 specifying ``file_service_type=random:8`` would cause fio to issue
908 8 I/Os before selecting a new file at random. For the non-uniform
909 distributions, a floating point postfix can be given to influence how the
910 distribution is skewed. See :option:`random_distribution` for a description
911 of how that would work.
912
913.. option:: ioscheduler=str
914
915 Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler
916 before running.
917
918.. option:: create_serialize=bool
919
920 If true, serialize the file creation for the jobs. This may be handy to
921 avoid interleaving of data files, which may greatly depend on the filesystem
a47b697c 922 used and even the number of processors in the system. Default: true.
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923
924.. option:: create_fsync=bool
925
22413915 926 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the data file after creation. This is the default.
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927
928.. option:: create_on_open=bool
929
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930 If true, don't pre-create files but allow the job's open() to create a file
931 when it's time to do I/O. Default: false -- pre-create all necessary files
932 when the job starts.
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933
934.. option:: create_only=bool
935
936 If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
4502cb42 937 laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done -- the actual job contents
a47b697c 938 are not executed. Default: false.
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939
940.. option:: allow_file_create=bool
941
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942 If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. If this
943 option is false, then fio will error out if
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MT
944 the files it needs to use don't already exist. Default: true.
945
946.. option:: allow_mounted_write=bool
947
c60ebc45 948 If this isn't set, fio will abort jobs that are destructive (e.g. that write)
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949 to what appears to be a mounted device or partition. This should help catch
950 creating inadvertently destructive tests, not realizing that the test will
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951 destroy data on the mounted file system. Note that some platforms don't allow
952 writing against a mounted device regardless of this option. Default: false.
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953
954.. option:: pre_read=bool
955
956 If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the
957 given I/O operation. This will also clear the :option:`invalidate` flag,
958 since it is pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only
959 work for I/O engines that are seek-able, since they allow you to read the
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960 same data multiple times. Thus it will not work on non-seekable I/O engines
961 (e.g. network, splice). Default: false.
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962
963.. option:: unlink=bool
964
965 Unlink the job files when done. Not the default, as repeated runs of that
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966 job would then waste time recreating the file set again and again. Default:
967 false.
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968
969.. option:: unlink_each_loop=bool
970
a47b697c 971 Unlink job files after each iteration or loop. Default: false.
f80dba8d 972
7b865a2f
BVA
973.. option:: zonemode=str
974
975 Accepted values are:
976
977 **none**
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HH
978 The :option:`zonerange`, :option:`zonesize`,
979 :option `zonecapacity` and option:`zoneskip`
980 parameters are ignored.
7b865a2f
BVA
981 **strided**
982 I/O happens in a single zone until
983 :option:`zonesize` bytes have been transferred.
984 After that number of bytes has been
985 transferred processing of the next zone
b8dd9750 986 starts. :option `zonecapacity` is ignored.
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BVA
987 **zbd**
988 Zoned block device mode. I/O happens
989 sequentially in each zone, even if random I/O
990 has been selected. Random I/O happens across
991 all zones instead of being restricted to a
992 single zone. The :option:`zoneskip` parameter
993 is ignored. :option:`zonerange` and
994 :option:`zonesize` must be identical.
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995 Trim is handled using a zone reset operation.
996 Trim only considers non-empty sequential write
997 required and sequential write preferred zones.
7b865a2f 998
5faddc64 999.. option:: zonerange=int
f80dba8d 1000
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1001 Size of a single zone. See also :option:`zonesize` and
1002 :option:`zoneskip`.
f80dba8d 1003
5faddc64 1004.. option:: zonesize=int
f80dba8d 1005
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1006 For :option:`zonemode` =strided, this is the number of bytes to
1007 transfer before skipping :option:`zoneskip` bytes. If this parameter
1008 is smaller than :option:`zonerange` then only a fraction of each zone
1009 with :option:`zonerange` bytes will be accessed. If this parameter is
1010 larger than :option:`zonerange` then each zone will be accessed
1011 multiple times before skipping to the next zone.
1012
1013 For :option:`zonemode` =zbd, this is the size of a single zone. The
1014 :option:`zonerange` parameter is ignored in this mode.
f80dba8d 1015
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HH
1016
1017.. option:: zonecapacity=int
1018
1019 For :option:`zonemode` =zbd, this defines the capacity of a single zone,
1020 which is the accessible area starting from the zone start address.
1021 This parameter only applies when using :option:`zonemode` =zbd in
1022 combination with regular block devices. If not specified it defaults to
1023 the zone size. If the target device is a zoned block device, the zone
1024 capacity is obtained from the device information and this option is
1025 ignored.
1026
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1027.. option:: zoneskip=int
1028
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1029 For :option:`zonemode` =strided, the number of bytes to skip after
1030 :option:`zonesize` bytes of data have been transferred. This parameter
1031 must be zero for :option:`zonemode` =zbd.
f80dba8d 1032
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1033.. option:: read_beyond_wp=bool
1034
1035 This parameter applies to :option:`zonemode` =zbd only.
1036
1037 Zoned block devices are block devices that consist of multiple zones.
1038 Each zone has a type, e.g. conventional or sequential. A conventional
1039 zone can be written at any offset that is a multiple of the block
1040 size. Sequential zones must be written sequentially. The position at
1041 which a write must occur is called the write pointer. A zoned block
1042 device can be either drive managed, host managed or host aware. For
1043 host managed devices the host must ensure that writes happen
1044 sequentially. Fio recognizes host managed devices and serializes
1045 writes to sequential zones for these devices.
1046
1047 If a read occurs in a sequential zone beyond the write pointer then
1048 the zoned block device will complete the read without reading any data
1049 from the storage medium. Since such reads lead to unrealistically high
1050 bandwidth and IOPS numbers fio only reads beyond the write pointer if
1051 explicitly told to do so. Default: false.
1052
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1053.. option:: max_open_zones=int
1054
1055 When running a random write test across an entire drive many more
1056 zones will be open than in a typical application workload. Hence this
1057 command line option that allows to limit the number of open zones. The
1058 number of open zones is defined as the number of zones to which write
1059 commands are issued.
1060
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1061.. option:: job_max_open_zones=int
1062
1063 Limit on the number of simultaneously opened zones per single
1064 thread/process.
1065
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1066.. option:: ignore_zone_limits=bool
1067 If this option is used, fio will ignore the maximum number of open
1068 zones limit of the zoned block device in use, thus allowing the
1069 option :option:`max_open_zones` value to be larger than the device
1070 reported limit. Default: false.
1071
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1072.. option:: zone_reset_threshold=float
1073
1074 A number between zero and one that indicates the ratio of logical
1075 blocks with data to the total number of logical blocks in the test
1076 above which zones should be reset periodically.
1077
1078.. option:: zone_reset_frequency=float
1079
1080 A number between zero and one that indicates how often a zone reset
1081 should be issued if the zone reset threshold has been exceeded. A zone
1082 reset is submitted after each (1 / zone_reset_frequency) write
1083 requests. This and the previous parameter can be used to simulate
1084 garbage collection activity.
1085
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1086
1087I/O type
1088~~~~~~~~
1089
1090.. option:: direct=bool
1091
1092 If value is true, use non-buffered I/O. This is usually O_DIRECT. Note that
8e889110 1093 OpenBSD and ZFS on Solaris don't support direct I/O. On Windows the synchronous
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1094 ioengines don't support direct I/O. Default: false.
1095
1096.. option:: atomic=bool
1097
1098 If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct I/O. Atomic writes are
1099 guaranteed to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only
1100 Linux supports O_ATOMIC right now.
1101
1102.. option:: buffered=bool
1103
1104 If value is true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the
1105 :option:`direct` option. Defaults to true.
1106
1107.. option:: readwrite=str, rw=str
1108
1109 Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
1110
1111 **read**
1112 Sequential reads.
1113 **write**
1114 Sequential writes.
1115 **trim**
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1116 Sequential trims (Linux block devices and SCSI
1117 character devices only).
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1118 **randread**
1119 Random reads.
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1120 **randwrite**
1121 Random writes.
f80dba8d 1122 **randtrim**
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1123 Random trims (Linux block devices and SCSI
1124 character devices only).
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1125 **rw,readwrite**
1126 Sequential mixed reads and writes.
1127 **randrw**
1128 Random mixed reads and writes.
1129 **trimwrite**
1130 Sequential trim+write sequences. Blocks will be trimmed first,
1131 then the same blocks will be written to.
1132
1133 Fio defaults to read if the option is not specified. For the mixed I/O
1134 types, the default is to split them 50/50. For certain types of I/O the
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1135 result may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different.
1136
1137 It is possible to specify the number of I/Os to do before getting a new
1138 offset by appending ``:<nr>`` to the end of the string given. For a
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1139 random read, it would look like ``rw=randread:8`` for passing in an offset
1140 modifier with a value of 8. If the suffix is used with a sequential I/O
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1141 pattern, then the *<nr>* value specified will be **added** to the generated
1142 offset for each I/O turning sequential I/O into sequential I/O with holes.
1143 For instance, using ``rw=write:4k`` will skip 4k for every write. Also see
1144 the :option:`rw_sequencer` option.
f80dba8d
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1145
1146.. option:: rw_sequencer=str
1147
1148 If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the ``rw=<str>``
1149 line, then this option controls how that number modifies the I/O offset
1150 being generated. Accepted values are:
1151
1152 **sequential**
1153 Generate sequential offset.
1154 **identical**
1155 Generate the same offset.
1156
1157 ``sequential`` is only useful for random I/O, where fio would normally
c60ebc45 1158 generate a new random offset for every I/O. If you append e.g. 8 to randread,
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1159 you would get a new random offset for every 8 I/Os. The result would be a
1160 seek for only every 8 I/Os, instead of for every I/O. Use ``rw=randread:8``
f80dba8d
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1161 to specify that. As sequential I/O is already sequential, setting
1162 ``sequential`` for that would not result in any differences. ``identical``
1163 behaves in a similar fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of
1164 times before generating a new offset.
1165
5cb8a8cd 1166.. option:: unified_rw_reporting=str
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1167
1168 Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
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BP
1169 reads, writes, and trims are accounted and reported separately. This option
1170 determines whether fio reports the results normally, summed together, or as
1171 both options.
1172 Accepted values are:
1173
1174 **none**
1175 Normal statistics reporting.
1176
1177 **mixed**
1178 Statistics are summed per data direction and reported together.
1179
1180 **both**
1181 Statistics are reported normally, followed by the mixed statistics.
1182
1183 **0**
1184 Backward-compatible alias for **none**.
1185
1186 **1**
1187 Backward-compatible alias for **mixed**.
9326926b 1188
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1189 **2**
1190 Alias for **both**.
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1191
1192.. option:: randrepeat=bool
1193
1194 Seed the random number generator used for random I/O patterns in a
1195 predictable way so the pattern is repeatable across runs. Default: true.
1196
1197.. option:: allrandrepeat=bool
1198
1199 Seed all random number generators in a predictable way so results are
1200 repeatable across runs. Default: false.
1201
1202.. option:: randseed=int
1203
1204 Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
1205 control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
1206 sequence depends on the :option:`randrepeat` setting.
1207
1208.. option:: fallocate=str
1209
1210 Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files.
1211 Accepted values are:
1212
1213 **none**
1214 Do not pre-allocate space.
1215
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1216 **native**
1217 Use a platform's native pre-allocation call but fall back to
1218 **none** behavior if it fails/is not implemented.
1219
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1220 **posix**
1221 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`posix_fallocate(3)`.
1222
1223 **keep**
1224 Pre-allocate via :manpage:`fallocate(2)` with
1225 FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
1226
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1227 **truncate**
1228 Extend file to final size via :manpage:`ftruncate(2)`
1229 instead of allocating.
1230
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MT
1231 **0**
1232 Backward-compatible alias for **none**.
1233
1234 **1**
1235 Backward-compatible alias for **posix**.
1236
1237 May not be available on all supported platforms. **keep** is only available
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1238 on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this cannot be set to **posix**
1239 because ZFS doesn't support pre-allocation. Default: **native** if any
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1240 pre-allocation methods except **truncate** are available, **none** if not.
1241
1242 Note that using **truncate** on Windows will interact surprisingly
1243 with non-sequential write patterns. When writing to a file that has
1244 been extended by setting the end-of-file information, Windows will
1245 backfill the unwritten portion of the file up to that offset with
1246 zeroes before issuing the new write. This means that a single small
1247 write to the end of an extended file will stall until the entire
1248 file has been filled with zeroes.
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1249
1250.. option:: fadvise_hint=str
1251
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1252 Use :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` or :manpage:`posix_fadvise(2)` to
1253 advise the kernel on what I/O patterns are likely to be issued.
1254 Accepted values are:
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1255
1256 **0**
1257 Backwards-compatible hint for "no hint".
1258
1259 **1**
1260 Backwards compatible hint for "advise with fio workload type". This
1261 uses **FADV_RANDOM** for a random workload, and **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**
1262 for a sequential workload.
1263
1264 **sequential**
1265 Advise using **FADV_SEQUENTIAL**.
1266
1267 **random**
1268 Advise using **FADV_RANDOM**.
1269
8f4b9f24 1270.. option:: write_hint=str
f80dba8d 1271
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1272 Use :manpage:`fcntl(2)` to advise the kernel what life time to expect
1273 from a write. Only supported on Linux, as of version 4.13. Accepted
1274 values are:
1275
1276 **none**
1277 No particular life time associated with this file.
1278
1279 **short**
1280 Data written to this file has a short life time.
1281
1282 **medium**
1283 Data written to this file has a medium life time.
1284
1285 **long**
1286 Data written to this file has a long life time.
1287
1288 **extreme**
1289 Data written to this file has a very long life time.
1290
1291 The values are all relative to each other, and no absolute meaning
1292 should be associated with them.
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1293
1294.. option:: offset=int
1295
82dbb8cb 1296 Start I/O at the provided offset in the file, given as either a fixed size in
193aaf6a 1297 bytes, zones or a percentage. If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be
83c8b093
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1298 aligned to the minimum ``blocksize`` or to the value of ``offset_align`` if
1299 provided. Data before the given offset will not be touched. This
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1300 effectively caps the file size at `real_size - offset`. Can be combined with
1301 :option:`size` to constrain the start and end range of the I/O workload.
44bb1142 1302 A percentage can be specified by a number between 1 and 100 followed by '%',
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1303 for example, ``offset=20%`` to specify 20%. In ZBD mode, value can be set as
1304 number of zones using 'z'.
f80dba8d 1305
83c8b093
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1306.. option:: offset_align=int
1307
1308 If set to non-zero value, the byte offset generated by a percentage ``offset``
1309 is aligned upwards to this value. Defaults to 0 meaning that a percentage
1310 offset is aligned to the minimum block size.
1311
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1312.. option:: offset_increment=int
1313
1314 If this is provided, then the real offset becomes `offset + offset_increment
1315 * thread_number`, where the thread number is a counter that starts at 0 and
1316 is incremented for each sub-job (i.e. when :option:`numjobs` option is
1317 specified). This option is useful if there are several jobs which are
1318 intended to operate on a file in parallel disjoint segments, with even
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1319 spacing between the starting points. Percentages can be used for this option.
1320 If a percentage is given, the generated offset will be aligned to the minimum
193aaf6a
G
1321 ``blocksize`` or to the value of ``offset_align`` if provided. In ZBD mode, value can
1322 also be set as number of zones using 'z'.
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1323
1324.. option:: number_ios=int
1325
c60ebc45 1326 Fio will normally perform I/Os until it has exhausted the size of the region
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1327 set by :option:`size`, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
1328 condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
c60ebc45 1329 the number of I/Os to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
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MT
1330 normally and report status. Note that this does not extend the amount of I/O
1331 that will be done, it will only stop fio if this condition is met before
1332 other end-of-job criteria.
1333
1334.. option:: fsync=int
1335
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1336 If writing to a file, issue an :manpage:`fsync(2)` (or its equivalent) of
1337 the dirty data for every number of blocks given. For example, if you give 32
1338 as a parameter, fio will sync the file after every 32 writes issued. If fio is
1339 using non-buffered I/O, we may not sync the file. The exception is the sg
1340 I/O engine, which synchronizes the disk cache anyway. Defaults to 0, which
1341 means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a sync to complete. Also
1342 see :option:`end_fsync` and :option:`fsync_on_close`.
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1343
1344.. option:: fdatasync=int
1345
1346 Like :option:`fsync` but uses :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` to only sync data and
2550c71f 1347 not metadata blocks. In Windows, DragonFlyBSD or OSX there is no
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1348 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` so this falls back to using :manpage:`fsync(2)`.
1349 Defaults to 0, which means fio does not periodically issue and wait for a
1350 data-only sync to complete.
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MT
1351
1352.. option:: write_barrier=int
1353
2831be97 1354 Make every `N-th` write a barrier write.
f80dba8d 1355
f50fbdda 1356.. option:: sync_file_range=str:int
f80dba8d 1357
f50fbdda 1358 Use :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` for every `int` number of write
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MT
1359 operations. Fio will track range of writes that have happened since the last
1360 :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` call. `str` can currently be one or more of:
1361
1362 **wait_before**
1363 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
1364 **write**
1365 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
1366 **wait_after**
1367 SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER
1368
1369 So if you do ``sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8``, fio would use
1370 ``SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE`` for every 8
1371 writes. Also see the :manpage:`sync_file_range(2)` man page. This option is
1372 Linux specific.
1373
1374.. option:: overwrite=bool
1375
1376 If true, writes to a file will always overwrite existing data. If the file
1377 doesn't already exist, it will be created before the write phase begins. If
1378 the file exists and is large enough for the specified write phase, nothing
a47b697c 1379 will be done. Default: false.
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1380
1381.. option:: end_fsync=bool
1382
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1383 If true, :manpage:`fsync(2)` file contents when a write stage has completed.
1384 Default: false.
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1385
1386.. option:: fsync_on_close=bool
1387
1388 If true, fio will :manpage:`fsync(2)` a dirty file on close. This differs
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1389 from :option:`end_fsync` in that it will happen on every file close, not
1390 just at the end of the job. Default: false.
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1391
1392.. option:: rwmixread=int
1393
1394 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
1395
1396.. option:: rwmixwrite=int
1397
1398 Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If both
1399 :option:`rwmixread` and :option:`rwmixwrite` is given and the values do not
1400 add up to 100%, the latter of the two will be used to override the
1401 first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is asked to
1402 limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then the
1403 distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
1404
a87c90fd 1405.. option:: random_distribution=str:float[:float][,str:float][,str:float]
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1406
1407 By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
1408 to perform random I/O. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
1409 specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
1410 fio includes the following distribution models:
1411
1412 **random**
1413 Uniform random distribution
1414
1415 **zipf**
1416 Zipf distribution
1417
1418 **pareto**
1419 Pareto distribution
1420
b2f4b559 1421 **normal**
c60ebc45 1422 Normal (Gaussian) distribution
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1423
1424 **zoned**
1425 Zoned random distribution
1426
59466396
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1427 **zoned_abs**
1428 Zone absolute random distribution
1429
f80dba8d 1430 When using a **zipf** or **pareto** distribution, an input value is also
f50fbdda 1431 needed to define the access pattern. For **zipf**, this is the `Zipf
c60ebc45 1432 theta`. For **pareto**, it's the `Pareto power`. Fio includes a test
f50fbdda 1433 program, :command:`fio-genzipf`, that can be used visualize what the given input
f80dba8d
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1434 values will yield in terms of hit rates. If you wanted to use **zipf** with
1435 a `theta` of 1.2, you would use ``random_distribution=zipf:1.2`` as the
1436 option. If a non-uniform model is used, fio will disable use of the random
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1437 map. For the **normal** distribution, a normal (Gaussian) deviation is
1438 supplied as a value between 0 and 100.
f80dba8d 1439
a87c90fd
AK
1440 The second, optional float is allowed for **pareto**, **zipf** and **normal** distributions.
1441 It allows to set base of distribution in non-default place, giving more control
1442 over most probable outcome. This value is in range [0-1] which maps linearly to
1443 range of possible random values.
