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1.TH fio 1 "September 2007" "User Manual"
2.SH NAME
3fio \- flexible I/O tester
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B fio
6[\fIoptions\fR] [\fIjobfile\fR]...
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B fio
9is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
10particular type of I/O action as specified by the user.
11The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the I/O load
12one wants to simulate.
13.SH OPTIONS
14.TP
15.BI \-\-debug \fR=\fPtype
16Enable verbose tracing of various fio actions. May be `all' for all types
17or individual types separated by a comma (eg \-\-debug=io,file). `help' will
18list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
21Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-runtime \fR=\fPruntime
24Limit run time to \fIruntime\fR seconds.
25.TP
26.B \-\-latency\-log
27Generate per-job latency logs.
28.TP
29.B \-\-bandwidth\-log
30Generate per-job bandwidth logs.
31.TP
32.B \-\-minimal
33Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
34.TP
35.B \-\-version
36Display version information and exit.
37.TP
38.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
39Set terse version output format (Current version 3, or older version 2).
40.TP
41.B \-\-help
42Display usage information and exit.
43.TP
44.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
45Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
46.TP
47.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fPioengine[,command]
48List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR defined by \fIioengine\fR.
49.TP
50.BI \-\-showcmd \fR=\fPjobfile
51Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command-line options.
52.TP
53.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
54Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
55be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
56.TP
57.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
58Force an ETA newline for every `time` period passed.
59.TP
60.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
61Report full output status every `time` period passed.
62.TP
63.BI \-\-readonly
64Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
65.TP
66.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
67Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. Multiple of these options can be given, adding more sections to run.
68.TP
69.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
70Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
71.TP
72.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
73All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
74.TP
75.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
76Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
77.TP
78.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
79Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
80.TP
81.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
82Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
83.TP
84.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
85Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host.
86.TP
87.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
88Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
89.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
90Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
91job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
92extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
93except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
94a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
95behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
96considered a comment and ignored.
97.P
98If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
99standard input.
100.SS "Global Section"
101The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
102job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
103and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
104may override any parameter set in global sections.
105.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
106.SS Types
107Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type. The types used are:
108.TP
109.I str
110String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
111.TP
112.I int
113SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
114of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
115kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
116respectively. The suffix is not case sensitive. If prefixed with '0x', the
117value is assumed to be base 16 (hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b',
118for instance 'kb' is identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value
119by using 'KiB', 'MiB', 'GiB', etc. This is useful for disk drives where
120values are often given in base 10 values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you
12130*1000^3 bytes.
122.TP
123.I bool
124Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
125.TP
126.I irange
127Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
128\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
129\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
130sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
131`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
132.TP
133.I float_list
134List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
135a ':' charcater.
136.SS "Parameter List"
137.TP
138.BI name \fR=\fPstr
139May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
140has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
141.TP
142.BI description \fR=\fPstr
143Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
144otherwise has no special purpose.
145.TP
146.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
147Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
148than `./'.
149.TP
150.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
151.B fio
152normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
153number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
154specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
155If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
156a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
157reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
158set.
159.TP
160.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
161If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
162fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
163based on the default file format specification of
164\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
165customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
166string:
167.RS
168.RS
169.TP
170.B $jobname
171The name of the worker thread or process.
172.TP
173.B $jobnum
174The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
175.TP
176.B $filenum
177The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
178.RE
179.P
180To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
181have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
182if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
183be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
184will be used if no other format specifier is given.
185.RE
186.P
187.TP
188.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
189Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
190file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
191result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
192The lock modes are:
193.RS
194.RS
195.TP
196.B none
197No locking. This is the default.
198.TP
199.B exclusive
200Only one thread or process may do IO at the time, excluding all others.
201.TP
202.B readwrite
203Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
204time, but writes get exclusive access.
205.RE
206.RE
207.P
208.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
209Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
210.TP
211.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
212Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
213.RS
214.RS
215.TP
216.B read
217Sequential reads.
218.TP
219.B write
220Sequential writes.
221.TP
222.B randread
223Random reads.
224.TP
225.B randwrite
226Random writes.
