Add support for other ways of triggering intermediate result outputs
[fio.git] / fio.1
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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 \-\-readonly
58Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
59.TP
60.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
61Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. Multiple of these options can be given, adding more sections to run.
62.TP
63.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
64Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
65.TP
66.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
67All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
68.TP
69.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
70Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
71.TP
72.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
73Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
74.TP
75.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
76Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
77.TP
78.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
79Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host.
80.TP
81.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
82Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
83.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
84Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
85job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
86extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
87except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
88a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
89behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
90considered a comment and ignored.
91.P
92If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
93standard input.
94.SS "Global Section"
95The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
96job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
97and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
98may override any parameter set in global sections.
99.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
100.SS Types
101Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type. The types used are:
102.TP
103.I str
104String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
105.TP
106.I int
107SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
108of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
109kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
110respectively. The suffix is not case sensitive. If prefixed with '0x', the
111value is assumed to be base 16 (hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b',
112for instance 'kb' is identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value
113by using 'KiB', 'MiB', 'GiB', etc. This is useful for disk drives where
114values are often given in base 10 values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you
11530*1000^3 bytes.
116.TP
117.I bool
118Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
119.TP
120.I irange
121Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
122\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
123\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
124sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
125`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
126.TP
127.I float_list
128List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
129a ':' charcater.
130.SS "Parameter List"
131.TP
132.BI name \fR=\fPstr
133May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
134has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
135.TP
136.BI description \fR=\fPstr
137Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
138otherwise has no special purpose.
139.TP
140.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
141Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
142than `./'.
143.TP
144.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
145.B fio
146normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
147number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
148specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
149If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
150a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
151reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
152set.
153.TP
154.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
155If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
156fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
157based on the default file format specification of
158\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
159customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
160string:
161.RS
162.RS
163.TP
164.B $jobname
165The name of the worker thread or process.
166.TP
167.B $jobnum
168The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
169.TP
170.B $filenum
171The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
172.RE
173.P
174To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
175have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
176if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
177be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
178will be used if no other format specifier is given.
179.RE
180.P
181.TP
182.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
183Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
184file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
185result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
186The lock modes are:
187.RS
188.RS
189.TP
190.B none
191No locking. This is the default.
192.TP
193.B exclusive
194Only one thread or process may do IO at the time, excluding all others.
195.TP
196.B readwrite
197Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
198time, but writes get exclusive access.
199.RE
200.RE
201.P
202.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
203Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
204.TP
205.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
206Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
207.RS
208.RS
209.TP
210.B read
211Sequential reads.
212.TP
213.B write
214Sequential writes.
215.TP
216.B randread
217Random reads.
218.TP
219.B randwrite
220Random writes.
221.TP
222.B rw, readwrite
223Mixed sequential reads and writes.
224.TP
225.B randrw
226Mixed random reads and writes.
227.RE
228.P
229For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
230may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
231specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
232appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
233would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
234value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
235specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
236using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
237into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
238.RE
239.TP
240.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
241If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
242then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
243generated. Accepted values are:
244.RS
245.RS
246.TP
247.B sequential
248Generate sequential offset
249.TP
250.B identical
251Generate the same offset
252.RE
253.P
254\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
255generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
256would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
257only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
258that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
259would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
260fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
261new offset.
262.RE
263.P
264.TP
265.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
266The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
267manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
268reasons. Allow values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
269.TP
270.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
271Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
272read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
273set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
274.TP
275.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
276Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
277across runs. Default: true.
278.TP
279.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
280Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
281offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
282Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
283faster. Default: false.
284.TP
285.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
286Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
287are:
288.RS
289.RS
290.TP
291.B none
292Do not pre-allocate space.
293.TP
294.B posix
295Pre-allocate via posix_fallocate().
296.TP
297.B keep
298Pre-allocate via fallocate() with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
299.TP
300.B 0
301Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
302.TP
303.B 1
304Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
305.RE
306.P
307May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
308available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
309because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
310.RE
311.TP
312.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
313Use of \fIposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
314are likely to be issued. Default: true.