1444 Defaults are: random for **pareto** and **zipf**, and 0.5 for **normal**.
1445 If you wanted to use **zipf** with a `theta` of 1.2 centered on 1/4 of allowed value range,
1446 you would use ``random_distibution=zipf:1.2:0.25``.
1447
f80dba8d
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1448 For a **zoned** distribution, fio supports specifying percentages of I/O
1449 access that should fall within what range of the file or device. For
1450 example, given a criteria of:
1451
f50fbdda
TK
1452 * 60% of accesses should be to the first 10%
1453 * 30% of accesses should be to the next 20%
1454 * 8% of accesses should be to the next 30%
1455 * 2% of accesses should be to the next 40%
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MT
1456
1457 we can define that through zoning of the random accesses. For the above
1458 example, the user would do::
1459
1460 random_distribution=zoned:60/10:30/20:8/30:2/40
1461
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1462 A **zoned_abs** distribution works exactly like the **zoned**, except
1463 that it takes absolute sizes. For example, let's say you wanted to
1464 define access according to the following criteria:
1465
1466 * 60% of accesses should be to the first 20G
1467 * 30% of accesses should be to the next 100G
1468 * 10% of accesses should be to the next 500G
1469
1470 we can define an absolute zoning distribution with:
1471
1472 random_distribution=zoned_abs=60/20G:30/100G:10/500g
1473
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1474 For both **zoned** and **zoned_abs**, fio supports defining up to
1475 256 separate zones.
1476
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1477 Similarly to how :option:`bssplit` works for setting ranges and
1478 percentages of block sizes. Like :option:`bssplit`, it's possible to
1479 specify separate zones for reads, writes, and trims. If just one set
1480 is given, it'll apply to all of them. This goes for both **zoned**
1481 **zoned_abs** distributions.
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1482
1483.. option:: percentage_random=int[,int][,int]
1484
1485 For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This
1486 defaults to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set
1487 from anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
1488 sequential. Any setting in between will result in a random mix of sequential
1489 and random I/O, at the given percentages. Comma-separated values may be
1490 specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1491
1492.. option:: norandommap
1493
1494 Normally fio will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
1495 this option is given, fio will just get a new random offset without looking
1496 at past I/O history. This means that some blocks may not be read or written,
1497 and that some blocks may be read/written more than once. If this option is
1498 used with :option:`verify` and multiple blocksizes (via :option:`bsrange`),
1499 only intact blocks are verified, i.e., partially-overwritten blocks are
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1500 ignored. With an async I/O engine and an I/O depth > 1, it is possible for
1501 the same block to be overwritten, which can cause verification errors. Either
1502 do not use norandommap in this case, or also use the lfsr random generator.
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1503
1504.. option:: softrandommap=bool
1505
1506 See :option:`norandommap`. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and
1507 it fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without
1508 a random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps,
1509 this option is disabled by default.
1510
1511.. option:: random_generator=str
1512
f50fbdda 1513 Fio supports the following engines for generating I/O offsets for random I/O:
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MT
1514
1515 **tausworthe**
f50fbdda 1516 Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator.
f80dba8d 1517 **lfsr**
f50fbdda 1518 Linear feedback shift register generator.
f80dba8d 1519 **tausworthe64**
f50fbdda 1520 Strong 64-bit 2^258 cycle random number generator.
f80dba8d
MT
1521
1522 **tausworthe** is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking
1523 on the side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written
f50fbdda 1524 once. **lfsr** guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and
f80dba8d 1525 it's also less computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator,
f50fbdda 1526 however, though for I/O purposes it's typically good enough. **lfsr** only
f80dba8d
MT
1527 works with single block sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block
1528 sizes. If used with such a workload, fio may read or write some blocks
1529 multiple times. The default value is **tausworthe**, unless the required
1530 space exceeds 2^32 blocks. If it does, then **tausworthe64** is
1531 selected automatically.
1532
1533
1534Block size
1535~~~~~~~~~~
1536
1537.. option:: blocksize=int[,int][,int], bs=int[,int][,int]
1538
1539 The block size in bytes used for I/O units. Default: 4096. A single value
1540 applies to reads, writes, and trims. Comma-separated values may be
1541 specified for reads, writes, and trims. A value not terminated in a comma
1542 applies to subsequent types.
1543
1544 Examples:
1545
1546 **bs=256k**
1547 means 256k for reads, writes and trims.
1548
1549 **bs=8k,32k**
1550 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes and trims.
1551
1552 **bs=8k,32k,**
1553 means 8k for reads, 32k for writes, and default for trims.
1554
1555 **bs=,8k**
1556 means default for reads, 8k for writes and trims.
1557
1558 **bs=,8k,**
b443ae44 1559 means default for reads, 8k for writes, and default for trims.
f80dba8d
MT
1560
1561.. option:: blocksize_range=irange[,irange][,irange], bsrange=irange[,irange][,irange]
1562
1563 A range of block sizes in bytes for I/O units. The issued I/O unit will
1564 always be a multiple of the minimum size, unless
1565 :option:`blocksize_unaligned` is set.
1566
1567 Comma-separated ranges may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1568 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1569
1570 Example: ``bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k``.
1571
1572.. option:: bssplit=str[,str][,str]
1573
6a16ece8
JA
1574 Sometimes you want even finer grained control of the block sizes
1575 issued, not just an even split between them. This option allows you to
1576 weight various block sizes, so that you are able to define a specific
1577 amount of block sizes issued. The format for this option is::
f80dba8d
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1578
1579 bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
1580
6a16ece8
JA
1581 for as many block sizes as needed. So if you want to define a workload
1582 that has 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k blocks, and 40% 32k blocks, you would
1583 write::
f80dba8d
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1584
1585 bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40
1586
6a16ece8
JA
1587 Ordering does not matter. If the percentage is left blank, fio will
1588 fill in the remaining values evenly. So a bssplit option like this one::
f80dba8d
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1589
1590 bssplit=4k/50:1k/:32k/
1591
6a16ece8
JA
1592 would have 50% 4k ios, and 25% 1k and 32k ios. The percentages always
1593 add up to 100, if bssplit is given a range that adds up to more, it
1594 will error out.
f80dba8d
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1595
1596 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
1597 described in :option:`blocksize`.
1598
6a16ece8
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1599 If you want a workload that has 50% 2k reads and 50% 4k reads, while
1600 having 90% 4k writes and 10% 8k writes, you would specify::
f80dba8d 1601
cf04b906 1602 bssplit=2k/50:4k/50,4k/90:8k/10
f80dba8d 1603
6a16ece8
JA
1604 Fio supports defining up to 64 different weights for each data
1605 direction.
1606
f80dba8d
MT
1607.. option:: blocksize_unaligned, bs_unaligned
1608
1609 If set, fio will issue I/O units with any size within
1610 :option:`blocksize_range`, not just multiples of the minimum size. This
1611 typically won't work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector
1612 alignment.
1613
589e88b7 1614.. option:: bs_is_seq_rand=bool
f80dba8d
MT
1615
1616 If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings
1617 as sequential,random blocksize settings instead. Any random read or write
1618 will use the WRITE blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will
1619 use the READ blocksize settings.
1620
1621.. option:: blockalign=int[,int][,int], ba=int[,int][,int]
1622
1623 Boundary to which fio will align random I/O units. Default:
1624 :option:`blocksize`. Minimum alignment is typically 512b for using direct
1625 I/O, though it usually depends on the hardware block size. This option is
1626 mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it will turn off
1627 that option. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and
1628 trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
1629
1630
1631Buffers and memory
1632~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1633
1634.. option:: zero_buffers
1635
1636 Initialize buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
1637
1638.. option:: refill_buffers
1639
1640 If this option is given, fio will refill the I/O buffers on every
72592780
SW
1641 submit. Only makes sense if :option:`zero_buffers` isn't specified,
1642 naturally. Defaults to being unset i.e., the buffer is only filled at
1643 init time and the data in it is reused when possible but if any of
1644 :option:`verify`, :option:`buffer_compress_percentage` or
1645 :option:`dedupe_percentage` are enabled then `refill_buffers` is also
1646 automatically enabled.
f80dba8d
MT
1647
1648.. option:: scramble_buffers=bool
1649
1650 If :option:`refill_buffers` is too costly and the target is using data
1651 deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the I/O buffer
1652 contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
1653 more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe of
1654 blocks. Default: true.
1655
1656.. option:: buffer_compress_percentage=int
1657
72592780
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1658 If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide I/O buffer content
1659 (on WRITEs) that compresses to the specified level. Fio does this by
1660 providing a mix of random data followed by fixed pattern data. The
1661 fixed pattern is either zeros, or the pattern specified by
1662 :option:`buffer_pattern`. If the `buffer_pattern` option is used, it
1663 might skew the compression ratio slightly. Setting
1664 `buffer_compress_percentage` to a value other than 100 will also
1665 enable :option:`refill_buffers` in order to reduce the likelihood that
1666 adjacent blocks are so similar that they over compress when seen
1667 together. See :option:`buffer_compress_chunk` for how to set a finer or
1668 coarser granularity for the random/fixed data region. Defaults to unset
1669 i.e., buffer data will not adhere to any compression level.
f80dba8d
MT
1670
1671.. option:: buffer_compress_chunk=int
1672
72592780
SW
1673 This setting allows fio to manage how big the random/fixed data region
1674 is when using :option:`buffer_compress_percentage`. When
1675 `buffer_compress_chunk` is set to some non-zero value smaller than the
1676 block size, fio can repeat the random/fixed region throughout the I/O
1677 buffer at the specified interval (which particularly useful when
1678 bigger block sizes are used for a job). When set to 0, fio will use a
1679 chunk size that matches the block size resulting in a single
1680 random/fixed region within the I/O buffer. Defaults to 512. When the
1681 unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in bytes.
f80dba8d
MT
1682
1683.. option:: buffer_pattern=str
1684
a1554f65
SB
1685 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern or with the contents
1686 of a file. If not set, the contents of I/O buffers are defined by the other
1687 options related to buffer contents. The setting can be any pattern of bytes,
1688 and can be prefixed with 0x for hex values. It may also be a string, where
1689 the string must then be wrapped with ``""``. Or it may also be a filename,
1690 where the filename must be wrapped with ``''`` in which case the file is
1691 opened and read. Note that not all the file contents will be read if that
1692 would cause the buffers to overflow. So, for example::
1693
1694 buffer_pattern='filename'
1695
1696 or::
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MT
1697
1698 buffer_pattern="abcd"
1699
1700 or::
1701
1702 buffer_pattern=-12
1703
1704 or::
1705
1706 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface
1707
1708 Also you can combine everything together in any order::
1709
a1554f65 1710 buffer_pattern=0xdeadface"abcd"-12'filename'
f80dba8d
MT
1711
1712.. option:: dedupe_percentage=int
1713
1714 If set, fio will generate this percentage of identical buffers when
1715 writing. These buffers will be naturally dedupable. The contents of the
1716 buffers depend on what other buffer compression settings have been set. It's
1717 possible to have the individual buffers either fully compressible, or not at
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1718 all -- this option only controls the distribution of unique buffers. Setting
1719 this option will also enable :option:`refill_buffers` to prevent every buffer
1720 being identical.
f80dba8d 1721
0d71aa98
BD
1722.. option:: dedupe_mode=str
1723
1724 If ``dedupe_percentage=<int>`` is given, then this option controls how fio
1725 generates the dedupe buffers.
1726
1727 **repeat**
1728 Generate dedupe buffers by repeating previous writes
1729 **working_set**
1730 Generate dedupe buffers from working set
1731
1732 ``repeat`` is the default option for fio. Dedupe buffers are generated
1733 by repeating previous unique write.
1734
1735 ``working_set`` is a more realistic workload.
1736 With ``working_set``, ``dedupe_working_set_percentage=<int>`` should be provided.
1737 Given that, fio will use the initial unique write buffers as its working set.
1738 Upon deciding to dedupe, fio will randomly choose a buffer from the working set.
1739 Note that by using ``working_set`` the dedupe percentage will converge
1740 to the desired over time while ``repeat`` maintains the desired percentage
1741 throughout the job.
1742
1743.. option:: dedupe_working_set_percentage=int
1744
1745 If ``dedupe_mode=<str>`` is set to ``working_set``, then this controls
1746 the percentage of size of the file or device used as the buffers
1747 fio will choose to generate the dedupe buffers from
1748
1749 Note that size needs to be explicitly provided and only 1 file per
1750 job is supported
1751
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1752.. option:: invalidate=bool
1753
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1754 Invalidate the buffer/page cache parts of the files to be used prior to
1755 starting I/O if the platform and file type support it. Defaults to true.
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TK
1756 This will be ignored if :option:`pre_read` is also specified for the
1757 same job.
f80dba8d 1758
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AF
1759.. option:: sync=str
1760
1761 Whether, and what type, of synchronous I/O to use for writes. The allowed
1762 values are:
1763
1764 **none**
1765 Do not use synchronous IO, the default.
1766
1767 **0**
1768 Same as **none**.
1769
1770 **sync**
1771 Use synchronous file IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1772 this means using O_SYNC.
1773
1774 **1**
1775 Same as **sync**.
1776
1777 **dsync**
1778 Use synchronous data IO. For the majority of I/O engines,
1779 this means using O_DSYNC.
f80dba8d 1780
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1781
1782.. option:: iomem=str, mem=str
1783
1784 Fio can use various types of memory as the I/O unit buffer. The allowed
1785 values are:
1786
1787 **malloc**
1788 Use memory from :manpage:`malloc(3)` as the buffers. Default memory
1789 type.
1790
1791 **shm**
1792 Use shared memory as the buffers. Allocated through
1793 :manpage:`shmget(2)`.
1794
1795 **shmhuge**
1796 Same as shm, but use huge pages as backing.
1797
1798 **mmap**
22413915 1799 Use :manpage:`mmap(2)` to allocate buffers. May either be anonymous memory, or can
f80dba8d
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1800 be file backed if a filename is given after the option. The format
1801 is `mem=mmap:/path/to/file`.
1802
1803 **mmaphuge**
1804 Use a memory mapped huge file as the buffer backing. Append filename
1805 after mmaphuge, ala `mem=mmaphuge:/hugetlbfs/file`.
1806
1807 **mmapshared**
1808 Same as mmap, but use a MMAP_SHARED mapping.
1809
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1810 **cudamalloc**
1811 Use GPU memory as the buffers for GPUDirect RDMA benchmark.
f50fbdda 1812 The :option:`ioengine` must be `rdma`.
03553853 1813
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1814 The area allocated is a function of the maximum allowed bs size for the job,
1815 multiplied by the I/O depth given. Note that for **shmhuge** and
1816 **mmaphuge** to work, the system must have free huge pages allocated. This
1817 can normally be checked and set by reading/writing
1818 :file:`/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages` on a Linux system. Fio assumes a huge page
1819 is 4MiB in size. So to calculate the number of huge pages you need for a
1820 given job file, add up the I/O depth of all jobs (normally one unless
1821 :option:`iodepth` is used) and multiply by the maximum bs set. Then divide
1822 that number by the huge page size. You can see the size of the huge pages in
1823 :file:`/proc/meminfo`. If no huge pages are allocated by having a non-zero
1824 number in `nr_hugepages`, using **mmaphuge** or **shmhuge** will fail. Also
1825 see :option:`hugepage-size`.
1826
1827 **mmaphuge** also needs to have hugetlbfs mounted and the file location
1828 should point there. So if it's mounted in :file:`/huge`, you would use
1829 `mem=mmaphuge:/huge/somefile`.
1830
f50fbdda 1831.. option:: iomem_align=int, mem_align=int
f80dba8d
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1832
1833 This indicates the memory alignment of the I/O memory buffers. Note that
1834 the given alignment is applied to the first I/O unit buffer, if using
1835 :option:`iodepth` the alignment of the following buffers are given by the
1836 :option:`bs` used. In other words, if using a :option:`bs` that is a
1837 multiple of the page sized in the system, all buffers will be aligned to
1838 this value. If using a :option:`bs` that is not page aligned, the alignment
1839 of subsequent I/O memory buffers is the sum of the :option:`iomem_align` and
1840 :option:`bs` used.
1841
1842.. option:: hugepage-size=int
1843
1844 Defines the size of a huge page. Must at least be equal to the system
1845 setting, see :file:`/proc/meminfo`. Defaults to 4MiB. Should probably
1846 always be a multiple of megabytes, so using ``hugepage-size=Xm`` is the
1847 preferred way to set this to avoid setting a non-pow-2 bad value.
1848
1849.. option:: lockmem=int
1850
1851 Pin the specified amount of memory with :manpage:`mlock(2)`. Can be used to
1852 simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1853
1854
1855I/O size
1856~~~~~~~~
1857
1858.. option:: size=int
1859
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1860 The total size of file I/O for each thread of this job. Fio will run until
1861 this many bytes has been transferred, unless runtime is limited by other options
1862 (such as :option:`runtime`, for instance, or increased/decreased by :option:`io_size`).
1863 Fio will divide this size between the available files determined by options
1864 such as :option:`nrfiles`, :option:`filename`, unless :option:`filesize` is
1865 specified by the job. If the result of division happens to be 0, the size is
c4aa2d08 1866 set to the physical size of the given files or devices if they exist.
79591fa9 1867 If this option is not specified, fio will use the full size of the given
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1868 files or devices. If the files do not exist, size must be given. It is also
1869 possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and 100. If ``size=20%`` is
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1870 given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files or devices.
1871 In ZBD mode, value can also be set as number of zones using 'z'.
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1872 Can be combined with :option:`offset` to constrain the start and end range
1873 that I/O will be done within.
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MT
1874
1875.. option:: io_size=int, io_limit=int
1876
1877 Normally fio operates within the region set by :option:`size`, which means
1878 that the :option:`size` option sets both the region and size of I/O to be
1879 performed. Sometimes that is not what you want. With this option, it is
1880 possible to define just the amount of I/O that fio should do. For instance,
1881 if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB and :option:`io_size` is set to 5GiB, fio
1882 will perform I/O within the first 20GiB but exit when 5GiB have been
1883 done. The opposite is also possible -- if :option:`size` is set to 20GiB,
1884 and :option:`io_size` is set to 40GiB, then fio will do 40GiB of I/O within
1885 the 0..20GiB region.
1886
7fdd97ca 1887.. option:: filesize=irange(int)
f80dba8d 1888
2a929257
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1889 Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case fio will select sizes for
1890 files at random within the given range. If not given, each created file is the
1891 same size. This option overrides :option:`size` in terms of file size, i.e. if
1892 :option:`filesize` is specified then :option:`size` becomes merely the default
1893 for :option:`io_size` and has no effect at all if :option:`io_size` is set
1894 explicitly.
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1895
1896.. option:: file_append=bool
1897
1898 Perform I/O after the end of the file. Normally fio will operate within the
1899 size of a file. If this option is set, then fio will append to the file
1900 instead. This has identical behavior to setting :option:`offset` to the size
1901 of a file. This option is ignored on non-regular files.
1902
1903.. option:: fill_device=bool, fill_fs=bool
1904
1905 Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
418f5399
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1906 device) or EDQUOT (disk quota exceeded)
1907 as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential
f80dba8d
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1908 write. For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then I/O
1909 started on the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw
1910 device node, since the size of that is already known by the file system.
1911 Additionally, writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
1912
1913
1914I/O engine
1915~~~~~~~~~~
1916
1917.. option:: ioengine=str
1918
1919 Defines how the job issues I/O to the file. The following types are defined:
1920
1921 **sync**
1922 Basic :manpage:`read(2)` or :manpage:`write(2)`
1923 I/O. :manpage:`lseek(2)` is used to position the I/O location.
54227e6b 1924 See :option:`fsync` and :option:`fdatasync` for syncing write I/Os.
f80dba8d
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1925
1926 **psync**
1927 Basic :manpage:`pread(2)` or :manpage:`pwrite(2)` I/O. Default on
1928 all supported operating systems except for Windows.