227.TP
228.B rw, readwrite
229Mixed sequential reads and writes.
230.TP
231.B randrw
232Mixed random reads and writes.
233.RE
234.P
235For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
236may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
237specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
238appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
239would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
240value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
241specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
242using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
243into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
244.RE
245.TP
246.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
247If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
248then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
249generated. Accepted values are:
250.RS
251.RS
252.TP
253.B sequential
254Generate sequential offset
255.TP
256.B identical
257Generate the same offset
258.RE
259.P
260\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
261generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
262would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
263only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
264that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
265would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
266fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
267new offset.
268.RE
269.P
270.TP
271.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
272The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
273manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
274reasons. Allow values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
275.TP
276.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
277Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
278read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
279set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
280.TP
281.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
282Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
283across runs. Default: true.
284.TP
285.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
286Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
287offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
288Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
289faster. Default: false.
290.TP
291.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
292Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
293are:
294.RS
295.RS
296.TP
297.B none
298Do not pre-allocate space.
299.TP
300.B posix
301Pre-allocate via posix_fallocate().
302.TP
303.B keep
304Pre-allocate via fallocate() with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
305.TP
306.B 0
307Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
308.TP
309.B 1
310Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
311.RE
312.P
313May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
314available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
315because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
316.RE
317.TP
318.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
319Use of \fIposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
320are likely to be issued. Default: true.
321.TP
322.BI size \fR=\fPint
323Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
324been transfered, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
325Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
326divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
327full size of the given files or devices. If the the files do not exist, size
328must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
329100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
330or devices.
331.TP
332.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
333Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
334device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
335For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
336the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
337since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
338writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
339.TP
340.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
341Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
342for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
343that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
344same size.
345.TP
346.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
347Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads, writes, and trims
348can be specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR,\fItrim\fR
349either of which may be empty to leave that value at its default. If a trailing
350comma isn't given, the remainder will inherit the last value set.
351.TP
352.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
353Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
354multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
355to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
356separately with a comma seperating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
357Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
358.TP
359.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
360This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
361not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
362block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
363block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
364optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
365Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
366blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
367splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
368\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
369comma.
370.TP
371.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
372If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
373work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
374.TP
375.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
376At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
377the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
378for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
379This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
380will turn off that option.
381.TP
382.BI bs_is_seq_rand \fR=\fPbool
383If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings as
384sequential,random instead. Any random read or write will use the WRITE
385blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will use the READ
386blocksize setting.
387.TP
388.B zero_buffers
389Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
390.TP
391.B refill_buffers
392If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
393default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
394if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
395refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
396.TP
397.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
398If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
399deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
400contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
401more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
402of blocks. Default: true.
403.TP
404.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
405If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
406that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
407random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
408wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
409\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
410.TP
411.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
412See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
413big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
414provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
415the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
416size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
417.TP
418.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
419Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
420.TP
421.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
422Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
423.TP
424.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
425Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
426.RS
427.RS
428.TP
429.B random
430Choose a file at random
431.TP
432.B roundrobin
433Round robin over open files (default).
434.B sequential
435Do each file in the set sequentially.
436.RE
437.P
438The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
439appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
440.RE
441.TP
442.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
443Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
444.RS
445.RS
446.TP
447.B sync
448Basic \fIread\fR\|(2) or \fIwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fIfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
449position the I/O location.
450.TP
451.B psync
452Basic \fIpread\fR\|(2) or \fIpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
453.TP
454.B vsync
455Basic \fIreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
456coalescing adjacents IOs into a single submission.
457.TP
458.B pvsync
459Basic \fIpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
460.TP
461.B libaio
462Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
463.TP
464.B posixaio
465POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fIaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fIaio_write\fR\|(3).
466.TP
467.B solarisaio
468Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
469.TP
470.B windowsaio
471Windows native asynchronous I/O.
472.TP
473.B mmap
474File is memory mapped with \fImmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
475\fImemcpy\fR\|(3).