315.TP
316.BI size \fR=\fPint
317Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
318been transfered, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
319Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
320divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
321full size of the given files or devices. If the the files do not exist, size
322must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
323100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
324or devices.
325.TP
326.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
327Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
328device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
329For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
330the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
331since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
332writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
333.TP
334.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
335Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
336for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
337that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
338same size.
339.TP
340.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
341Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads and writes can be
342specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR, either of
343which may be empty to leave that value at its default.
344.TP
345.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
346Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
347multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
348to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
349separately with a comma seperating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
350Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
351.TP
352.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
353This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
354not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
355block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
356block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
357optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
358Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
359blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
360splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
361\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
362comma.
363.TP
364.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
365If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
366work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
367.TP
368.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
369At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
370the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
371for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
372This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
373will turn off that option.
374.TP
375.B zero_buffers
376Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
377.TP
378.B refill_buffers
379If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
380default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
381if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
382refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
383.TP
384.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
385If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
386deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
387contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
388more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
389of blocks. Default: true.
390.TP
391.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
392If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
393that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
394random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
395wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
396\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
397.TP
398.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
399See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
400big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
401provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
402the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
403size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
404.TP
405.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
406Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
407.TP
408.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
409Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
410.TP
411.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
412Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
413.RS
414.RS
415.TP
416.B random
417Choose a file at random
418.TP
419.B roundrobin
420Round robin over open files (default).
421.B sequential
422Do each file in the set sequentially.
423.RE
424.P
425The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
426appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
427.RE
428.TP
429.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
430Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
431.RS
432.RS
433.TP
434.B sync
435Basic \fIread\fR\|(2) or \fIwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fIfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
436position the I/O location.
437.TP
438.B psync
439Basic \fIpread\fR\|(2) or \fIpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
440.TP
441.B vsync
442Basic \fIreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
443coalescing adjacents IOs into a single submission.
444.TP
445.B libaio
446Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
447.TP
448.B posixaio
449POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fIaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fIaio_write\fR\|(3).
450.TP
451.B solarisaio
452Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
453.TP
454.B windowsaio
455Windows native asynchronous I/O.
456.TP
457.B mmap
458File is memory mapped with \fImmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
459\fImemcpy\fR\|(3).
460.TP
461.B splice
462\fIsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
463transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
464.TP
465.B syslet-rw
466Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
467.TP
468.B sg
469SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
470the target is an sg character device, we use \fIread\fR\|(2) and
471\fIwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
472.TP
473.B null
474Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
475itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
476.TP
477.B net
478Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
479\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
480\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
481This ioengine defines engine specific options.
482.TP
483.B netsplice
484Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fIsplice\fR\|(2) and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
485and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
486.TP
487.B cpuio
488Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
489\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
490.TP
491.B guasi
492The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
493approach to asycnronous I/O.
494.br
495See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
496.TP
497.B rdma
498The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
499and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
500.TP
501.B external
502Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
503`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
504.TP
505.B falloc
506 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate callt to simulate data
507transfer as fio ioengine
508.br
509 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
510.br
511 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
512.br
513 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
514.TP
515.B e4defrag
516IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
517request to DDIR_WRITE event
518.RE
519.P
520.RE
521.TP
522.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
523Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
524iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
525degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
526restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
527Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
528not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
529fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
530.TP
531.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
532Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
533.TP
534.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
535This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
536 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
537kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
538\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
539completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
540cost of more retrieval system calls.
541.TP
542.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
543Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
544\fBiodepth\fR.
545.TP
546.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
547If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
548.TP
549.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
550If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
551Default: true.
552.TP
553.BI offset \fR=\fPint
554Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
555.TP
556.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
557If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
558offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
559that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
560there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
561disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
562.TP
563.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
564How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
5650, don't sync. Default: 0.
566.TP
567.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
568Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
569data parts of the file. Default: 0.