1929
1930 **vsync**
1931 Basic :manpage:`readv(2)` or :manpage:`writev(2)` I/O. Will emulate
c60ebc45 1932 queuing by coalescing adjacent I/Os into a single submission.
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1933
1934 **pvsync**
1935 Basic :manpage:`preadv(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev(2)` I/O.
1936
1937 **pvsync2**
1938 Basic :manpage:`preadv2(2)` or :manpage:`pwritev2(2)` I/O.
1939
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1940 **io_uring**
1941 Fast Linux native asynchronous I/O. Supports async IO
1942 for both direct and buffered IO.
1943 This engine defines engine specific options.
1944
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1945 **libaio**
1946 Linux native asynchronous I/O. Note that Linux may only support
22413915 1947 queued behavior with non-buffered I/O (set ``direct=1`` or
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1948 ``buffered=0``).
1949 This engine defines engine specific options.
1950
1951 **posixaio**
1952 POSIX asynchronous I/O using :manpage:`aio_read(3)` and
1953 :manpage:`aio_write(3)`.
1954
1955 **solarisaio**
1956 Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
1957
1958 **windowsaio**
1959 Windows native asynchronous I/O. Default on Windows.
1960
1961 **mmap**
1962 File is memory mapped with :manpage:`mmap(2)` and data copied
1963 to/from using :manpage:`memcpy(3)`.
1964
1965 **splice**
1966 :manpage:`splice(2)` is used to transfer the data and
1967 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to transfer data from user space to the
1968 kernel.
1969
1970 **sg**
1971 SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May either be synchronous using the SG_IO
1972 ioctl, or if the target is an sg character device we use
1973 :manpage:`read(2)` and :manpage:`write(2)` for asynchronous
f50fbdda 1974 I/O. Requires :option:`filename` option to specify either block or
3740cfc8 1975 character devices. This engine supports trim operations.
52b81b7c 1976 The sg engine includes engine specific options.
f80dba8d 1977
2455851d
SK
1978 **libzbc**
1979 Read, write, trim and ZBC/ZAC operations to a zoned
1980 block device using libzbc library. The target can be
1981 either an SG character device or a block device file.
1982
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1983 **null**
1984 Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. This is mainly used to
1985 exercise fio itself and for debugging/testing purposes.
1986
1987 **net**
1988 Transfer over the network to given ``host:port``. Depending on the
1989 :option:`protocol` used, the :option:`hostname`, :option:`port`,
1990 :option:`listen` and :option:`filename` options are used to specify
1991 what sort of connection to make, while the :option:`protocol` option
1992 determines which protocol will be used. This engine defines engine
1993 specific options.
1994
1995 **netsplice**
1996 Like **net**, but uses :manpage:`splice(2)` and
1997 :manpage:`vmsplice(2)` to map data and send/receive.
1998 This engine defines engine specific options.
1999
2000 **cpuio**
2001 Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to the
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EV
2002 :option:`cpuload`, :option:`cpuchunks` and :option:`cpumode` options.
2003 Setting :option:`cpuload`\=85 will cause that job to do nothing but burn 85%
71aa48eb 2004 of the CPU. In case of SMP machines, use :option:`numjobs`\=<nr_of_cpu>
f50fbdda 2005 to get desired CPU usage, as the cpuload only loads a
f80dba8d
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2006 single CPU at the desired rate. A job never finishes unless there is
2007 at least one non-cpuio job.
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EV
2008 Setting :option:`cpumode`\=qsort replace the default noop instructions loop
2009 by a qsort algorithm to consume more energy.
f80dba8d 2010
f80dba8d
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2011 **rdma**
2012 The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics
2013 (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ) and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the
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SB
2014 InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols. This engine defines engine
2015 specific options.
f80dba8d
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2016
2017 **falloc**
2018 I/O engine that does regular fallocate to simulate data transfer as
2019 fio ioengine.
2020
2021 DDIR_READ
2022 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,).
2023
2024 DDIR_WRITE
2025 does fallocate(,mode = 0).
2026
2027 DDIR_TRIM
2028 does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE).
2029
761cd093
SW
2030 **ftruncate**
2031 I/O engine that sends :manpage:`ftruncate(2)` operations in response
2032 to write (DDIR_WRITE) events. Each ftruncate issued sets the file's
f50fbdda 2033 size to the current block offset. :option:`blocksize` is ignored.
761cd093 2034
f80dba8d
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2035 **e4defrag**
2036 I/O engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate
2037 defragment activity in request to DDIR_WRITE event.
2038
f3f96717
IF
2039 **rados**
2040 I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Reliable Autonomic
2041 Distributed Object Store (RADOS) via librados. This ioengine
2042 defines engine specific options.
2043
f80dba8d
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2044 **rbd**
2045 I/O engine supporting direct access to Ceph Rados Block Devices
2046 (RBD) via librbd without the need to use the kernel rbd driver. This
2047 ioengine defines engine specific options.
2048
c2f6a13d
LMB
2049 **http**
2050 I/O engine supporting GET/PUT requests over HTTP(S) with libcurl to
2051 a WebDAV or S3 endpoint. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
2052
2053 This engine only supports direct IO of iodepth=1; you need to scale this
2054 via numjobs. blocksize defines the size of the objects to be created.
2055
2056 TRIM is translated to object deletion.
2057
f80dba8d 2058 **gfapi**
ac8ca2af
SW
2059 Using GlusterFS libgfapi sync interface to direct access to
2060 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
f80dba8d
MT
2061 defines engine specific options.
2062
2063 **gfapi_async**
ac8ca2af
SW
2064 Using GlusterFS libgfapi async interface to direct access to
2065 GlusterFS volumes without having to go through FUSE. This ioengine
f80dba8d
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2066 defines engine specific options.
2067
2068 **libhdfs**
f50fbdda 2069 Read and write through Hadoop (HDFS). The :option:`filename` option
f80dba8d
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2070 is used to specify host,port of the hdfs name-node to connect. This
2071 engine interprets offsets a little differently. In HDFS, files once
e25c0c91
SW
2072 created cannot be modified so random writes are not possible. To
2073 imitate this the libhdfs engine expects a bunch of small files to be
2074 created over HDFS and will randomly pick a file from them
2075 based on the offset generated by fio backend (see the example
f80dba8d 2076 job file to create such files, use ``rw=write`` option). Please
e25c0c91
SW
2077 note, it may be necessary to set environment variables to work
2078 with HDFS/libhdfs properly. Each job uses its own connection to
f80dba8d
MT
2079 HDFS.
2080
2081 **mtd**
2082 Read, write and erase an MTD character device (e.g.,
2083 :file:`/dev/mtd0`). Discards are treated as erases. Depending on the
2084 underlying device type, the I/O may have to go in a certain pattern,
2085 e.g., on NAND, writing sequentially to erase blocks and discarding
c298ee71 2086 before overwriting. The `trimwrite` mode works well for this
f80dba8d
MT
2087 constraint.
2088
2089 **pmemblk**
2090 Read and write using filesystem DAX to a file on a filesystem
363a5f65 2091 mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
f80dba8d
MT
2092 libpmemblk library.
2093
2094 **dev-dax**
2095 Read and write using device DAX to a persistent memory device (e.g.,
363a5f65 2096 /dev/dax0.0) through the PMDK libpmem library.
f80dba8d
MT
2097
2098 **external**
2099 Prefix to specify loading an external I/O engine object file. Append
c60ebc45 2100 the engine filename, e.g. ``ioengine=external:/tmp/foo.o`` to load
d243fd6d
TK
2101 ioengine :file:`foo.o` in :file:`/tmp`. The path can be either
2102 absolute or relative. See :file:`engines/skeleton_external.c` for
2103 details of writing an external I/O engine.
f80dba8d 2104
1216cc5a 2105 **filecreate**
b71968b1 2106 Simply create the files and do no I/O to them. You still need to
1216cc5a 2107 set `filesize` so that all the accounting still occurs, but no
b71968b1 2108 actual I/O will be done other than creating the file.
f80dba8d 2109
73ccd14e
SF
2110 **filestat**
2111 Simply do stat() and do no I/O to the file. You need to set 'filesize'
2112 and 'nrfiles', so that files will be created.
2113 This engine is to measure file lookup and meta data access.
2114
5561e9dd
FS
2115 **filedelete**
2116 Simply delete the files by unlink() and do no I/O to them. You need to set 'filesize'
2117 and 'nrfiles', so that the files will be created.
2118 This engine is to measure file delete.
2119
ae0db592
TI
2120 **libpmem**
2121 Read and write using mmap I/O to a file on a filesystem
363a5f65 2122 mounted with DAX on a persistent memory device through the PMDK
ae0db592
TI
2123 libpmem library.
2124
a40e7a59
GB
2125 **ime_psync**
2126 Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2127 This engine is very basic and issues calls to IME whenever an IO is
2128 queued.
2129
2130 **ime_psyncv**
2131 Synchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2132 This engine uses iovecs and will try to stack as much IOs as possible
2133 (if the IOs are "contiguous" and the IO depth is not exceeded)
2134 before issuing a call to IME.
2135
2136 **ime_aio**
2137 Asynchronous read and write using DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME).
2138 This engine will try to stack as much IOs as possible by creating
2139 requests for IME. FIO will then decide when to commit these requests.
247ef2aa
KZ
2140 **libiscsi**
2141 Read and write iscsi lun with libiscsi.
d643a1e2 2142 **nbd**
f2d6de5d 2143 Read and write a Network Block Device (NBD).
a40e7a59 2144
10756b2c
BS
2145 **libcufile**
2146 I/O engine supporting libcufile synchronous access to nvidia-fs and a
2147 GPUDirect Storage-supported filesystem. This engine performs
2148 I/O without transferring buffers between user-space and the kernel,
2149 unless :option:`verify` is set or :option:`cuda_io` is `posix`.
2150 :option:`iomem` must not be `cudamalloc`. This ioengine defines
2151 engine specific options.
c363fdd7
JL
2152 **dfs**
2153 I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to the
2154 DAOS File System (DFS) via libdfs.
10756b2c 2155
9326926b
TG
2156 **nfs**
2157 I/O engine supporting asynchronous read and write operations to
2158 NFS filesystems from userspace via libnfs. This is useful for
2159 achieving higher concurrency and thus throughput than is possible
2160 via kernel NFS.
2161
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2162 **exec**
2163 Execute 3rd party tools. Could be used to perform monitoring during jobs runtime.
2164
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2165I/O engine specific parameters
2166~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2167
2168In addition, there are some parameters which are only valid when a specific
f50fbdda
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2169:option:`ioengine` is in use. These are used identically to normal parameters,
2170with the caveat that when used on the command line, they must come after the
f80dba8d
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2171:option:`ioengine` that defines them is selected.
2172
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2173.. option:: cmdprio_percentage=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2174
2175 Set the percentage of I/O that will be issued with the highest priority.
2176 Default: 0. A single value applies to reads and writes. Comma-separated
acf2e2d9
NC
2177 values may be specified for reads and writes. For this option to be
2178 effective, NCQ priority must be supported and enabled, and `direct=1'
bebf1407
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2179 option must be used. fio must also be run as the root user. Unlike
2180 slat/clat/lat stats, which can be tracked and reported independently, per
2181 priority stats only track and report a single type of latency. By default,
2182 completion latency (clat) will be reported, if :option:`lat_percentiles` is
2183 set, total latency (lat) will be reported.
029b42ac 2184
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2185.. option:: cmdprio_class=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2186
2187 Set the I/O priority class to use for I/Os that must be issued with
a48f0cc7
DLM
2188 a priority when :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or
2189 :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set. If not specified when
2190 :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set,
2191 this defaults to the highest priority class. A single value applies
2192 to reads and writes. Comma-separated values may be specified for
2193 reads and writes. See :manpage:`ionice(1)`. See also the
2194 :option:`prioclass` option.
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2195
2196.. option:: cmdprio=int[,int] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2197
2198 Set the I/O priority value to use for I/Os that must be issued with
a48f0cc7
DLM
2199 a priority when :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or
2200 :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set. If not specified when
2201 :option:`cmdprio_percentage` or :option:`cmdprio_bssplit` is set,
2202 this defaults to 0.
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2203 Linux limits us to a positive value between 0 and 7, with 0 being the
2204 highest. A single value applies to reads and writes. Comma-separated
2205 values may be specified for reads and writes. See :manpage:`ionice(1)`.
2206 Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating systems since
2207 meaning of priority may differ. See also the :option:`prio` option.
2208
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2209.. option:: cmdprio_bssplit=str[,str] : [io_uring] [libaio]
2210 To get a finer control over I/O priority, this option allows
2211 specifying the percentage of IOs that must have a priority set
2212 depending on the block size of the IO. This option is useful only
2213 when used together with the :option:`bssplit` option, that is,
2214 multiple different block sizes are used for reads and writes.
f0547200
NC
2215
2216 The first accepted format for this option is the same as the format of
2217 the :option:`bssplit` option:
2218
2219 cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage:blocksize/percentage
2220
2221 In this case, each entry will use the priority class and priority
2222 level defined by the options :option:`cmdprio_class` and
2223 :option:`cmdprio` respectively.
2224
2225 The second accepted format for this option is:
2226
2227 cmdprio_bssplit=blocksize/percentage/class/level:blocksize/percentage/class/level
2228
2229 In this case, the priority class and priority level is defined inside
2230 each entry. In comparison with the first accepted format, the second
2231 accepted format does not restrict all entries to have the same priority
2232 class and priority level.
2233
2234 For both formats, only the read and write data directions are supported,
2235 values for trim IOs are ignored. This option is mutually exclusive with
2236 the :option:`cmdprio_percentage` option.
a48f0cc7 2237
029b42ac
JA
2238.. option:: fixedbufs : [io_uring]
2239
b2a432bf
PC
2240 If fio is asked to do direct IO, then Linux will map pages for each
2241 IO call, and release them when IO is done. If this option is set, the
2242 pages are pre-mapped before IO is started. This eliminates the need to
2243 map and release for each IO. This is more efficient, and reduces the
2244 IO latency as well.
2245
2246.. option:: hipri : [io_uring]
2247
2248 If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions.
2249 Normal IO completions generate interrupts to signal the completion of
2250 IO, polled completions do not. Hence they are require active reaping
2251 by the application. The benefits are more efficient IO for high IOPS
2252 scenarios, and lower latencies for low queue depth IO.
029b42ac 2253
5ffd5626 2254.. option:: registerfiles : [io_uring]
2c870598 2255
5ffd5626
JA
2256 With this option, fio registers the set of files being used with the
2257 kernel. This avoids the overhead of managing file counts in the kernel,
2258 making the submission and completion part more lightweight. Required
2259 for the below :option:`sqthread_poll` option.
2260
029b42ac
JA
2261.. option:: sqthread_poll : [io_uring]
2262
2263 Normally fio will submit IO by issuing a system call to notify the
2264 kernel of available items in the SQ ring. If this option is set, the
2265 act of submitting IO will be done by a polling thread in the kernel.
2266 This frees up cycles for fio, at the cost of using more CPU in the
2267 system.
2268
2269.. option:: sqthread_poll_cpu : [io_uring]
2270
2271 When :option:`sqthread_poll` is set, this option provides a way to
2272 define which CPU should be used for the polling thread.
2273
f80dba8d
MT
2274.. option:: userspace_reap : [libaio]
2275
2276 Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use the
2277 :manpage:`io_getevents(2)` system call to reap newly returned events. With
2278 this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly from user-space to
2279 reap events. The reaping mode is only enabled when polling for a minimum of
c60ebc45 2280 0 events (e.g. when :option:`iodepth_batch_complete` `=0`).
f80dba8d 2281
9d25d068 2282.. option:: hipri : [pvsync2]
f80dba8d
MT
2283
2284 Set RWF_HIPRI on I/O, indicating to the kernel that it's of higher priority
2285 than normal.
2286
a0679ce5
SB
2287.. option:: hipri_percentage : [pvsync2]
2288
f50fbdda 2289 When hipri is set this determines the probability of a pvsync2 I/O being high
a0679ce5
SB
2290 priority. The default is 100%.
2291
7d42e66e
KK
2292.. option:: nowait : [pvsync2] [libaio] [io_uring]
2293
2294 By default if a request cannot be executed immediately (e.g. resource starvation,
2295 waiting on locks) it is queued and the initiating process will be blocked until
2296 the required resource becomes free.
2297
2298 This option sets the RWF_NOWAIT flag (supported from the 4.14 Linux kernel) and
2299 the call will return instantly with EAGAIN or a partial result rather than waiting.
2300
2301 It is useful to also use ignore_error=EAGAIN when using this option.
2302
2303 Note: glibc 2.27, 2.28 have a bug in syscall wrappers preadv2, pwritev2.
2304 They return EOPNOTSUP instead of EAGAIN.
2305
2306 For cached I/O, using this option usually means a request operates only with
2307 cached data. Currently the RWF_NOWAIT flag does not supported for cached write.
2308
2309 For direct I/O, requests will only succeed if cache invalidation isn't required,
2310 file blocks are fully allocated and the disk request could be issued immediately.
2311
f80dba8d
MT
2312.. option:: cpuload=int : [cpuio]
2313
da19cdb4
TK
2314 Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles. This is a mandatory
2315 option when using cpuio I/O engine.
f80dba8d
MT
2316
2317.. option:: cpuchunks=int : [cpuio]
2318
2319 Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
2320
8a7bf04c
VF
2321.. option:: cpumode=str : [cpuio]
2322
2323 Specify how to stress the CPU. It can take these two values:
2324
2325 **noop**
2326 This is the default where the CPU executes noop instructions.
2327 **qsort**
2328 Replace the default noop instructions loop with a qsort algorithm to
2329 consume more energy.
2330
f80dba8d
MT
2331.. option:: exit_on_io_done=bool : [cpuio]
2332
2333 Detect when I/O threads are done, then exit.
2334
f80dba8d
MT
2335.. option:: namenode=str : [libhdfs]
2336
22413915 2337 The hostname or IP address of a HDFS cluster namenode to contact.
f80dba8d
MT
2338
2339.. option:: port=int
2340
f50fbdda
TK
2341 [libhdfs]
2342
2343 The listening port of the HFDS cluster namenode.
2344
f80dba8d
MT
2345 [netsplice], [net]
2346
2347 The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to. If this is used with
2348 :option:`numjobs` to spawn multiple instances of the same job type, then
2349 this will be the starting port number since fio will use a range of
2350 ports.
2351
e4c4625f 2352 [rdma], [librpma_*]
609ac152
SB
2353
2354 The port to use for RDMA-CM communication. This should be the same value
2355 on the client and the server side.
2356
2357.. option:: hostname=str : [netsplice] [net] [rdma]
f80dba8d 2358
609ac152
SB
2359 The hostname or IP address to use for TCP, UDP or RDMA-CM based I/O. If the job
2360 is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not used and must be omitted
f50fbdda 2361 unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
f80dba8d 2362
e4c4625f
JM
2363.. option:: serverip=str : [librpma_*]
2364
2365 The IP address to be used for RDMA-CM based I/O.
2366
2367.. option:: direct_write_to_pmem=bool : [librpma_*]
2368
2369 Set to 1 only when Direct Write to PMem from the remote host is possible.
2370 Otherwise, set to 0.
2371
6a229978
OS
2372.. option:: busy_wait_polling=bool : [librpma_*_server]
2373
2374 Set to 0 to wait for completion instead of busy-wait polling completion.
2375 Default: 1.
2376
f80dba8d
MT
2377.. option:: interface=str : [netsplice] [net]
2378
2379 The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP
2380 multicast.
2381
2382.. option:: ttl=int : [netsplice] [net]
2383
2384 Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1.