476.TP
477.B splice
478\fIsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
479transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
480.TP
481.B syslet-rw
482Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
483.TP
484.B sg
485SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
486the target is an sg character device, we use \fIread\fR\|(2) and
487\fIwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
488.TP
489.B null
490Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
491itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
492.TP
493.B net
494Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
495\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
496\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
497This ioengine defines engine specific options.
498.TP
499.B netsplice
500Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fIsplice\fR\|(2) and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
501and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
502.TP
503.B cpuio
504Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
505\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
506.TP
507.B guasi
508The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
509approach to asycnronous I/O.
510.br
511See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
512.TP
513.B rdma
514The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
515and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
516.TP
517.B external
518Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
519`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
520.TP
521.B falloc
522 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate callt to simulate data
523transfer as fio ioengine
524.br
525 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
526.br
527 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
528.br
529 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
530.TP
531.B e4defrag
532IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
533request to DDIR_WRITE event
534.RE
535.P
536.RE
537.TP
538.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
539Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
540iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
541degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
542restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
543Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
544not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
545fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
546.TP
547.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
548Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
549.TP
550.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
551This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
552 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
553kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
554\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
555completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
556cost of more retrieval system calls.
557.TP
558.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
559Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
560\fBiodepth\fR.
561.TP
562.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
563If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
564.TP
565.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
566If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
567Default: true.
568.TP
569.BI offset \fR=\fPint
570Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
571.TP
572.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
573If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
574offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
575that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
576there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
577disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
578.TP
579.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
580How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
5810, don't sync. Default: 0.
582.TP
583.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
584Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
585data parts of the file. Default: 0.
586.TP
587.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
588Use sync_file_range() for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
589track range of writes that have happened since the last sync_file_range() call.
590\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
591.RS
592.TP
593.B wait_before
594SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
595.TP
596.B write
597SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
598.TP
599.B wait_after
600SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
601.TP
602.RE
603.P
604So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
605\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
606Also see the sync_file_range(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
607.TP
608.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
609If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
610.TP
611.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
612Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
613.TP
614.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
615If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
616it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
617.TP
618.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
619Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
620.TP
621.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
622Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
623\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
624overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
625asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
626the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
627.TP
628.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
629By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
630to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
631specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
632Fio includes the following distribution models:
633.RS
634.TP
635.B random
636Uniform random distribution
637.TP
638.B zipf
639Zipf distribution
640.TP
641.B pareto
642Pareto distribution
643.TP
644.RE
645.P
646When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
647define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
648it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
649used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
650If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
651random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
652fio will disable use of the random map.
653.TP
654.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint
655For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This defaults
656to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set from
657anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
658sequential. It is possible to set different values for reads, writes, and
659trim. To do so, simply use a comma separated list. See \fBblocksize\fR.
660.TP
661.B norandommap
662Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
663this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
664I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
665.TP
666.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
667See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
668fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
669random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
670option is disabled by default.
671.TP
672.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
673Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
674.RS
675.TP
676.B tausworthe
677Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
678.TP
679.B lfsr
680Linear feedback shift register generator
681.TP
682.RE
683.P
684Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
685side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
686guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
687computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
688for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
689sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
690workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
691.TP
692.BI nice \fR=\fPint
693Run job with given nice value. See \fInice\fR\|(2).
694.TP
695.BI prio \fR=\fPint
696Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
697\fIionice\fR\|(1).
698.TP
699.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
700Set I/O priority class. See \fIionice\fR\|(1).
701.TP
702.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
703Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
704.TP
705.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
706Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
707of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
708.TP
709.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
710Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks to issue, before
711waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds. If not set, defaults to 1 which will
712make fio wait \fBthinktime\fR microseconds after every block. This
713effectively makes any queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 IO
714will be queued before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other
715words, this setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
716Default: 1.
717.TP
718.BI rate \fR=\fPint
719Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
720rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
721or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
722limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
723can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
724limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
725.TP
726.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
727Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
728Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
729as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
730.TP
731.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
732Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
733specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
734read vs write seperation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
735size is used as the metric.
736.TP
737.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
738If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
739is used for read vs write seperation.
740.TP
741.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
742Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
743milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
744.TP
745.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
746If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
747with an ETIME error.