570.TP
571.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
572Use sync_file_range() for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
573track range of writes that have happened since the last sync_file_range() call.
574\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
575.RS
576.TP
577.B wait_before
578SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
579.TP
580.B write
581SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
582.TP
583.B wait_after
584SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
585.TP
586.RE
587.P
588So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
589\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
590Also see the sync_file_range(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
591.TP
592.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
593If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
594.TP
595.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
596Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
597.TP
598.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
599If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
600it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
601.TP
602.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
603Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
604.TP
605.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
606Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
607\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
608overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
609asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
610the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
611.TP
612.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
613By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
614to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
615specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
616Fio includes the following distribution models:
617.RS
618.TP
619.B random
620Uniform random distribution
621.TP
622.B zipf
623Zipf distribution
624.TP
625.B pareto
626Pareto distribution
627.TP
628.RE
629.P
630When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
631define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
632it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
633used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
634If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
635random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
636fio will disable use of the random map.
637.TP
638.B norandommap
639Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
640this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
641I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
642.TP
643.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
644See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
645fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
646random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
647option is disabled by default.
648.TP
649.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
650Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
651.RS
652.TP
653.B tausworthe
654Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
655.TP
656.B lfsr
657Linear feedback shift register generator
658.TP
659.RE
660.P
661Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
662side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
663guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
664computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
665for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
666sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
667workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
668.TP
669.BI nice \fR=\fPint
670Run job with given nice value. See \fInice\fR\|(2).
671.TP
672.BI prio \fR=\fPint
673Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
674\fIionice\fR\|(1).
675.TP
676.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
677Set I/O priority class. See \fIionice\fR\|(1).
678.TP
679.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
680Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
681.TP
682.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
683Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
684of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
685.TP
686.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
687Number of blocks to issue before waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds.
688Default: 1.
689.TP
690.BI rate \fR=\fPint
691Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
692rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
693or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
694limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
695can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
696limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
697.TP
698.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
699Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
700Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
701as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
702.TP
703.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
704Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
705specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
706read vs write seperation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
707size is used as the metric.
708.TP
709.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
710If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
711is used for read vs write seperation.
712.TP
713.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
714Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
715milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
716.TP
717.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
718If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
719with an ETIME error.
720.TP
721.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
722Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
723may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
724.TP
725.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
726Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
727.TP
728.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
729Set this job running on spcified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
730comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
731.TP
732.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
733Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
734the argements:
735.RS
736.TP
737.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
738.TP
739.B mode
740is one of the following memory policy:
741.TP
742.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
743.TP
744.RE
745For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
746needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
747allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
748comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
749.TP
750.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
751Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
752.TP
753.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
754Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
755.TP
756.B time_based
757If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
758completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
759as \fBruntime\fR allows.
760.TP
761.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
762If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
763logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
764logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
765that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
766increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
767.TP
768.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
769Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
770.TP
771.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
772Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
773this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
774.TP
775.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
776Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
777.RS
778.RS
779.TP
780.B malloc
781Allocate memory with \fImalloc\fR\|(3).
782.TP
783.B shm
784Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fIshmget\fR\|(2).
785.TP
786.B shmhuge
787Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
788.TP
789.B mmap
790Use \fImmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
791is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
792.TP
793.B mmaphuge
794Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
795.RE
796.P
797The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
798job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
799the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
800have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
801huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
802and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
803number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
804use.
805.RE
806.TP
807.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
808This indiciates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
809given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
810the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
811other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
812system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
813is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
814sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
815.TP
816.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
817Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
818Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
819.TP
820.B exitall
821Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
822.TP
823.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
824Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
825500ms.
826.TP
827.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
828Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
829500ms.
830.TP
831.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
832If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
833.TP
834.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
835\fIfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
836.TP
837.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
838If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
839.TP
840.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
841If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
842laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
843are not executed.
844.TP
845.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
846If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
847IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
848pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
849engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
850multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
851.TP
852.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
853Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
854.TP
855.BI loops \fR=\fPint
856Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
857Default: 1.