2385
2386.. option:: nodelay=bool : [netsplice] [net]
2387
2388 Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
2389
f50fbdda 2390.. option:: protocol=str, proto=str : [netsplice] [net]
f80dba8d
MT
2391
2392 The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
2393
2394 **tcp**
2395 Transmission control protocol.
2396 **tcpv6**
2397 Transmission control protocol V6.
2398 **udp**
2399 User datagram protocol.
2400 **udpv6**
2401 User datagram protocol V6.
2402 **unix**
2403 UNIX domain socket.
2404
2405 When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given, as well as the
2406 hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader. For unix sockets, the
f50fbdda 2407 normal :option:`filename` option should be used and the port is invalid.
f80dba8d 2408
e9184ec1 2409.. option:: listen : [netsplice] [net]
f80dba8d
MT
2410
2411 For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming connections
2412 rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The :option:`hostname` must
2413 be omitted if this option is used.
2414
e9184ec1 2415.. option:: pingpong : [netsplice] [net]
f80dba8d
MT
2416
2417 Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network
2418 reader will just consume packages. If ``pingpong=1`` is set, a writer will
2419 send its normal payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the
2420 same payload back. This allows fio to measure network latencies. The
2421 submission and completion latencies then measure local time spent sending or
2422 receiving, and the completion latency measures how long it took for the
2423 other end to receive and send back. For UDP multicast traffic
2424 ``pingpong=1`` should only be set for a single reader when multiple readers
2425 are listening to the same address.
2426
e9184ec1 2427.. option:: window_size : [netsplice] [net]
f80dba8d
MT
2428
2429 Set the desired socket buffer size for the connection.
2430
e9184ec1 2431.. option:: mss : [netsplice] [net]
f80dba8d
MT
2432
2433 Set the TCP maximum segment size (TCP_MAXSEG).
2434
2435.. option:: donorname=str : [e4defrag]
2436
730bd7d9 2437 File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files).
f80dba8d
MT
2438
2439.. option:: inplace=int : [e4defrag]
2440
2441 Configure donor file blocks allocation strategy:
2442
2443 **0**
2444 Default. Preallocate donor's file on init.
2445 **1**
2b455dbf 2446 Allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right
f80dba8d
MT
2447 after event.
2448
f3f96717 2449.. option:: clustername=str : [rbd,rados]
f80dba8d
MT
2450
2451 Specifies the name of the Ceph cluster.
2452
2453.. option:: rbdname=str : [rbd]
2454
2455 Specifies the name of the RBD.
2456
f3f96717 2457.. option:: pool=str : [rbd,rados]
f80dba8d 2458
f3f96717 2459 Specifies the name of the Ceph pool containing RBD or RADOS data.
f80dba8d 2460
f3f96717 2461.. option:: clientname=str : [rbd,rados]
f80dba8d
MT
2462
2463 Specifies the username (without the 'client.' prefix) used to access the
2464 Ceph cluster. If the *clustername* is specified, the *clientname* shall be
2465 the full *type.id* string. If no type. prefix is given, fio will add
2466 'client.' by default.
2467
f3f96717
IF
2468.. option:: busy_poll=bool : [rbd,rados]
2469
2470 Poll store instead of waiting for completion. Usually this provides better
2471 throughput at cost of higher(up to 100%) CPU utilization.
2472
2b728756
AK
2473.. option:: touch_objects=bool : [rados]
2474
2475 During initialization, touch (create if do not exist) all objects (files).
2476 Touching all objects affects ceph caches and likely impacts test results.
2477 Enabled by default.
2478
f80dba8d
MT
2479.. option:: skip_bad=bool : [mtd]
2480
2481 Skip operations against known bad blocks.
2482
2483.. option:: hdfsdirectory : [libhdfs]
2484
2485 libhdfs will create chunk in this HDFS directory.
2486
2487.. option:: chunk_size : [libhdfs]
2488
2b455dbf 2489 The size of the chunk to use for each file.
f80dba8d 2490
609ac152
SB
2491.. option:: verb=str : [rdma]
2492
2493 The RDMA verb to use on this side of the RDMA ioengine connection. Valid
2494 values are write, read, send and recv. These correspond to the equivalent
2495 RDMA verbs (e.g. write = rdma_write etc.). Note that this only needs to be
2496 specified on the client side of the connection. See the examples folder.
2497
2498.. option:: bindname=str : [rdma]
2499
2500 The name to use to bind the local RDMA-CM connection to a local RDMA device.
2501 This could be a hostname or an IPv4 or IPv6 address. On the server side this
2502 will be passed into the rdma_bind_addr() function and on the client site it
2503 will be used in the rdma_resolve_add() function. This can be useful when
2504 multiple paths exist between the client and the server or in certain loopback
2505 configurations.
f80dba8d 2506
93a13ba5 2507.. option:: stat_type=str : [filestat]
c446eff0 2508
93a13ba5
TK
2509 Specify stat system call type to measure lookup/getattr performance.
2510 Default is **stat** for :manpage:`stat(2)`.
c446eff0 2511
52b81b7c
KD
2512.. option:: readfua=bool : [sg]
2513
2514 With readfua option set to 1, read operations include
2515 the force unit access (fua) flag. Default is 0.
2516
2517.. option:: writefua=bool : [sg]
2518
2519 With writefua option set to 1, write operations include
2520 the force unit access (fua) flag. Default is 0.
2521
2c3a9150 2522.. option:: sg_write_mode=str : [sg]
3740cfc8 2523
2c3a9150
VF
2524 Specify the type of write commands to issue. This option can take three values:
2525
2526 **write**
2527 This is the default where write opcodes are issued as usual.
eadf3260 2528 **write_and_verify**
2c3a9150
VF
2529 Issue WRITE AND VERIFY commands. The BYTCHK bit is set to 0. This
2530 directs the device to carry out a medium verification with no data
2531 comparison. The writefua option is ignored with this selection.
eadf3260
VF
2532 **verify**
2533 This option is deprecated. Use write_and_verify instead.
2534 **write_same**
2c3a9150
VF
2535 Issue WRITE SAME commands. This transfers a single block to the device
2536 and writes this same block of data to a contiguous sequence of LBAs
2537 beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size parameter specifies
2538 the amount of data written with each command. However, the amount of data
2539 actually transferred to the device is equal to the device's block
2540 (sector) size. For a device with 512 byte sectors, blocksize=8k will
2541 write 16 sectors with each command. fio will still generate 8k of data
2542 for each command but only the first 512 bytes will be used and
2543 transferred to the device. The writefua option is ignored with this
2544 selection.
eadf3260
VF
2545 **same**
2546 This option is deprecated. Use write_same instead.
91e13ff5
VF
2547 **write_same_ndob**
2548 Issue WRITE SAME(16) commands as above but with the No Data Output
2549 Buffer (NDOB) bit set. No data will be transferred to the device with
2550 this bit set. Data written will be a pre-determined pattern such as
2551 all zeroes.
71efbed6
VF
2552 **write_stream**
2553 Issue WRITE STREAM(16) commands. Use the **stream_id** option to specify
2554 the stream identifier.
e8ab121c
VF
2555 **verify_bytchk_00**
2556 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 00. This directs the
2557 device to carry out a medium verification with no data comparison.
2558 **verify_bytchk_01**
2559 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 01. This directs the device to
2560 compare the data on the device with the data transferred to the device.
2561 **verify_bytchk_11**
2562 Issue VERIFY commands with BYTCHK set to 11. This transfers a
2563 single block to the device and compares the contents of this block with the
2564 data on the device beginning at the specified offset. fio's block size
2565 parameter specifies the total amount of data compared with this command.
2566 However, only one block (sector) worth of data is transferred to the device.
2567 This is similar to the WRITE SAME command except that data is compared instead
2568 of written.
52b81b7c 2569
71efbed6
VF
2570.. option:: stream_id=int : [sg]
2571
2572 Set the stream identifier for WRITE STREAM commands. If this is set to 0 (which is not
2573 a valid stream identifier) fio will open a stream and then close it when done. Default
2574 is 0.
2575
e493ceae
JA
2576.. option:: hipri : [sg]
2577
2578 If this option is set, fio will attempt to use polled IO completions.
2579 This will have a similar effect as (io_uring)hipri. Only SCSI READ and
2580 WRITE commands will have the SGV4_FLAG_HIPRI set (not UNMAP (trim) nor
2581 VERIFY). Older versions of the Linux sg driver that do not support
2582 hipri will simply ignore this flag and do normal IO. The Linux SCSI
2583 Low Level Driver (LLD) that "owns" the device also needs to support
2584 hipri (also known as iopoll and mq_poll). The MegaRAID driver is an
2585 example of a SCSI LLD. Default: clear (0) which does normal
2586 (interrupted based) IO.
2587
c2f6a13d
LMB
2588.. option:: http_host=str : [http]
2589
2590 Hostname to connect to. For S3, this could be the bucket hostname.
2591 Default is **localhost**
2592
2593.. option:: http_user=str : [http]
2594
2595 Username for HTTP authentication.
2596
2597.. option:: http_pass=str : [http]
2598
2599 Password for HTTP authentication.
2600
09fd2966 2601.. option:: https=str : [http]
c2f6a13d 2602
09fd2966
LMB
2603 Enable HTTPS instead of http. *on* enables HTTPS; *insecure*
2604 will enable HTTPS, but disable SSL peer verification (use with
2605 caution!). Default is **off**
c2f6a13d 2606
09fd2966 2607.. option:: http_mode=str : [http]
c2f6a13d 2608
09fd2966
LMB
2609 Which HTTP access mode to use: *webdav*, *swift*, or *s3*.
2610 Default is **webdav**
c2f6a13d
LMB
2611
2612.. option:: http_s3_region=str : [http]
2613
2614 The S3 region/zone string.
2615 Default is **us-east-1**
2616
2617.. option:: http_s3_key=str : [http]
2618
2619 The S3 secret key.
2620
2621.. option:: http_s3_keyid=str : [http]
2622
2623 The S3 key/access id.
2624
09fd2966
LMB
2625.. option:: http_swift_auth_token=str : [http]
2626
2627 The Swift auth token. See the example configuration file on how
2628 to retrieve this.
2629
c2f6a13d
LMB
2630.. option:: http_verbose=int : [http]
2631
2632 Enable verbose requests from libcurl. Useful for debugging. 1
2633 turns on verbose logging from libcurl, 2 additionally enables
2634 HTTP IO tracing. Default is **0**
2635
f2d6de5d
RJ
2636.. option:: uri=str : [nbd]
2637
2638 Specify the NBD URI of the server to test. The string
2639 is a standard NBD URI
2640 (see https://github.com/NetworkBlockDevice/nbd/tree/master/doc).
2641 Example URIs: nbd://localhost:10809
2642 nbd+unix:///?socket=/tmp/socket
2643 nbds://tlshost/exportname
2644
10756b2c
BS
2645.. option:: gpu_dev_ids=str : [libcufile]
2646
2647 Specify the GPU IDs to use with CUDA. This is a colon-separated list of
2648 int. GPUs are assigned to workers roundrobin. Default is 0.
2649
2650.. option:: cuda_io=str : [libcufile]
2651
2652 Specify the type of I/O to use with CUDA. Default is **cufile**.
2653
2654 **cufile**
2655 Use libcufile and nvidia-fs. This option performs I/O directly
2656 between a GPUDirect Storage filesystem and GPU buffers,
2657 avoiding use of a bounce buffer. If :option:`verify` is set,
2658 cudaMemcpy is used to copy verificaton data between RAM and GPU.
2659 Verification data is copied from RAM to GPU before a write
2660 and from GPU to RAM after a read. :option:`direct` must be 1.
2661 **posix**
2662 Use POSIX to perform I/O with a RAM buffer, and use cudaMemcpy
2663 to transfer data between RAM and the GPUs. Data is copied from
2664 GPU to RAM before a write and copied from RAM to GPU after a
2665 read. :option:`verify` does not affect use of cudaMemcpy.
2666
c363fdd7
JL
2667.. option:: pool=str : [dfs]
2668
2819492b 2669 Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS pool to connect to.
c363fdd7
JL
2670
2671.. option:: cont=str : [dfs]
2672
2819492b 2673 Specify the label or UUID of the DAOS container to open.
c363fdd7
JL
2674
2675.. option:: chunk_size=int : [dfs]
2676
2677 Specificy a different chunk size (in bytes) for the dfs file.
2678 Use DAOS container's chunk size by default.
2679
2680.. option:: object_class=str : [dfs]
2681
2682 Specificy a different object class for the dfs file.
2683 Use DAOS container's object class by default.
2684
9326926b
TG
2685.. option:: nfs_url=str : [nfs]
2686
2687 URL in libnfs format, eg nfs://<server|ipv4|ipv6>/path[?arg=val[&arg=val]*]
2688 Refer to the libnfs README for more details.
2689
b50590bc
EV
2690.. option:: program=str : [exec]
2691
2692 Specify the program to execute.
2693
2694.. option:: arguments=str : [exec]
2695
2696 Specify arguments to pass to program.
2697 Some special variables can be expanded to pass fio's job details to the program.
2698
2699 **%r**
2700 Replaced by the duration of the job in seconds.
2701 **%n**
2702 Replaced by the name of the job.
2703
2704.. option:: grace_time=int : [exec]
2705
2706 Specify the time between the SIGTERM and SIGKILL signals. Default is 1 second.
2707
81c7079c 2708.. option:: std_redirect=bool : [exec]
b50590bc
EV
2709
2710 If set, stdout and stderr streams are redirected to files named from the job name. Default is true.
2711
f80dba8d
MT
2712I/O depth
2713~~~~~~~~~
2714
2715.. option:: iodepth=int
2716
2717 Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that
2718 increasing *iodepth* beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except
c60ebc45 2719 for small degrees when :option:`verify_async` is in use). Even async
f80dba8d
MT
2720 engines may impose OS restrictions causing the desired depth not to be
2721 achieved. This may happen on Linux when using libaio and not setting
9207a0cb 2722 :option:`direct`\=1, since buffered I/O is not async on that OS. Keep an
f80dba8d
MT
2723 eye on the I/O depth distribution in the fio output to verify that the
2724 achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
2725
2726.. option:: iodepth_batch_submit=int, iodepth_batch=int
2727
2728 This defines how many pieces of I/O to submit at once. It defaults to 1
2729 which means that we submit each I/O as soon as it is available, but can be
2730 raised to submit bigger batches of I/O at the time. If it is set to 0 the
2731 :option:`iodepth` value will be used.
2732
2733.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_min=int, iodepth_batch_complete=int
2734
2735 This defines how many pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1
2736 which means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 I/O in the retrieval process
2737 from the kernel. The I/O retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
2738 :option:`iodepth_low`. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always
2739 check for completed events before queuing more I/O. This helps reduce I/O
2740 latency, at the cost of more retrieval system calls.
2741
2742.. option:: iodepth_batch_complete_max=int
2743
2744 This defines maximum pieces of I/O to retrieve at once. This variable should
9207a0cb 2745 be used along with :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`\=int variable,
f80dba8d 2746 specifying the range of min and max amount of I/O which should be
730bd7d9 2747 retrieved. By default it is equal to the :option:`iodepth_batch_complete_min`
f80dba8d
MT
2748 value.
2749
2750 Example #1::
2751
2752 iodepth_batch_complete_min=1
2753 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
2754
2755 which means that we will retrieve at least 1 I/O and up to the whole
2756 submitted queue depth. If none of I/O has been completed yet, we will wait.
2757
2758 Example #2::
2759
2760 iodepth_batch_complete_min=0
2761 iodepth_batch_complete_max=<iodepth>
2762
2763 which means that we can retrieve up to the whole submitted queue depth, but
2764 if none of I/O has been completed yet, we will NOT wait and immediately exit
2765 the system call. In this example we simply do polling.
2766
2767.. option:: iodepth_low=int
2768
2769 The low water mark indicating when to start filling the queue
2770 again. Defaults to the same as :option:`iodepth`, meaning that fio will
2771 attempt to keep the queue full at all times. If :option:`iodepth` is set to
c60ebc45 2772 e.g. 16 and *iodepth_low* is set to 4, then after fio has filled the queue of
f80dba8d
MT
2773 16 requests, it will let the depth drain down to 4 before starting to fill
2774 it again.
2775
997b5680
SW
2776.. option:: serialize_overlap=bool
2777
2778 Serialize in-flight I/Os that might otherwise cause or suffer from data races.
2779 When two or more I/Os are submitted simultaneously, there is no guarantee that
2780 the I/Os will be processed or completed in the submitted order. Further, if
2781 two or more of those I/Os are writes, any overlapping region between them can
2782 become indeterminate/undefined on certain storage. These issues can cause
2783 verification to fail erratically when at least one of the racing I/Os is
2784 changing data and the overlapping region has a non-zero size. Setting
2785 ``serialize_overlap`` tells fio to avoid provoking this behavior by explicitly
2786 serializing in-flight I/Os that have a non-zero overlap. Note that setting
ee21ebee 2787 this option can reduce both performance and the :option:`iodepth` achieved.
3d6a6f04
VF
2788
2789 This option only applies to I/Os issued for a single job except when it is
a02ec45a 2790 enabled along with :option:`io_submit_mode`\=offload. In offload mode, fio
3d6a6f04 2791 will check for overlap among all I/Os submitted by offload jobs with :option:`serialize_overlap`
307f2246 2792 enabled.
3d6a6f04
VF
2793
2794 Default: false.
997b5680 2795
f80dba8d
MT
2796.. option:: io_submit_mode=str
2797
2798 This option controls how fio submits the I/O to the I/O engine. The default
2799 is `inline`, which means that the fio job threads submit and reap I/O
2800 directly. If set to `offload`, the job threads will offload I/O submission
2801 to a dedicated pool of I/O threads. This requires some coordination and thus
2802 has a bit of extra overhead, especially for lower queue depth I/O where it
2803 can increase latencies. The benefit is that fio can manage submission rates
2804 independently of the device completion rates. This avoids skewed latency
730bd7d9 2805 reporting if I/O gets backed up on the device side (the coordinated omission
abfd235a
JA
2806 problem). Note that this option cannot reliably be used with async IO
2807 engines.
f80dba8d
MT
2808
2809
2810I/O rate
2811~~~~~~~~
2812
a881438b 2813.. option:: thinktime=time
f80dba8d 2814
f75ede1d
SW
2815 Stall the job for the specified period of time after an I/O has completed before issuing the
2816 next. May be used to simulate processing being done by an application.
947e0fe0 2817 When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
f7942acd 2818 :option:`thinktime_blocks`, :option:`thinktime_iotime` and :option:`thinktime_spin`.
f80dba8d 2819
a881438b 2820.. option:: thinktime_spin=time
f80dba8d
MT
2821
2822 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - pretend to spend CPU time doing
2823 something with the data received, before falling back to sleeping for the
f75ede1d 2824 rest of the period specified by :option:`thinktime`. When the unit is
947e0fe0 2825 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
f80dba8d
MT
2826
2827.. option:: thinktime_blocks=int
2828
2829 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control how many blocks to issue,
f50fbdda
TK
2830 before waiting :option:`thinktime` usecs. If not set, defaults to 1 which will make
2831 fio wait :option:`thinktime` usecs after every block. This effectively makes any
f80dba8d 2832 queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 I/O will be queued
f50fbdda 2833 before we have to complete it and do our :option:`thinktime`. In other words, this
f80dba8d 2834 setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
71bfa161 2835
33f42c20
HQ
2836.. option:: thinktime_blocks_type=str
2837
2838 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control how :option:`thinktime_blocks`
2839 triggers. The default is `complete`, which triggers thinktime when fio completes
2840 :option:`thinktime_blocks` blocks. If this is set to `issue`, then the trigger happens
2841 at the issue side.
2842
f7942acd
SK
2843.. option:: thinktime_iotime=time
2844
2845 Only valid if :option:`thinktime` is set - control :option:`thinktime`
2846 interval by time. The :option:`thinktime` stall is repeated after IOs
2847 are executed for :option:`thinktime_iotime`. For example,
2848 ``--thinktime_iotime=9s --thinktime=1s`` repeat 10-second cycle with IOs
2849 for 9 seconds and stall for 1 second. When the unit is omitted,
2850 :option:`thinktime_iotime` is interpreted as a number of seconds. If
2851 this option is used together with :option:`thinktime_blocks`, the
2852 :option:`thinktime` stall is repeated after :option:`thinktime_iotime`
2853 or after :option:`thinktime_blocks` IOs, whichever happens first.