748.TP
749.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
750Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
751may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
752.TP
753.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
754Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
755.TP
756.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
757Set this job running on spcified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
758comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
759.TP
760.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
761Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
762the argements:
763.RS
764.TP
765.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
766.TP
767.B mode
768is one of the following memory policy:
769.TP
770.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
771.TP
772.RE
773For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
774needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
775allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
776comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
777.TP
778.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
779Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
780.TP
781.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
782Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
783.TP
784.B time_based
785If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
786completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
787as \fBruntime\fR allows.
788.TP
789.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
790If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
791logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
792logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
793that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
794increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
795.TP
796.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
797Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
798.TP
799.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
800Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
801this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
802.TP
803.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
804Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
805.RS
806.RS
807.TP
808.B malloc
809Allocate memory with \fImalloc\fR\|(3).
810.TP
811.B shm
812Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fIshmget\fR\|(2).
813.TP
814.B shmhuge
815Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
816.TP
817.B mmap
818Use \fImmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
819is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
820.TP
821.B mmaphuge
822Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
823.RE
824.P
825The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
826job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
827the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
828have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
829huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
830and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
831number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
832use.
833.RE
834.TP
835.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
836This indiciates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
837given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
838the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
839other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
840system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
841is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
842sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
843.TP
844.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
845Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
846Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
847.TP
848.B exitall
849Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
850.TP
851.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
852Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
853500ms.
854.TP
855.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
856Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
857500ms.
858.TP
859.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
860If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
861.TP
862.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
863\fIfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
864.TP
865.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
866If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
867.TP
868.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
869If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
870laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
871are not executed.
872.TP
873.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
874If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
875IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
876pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
877engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
878multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
879.TP
880.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
881Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
882.TP
883.BI loops \fR=\fPint
884Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
885Default: 1.
886.TP
887.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
888Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
889Default: true.
890.TP
891.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
892Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
893values are:
894.RS
895.RS
896.TP
897.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
898Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
899hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
900not supported by the system.
901.TP
902.B meta
903Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
904block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
905.TP
906.B null
907Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
908.RE
909
910This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
911that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
912is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
913written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
914be of the newly written data.
915.RE
916.TP
917.BI verify_sort \fR=\fPbool
918If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
919read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
920.TP
921.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
922Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
923writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
924.TP
925.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
926Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
927\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
928.TP
929.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
930If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
931with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
932pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
933fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
934decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
935has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
936\fBverify\fP=meta.
937.TP
938.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
939If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
940false.
941.TP
942.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
943If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
944read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
945data corruption occurred. Off by default.
946.TP
947.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
948Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
949takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
950verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
951to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
952engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
953allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
954.TP
955.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
956Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
957See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
958.TP
959.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
960Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
961once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
962everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
963instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
964IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
965be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
966only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
967.TP
968.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
969Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
970will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
971read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
972\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
973\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
974will be verified more than once.
975.TP
976.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
977Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
978\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
979.TP
980.B new_group
981Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
982of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
983.TP
984.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
985Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
986Default: 1.
987.TP
988.B group_reporting
989If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
990specified.
991.TP
992.B thread
993Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
994with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
995.TP
996.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
997Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
998.TP
999.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
1000Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
1001read.
1002.TP
1003.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1004Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
1005for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
1006corrupt.
1007.TP
1008.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1009Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
1010\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
1011.TP
1012.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
1013While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1014attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
1015\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
1016still respecting ordering.
1017.TP
1018.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
1019While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1020is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
1021from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
1022single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
1023.TP
1024.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
1025If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
1026store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
1027fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1028graphs. See \fBwrite_log_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1029option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1030.TP
1031.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1032Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1033filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1034is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1035.TP
1036.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1037Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1038option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1039filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1040.TP
1041.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1042By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1043IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1044very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1045over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1046Defaults to 0.
1047.TP
1048.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1049Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1050back the number of calls to gettimeofday, as that does impact performance at
1051really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1052calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1053.TP
1054.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1055Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1056.TP
1057.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1058Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1059.TP
1060.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1061Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1062.TP
1063.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1064Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1065simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1066.TP
1067.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1068Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1069.RS
1070Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.prerun.txt\fR
1071.RE
1072.TP
1073.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1074Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1075.RS
1076Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.postrun.txt\fR
1077.RE
1078.TP
1079.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1080Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1081.TP
1082.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1083If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1084CPU cycles.
1085.TP
1086.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1087If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1088given time in milliseconds.
1089.TP
1090.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1091Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1092.TP
1093.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1094Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1095.RS
1096.TP
1097.B gettimeofday
1098gettimeofday(2)
1099.TP
1100.B clock_gettime
1101clock_gettime(2)
1102.TP
1103.B cpu
1104Internal CPU clock source
1105.TP
1106.RE
1107.P
1108\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1109(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1110if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1111unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1112means supporting TSC Invariant.
1113.TP
1114.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1115Enable all of the gettimeofday() reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1116disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1117gettimeofday() call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1118the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1119.TP
1120.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1121Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1122the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1123gettimeofday() calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1124nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1125threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1126entering the kernel with a gettimeofday() call. The CPU set aside for doing
1127these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1128from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1129.TP
1130.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1131Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1132error list for each error type.
1133.br
1134ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1135.br
1136errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1137Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1138.br
1139Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1140.br
1141This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1142.TP
1143.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1144If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1145only fatal error will be dumped
1146.TP
1147.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1148Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1149The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1150your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1151
1152# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1153.TP
1154.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1155Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1156with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1157.TP
1158.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1159Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1160To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1161set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1162cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1163.TP
1164.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1165Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1166the thread/process does any work.
1167.TP
1168.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1169Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1170.TP
1171.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1172The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1173\fBflow\fR.
1174.TP
1175.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1176Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1177\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1178two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1179\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1180flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1181\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
11821:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1183.TP
1184.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1185The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1186reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1187.TP
1188.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1189The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1190exceeded before retrying operations
1191.TP
1192.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1193Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1194.TP
1195.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1196Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1197latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1198the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1199numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1200report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1201the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1202.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1203Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1204used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1205command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1206.TP
1207.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1208Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1209.TP
1210.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1211Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1212.TP
1213.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1214Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1215the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1216With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1217from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1218enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1219iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1220.TP
1221.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1222The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1223If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1224used and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1225.TP
1226.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1227The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1228.TP
1229.BI (net,netsplice)interface \fR=\fPstr
1230The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP multicast
1231packets.
1232.TP
1233.BI (net,netsplice)ttl \fR=\fPint
1234Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1
1235.TP
1236.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1237Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1238.TP
1239.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1240The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1241.RS
1242.RS
1243.TP
1244.B tcp
1245Transmission control protocol
1246.TP
1247.B udp
1248User datagram protocol
1249.TP
1250.B unix
1251UNIX domain socket
1252.RE
1253.P
1254When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1255as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1256reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1257used and the port is invalid.
1258.RE
1259.TP
1260.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1261For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1262connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1263hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1264.TP
1265.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1266Normaly a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1267will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1268payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1269This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1270latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1271completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1272send back. For UDP multicast traffic pingpong=1 should only be set for a single
1273reader when multiple readers are listening to the same address.
1274.TP
1275.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1276File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1277.TP
1278.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1279Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1280.RS
1281.BI 0(default) :
1282Preallocate donor's file on init
1283.TP
1284.BI 1:
1285allocate space immidietly inside defragment event, and free right after event
1286.RE
1287.TP
1288.SH OUTPUT
1289While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1290example:
1291.RS
1292.P
1293Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1294.RE
1295.P
1296The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1297threads. The possible values are:
1298.P
1299.PD 0
1300.RS
1301.TP
1302.B P
1303Setup but not started.
1304.TP
1305.B C
1306Thread created.
1307.TP
1308.B I
1309Initialized, waiting.
1310.TP
1311.B R
1312Running, doing sequential reads.
1313.TP
1314.B r
1315Running, doing random reads.
1316.TP
1317.B W
1318Running, doing sequential writes.
1319.TP
1320.B w
1321Running, doing random writes.
1322.TP
1323.B M
1324Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1325.TP
1326.B m
1327Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1328.TP
1329.B F
1330Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1331.TP
1332.B V
1333Running, verifying written data.