2854
f80dba8d 2855.. option:: rate=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2856
f80dba8d
MT
2857 Cap the bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal
2858 suffix rules apply. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2859 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2860
b25b3464
SW
2861 For example, using `rate=1m,500k` would limit reads to 1MiB/sec and writes to
2862 500KiB/sec. Capping only reads or writes can be done with `rate=,500k` or
2863 `rate=500k,` where the former will only limit writes (to 500KiB/sec) and the
2864 latter will only limit reads.
2865
f80dba8d 2866.. option:: rate_min=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2867
f80dba8d
MT
2868 Tell fio to do whatever it can to maintain at least this bandwidth. Failing
2869 to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. Comma-separated values
2870 may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as described in
2871 :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2872
f80dba8d 2873.. option:: rate_iops=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2874
f80dba8d
MT
2875 Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as
2876 :option:`rate`, just specified independently of bandwidth. If the job is
2877 given a block size range instead of a fixed value, the smallest block size
2878 is used as the metric. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads,
2879 writes, and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2880
f80dba8d 2881.. option:: rate_iops_min=int[,int][,int]
71bfa161 2882
f80dba8d
MT
2883 If fio doesn't meet this rate of I/O, it will cause the job to exit.
2884 Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes, and trims as
2885 described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2886
f80dba8d 2887.. option:: rate_process=str
66c098b8 2888
f80dba8d
MT
2889 This option controls how fio manages rated I/O submissions. The default is
2890 `linear`, which submits I/O in a linear fashion with fixed delays between
c60ebc45 2891 I/Os that gets adjusted based on I/O completion rates. If this is set to
f80dba8d
MT
2892 `poisson`, fio will submit I/O based on a more real world random request
2893 flow, known as the Poisson process
2894 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_point_process). The lambda will be
2895 10^6 / IOPS for the given workload.
71bfa161 2896
1a9bf814
JA
2897.. option:: rate_ignore_thinktime=bool
2898
2899 By default, fio will attempt to catch up to the specified rate setting,
2900 if any kind of thinktime setting was used. If this option is set, then
2901 fio will ignore the thinktime and continue doing IO at the specified
2902 rate, instead of entering a catch-up mode after thinktime is done.
2903
71bfa161 2904
f80dba8d
MT
2905I/O latency
2906~~~~~~~~~~~
71bfa161 2907
a881438b 2908.. option:: latency_target=time
71bfa161 2909
f80dba8d 2910 If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
f75ede1d 2911 workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. When
947e0fe0 2912 the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds. See
f75ede1d 2913 :option:`latency_window` and :option:`latency_percentile`.
71bfa161 2914
a881438b 2915.. option:: latency_window=time
71bfa161 2916
f80dba8d 2917 Used with :option:`latency_target` to specify the sample window that the job
f75ede1d 2918 is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. When the unit is
947e0fe0 2919 omitted, the value is interpreted in microseconds.
b4692828 2920
f80dba8d 2921.. option:: latency_percentile=float
71bfa161 2922
c60ebc45 2923 The percentage of I/Os that must fall within the criteria specified by
f80dba8d 2924 :option:`latency_target` and :option:`latency_window`. If not set, this
c60ebc45 2925 defaults to 100.0, meaning that all I/Os must be equal or below to the value
f80dba8d 2926 set by :option:`latency_target`.
71bfa161 2927
e1bcd541
SL
2928.. option:: latency_run=bool
2929
2930 Used with :option:`latency_target`. If false (default), fio will find
2931 the highest queue depth that meets :option:`latency_target` and exit. If
2932 true, fio will continue running and try to meet :option:`latency_target`
2933 by adjusting queue depth.
2934
f7cf63bf 2935.. option:: max_latency=time[,time][,time]
71bfa161 2936
f75ede1d 2937 If set, fio will exit the job with an ETIMEDOUT error if it exceeds this
947e0fe0 2938 maximum latency. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in
f7cf63bf
VR
2939 microseconds. Comma-separated values may be specified for reads, writes,
2940 and trims as described in :option:`blocksize`.
71bfa161 2941
f80dba8d 2942.. option:: rate_cycle=int
71bfa161 2943
f80dba8d 2944 Average bandwidth for :option:`rate` and :option:`rate_min` over this number
a47b697c 2945 of milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.
71bfa161 2946
71bfa161 2947
f80dba8d
MT
2948I/O replay
2949~~~~~~~~~~
71bfa161 2950
f80dba8d 2951.. option:: write_iolog=str
c2b1e753 2952
f80dba8d
MT
2953 Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. See
2954 :option:`read_iolog`. Specify a separate file for each job, otherwise the
2955 iologs will be interspersed and the file may be corrupt.
c2b1e753 2956
f80dba8d 2957.. option:: read_iolog=str
71bfa161 2958
22413915 2959 Open an iolog with the specified filename and replay the I/O patterns it
f80dba8d
MT
2960 contains. This can be used to store a workload and replay it sometime
2961 later. The iolog given may also be a blktrace binary file, which allows fio
2962 to replay a workload captured by :command:`blktrace`. See
2963 :manpage:`blktrace(8)` for how to capture such logging data. For blktrace
2964 replay, the file needs to be turned into a blkparse binary data file first
2965 (``blkparse <device> -o /dev/null -d file_for_fio.bin``).
78439a18
JA
2966 You can specify a number of files by separating the names with a ':'
2967 character. See the :option:`filename` option for information on how to
3b803fe1 2968 escape ':' characters within the file names. These files will
78439a18 2969 be sequentially assigned to job clones created by :option:`numjobs`.
d19c04d1 2970 '-' is a reserved name, meaning read from stdin, notably if
2971 :option:`filename` is set to '-' which means stdin as well, then
2972 this flag can't be set to '-'.
71bfa161 2973
77be374d
AK
2974.. option:: read_iolog_chunked=bool
2975
2976 Determines how iolog is read. If false(default) entire :option:`read_iolog`
2977 will be read at once. If selected true, input from iolog will be read
2978 gradually. Useful when iolog is very large, or it is generated.
2979
b9921d1a
DZ
2980.. option:: merge_blktrace_file=str
2981
2982 When specified, rather than replaying the logs passed to :option:`read_iolog`,
2983 the logs go through a merge phase which aggregates them into a single
2984 blktrace. The resulting file is then passed on as the :option:`read_iolog`
2985 parameter. The intention here is to make the order of events consistent.
2986 This limits the influence of the scheduler compared to replaying multiple
2987 blktraces via concurrent jobs.
2988
87a48ada
DZ
2989.. option:: merge_blktrace_scalars=float_list
2990
2991 This is a percentage based option that is index paired with the list of
2992 files passed to :option:`read_iolog`. When merging is performed, scale
2993 the time of each event by the corresponding amount. For example,
2994 ``--merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100"`` runs the first trace in halftime
2995 and the second trace in realtime. This knob is separately tunable from
2996 :option:`replay_time_scale` which scales the trace during runtime and
2997 does not change the output of the merge unlike this option.
2998
55bfd8c8
DZ
2999.. option:: merge_blktrace_iters=float_list
3000
3001 This is a whole number option that is index paired with the list of files
3002 passed to :option:`read_iolog`. When merging is performed, run each trace
3003 for the specified number of iterations. For example,
3004 ``--merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"`` runs the first trace for two iterations
3005 and the second trace for one iteration.
3006
589e88b7 3007.. option:: replay_no_stall=bool
71bfa161 3008
f80dba8d 3009 When replaying I/O with :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior is to
22413915 3010 attempt to respect the timestamps within the log and replay them with the
f80dba8d
MT
3011 appropriate delay between IOPS. By setting this variable fio will not
3012 respect the timestamps and attempt to replay them as fast as possible while
3013 still respecting ordering. The result is the same I/O pattern to a given
3014 device, but different timings.
71bfa161 3015
6dd7fa77
JA
3016.. option:: replay_time_scale=int
3017
3018 When replaying I/O with :option:`read_iolog`, fio will honor the
3019 original timing in the trace. With this option, it's possible to scale
3020 the time. It's a percentage option, if set to 50 it means run at 50%
3021 the original IO rate in the trace. If set to 200, run at twice the
3022 original IO rate. Defaults to 100.
3023
f80dba8d 3024.. option:: replay_redirect=str
b4692828 3025
f80dba8d
MT
3026 While replaying I/O patterns using :option:`read_iolog` the default behavior
3027 is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
3028 from. This is sometimes undesirable because on a different machine those
3029 major/minor numbers can map to a different device. Changing hardware on the
3030 same system can also result in a different major/minor mapping.
730bd7d9 3031 ``replay_redirect`` causes all I/Os to be replayed onto the single specified
f80dba8d 3032 device regardless of the device it was recorded
9207a0cb 3033 from. i.e. :option:`replay_redirect`\= :file:`/dev/sdc` would cause all I/O
f80dba8d
MT
3034 in the blktrace or iolog to be replayed onto :file:`/dev/sdc`. This means
3035 multiple devices will be replayed onto a single device, if the trace
3036 contains multiple devices. If you want multiple devices to be replayed
3037 concurrently to multiple redirected devices you must blkparse your trace
3038 into separate traces and replay them with independent fio invocations.
3039 Unfortunately this also breaks the strict time ordering between multiple
3040 device accesses.
71bfa161 3041
f80dba8d 3042.. option:: replay_align=int
74929ac2 3043
350a535d
DZ
3044 Force alignment of the byte offsets in a trace to this value. The value
3045 must be a power of 2.
3c54bc46 3046
f80dba8d 3047.. option:: replay_scale=int
3c54bc46 3048
350a535d
DZ
3049 Scale byte offsets down by this factor when replaying traces. Should most
3050 likely use :option:`replay_align` as well.
3c54bc46 3051
38f68906
JA
3052.. option:: replay_skip=str
3053
3054 Sometimes it's useful to skip certain IO types in a replay trace.
3055 This could be, for instance, eliminating the writes in the trace.
3056 Or not replaying the trims/discards, if you are redirecting to
3057 a device that doesn't support them. This option takes a comma
3058 separated list of read, write, trim, sync.
3059
3c54bc46 3060
f80dba8d
MT
3061Threads, processes and job synchronization
3062~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3c54bc46 3063
f80dba8d 3064.. option:: thread
3c54bc46 3065
730bd7d9
SW
3066 Fio defaults to creating jobs by using fork, however if this option is
3067 given, fio will create jobs by using POSIX Threads' function
3068 :manpage:`pthread_create(3)` to create threads instead.
71bfa161 3069
f80dba8d 3070.. option:: wait_for=str
74929ac2 3071
730bd7d9
SW
3072 If set, the current job won't be started until all workers of the specified
3073 waitee job are done.
74929ac2 3074
f80dba8d
MT
3075 ``wait_for`` operates on the job name basis, so there are a few
3076 limitations. First, the waitee must be defined prior to the waiter job
3077 (meaning no forward references). Second, if a job is being referenced as a
3078 waitee, it must have a unique name (no duplicate waitees).
74929ac2 3079
f80dba8d 3080.. option:: nice=int
892a6ffc 3081
f80dba8d 3082 Run the job with the given nice value. See man :manpage:`nice(2)`.
892a6ffc 3083
f80dba8d
MT
3084 On Windows, values less than -15 set the process class to "High"; -1 through
3085 -15 set "Above Normal"; 1 through 15 "Below Normal"; and above 15 "Idle"
3086 priority class.
74929ac2 3087
f80dba8d 3088.. option:: prio=int
71bfa161 3089
f80dba8d
MT
3090 Set the I/O priority value of this job. Linux limits us to a positive value
3091 between 0 and 7, with 0 being the highest. See man
3092 :manpage:`ionice(1)`. Refer to an appropriate manpage for other operating
b2a432bf 3093 systems since meaning of priority may differ. For per-command priority
12f9d54a
DLM
3094 setting, see I/O engine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage` and
3095 :option:`cmdprio` options.
71bfa161 3096
f80dba8d 3097.. option:: prioclass=int
d59aa780 3098
b2a432bf 3099 Set the I/O priority class. See man :manpage:`ionice(1)`. For per-command
12f9d54a
DLM
3100 priority setting, see I/O engine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage`
3101 and :option:`cmdprio_class` options.
d59aa780 3102
f80dba8d 3103.. option:: cpus_allowed=str
6d500c2e 3104
730bd7d9 3105 Controls the same options as :option:`cpumask`, but accepts a textual
b570e037
SW
3106 specification of the permitted CPUs instead and CPUs are indexed from 0. So
3107 to use CPUs 0 and 5 you would specify ``cpus_allowed=0,5``. This option also
3108 allows a range of CPUs to be specified -- say you wanted a binding to CPUs
3109 0, 5, and 8 to 15, you would set ``cpus_allowed=0,5,8-15``.
3110
3111 On Windows, when ``cpus_allowed`` is unset only CPUs from fio's current
3112 processor group will be used and affinity settings are inherited from the
3113 system. An fio build configured to target Windows 7 makes options that set
3114 CPUs processor group aware and values will set both the processor group
3115 and a CPU from within that group. For example, on a system where processor
3116 group 0 has 40 CPUs and processor group 1 has 32 CPUs, ``cpus_allowed``
3117 values between 0 and 39 will bind CPUs from processor group 0 and
3118 ``cpus_allowed`` values between 40 and 71 will bind CPUs from processor
3119 group 1. When using ``cpus_allowed_policy=shared`` all CPUs specified by a
3120 single ``cpus_allowed`` option must be from the same processor group. For
3121 Windows fio builds not built for Windows 7, CPUs will only be selected from
3122 (and be relative to) whatever processor group fio happens to be running in
3123 and CPUs from other processor groups cannot be used.
6d500c2e 3124
f80dba8d 3125.. option:: cpus_allowed_policy=str
6d500c2e 3126
f80dba8d 3127 Set the policy of how fio distributes the CPUs specified by
730bd7d9 3128 :option:`cpus_allowed` or :option:`cpumask`. Two policies are supported:
6d500c2e 3129
f80dba8d
MT
3130 **shared**
3131 All jobs will share the CPU set specified.
3132 **split**
3133 Each job will get a unique CPU from the CPU set.
6d500c2e 3134
22413915 3135 **shared** is the default behavior, if the option isn't specified. If
b21fc93f 3136 **split** is specified, then fio will assign one cpu per job. If not
f80dba8d
MT
3137 enough CPUs are given for the jobs listed, then fio will roundrobin the CPUs
3138 in the set.
6d500c2e 3139
b570e037
SW
3140.. option:: cpumask=int
3141
3142 Set the CPU affinity of this job. The parameter given is a bit mask of
3143 allowed CPUs the job may run on. So if you want the allowed CPUs to be 1
3144 and 5, you would pass the decimal value of (1 << 1 | 1 << 5), or 34. See man
3145 :manpage:`sched_setaffinity(2)`. This may not work on all supported
3146 operating systems or kernel versions. This option doesn't work well for a
3147 higher CPU count than what you can store in an integer mask, so it can only
3148 control cpus 1-32. For boxes with larger CPU counts, use
3149 :option:`cpus_allowed`.
3150
f80dba8d 3151.. option:: numa_cpu_nodes=str
6d500c2e 3152
f80dba8d
MT
3153 Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
3154 comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`. Note, to enable
ac8ca2af 3155 NUMA options support, fio must be built on a system with libnuma-dev(el)
f80dba8d 3156 installed.
61b9861d 3157
f80dba8d 3158.. option:: numa_mem_policy=str
61b9861d 3159
f80dba8d
MT
3160 Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of the
3161 arguments::
5c94b008 3162
f80dba8d 3163 <mode>[:<nodelist>]
ce35b1ec 3164
804c0839 3165 ``mode`` is one of the following memory policies: ``default``, ``prefer``,
730bd7d9
SW
3166 ``bind``, ``interleave`` or ``local``. For ``default`` and ``local`` memory
3167 policies, no node needs to be specified. For ``prefer``, only one node is
3168 allowed. For ``bind`` and ``interleave`` the ``nodelist`` may be as
3169 follows: a comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or `all`.
71bfa161 3170
f80dba8d 3171.. option:: cgroup=str
390b1537 3172
f80dba8d
MT
3173 Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created. The
3174 system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
3175 your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with::
5af1c6f3 3176
f80dba8d 3177 # mount -t cgroup -o blkio none /cgroup
5af1c6f3 3178
f80dba8d 3179.. option:: cgroup_weight=int
5af1c6f3 3180
f80dba8d
MT
3181 Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
3182 with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
a086c257 3183
f80dba8d 3184.. option:: cgroup_nodelete=bool
8c07860d 3185
f80dba8d
MT
3186 Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job
3187 completion. To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the
3188 job completion, set ``cgroup_nodelete=1``. This can be useful if one wants
3189 to inspect various cgroup files after job completion. Default: false.
8c07860d 3190
f80dba8d 3191.. option:: flow_id=int
8c07860d 3192
f80dba8d
MT
3193 The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global
3194 flow. See :option:`flow`.
1907dbc6 3195
f80dba8d 3196.. option:: flow=int
71bfa161 3197
f80dba8d
MT
3198 Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
3199 'flow counter' which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
3200 two or more jobs. Fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
3201 ``flow`` parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
3202 flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
3203 ``flow=8`` and another job has ``flow=-1``, then there will be a roughly 1:8
3204 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
71bfa161 3205
f80dba8d 3206.. option:: flow_sleep=int
82407585 3207
d4e74fda
DB
3208 The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow counter
3209 has exceeded its proportion before retrying operations.
82407585 3210
f80dba8d 3211.. option:: stonewall, wait_for_previous
82407585 3212
f80dba8d
MT
3213 Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit, before starting this
3214 one. Can be used to insert serialization points in the job file. A stone
3215 wall also implies starting a new reporting group, see
3216 :option:`group_reporting`.
3217
3218.. option:: exitall
3219
64402a8a
HW
3220 By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3221 Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting ``exitall`` will instead
3222 make fio terminate all jobs in the same group, as soon as one job of that
3223 group finishes.
3224
3225.. option:: exit_what
3226
3227 By default, fio will continue running all other jobs when one job finishes.
3228 Sometimes this is not the desired action. Setting ``exit_all`` will
3229 instead make fio terminate all jobs in the same group. The option
3230 ``exit_what`` allows to control which jobs get terminated when ``exitall`` is
3231 enabled. The default is ``group`` and does not change the behaviour of
3232 ``exitall``. The setting ``all`` terminates all jobs. The setting ``stonewall``
3233 terminates all currently running jobs across all groups and continues execution
3234 with the next stonewalled group.
f80dba8d
MT
3235
3236.. option:: exec_prerun=str
3237
3238 Before running this job, issue the command specified through
3239 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
3240 :file:`jobname.prerun.txt`.
3241
3242.. option:: exec_postrun=str
3243
3244 After the job completes, issue the command specified though
3245 :manpage:`system(3)`. Output is redirected in a file called
3246 :file:`jobname.postrun.txt`.
3247
3248.. option:: uid=int
3249
3250 Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value
3251 before the thread/process does any work.
3252
3253.. option:: gid=int
3254
3255 Set group ID, see :option:`uid`.
3256
3257
3258Verification
3259~~~~~~~~~~~~
3260
3261.. option:: verify_only
3262
3263 Do not perform specified workload, only verify data still matches previous
3264 invocation of this workload. This option allows one to check data multiple
3265 times at a later date without overwriting it. This option makes sense only
3266 for workloads that write data, and does not support workloads with the
3267 :option:`time_based` option set.
3268
3269.. option:: do_verify=bool
3270
3271 Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if :option:`verify` is
3272 set. Default: true.
3273
3274.. option:: verify=str
3275
3276 If writing to a file, fio can verify the file contents after each iteration
3277 of the job. Each verification method also implies verification of special
3278 header, which is written to the beginning of each block. This header also
3279 includes meta information, like offset of the block, block number, timestamp
3280 when block was written, etc. :option:`verify` can be combined with
3281 :option:`verify_pattern` option. The allowed values are:
3282
3283 **md5**
3284 Use an md5 sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3285 each block.
3286
3287 **crc64**
3288 Use an experimental crc64 sum of the data area and store it in the
3289 header of each block.
3290
3291 **crc32c**
a5896300
SW
3292 Use a crc32c sum of the data area and store it in the header of
3293 each block. This will automatically use hardware acceleration
3294 (e.g. SSE4.2 on an x86 or CRC crypto extensions on ARM64) but will
3295 fall back to software crc32c if none is found. Generally the
804c0839 3296 fastest checksum fio supports when hardware accelerated.
f80dba8d
MT
3297
3298 **crc32c-intel**
a5896300 3299 Synonym for crc32c.
f80dba8d
MT
3300
3301 **crc32**
3302 Use a crc32 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3303 block.
3304
3305 **crc16**
3306 Use a crc16 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3307 block.
3308
3309 **crc7**
3310 Use a crc7 sum of the data area and store it in the header of each
3311 block.
3312
3313 **xxhash**
3314 Use xxhash as the checksum function. Generally the fastest software
3315 checksum that fio supports.
3316
3317 **sha512**
3318 Use sha512 as the checksum function.
3319
3320 **sha256**
3321 Use sha256 as the checksum function.
3322
3323 **sha1**
3324 Use optimized sha1 as the checksum function.
82407585 3325
ae3a5acc
JA
3326 **sha3-224**
3327 Use optimized sha3-224 as the checksum function.
3328
3329 **sha3-256**
3330 Use optimized sha3-256 as the checksum function.
3331
3332 **sha3-384**
3333 Use optimized sha3-384 as the checksum function.
3334
3335 **sha3-512**
3336 Use optimized sha3-512 as the checksum function.
3337
f80dba8d
MT
3338 **meta**
3339 This option is deprecated, since now meta information is included in
3340 generic verification header and meta verification happens by
3341 default. For detailed information see the description of the
3342 :option:`verify` setting. This option is kept because of
3343 compatibility's sake with old configurations. Do not use it.
3344
3345 **pattern**
3346 Verify a strict pattern. Normally fio includes a header with some
3347 basic information and checksumming, but if this option is set, only
3348 the specific pattern set with :option:`verify_pattern` is verified.
3349
3350 **null**
3351 Only pretend to verify. Useful for testing internals with
9207a0cb 3352 :option:`ioengine`\=null, not for much else.
f80dba8d
MT
3353
3354 This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
3355 that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction
3356 given is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a
3357 previously written file. If the data direction includes any form of write,
3358 the verify will be of the newly written data.
3359
47e6a6e5
SW
3360 To avoid false verification errors, do not use the norandommap option when
3361 verifying data with async I/O engines and I/O depths > 1. Or use the
3362 norandommap and the lfsr random generator together to avoid writing to the
3363 same offset with muliple outstanding I/Os.
3364
f80dba8d
MT
3365.. option:: verify_offset=int
3366
3367 Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
3368 writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
3369
3370.. option:: verify_interval=int
3371
3372 Write the verification header at a finer granularity than the
3373 :option:`blocksize`. It will be written for chunks the size of
3374 ``verify_interval``. :option:`blocksize` should divide this evenly.
3375
3376.. option:: verify_pattern=str
3377
3378 If set, fio will fill the I/O buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to
3379 filling with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill
3380 with a known pattern for I/O verification purposes. Depending on the width
730bd7d9 3381 of the pattern, fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time (it can
f80dba8d
MT
3382 be either a decimal or a hex number). The ``verify_pattern`` if larger than
3383 a 32-bit quantity has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or
3384 "0X". Use with :option:`verify`. Also, ``verify_pattern`` supports %o
3385 format, which means that for each block offset will be written and then
3386 verified back, e.g.::
61b9861d
RP
3387
3388 verify_pattern=%o
3389
f80dba8d
MT
3390 Or use combination of everything::
3391
61b9861d 3392 verify_pattern=0xff%o"abcd"-12
e28218f3 3393
f80dba8d
MT
3394.. option:: verify_fatal=bool
3395
3396 Normally fio will keep checking the entire contents before quitting on a
3397 block verification failure. If this option is set, fio will exit the job on
3398 the first observed failure. Default: false.
3399
3400.. option:: verify_dump=bool
3401
3402 If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block
3403 we read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what
3404 kind of data corruption occurred. Off by default.
3405
3406.. option:: verify_async=int
3407
3408 Fio will normally verify I/O inline from the submitting thread. This option
3409 takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for I/O
3410 verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying I/O
3411 contents to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even
3412 sync I/O engines can benefit from using an :option:`iodepth` setting higher
3413 than 1, as it allows them to have I/O in flight while verifies are running.
d7e6ea1c 3414 Defaults to 0 async threads, i.e. verification is not asynchronous.
f80dba8d
MT
3415
3416.. option:: verify_async_cpus=str
3417
3418 Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async I/O verification
3419 threads. See :option:`cpus_allowed` for the format used.
3420
3421.. option:: verify_backlog=int
3422
3423 Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
3424 once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
3425 everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
3426 instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with
3427 an I/O block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory
3428 would be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will
3429 write only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
3430
3431.. option:: verify_backlog_batch=int
3432
3433 Control how many blocks fio will verify if :option:`verify_backlog` is
3434 set. If not set, will default to the value of :option:`verify_backlog`
3435 (meaning the entire queue is read back and verified). If
3436 ``verify_backlog_batch`` is less than :option:`verify_backlog` then not all
3437 blocks will be verified, if ``verify_backlog_batch`` is larger than
3438 :option:`verify_backlog`, some blocks will be verified more than once.
3439
3440.. option:: verify_state_save=bool
3441
3442 When a job exits during the write phase of a verify workload, save its
3443 current state. This allows fio to replay up until that point, if the verify
3444 state is loaded for the verify read phase. The format of the filename is,
3445 roughly::
3446
f50fbdda 3447 <type>-<jobname>-<jobindex>-verify.state.
f80dba8d
MT
3448
3449 <type> is "local" for a local run, "sock" for a client/server socket
3450 connection, and "ip" (192.168.0.1, for instance) for a networked
d7e6ea1c 3451 client/server connection. Defaults to true.
f80dba8d
MT
3452
3453.. option:: verify_state_load=bool
3454
3455 If a verify termination trigger was used, fio stores the current write state
3456 of each thread. This can be used at verification time so that fio knows how
3457 far it should verify. Without this information, fio will run a full
a47b697c
SW
3458 verification pass, according to the settings in the job file used. Default
3459 false.
f80dba8d
MT
3460
3461.. option:: trim_percentage=int
3462
3463 Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
3464
3465.. option:: trim_verify_zero=bool
3466
22413915 3467 Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeros.
f80dba8d
MT
3468
3469.. option:: trim_backlog=int
3470
5cfd1e9a 3471 Trim after this number of blocks are written.
f80dba8d
MT
3472
3473.. option:: trim_backlog_batch=int
3474
3475 Trim this number of I/O blocks.
3476
3477.. option:: experimental_verify=bool
3478
3479 Enable experimental verification.
3480
f80dba8d
MT
3481Steady state
3482~~~~~~~~~~~~
3483
3484.. option:: steadystate=str:float, ss=str:float
3485
3486 Define the criterion and limit for assessing steady state performance. The
3487 first parameter designates the criterion whereas the second parameter sets
3488 the threshold. When the criterion falls below the threshold for the
3489 specified duration, the job will stop. For example, `iops_slope:0.1%` will
3490 direct fio to terminate the job when the least squares regression slope
3491 falls below 0.1% of the mean IOPS. If :option:`group_reporting` is enabled
3492 this will apply to all jobs in the group. Below is the list of available
3493 steady state assessment criteria. All assessments are carried out using only
3494 data from the rolling collection window. Threshold limits can be expressed
3495 as a fixed value or as a percentage of the mean in the collection window.
3496
1cb049d9
VF
3497 When using this feature, most jobs should include the :option:`time_based`
3498 and :option:`runtime` options or the :option:`loops` option so that fio does not
3499 stop running after it has covered the full size of the specified file(s) or device(s).
3500
f80dba8d
MT
3501 **iops**
3502 Collect IOPS data. Stop the job if all individual IOPS measurements
3503 are within the specified limit of the mean IOPS (e.g., ``iops:2``
3504 means that all individual IOPS values must be within 2 of the mean,
3505 whereas ``iops:0.2%`` means that all individual IOPS values must be
3506 within 0.2% of the mean IOPS to terminate the job).
3507
3508 **iops_slope**
3509 Collect IOPS data and calculate the least squares regression
3510 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3511
3512 **bw**
3513 Collect bandwidth data. Stop the job if all individual bandwidth
3514 measurements are within the specified limit of the mean bandwidth.
3515
3516 **bw_slope**
3517 Collect bandwidth data and calculate the least squares regression
3518 slope. Stop the job if the slope falls below the specified limit.
3519
3520.. option:: steadystate_duration=time, ss_dur=time
3521
3522 A rolling window of this duration will be used to judge whether steady state
3523 has been reached. Data will be collected once per second. The default is 0
f75ede1d 3524 which disables steady state detection. When the unit is omitted, the
947e0fe0 3525 value is interpreted in seconds.
f80dba8d
MT
3526
3527.. option:: steadystate_ramp_time=time, ss_ramp=time
3528
3529 Allow the job to run for the specified duration before beginning data
3530 collection for checking the steady state job termination criterion. The
947e0fe0 3531 default is 0. When the unit is omitted, the value is interpreted in seconds.
f80dba8d
MT
3532
3533
3534Measurements and reporting
3535~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3536
3537.. option:: per_job_logs=bool
3538
3539 If set, this generates bw/clat/iops log with per file private filenames. If
3540 not set, jobs with identical names will share the log filename. Default:
3541 true.
3542
3543.. option:: group_reporting
3544
3545 It may sometimes be interesting to display statistics for groups of jobs as
3546 a whole instead of for each individual job. This is especially true if
3547 :option:`numjobs` is used; looking at individual thread/process output
3548 quickly becomes unwieldy. To see the final report per-group instead of
3549 per-job, use :option:`group_reporting`. Jobs in a file will be part of the
3550 same reporting group, unless if separated by a :option:`stonewall`, or by
3551 using :option:`new_group`.
3552
3553.. option:: new_group
3554
3555 Start a new reporting group. See: :option:`group_reporting`. If not given,
3556 all jobs in a file will be part of the same reporting group, unless
3557 separated by a :option:`stonewall`.
3558
589e88b7 3559.. option:: stats=bool
8243be59
JA
3560
3561 By default, fio collects and shows final output results for all jobs
3562 that run. If this option is set to 0, then fio will ignore it in
3563 the final stat output.
3564
f80dba8d
MT
3565.. option:: write_bw_log=str
3566
3567 If given, write a bandwidth log for this job. Can be used to store data of
074f0817 3568 the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime.
f80dba8d 3569
074f0817
SW
3570 If no str argument is given, the default filename of
3571 :file:`jobname_type.x.log` is used. Even when the argument is given, fio
3572 will still append the type of log. So if one specifies::
3573
3574 write_bw_log=foo
f80dba8d 3575
074f0817
SW
3576 The actual log name will be :file:`foo_bw.x.log` where `x` is the index
3577 of the job (`1..N`, where `N` is the number of jobs). If
3578 :option:`per_job_logs` is false, then the filename will not include the
3579 `.x` job index.
e3cedca7 3580
074f0817
SW
3581 The included :command:`fio_generate_plots` script uses :command:`gnuplot` to turn these
3582 text files into nice graphs. See `Log File Formats`_ for how data is
3583 structured within the file.
3584
3585.. option:: write_lat_log=str
e3cedca7 3586
074f0817 3587 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, except this option creates I/O
77b7e675
SW
3588 submission (e.g., :file:`name_slat.x.log`), completion (e.g.,
3589 :file:`name_clat.x.log`), and total (e.g., :file:`name_lat.x.log`)
074f0817
SW
3590 latency files instead. See :option:`write_bw_log` for details about
3591 the filename format and `Log File Formats`_ for how data is structured
3592 within the files.
be4ecfdf 3593
f80dba8d 3594.. option:: write_hist_log=str
06842027 3595
074f0817 3596 Same as :option:`write_bw_log` but writes an I/O completion latency
77b7e675 3597 histogram file (e.g., :file:`name_hist.x.log`) instead. Note that this
074f0817
SW
3598 file will be empty unless :option:`log_hist_msec` has also been set.
3599 See :option:`write_bw_log` for details about the filename format and
3600 `Log File Formats`_ for how data is structured within the file.
06842027 3601
f80dba8d 3602.. option:: write_iops_log=str
06842027 3603
074f0817 3604 Same as :option:`write_bw_log`, but writes an IOPS file (e.g.
15417073
SW
3605 :file:`name_iops.x.log`) instead. Because fio defaults to individual
3606 I/O logging, the value entry in the IOPS log will be 1 unless windowed
3607 logging (see :option:`log_avg_msec`) has been enabled. See
3608 :option:`write_bw_log` for details about the filename format and `Log
3609 File Formats`_ for how data is structured within the file.
06842027 3610
0a852a50
DLM
3611.. option:: log_entries=int
3612
3613 By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for
3614 every I/O that completes. The initial number of I/O log entries is 1024.
3615 When the log entries are all used, new log entries are dynamically
3616 allocated. This dynamic log entry allocation may negatively impact
3617 time-related statistics such as I/O tail latencies (e.g. 99.9th percentile
3618 completion latency). This option allows specifying a larger initial
3619 number of log entries to avoid run-time allocations of new log entries,
3620 resulting in more precise time-related I/O statistics.
3621 Also see :option:`log_avg_msec`. Defaults to 1024.
3622
f80dba8d 3623.. option:: log_avg_msec=int
06842027 3624
f80dba8d
MT
3625 By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
3626 I/O that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
3627 very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
3628 over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log. See
3629 :option:`log_max_value` as well. Defaults to 0, logging all entries.
6fc82095 3630 Also see `Log File Formats`_.
06842027 3631
f80dba8d 3632.. option:: log_hist_msec=int
06842027 3633
f80dba8d
MT
3634 Same as :option:`log_avg_msec`, but logs entries for completion latency
3635 histograms. Computing latency percentiles from averages of intervals using
c60ebc45 3636 :option:`log_avg_msec` is inaccurate. Setting this option makes fio log
f80dba8d
MT
3637 histogram entries over the specified period of time, reducing log sizes for
3638 high IOPS devices while retaining percentile accuracy. See
074f0817
SW
3639 :option:`log_hist_coarseness` and :option:`write_hist_log` as well.
3640 Defaults to 0, meaning histogram logging is disabled.
06842027 3641
f80dba8d 3642.. option:: log_hist_coarseness=int
06842027 3643
f80dba8d
MT
3644 Integer ranging from 0 to 6, defining the coarseness of the resolution of
3645 the histogram logs enabled with :option:`log_hist_msec`. For each increment
3646 in coarseness, fio outputs half as many bins. Defaults to 0, for which
074f0817
SW
3647 histogram logs contain 1216 latency bins. See :option:`write_hist_log`
3648 and `Log File Formats`_.
8b28bd41 3649
f80dba8d 3650.. option:: log_max_value=bool
66c098b8 3651
f80dba8d
MT
3652 If :option:`log_avg_msec` is set, fio logs the average over that window. If
3653 you instead want to log the maximum value, set this option to 1. Defaults to
3654 0, meaning that averaged values are logged.
a696fa2a 3655
589e88b7 3656.. option:: log_offset=bool
a696fa2a 3657
f80dba8d 3658 If this is set, the iolog options will include the byte offset for the I/O
5a83478f
SW
3659 entry as well as the other data values. Defaults to 0 meaning that
3660 offsets are not present in logs. Also see `Log File Formats`_.
71bfa161 3661
f80dba8d 3662.. option:: log_compression=int
7de87099 3663
f80dba8d
MT
3664 If this is set, fio will compress the I/O logs as it goes, to keep the
3665 memory footprint lower. When a log reaches the specified size, that chunk is
3666 removed and compressed in the background. Given that I/O logs are fairly
3667 highly compressible, this yields a nice memory savings for longer runs. The
3668 downside is that the compression will consume some background CPU cycles, so
3669 it may impact the run. This, however, is also true if the logging ends up
3670 consuming most of the system memory. So pick your poison. The I/O logs are
3671 saved normally at the end of a run, by decompressing the chunks and storing
3672 them in the specified log file. This feature depends on the availability of
3673 zlib.
e0b0d892 3674
f80dba8d 3675.. option:: log_compression_cpus=str
e0b0d892 3676
f80dba8d
MT
3677 Define the set of CPUs that are allowed to handle online log compression for
3678 the I/O jobs. This can provide better isolation between performance
0cf90a62
SW
3679 sensitive jobs, and background compression work. See
3680 :option:`cpus_allowed` for the format used.
9e684a49 3681
f80dba8d 3682.. option:: log_store_compressed=bool
9e684a49 3683
f80dba8d
MT
3684 If set, fio will store the log files in a compressed format. They can be
3685 decompressed with fio, using the :option:`--inflate-log` command line
3686 parameter. The files will be stored with a :file:`.fz` suffix.
9e684a49 3687
f80dba8d 3688.. option:: log_unix_epoch=bool
9e684a49 3689
f80dba8d
MT
3690 If set, fio will log Unix timestamps to the log files produced by enabling
3691 write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3692 timestamps.
3693
d5b3cfd4 3694.. option:: log_alternate_epoch=bool
3695
3696 If set, fio will log timestamps based on the epoch used by the clock specified
3697 in the log_alternate_epoch_clock_id option, to the log files produced by
3698 enabling write_type_log for each log type, instead of the default zero-based
3699 timestamps.
3700
3701.. option:: log_alternate_epoch_clock_id=int
3702
3703 Specifies the clock_id to be used by clock_gettime to obtain the alternate epoch
3704 if either log_unix_epoch or log_alternate_epoch are true. Otherwise has no
3705 effect. Default value is 0, or CLOCK_REALTIME.
3706
f80dba8d
MT
3707.. option:: block_error_percentiles=bool
3708
3709 If set, record errors in trim block-sized units from writes and trims and
3710 output a histogram of how many trims it took to get to errors, and what kind
3711 of error was encountered.
3712
3713.. option:: bwavgtime=int
3714
3715 Average the calculated bandwidth over the given time. Value is specified in
3716 milliseconds. If the job also does bandwidth logging through
3717 :option:`write_bw_log`, then the minimum of this option and
3718 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
3719
3720.. option:: iopsavgtime=int
3721
3722 Average the calculated IOPS over the given time. Value is specified in
3723 milliseconds. If the job also does IOPS logging through
3724 :option:`write_iops_log`, then the minimum of this option and
3725 :option:`log_avg_msec` will be used. Default: 500ms.
3726
3727.. option:: disk_util=bool
3728
3729 Generate disk utilization statistics, if the platform supports it.
3730 Default: true.
3731
3732.. option:: disable_lat=bool
3733
3734 Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting back
3735 the number of calls to :manpage:`gettimeofday(2)`, as that does impact
3736 performance at really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a
3737 large amount of these calls, this option must be used with
f75ede1d 3738 :option:`disable_slat` and :option:`disable_bw_measurement` as well.
f80dba8d
MT
3739
3740.. option:: disable_clat=bool
3741
3742 Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See
3743 :option:`disable_lat`.
3744
3745.. option:: disable_slat=bool
3746
3747 Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See
f50fbdda 3748 :option:`disable_lat`.
f80dba8d 3749
f75ede1d 3750.. option:: disable_bw_measurement=bool, disable_bw=bool
f80dba8d
MT
3751
3752 Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See
3753 :option:`disable_lat`.
3754
dd39b9ce
VF
3755.. option:: slat_percentiles=bool
3756
3757 Report submission latency percentiles. Submission latency is not recorded
3758 for synchronous ioengines.