1334.TP
1335.B E
1336Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1337.TP
1338.B \-
1339Exited, thread reaped.
1340.RE
1341.PD
1342.P
1343The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1344the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1345respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1346.P
1347When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1348for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1349.P
1350Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1351error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1352.RS
1353.TP
1354.B io
1355Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1356.TP
1357.B bw
1358Average data rate (bandwidth).
1359.TP
1360.B runt
1361Threads run time.
1362.TP
1363.B slat
1364Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1365the time it took to submit the I/O.
1366.TP
1367.B clat
1368Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1369is the time between submission and completion.
1370.TP
1371.B bw
1372Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1373and standard deviation.
1374.TP
1375.B cpu
1376CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1377this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1378.TP
1379.B IO depths
1380Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1381to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1382.TP
1383.B IO issued
1384Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1385.TP
1386.B IO latencies
1387Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1388as \fBIO depths\fR.
1389.RE
1390.P
1391The group statistics show:
1392.PD 0
1393.RS
1394.TP
1395.B io
1396Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1397.TP
1398.B aggrb
1399Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1400.TP
1401.B minb
1402Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1403.TP
1404.B maxb
1405Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1406.TP
1407.B mint
1408Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1409.TP
1410.B maxt
1411Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1412.RE
1413.PD
1414.P
1415Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1416.PD 0
1417.RS
1418.TP
1419.B ios
1420Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1421.TP
1422.B merge
1423Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1424.TP
1425.B ticks
1426Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1427.TP
1428.B io_queue
1429Total time spent in the disk queue.
1430.TP
1431.B util
1432Disk utilization.
1433.RE
1434.PD
1435.P
1436It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1437running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1438signal.
1439.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1440If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1441semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1442(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1443number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1444for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1445change. The fields are:
1446.P
1447.RS
1448.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1449.P
1450Read status:
1451.RS
1452.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1453.P
1454Submission latency:
1455.RS
1456.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1457.RE
1458Completion latency:
1459.RS
1460.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1461.RE
1462Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1463.RS
1464.B Xth percentile=usec
1465.RE
1466Total latency:
1467.RS
1468.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1469.RE
1470Bandwidth:
1471.RS
1472.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1473.RE
1474.RE
1475.P
1476Write status:
1477.RS
1478.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1479.P
1480Submission latency:
1481.RS
1482.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1483.RE
1484Completion latency:
1485.RS
1486.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1487.RE
1488Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1489.RS
1490.B Xth percentile=usec
1491.RE
1492Total latency:
1493.RS
1494.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1495.RE
1496Bandwidth:
1497.RS
1498.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1499.RE
1500.RE
1501.P
1502CPU usage:
1503.RS
1504.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1505.RE
1506.P
1507IO depth distribution:
1508.RS
1509.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1510.RE
1511.P
1512IO latency distribution:
1513.RS
1514Microseconds:
1515.RS
1516.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1517.RE
1518Milliseconds:
1519.RS
1520.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1521.RE
1522.RE
1523.P
1524Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1525.RS
1526.B name, read ios, write ios, read merges, write merges, read ticks, write ticks, read in-queue time, write in-queue time, disk utilization percentage
1527.RE
1528.P
1529Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1530.RS
1531.B total # errors, first error code
1532.RE
1533.P
1534.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1535.RE
1536.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1537Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1538where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1539run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1540have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1541be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1542
1543To start the server, you would do:
1544
1545\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1546
1547on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1548are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1549for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1550socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1551listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1552
15531) fio \-\-server
1554
1555 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1556
15572) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1558
1559 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1560
15613) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1562
1563 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1564
15654) fio \-\-server=,4444
1566
1567 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1568
15695) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1570
1571 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1572
15736) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1574
1575 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1576
1577When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1578is run with:
1579
1580fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1581
1582where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1583running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1584are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1585does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1586You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1587
1588fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1589.SH AUTHORS
1590
1591.B fio
1592was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1593now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1594.br
1595This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1596on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1597.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1598Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1599See \fBREADME\fR.
1600.SH "SEE ALSO"
1601For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1602.br
1603Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1604