3759
f80dba8d
MT
3760.. option:: clat_percentiles=bool
3761
dd39b9ce 3762 Report completion latency percentiles.
b599759b
JA
3763
3764.. option:: lat_percentiles=bool
3765
dd39b9ce
VF
3766 Report total latency percentiles. Total latency is the sum of submission
3767 latency and completion latency.
f80dba8d
MT
3768
3769.. option:: percentile_list=float_list
3770
dd39b9ce
VF
3771 Overwrite the default list of percentiles for latencies and the block error
3772 histogram. Each number is a floating point number in the range (0,100], and
3773 the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ``:`` to separate the numbers. For
c32ba107 3774 example, ``--percentile_list=99.5:99.9`` will cause fio to report the
dd39b9ce
VF
3775 latency durations below which 99.5% and 99.9% of the observed latencies fell,
3776 respectively.
f80dba8d 3777
e883cb35
JF
3778.. option:: significant_figures=int
3779
c32ba107
JA
3780 If using :option:`--output-format` of `normal`, set the significant
3781 figures to this value. Higher values will yield more precise IOPS and
3782 throughput units, while lower values will round. Requires a minimum
3783 value of 1 and a maximum value of 10. Defaults to 4.
e883cb35 3784
f80dba8d
MT
3785
3786Error handling
3787~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3788
3789.. option:: exitall_on_error
3790
3791 When one job finishes in error, terminate the rest. The default is to wait
3792 for each job to finish.
3793
3794.. option:: continue_on_error=str
3795
3796 Normally fio will exit the job on the first observed failure. If this option
3797 is set, fio will continue the job when there is a 'non-fatal error' (EIO or
3798 EILSEQ) until the runtime is exceeded or the I/O size specified is
3799 completed. If this option is used, there are two more stats that are
3800 appended, the total error count and the first error. The error field given
3801 in the stats is the first error that was hit during the run.
3802
3803 The allowed values are:
3804
3805 **none**
3806 Exit on any I/O or verify errors.
3807
3808 **read**
3809 Continue on read errors, exit on all others.
3810
3811 **write**
3812 Continue on write errors, exit on all others.
3813
3814 **io**
3815 Continue on any I/O error, exit on all others.
3816
3817 **verify**
3818 Continue on verify errors, exit on all others.
3819
3820 **all**
3821 Continue on all errors.
3822
3823 **0**
3824 Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
3825
3826 **1**
3827 Backward-compatible alias for 'all'.
3828
3829.. option:: ignore_error=str
3830
3831 Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can
a35ef7cb
TK
3832 specify error list for each error type, instead of only being able to
3833 ignore the default 'non-fatal error' using :option:`continue_on_error`.
f80dba8d
MT
3834 ``ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST`` errors for
3835 given error type is separated with ':'. Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC',
3836 'ENOMEM') or integer. Example::
3837
3838 ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122
3839
3840 This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from
a35ef7cb
TK
3841 WRITE. This option works by overriding :option:`continue_on_error` with
3842 the list of errors for each error type if any.
f80dba8d
MT
3843
3844.. option:: error_dump=bool
3845
3846 If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If
3847 disabled only fatal error will be dumped.
3848
f75ede1d
SW
3849Running predefined workloads
3850----------------------------
3851
3852Fio includes predefined profiles that mimic the I/O workloads generated by
3853other tools.
3854
3855.. option:: profile=str
3856
3857 The predefined workload to run. Current profiles are:
3858
3859 **tiobench**
3860 Threaded I/O bench (tiotest/tiobench) like workload.
3861
3862 **act**
3863 Aerospike Certification Tool (ACT) like workload.
3864
3865To view a profile's additional options use :option:`--cmdhelp` after specifying
3866the profile. For example::
3867
f50fbdda 3868 $ fio --profile=act --cmdhelp
f75ede1d
SW
3869
3870Act profile options
3871~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3872
3873.. option:: device-names=str
3874 :noindex:
3875
3876 Devices to use.
3877
3878.. option:: load=int
3879 :noindex:
3880
3881 ACT load multiplier. Default: 1.
3882
3883.. option:: test-duration=time
3884 :noindex:
3885
947e0fe0
SW
3886 How long the entire test takes to run. When the unit is omitted, the value
3887 is given in seconds. Default: 24h.
f75ede1d
SW
3888
3889.. option:: threads-per-queue=int
3890 :noindex:
3891
f50fbdda 3892 Number of read I/O threads per device. Default: 8.
f75ede1d
SW
3893
3894.. option:: read-req-num-512-blocks=int
3895 :noindex:
3896
3897 Number of 512B blocks to read at the time. Default: 3.
3898
3899.. option:: large-block-op-kbytes=int
3900 :noindex:
3901
3902 Size of large block ops in KiB (writes). Default: 131072.
3903
3904.. option:: prep
3905 :noindex:
3906
3907 Set to run ACT prep phase.
3908
3909Tiobench profile options
3910~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3911
3912.. option:: size=str
3913 :noindex:
3914
f50fbdda 3915 Size in MiB.
f75ede1d
SW
3916
3917.. option:: block=int
3918 :noindex:
3919
3920 Block size in bytes. Default: 4096.
3921
3922.. option:: numruns=int
3923 :noindex:
3924
3925 Number of runs.
3926
3927.. option:: dir=str
3928 :noindex:
3929
3930 Test directory.
3931
3932.. option:: threads=int
3933 :noindex:
3934
3935 Number of threads.
f80dba8d
MT
3936
3937Interpreting the output
3938-----------------------
3939
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3940..
3941 Example output was based on the following:
3942 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --time_based \
3943 --rate=1256k --bs=14K --name=quick --runtime=1s --name=mixed \
3944 --runtime=2m --rw=rw
3945
f80dba8d
MT
3946Fio spits out a lot of output. While running, fio will display the status of the
3947jobs created. An example of that would be::
3948
9d25d068 3949 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 3950
36214730
SW
3951The characters inside the first set of square brackets denote the current status of
3952each thread. The first character is the first job defined in the job file, and so
3953forth. The possible values (in typical life cycle order) are:
f80dba8d
MT
3954
3955+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3956| Idle | Run | |
3957+======+=====+===========================================================+
3958| P | | Thread setup, but not started. |
3959+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3960| C | | Thread created. |
3961+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3962| I | | Thread initialized, waiting or generating necessary data. |
3963+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3964| | p | Thread running pre-reading file(s). |
3965+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
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SW
3966| | / | Thread is in ramp period. |
3967+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
f80dba8d
MT
3968| | R | Running, doing sequential reads. |
3969+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3970| | r | Running, doing random reads. |
3971+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3972| | W | Running, doing sequential writes. |
3973+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3974| | w | Running, doing random writes. |
3975+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3976| | M | Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes. |
3977+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3978| | m | Running, doing mixed random reads/writes. |
3979+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
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SW
3980| | D | Running, doing sequential trims. |
3981+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3982| | d | Running, doing random trims. |
3983+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3984| | F | Running, currently waiting for :manpage:`fsync(2)`. |
f80dba8d
MT
3985+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3986| | V | Running, doing verification of written data. |
3987+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730
SW
3988| f | | Thread finishing. |
3989+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
f80dba8d
MT
3990| E | | Thread exited, not reaped by main thread yet. |
3991+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
36214730 3992| _ | | Thread reaped. |
f80dba8d
MT
3993+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3994| X | | Thread reaped, exited with an error. |
3995+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3996| K | | Thread reaped, exited due to signal. |
3997+------+-----+-----------------------------------------------------------+
3998
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3999..
4000 Example output was based on the following:
4001 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=8 --ioengine=null --size=100M --runtime=58m \
4002 --time_based --rate=2512k --bs=256K --numjobs=10 \
4003 --name=readers --rw=read --name=writers --rw=write
4004
f80dba8d 4005Fio will condense the thread string as not to take up more space on the command
36214730 4006line than needed. For instance, if you have 10 readers and 10 writers running,
f80dba8d
MT
4007the output would look like this::
4008
9d25d068 4009 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 4010
36214730
SW
4011Note that the status string is displayed in order, so it's possible to tell which of
4012the jobs are currently doing what. In the example above this means that jobs 1--10
4013are readers and 11--20 are writers.
f80dba8d
MT
4014
4015The other values are fairly self explanatory -- number of threads currently
36214730
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4016running and doing I/O, the number of currently open files (f=), the estimated
4017completion percentage, the rate of I/O since last check (read speed listed first,
f50fbdda
TK
4018then write speed and optionally trim speed) in terms of bandwidth and IOPS,
4019and time to completion for the current running group. It's impossible to estimate
4020runtime of the following groups (if any).
36214730
SW
4021
4022..
4023 Example output was based on the following:
4024 TZ=UTC fio --iodepth=16 --ioengine=posixaio --filename=/tmp/fiofile \
4025 --direct=1 --size=100M --time_based --runtime=50s --rate_iops=89 \
4026 --bs=7K --name=Client1 --rw=write
4027
4028When fio is done (or interrupted by :kbd:`Ctrl-C`), it will show the data for
4029each thread, group of threads, and disks in that order. For each overall thread (or
4030group) the output looks like::
4031
4032 Client1: (groupid=0, jobs=1): err= 0: pid=16109: Sat Jun 24 12:07:54 2017
4033 write: IOPS=88, BW=623KiB/s (638kB/s)(30.4MiB/50032msec)
4034 slat (nsec): min=500, max=145500, avg=8318.00, stdev=4781.50
4035 clat (usec): min=170, max=78367, avg=4019.02, stdev=8293.31
4036 lat (usec): min=174, max=78375, avg=4027.34, stdev=8291.79
4037 clat percentiles (usec):
4038 | 1.00th=[ 302], 5.00th=[ 326], 10.00th=[ 343], 20.00th=[ 363],
4039 | 30.00th=[ 392], 40.00th=[ 404], 50.00th=[ 416], 60.00th=[ 445],
4040 | 70.00th=[ 816], 80.00th=[ 6718], 90.00th=[12911], 95.00th=[21627],
4041 | 99.00th=[43779], 99.50th=[51643], 99.90th=[68682], 99.95th=[72877],
4042 | 99.99th=[78119]
4043 bw ( KiB/s): min= 532, max= 686, per=0.10%, avg=622.87, stdev=24.82, samples= 100
4044 iops : min= 76, max= 98, avg=88.98, stdev= 3.54, samples= 100
29092211
VF
4045 lat (usec) : 250=0.04%, 500=64.11%, 750=4.81%, 1000=2.79%
4046 lat (msec) : 2=4.16%, 4=1.84%, 10=4.90%, 20=11.33%, 50=5.37%
4047 lat (msec) : 100=0.65%
36214730
SW
4048 cpu : usr=0.27%, sys=0.18%, ctx=12072, majf=0, minf=21
4049 IO depths : 1=85.0%, 2=13.1%, 4=1.8%, 8=0.1%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4050 submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4051 complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
4052 issued rwt: total=0,4450,0, short=0,0,0, dropped=0,0,0
4053 latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=8
4054
4055The job name (or first job's name when using :option:`group_reporting`) is printed,
4056along with the group id, count of jobs being aggregated, last error id seen (which
4057is 0 when there are no errors), pid/tid of that thread and the time the job/group
4058completed. Below are the I/O statistics for each data direction performed (showing
4059writes in the example above). In the order listed, they denote:
4060
4061**read/write/trim**
4062 The string before the colon shows the I/O direction the statistics
4063 are for. **IOPS** is the average I/Os performed per second. **BW**
4064 is the average bandwidth rate shown as: value in power of 2 format
4065 (value in power of 10 format). The last two values show: (**total
4066 I/O performed** in power of 2 format / **runtime** of that thread).
f80dba8d
MT
4067
4068**slat**
36214730
SW
4069 Submission latency (**min** being the minimum, **max** being the
4070 maximum, **avg** being the average, **stdev** being the standard
4071 deviation). This is the time it took to submit the I/O. For
4072 sync I/O this row is not displayed as the slat is really the
4073 completion latency (since queue/complete is one operation there).
4074 This value can be in nanoseconds, microseconds or milliseconds ---
4075 fio will choose the most appropriate base and print that (in the
4076 example above nanoseconds was the best scale). Note: in :option:`--minimal` mode
0d237712 4077 latencies are always expressed in microseconds.
f80dba8d
MT
4078
4079**clat**
4080 Completion latency. Same names as slat, this denotes the time from
4081 submission to completion of the I/O pieces. For sync I/O, clat will
4082 usually be equal (or very close) to 0, as the time from submit to
4083 complete is basically just CPU time (I/O has already been done, see slat
4084 explanation).
4085
29092211
VF
4086**lat**
4087 Total latency. Same names as slat and clat, this denotes the time from
4088 when fio created the I/O unit to completion of the I/O operation.
4089
f80dba8d 4090**bw**
36214730
SW
4091 Bandwidth statistics based on samples. Same names as the xlat stats,
4092 but also includes the number of samples taken (**samples**) and an
4093 approximate percentage of total aggregate bandwidth this thread
4094 received in its group (**per**). This last value is only really
4095 useful if the threads in this group are on the same disk, since they
4096 are then competing for disk access.
4097
4098**iops**
4099 IOPS statistics based on samples. Same names as bw.
f80dba8d 4100
29092211
VF
4101**lat (nsec/usec/msec)**
4102 The distribution of I/O completion latencies. This is the time from when
4103 I/O leaves fio and when it gets completed. Unlike the separate
4104 read/write/trim sections above, the data here and in the remaining
4105 sections apply to all I/Os for the reporting group. 250=0.04% means that
4106 0.04% of the I/Os completed in under 250us. 500=64.11% means that 64.11%
4107 of the I/Os required 250 to 499us for completion.
4108
f80dba8d
MT
4109**cpu**
4110 CPU usage. User and system time, along with the number of context
4111 switches this thread went through, usage of system and user time, and
4112 finally the number of major and minor page faults. The CPU utilization
4113 numbers are averages for the jobs in that reporting group, while the
23a8e176 4114 context and fault counters are summed.
f80dba8d
MT
4115
4116**IO depths**
a2140525
SW
4117 The distribution of I/O depths over the job lifetime. The numbers are
4118 divided into powers of 2 and each entry covers depths from that value
4119 up to those that are lower than the next entry -- e.g., 16= covers
4120 depths from 16 to 31. Note that the range covered by a depth
4121 distribution entry can be different to the range covered by the
4122 equivalent submit/complete distribution entry.
f80dba8d
MT
4123
4124**IO submit**
4125 How many pieces of I/O were submitting in a single submit call. Each
c60ebc45 4126 entry denotes that amount and below, until the previous entry -- e.g.,
a2140525
SW
4127 16=100% means that we submitted anywhere between 9 to 16 I/Os per submit
4128 call. Note that the range covered by a submit distribution entry can
4129 be different to the range covered by the equivalent depth distribution
4130 entry.
f80dba8d
MT
4131
4132**IO complete**
4133 Like the above submit number, but for completions instead.
4134
36214730
SW
4135**IO issued rwt**
4136 The number of read/write/trim requests issued, and how many of them were
4137 short or dropped.
f80dba8d 4138
29092211 4139**IO latency**
ee21ebee 4140 These values are for :option:`latency_target` and related options. When
29092211
VF
4141 these options are engaged, this section describes the I/O depth required
4142 to meet the specified latency target.
71bfa161 4143
36214730
SW
4144..
4145 Example output was based on the following:
4146 TZ=UTC fio --ioengine=null --iodepth=2 --size=100M --numjobs=2 \
4147 --rate_process=poisson --io_limit=32M --name=read --bs=128k \
4148 --rate=11M --name=write --rw=write --bs=2k --rate=700k
4149
71bfa161 4150After each client has been listed, the group statistics are printed. They
f80dba8d 4151will look like this::
71bfa161 4152
f80dba8d 4153 Run status group 0 (all jobs):
36214730
SW
4154 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
4155 WRITE: bw=1231KiB/s (1261kB/s), 616KiB/s-621KiB/s (630kB/s-636kB/s), io=64.0MiB (67.1MB), run=52747-53223msec
71bfa161 4156
36214730 4157For each data direction it prints:
71bfa161 4158
36214730
SW
4159**bw**
4160 Aggregate bandwidth of threads in this group followed by the
4161 minimum and maximum bandwidth of all the threads in this group.
4162 Values outside of brackets are power-of-2 format and those
4163 within are the equivalent value in a power-of-10 format.
f80dba8d 4164**io**
36214730
SW
4165 Aggregate I/O performed of all threads in this group. The
4166 format is the same as bw.
4167**run**
4168 The smallest and longest runtimes of the threads in this group.
71bfa161 4169
f50fbdda 4170And finally, the disk statistics are printed. This is Linux specific. They will look like this::
71bfa161 4171
f80dba8d
MT
4172 Disk stats (read/write):
4173 sda: ios=16398/16511, merge=30/162, ticks=6853/819634, in_queue=826487, util=100.00%
71bfa161
JA
4174
4175Each value is printed for both reads and writes, with reads first. The
4176numbers denote:
4177
f80dba8d 4178**ios**
c60ebc45 4179 Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
f80dba8d 4180**merge**
007c7be9 4181 Number of merges performed by the I/O scheduler.
f80dba8d
MT
4182**ticks**
4183 Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
36214730 4184**in_queue**
f80dba8d
MT
4185 Total time spent in the disk queue.
4186**util**
4187 The disk utilization. A value of 100% means we kept the disk
71bfa161
JA
4188 busy constantly, 50% would be a disk idling half of the time.
4189
f80dba8d
MT
4190It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is running,
4191without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the **USR1** signal. You can
4192also get regularly timed dumps by using the :option:`--status-interval`
4193parameter, or by creating a file in :file:`/tmp` named
4194:file:`fio-dump-status`. If fio sees this file, it will unlink it and dump the
4195current output status.
8423bd11 4196
71bfa161 4197
f80dba8d
MT
4198Terse output
4199------------
71bfa161 4200
f80dba8d
MT
4201For scripted usage where you typically want to generate tables or graphs of the
4202results, fio can output the results in a semicolon separated format. The format
4203is one long line of values, such as::
71bfa161 4204
f80dba8d
MT
4205 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%
4206 A description of this job goes here.
562c2d2f 4207
4e757af1
VF
4208The job description (if provided) follows on a second line for terse v2.
4209It appears on the same line for other terse versions.
71bfa161 4210
a7f77fa6
SW
4211To enable terse output, use the :option:`--minimal` or
4212:option:`--output-format`\=terse command line options. The
f80dba8d
MT
4213first value is the version of the terse output format. If the output has to be
4214changed for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
4215change.
6820cb3b 4216
a2c95580 4217Split up, the format is as follows (comments in brackets denote when a
007c7be9 4218field was introduced or whether it's specific to some terse version):
71bfa161 4219
f80dba8d
MT
4220 ::
4221
f50fbdda 4222 terse version, fio version [v3], jobname, groupid, error
f80dba8d
MT
4223
4224 READ status::
4225
4226 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4227 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4228 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
4229 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4230 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
f50fbdda
TK
4231 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4232 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
f80dba8d
MT
4233
4234 WRITE status:
4235
4236 ::
4237
4238 Total IO (KiB), bandwidth (KiB/sec), IOPS, runtime (msec)
4239 Submission latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
247823cc 4240 Completion latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
f80dba8d
MT
4241 Completion latency percentiles: 20 fields (see below)
4242 Total latency: min, max, mean, stdev (usec)
f50fbdda
TK
4243 Bw (KiB/s): min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, stdev, number of samples [v5]
4244 IOPS [v5]: min, max, mean, stdev, number of samples
a2c95580
AH
4245
4246 TRIM status [all but version 3]:
4247
f50fbdda 4248 Fields are similar to READ/WRITE status.
f80dba8d
MT
4249
4250 CPU usage::
4251
4252 user, system, context switches, major faults, minor faults
4253
4254 I/O depths::
4255
4256 <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
4257
4258 I/O latencies microseconds::
4259
4260 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
4261
4262 I/O latencies milliseconds::
4263
4264 <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
4265
a2c95580 4266 Disk utilization [v3]::
f80dba8d 4267
f50fbdda
TK
4268 disk name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks,
4269 time spent in queue, disk utilization percentage
f80dba8d
MT
4270
4271 Additional Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off)::
4272
4273 total # errors, first error code
4274
4275 Additional Info (dependent on description being set)::
4276
4277 Text description
4278
4279Completion latency percentiles can be a grouping of up to 20 sets, so for the
4280terse output fio writes all of them. Each field will look like this::
1db92cb6 4281
f50fbdda 4282 1.00%=6112
1db92cb6 4283
f80dba8d 4284which is the Xth percentile, and the `usec` latency associated with it.
1db92cb6 4285
f50fbdda 4286For `Disk utilization`, all disks used by fio are shown. So for each disk there
f80dba8d 4287will be a disk utilization section.
f2f788dd 4288
2fc26c3d 4289Below is a single line containing short names for each of the fields in the
2831be97 4290minimal output v3, separated by semicolons::
2fc26c3d 4291
f95689d3 4292 terse_version_3;fio_version;jobname;groupid;error;read_kb;read_bandwidth_kb;read_iops;read_runtime_ms;read_slat_min_us;read_slat_max_us;read_slat_mean_us;read_slat_dev_us;read_clat_min_us;read_clat_max_us;read_clat_mean_us;read_clat_dev_us;read_clat_pct01;read_clat_pct02;read_clat_pct03;read_clat_pct04;read_clat_pct05;read_clat_pct06;read_clat_pct07;read_clat_pct08;read_clat_pct09;read_clat_pct10;read_clat_pct11;read_clat_pct12;read_clat_pct13;read_clat_pct14;read_clat_pct15;read_clat_pct16;read_clat_pct17;read_clat_pct18;read_clat_pct19;read_clat_pct20;read_tlat_min_us;read_lat_max_us;read_lat_mean_us;read_lat_dev_us;read_bw_min_kb;read_bw_max_kb;read_bw_agg_pct;read_bw_mean_kb;read_bw_dev_kb;write_kb;write_bandwidth_kb;write_iops;write_runtime_ms;write_slat_min_us;write_slat_max_us;write_slat_mean_us;write_slat_dev_us;write_clat_min_us;write_clat_max_us;write_clat_mean_us;write_clat_dev_us;write_clat_pct01;write_clat_pct02;write_clat_pct03;write_clat_pct04;write_clat_pct05;write_clat_pct06;write_clat_pct07;write_clat_pct08;write_clat_pct09;write_clat_pct10;write_clat_pct11;write_clat_pct12;write_clat_pct13;write_clat_pct14;write_clat_pct15;write_clat_pct16;write_clat_pct17;write_clat_pct18;write_clat_pct19;write_clat_pct20;write_tlat_min_us;write_lat_max_us;write_lat_mean_us;write_lat_dev_us;write_bw_min_kb;write_bw_max_kb;write_bw_agg_pct;write_bw_mean_kb;write_bw_dev_kb;cpu_user;cpu_sys;cpu_csw;cpu_mjf;cpu_minf;iodepth_1;iodepth_2;iodepth_4;iodepth_8;iodepth_16;iodepth_32;iodepth_64;lat_2us;lat_4us;lat_10us;lat_20us;lat_50us;lat_100us;lat_250us;lat_500us;lat_750us;lat_1000us;lat_2ms;lat_4ms;lat_10ms;lat_20ms;lat_50ms;lat_100ms;lat_250ms;lat_500ms;lat_750ms;lat_1000ms;lat_2000ms;lat_over_2000ms;disk_name;disk_read_iops;disk_write_iops;disk_read_merges;disk_write_merges;disk_read_ticks;write_ticks;disk_queue_time;disk_util
2fc26c3d 4293
4e757af1
VF
4294In client/server mode terse output differs from what appears when jobs are run
4295locally. Disk utilization data is omitted from the standard terse output and
4296for v3 and later appears on its own separate line at the end of each terse
4297reporting cycle.
4298
25c8b9d7 4299
44c82dba
VF
4300JSON output
4301------------
4302
4303The `json` output format is intended to be both human readable and convenient
4304for automated parsing. For the most part its sections mirror those of the
4305`normal` output. The `runtime` value is reported in msec and the `bw` value is
4306reported in 1024 bytes per second units.
4307
4308
d29c4a91
VF
4309JSON+ output
4310------------
4311
4312The `json+` output format is identical to the `json` output format except that it
4313adds a full dump of the completion latency bins. Each `bins` object contains a
4314set of (key, value) pairs where keys are latency durations and values count how
4315many I/Os had completion latencies of the corresponding duration. For example,
4316consider:
4317
4318 "bins" : { "87552" : 1, "89600" : 1, "94720" : 1, "96768" : 1, "97792" : 1, "99840" : 1, "100864" : 2, "103936" : 6, "104960" : 534, "105984" : 5995, "107008" : 7529, ... }
4319
4320This data indicates that one I/O required 87,552ns to complete, two I/Os required
4321100,864ns to complete, and 7529 I/Os required 107,008ns to complete.
4322
4323Also included with fio is a Python script `fio_jsonplus_clat2csv` that takes
4324json+ output and generates CSV-formatted latency data suitable for plotting.
4325
4326The latency durations actually represent the midpoints of latency intervals.
f50fbdda 4327For details refer to :file:`stat.h`.
d29c4a91
VF
4328
4329
f80dba8d
MT
4330Trace file format
4331-----------------
4332
4333There are two trace file format that you can encounter. The older (v1) format is
4334unsupported since version 1.20-rc3 (March 2008). It will still be described
25c8b9d7
PD
4335below in case that you get an old trace and want to understand it.
4336
4337In any case the trace is a simple text file with a single action per line.
4338
4339
f80dba8d
MT
4340Trace file format v1
4341~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4342
4343Each line represents a single I/O action in the following format::
4344
4345 rw, offset, length
25c8b9d7 4346
f50fbdda 4347where `rw=0/1` for read/write, and the `offset` and `length` entries being in bytes.
25c8b9d7 4348
22413915 4349This format is not supported in fio versions >= 1.20-rc3.
25c8b9d7 4350
25c8b9d7 4351
f80dba8d
MT
4352Trace file format v2
4353~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25c8b9d7 4354
f80dba8d
MT
4355The second version of the trace file format was added in fio version 1.17. It
4356allows to access more then one file per trace and has a bigger set of possible
4357file actions.
25c8b9d7 4358
f80dba8d 4359The first line of the trace file has to be::
25c8b9d7 4360
f80dba8d 4361 fio version 2 iolog
25c8b9d7
PD
4362
4363Following this can be lines in two different formats, which are described below.
4364
f80dba8d 4365The file management format::
25c8b9d7 4366
f80dba8d 4367 filename action
25c8b9d7 4368
f50fbdda 4369The `filename` is given as an absolute path. The `action` can be one of these:
25c8b9d7 4370
f80dba8d 4371**add**
f50fbdda 4372 Add the given `filename` to the trace.
f80dba8d 4373**open**
f50fbdda 4374 Open the file with the given `filename`. The `filename` has to have
f80dba8d
MT
4375 been added with the **add** action before.
4376**close**
f50fbdda 4377 Close the file with the given `filename`. The file has to have been
f80dba8d
MT
4378 opened before.
4379
4380
4381The file I/O action format::
4382
4383 filename action offset length
4384
4385The `filename` is given as an absolute path, and has to have been added and
4386opened before it can be used with this format. The `offset` and `length` are
4387given in bytes. The `action` can be one of these:
4388
4389**wait**
4390 Wait for `offset` microseconds. Everything below 100 is discarded.
4391 The time is relative to the previous `wait` statement.
4392**read**
4393 Read `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
4394**write**
4395 Write `length` bytes beginning from `offset`.
4396**sync**
4397 :manpage:`fsync(2)` the file.
4398**datasync**
4399 :manpage:`fdatasync(2)` the file.
4400**trim**
4401 Trim the given file from the given `offset` for `length` bytes.
4402
b9921d1a
DZ
4403
4404I/O Replay - Merging Traces
4405---------------------------
4406
4407Colocation is a common practice used to get the most out of a machine.
4408Knowing which workloads play nicely with each other and which ones don't is
4409a much harder task. While fio can replay workloads concurrently via multiple
4410jobs, it leaves some variability up to the scheduler making results harder to
4411reproduce. Merging is a way to make the order of events consistent.
4412
4413Merging is integrated into I/O replay and done when a
4414:option:`merge_blktrace_file` is specified. The list of files passed to
4415:option:`read_iolog` go through the merge process and output a single file
4416stored to the specified file. The output file is passed on as if it were the
4417only file passed to :option:`read_iolog`. An example would look like::
4418
4419 $ fio --read_iolog="<file1>:<file2>" --merge_blktrace_file="<output_file>"
4420
4421Creating only the merged file can be done by passing the command line argument
d443e3af 4422:option:`--merge-blktrace-only`.
b9921d1a 4423
87a48ada
DZ
4424Scaling traces can be done to see the relative impact of any particular trace
4425being slowed down or sped up. :option:`merge_blktrace_scalars` takes in a colon
4426separated list of percentage scalars. It is index paired with the files passed
4427to :option:`read_iolog`.
4428
55bfd8c8
DZ
4429With scaling, it may be desirable to match the running time of all traces.
4430This can be done with :option:`merge_blktrace_iters`. It is index paired with
4431:option:`read_iolog` just like :option:`merge_blktrace_scalars`.
4432
4433In an example, given two traces, A and B, each 60s long. If we want to see
4434the impact of trace A issuing IOs twice as fast and repeat trace A over the
4435runtime of trace B, the following can be done::
4436
4437 $ fio --read_iolog="<trace_a>:"<trace_b>" --merge_blktrace_file"<output_file>" --merge_blktrace_scalars="50:100" --merge_blktrace_iters="2:1"
4438
4439This runs trace A at 2x the speed twice for approximately the same runtime as
4440a single run of trace B.
4441
b9921d1a 4442
f80dba8d
MT
4443CPU idleness profiling
4444----------------------
4445
4446In some cases, we want to understand CPU overhead in a test. For example, we
4447test patches for the specific goodness of whether they reduce CPU usage.
4448Fio implements a balloon approach to create a thread per CPU that runs at idle
4449priority, meaning that it only runs when nobody else needs the cpu.
4450By measuring the amount of work completed by the thread, idleness of each CPU
4451can be derived accordingly.
4452
4453An unit work is defined as touching a full page of unsigned characters. Mean and
4454standard deviation of time to complete an unit work is reported in "unit work"
4455section. Options can be chosen to report detailed percpu idleness or overall
4456system idleness by aggregating percpu stats.
4457
4458
4459Verification and triggers
4460-------------------------
4461
4462Fio is usually run in one of two ways, when data verification is done. The first
4463is a normal write job of some sort with verify enabled. When the write phase has
4464completed, fio switches to reads and verifies everything it wrote. The second
4465model is running just the write phase, and then later on running the same job
4466(but with reads instead of writes) to repeat the same I/O patterns and verify
4467the contents. Both of these methods depend on the write phase being completed,
4468as fio otherwise has no idea how much data was written.
4469
4470With verification triggers, fio supports dumping the current write state to
4471local files. Then a subsequent read verify workload can load this state and know
4472exactly where to stop. This is useful for testing cases where power is cut to a
4473server in a managed fashion, for instance.
99b9a85a
JA
4474
4475A verification trigger consists of two things:
4476
f80dba8d
MT
44771) Storing the write state of each job.
44782) Executing a trigger command.
99b9a85a 4479
f80dba8d
MT
4480The write state is relatively small, on the order of hundreds of bytes to single
4481kilobytes. It contains information on the number of completions done, the last X
4482completions, etc.
99b9a85a 4483
f80dba8d
MT
4484A trigger is invoked either through creation ('touch') of a specified file in
4485the system, or through a timeout setting. If fio is run with
9207a0cb 4486:option:`--trigger-file`\= :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`, then it will continually
f80dba8d
MT
4487check for the existence of :file:`/tmp/trigger-file`. When it sees this file, it
4488will fire off the trigger (thus saving state, and executing the trigger
99b9a85a
JA
4489command).
4490
f80dba8d
MT
4491For client/server runs, there's both a local and remote trigger. If fio is
4492running as a server backend, it will send the job states back to the client for
4493safe storage, then execute the remote trigger, if specified. If a local trigger
4494is specified, the server will still send back the write state, but the client
4495will then execute the trigger.
99b9a85a 4496
f80dba8d
MT
4497Verification trigger example
4498~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
99b9a85a 4499
f50fbdda
TK
4500Let's say we want to run a powercut test on the remote Linux machine 'server'.
4501Our write workload is in :file:`write-test.fio`. We want to cut power to 'server' at
f80dba8d
MT
4502some point during the run, and we'll run this test from the safety or our local
4503machine, 'localbox'. On the server, we'll start the fio backend normally::
99b9a85a 4504
f80dba8d 4505 server# fio --server
99b9a85a 4506
f80dba8d 4507and on the client, we'll fire off the workload::
99b9a85a 4508
f80dba8d 4509 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger-remote="bash -c \"echo b > /proc/sysrq-triger\""
99b9a85a 4510
f80dba8d 4511We set :file:`/tmp/my-trigger` as the trigger file, and we tell fio to execute::
99b9a85a 4512
f80dba8d 4513 echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger
99b9a85a 4514
f80dba8d
MT
4515on the server once it has received the trigger and sent us the write state. This
4516will work, but it's not **really** cutting power to the server, it's merely
4517abruptly rebooting it. If we have a remote way of cutting power to the server
4518through IPMI or similar, we could do that through a local trigger command
4502cb42 4519instead. Let's assume we have a script that does IPMI reboot of a given hostname,
f80dba8d
MT
4520ipmi-reboot. On localbox, we could then have run fio with a local trigger
4521instead::
99b9a85a 4522
f80dba8d 4523 localbox$ fio --client=server --trigger-file=/tmp/my-trigger --trigger="ipmi-reboot server"
99b9a85a 4524
f80dba8d
MT
4525For this case, fio would wait for the server to send us the write state, then
4526execute ``ipmi-reboot server`` when that happened.
4527
4528Loading verify state
4529~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4530
4502cb42 4531To load stored write state, a read verification job file must contain the
f80dba8d 4532:option:`verify_state_load` option. If that is set, fio will load the previously
99b9a85a 4533stored state. For a local fio run this is done by loading the files directly,
f80dba8d
MT
4534and on a client/server run, the server backend will ask the client to send the
4535files over and load them from there.
a3ae5b05
JA
4536
4537
f80dba8d
MT
4538Log File Formats
4539----------------
a3ae5b05
JA
4540
4541Fio supports a variety of log file formats, for logging latencies, bandwidth,
4542and IOPS. The logs share a common format, which looks like this:
4543
5a83478f 4544 *time* (`msec`), *value*, *data direction*, *block size* (`bytes`),
1a953d97 4545 *offset* (`bytes`), *command priority*
a3ae5b05 4546
5a83478f 4547*Time* for the log entry is always in milliseconds. The *value* logged depends
a3ae5b05
JA
4548on the type of log, it will be one of the following:
4549
f80dba8d 4550 **Latency log**
168bb587 4551 Value is latency in nsecs
f80dba8d
MT
4552 **Bandwidth log**
4553 Value is in KiB/sec
4554 **IOPS log**
4555 Value is IOPS
4556
4557*Data direction* is one of the following:
4558
4559 **0**
4560 I/O is a READ
4561 **1**
4562 I/O is a WRITE
4563 **2**
4564 I/O is a TRIM
4565
15417073
SW
4566The entry's *block size* is always in bytes. The *offset* is the position in bytes
4567from the start of the file for that particular I/O. The logging of the offset can be
5a83478f 4568toggled with :option:`log_offset`.
f80dba8d 4569
1a953d97
PC
4570*Command priority* is 0 for normal priority and 1 for high priority. This is controlled
4571by the ioengine specific :option:`cmdprio_percentage`.
4572
15417073
SW
4573Fio defaults to logging every individual I/O but when windowed logging is set
4574through :option:`log_avg_msec`, either the average (by default) or the maximum
4575(:option:`log_max_value` is set) *value* seen over the specified period of time
4576is recorded. Each *data direction* seen within the window period will aggregate
4577its values in a separate row. Further, when using windowed logging the *block
4578size* and *offset* entries will always contain 0.
f80dba8d 4579
4e757af1 4580
b8f7e412 4581Client/Server
f80dba8d
MT
4582-------------
4583
4584Normally fio is invoked as a stand-alone application on the machine where the
6cf30ac0
SW
4585I/O workload should be generated. However, the backend and frontend of fio can
4586be run separately i.e., the fio server can generate an I/O workload on the "Device
4587Under Test" while being controlled by a client on another machine.
f80dba8d
MT
4588
4589Start the server on the machine which has access to the storage DUT::
4590
f50fbdda 4591 $ fio --server=args
f80dba8d 4592
dbb257bb 4593where `args` defines what fio listens to. The arguments are of the form
f80dba8d
MT
4594``type,hostname`` or ``IP,port``. *type* is either ``ip`` (or ip4) for TCP/IP
4595v4, ``ip6`` for TCP/IP v6, or ``sock`` for a local unix domain socket.
4596*hostname* is either a hostname or IP address, and *port* is the port to listen
4597to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
4598
45991) ``fio --server``
4600
4601 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
4602
46032) ``fio --server=ip:hostname,4444``
4604
4605 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
4606
46073) ``fio --server=ip6:::1,4444``
4608
4609 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
4610
46114) ``fio --server=,4444``
4612
4613 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
4614
46155) ``fio --server=1.2.3.4``
4616
4617 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
4618
46196) ``fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock``
4620
dbb257bb 4621 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket :file:`/tmp/fio.sock`.
f80dba8d
MT
4622
4623Once a server is running, a "client" can connect to the fio server with::
4624
4625 fio <local-args> --client=<server> <remote-args> <job file(s)>
4626
4627where `local-args` are arguments for the client where it is running, `server`
4628is the connect string, and `remote-args` and `job file(s)` are sent to the
4629server. The `server` string follows the same format as it does on the server
4630side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
4631
4632Fio can connect to multiple servers this way::
4633
4634 fio --client=<server1> <job file(s)> --client=<server2> <job file(s)>
4635
4636If the job file is located on the fio server, then you can tell the server to
4637load a local file as well. This is done by using :option:`--remote-config` ::
4638
4639 fio --client=server --remote-config /path/to/file.fio
4640
4641Then fio will open this local (to the server) job file instead of being passed
4642one from the client.
4643
4644If you have many servers (example: 100 VMs/containers), you can input a pathname
4645of a file containing host IPs/names as the parameter value for the
4646:option:`--client` option. For example, here is an example :file:`host.list`
4647file containing 2 hostnames::
4648
4649 host1.your.dns.domain
4650 host2.your.dns.domain
4651
4652The fio command would then be::
a3ae5b05 4653
f80dba8d 4654 fio --client=host.list <job file(s)>
a3ae5b05 4655
f80dba8d
MT
4656In this mode, you cannot input server-specific parameters or job files -- all
4657servers receive the same job file.
a3ae5b05 4658
f80dba8d
MT
4659In order to let ``fio --client`` runs use a shared filesystem from multiple
4660hosts, ``fio --client`` now prepends the IP address of the server to the
4502cb42 4661filename. For example, if fio is using the directory :file:`/mnt/nfs/fio` and is
f80dba8d
MT
4662writing filename :file:`fileio.tmp`, with a :option:`--client` `hostfile`
4663containing two hostnames ``h1`` and ``h2`` with IP addresses 192.168.10.120 and
4664192.168.10.121, then fio will create two files::
a3ae5b05 4665
f80dba8d
MT
4666 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.120.fileio.tmp
4667 /mnt/nfs/fio/192.168.10.121.fileio.tmp
4e757af1
VF
4668
4669Terse output in client/server mode will differ slightly from what is produced
4670when fio is run in stand-alone mode. See the terse output section for details.