858.TP
859.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
860Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
861Default: true.
862.TP
863.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
864Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
865values are:
866.RS
867.RS
868.TP
869.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
870Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
871hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
872not supported by the system.
873.TP
874.B meta
875Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
876block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
877.TP
878.B null
879Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
880.RE
881
882This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
883that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
884is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
885written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
886be of the newly written data.
887.RE
888.TP
889.BI verify_sort \fR=\fPbool
890If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
891read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
892.TP
893.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
894Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
895writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
896.TP
897.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
898Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
899\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
900.TP
901.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
902If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
903with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
904pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
905fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
906decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
907has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
908\fBverify\fP=meta.
909.TP
910.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
911If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
912false.
913.TP
914.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
915If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
916read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
917data corruption occurred. Off by default.
918.TP
919.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
920Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
921takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
922verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
923to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
924engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
925allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
926.TP
927.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
928Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
929See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
930.TP
931.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
932Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
933once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
934everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
935instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
936IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
937be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
938only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
939.TP
940.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
941Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
942will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
943read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
944\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
945\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
946will be verified more than once.
947.TP
948.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
949Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
950\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
951.TP
952.B new_group
953Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
954of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
955.TP
956.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
957Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
958Default: 1.
959.TP
960.B group_reporting
961If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
962specified.
963.TP
964.B thread
965Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
966with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
967.TP
968.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
969Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
970.TP
971.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
972Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
973read.
974.TP
975.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
976Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
977for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
978corrupt.
979.TP
980.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
981Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
982\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
983.TP
984.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
985While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
986attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
987\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
988still respecting ordering.
989.TP
990.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
991While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
992is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
993from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
994single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
995.TP
996.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
997If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
998store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
999fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1000graphs. See \fBwrite_log_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1001option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1002.TP
1003.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1004Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1005filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1006is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1007.TP
1008.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1009Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1010option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1011filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1012.TP
1013.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1014By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1015IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1016very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1017over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1018Defaults to 0.
1019.TP
1020.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1021Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1022back the number of calls to gettimeofday, as that does impact performance at
1023really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1024calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1025.TP
1026.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1027Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1028.TP
1029.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1030Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1031.TP
1032.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1033Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1034.TP
1035.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1036Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1037simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1038.TP
1039.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1040Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1041.TP
1042.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1043Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1044.TP
1045.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1046Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1047.TP
1048.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1049If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1050CPU cycles.
1051.TP
1052.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1053If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1054given time in milliseconds.
1055.TP
1056.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1057Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1058.TP
1059.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1060Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1061.RS
1062.TP
1063.B gettimeofday
1064gettimeofday(2)
1065.TP
1066.B clock_gettime
1067clock_gettime(2)
1068.TP
1069.B cpu
1070Internal CPU clock source
1071.TP
1072.RE
1073.P
1074\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1075(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1076if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1077unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1078means supporting TSC Invariant.
1079.TP
1080.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1081Enable all of the gettimeofday() reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1082disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1083gettimeofday() call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1084the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1085.TP
1086.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1087Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1088the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1089gettimeofday() calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1090nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1091threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1092entering the kernel with a gettimeofday() call. The CPU set aside for doing
1093these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1094from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1095.TP
1096.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1097Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1098error list for each error type.
1099.br
1100ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1101.br
1102errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1103Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1104.br
1105Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1106.br
1107This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1108.TP
1109.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1110If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1111only fatal error will be dumped
1112.TP
1113.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1114Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1115The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1116your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1117
1118# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1119.TP
1120.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1121Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1122with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1123.TP
1124.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1125Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1126To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1127set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1128cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1129.TP
1130.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1131Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1132the thread/process does any work.
1133.TP
1134.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1135Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1136.TP
1137.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1138The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1139\fBflow\fR.
1140.TP
1141.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1142Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1143\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1144two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1145\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1146flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1147\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
11481:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1149.TP
1150.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1151The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1152reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1153.TP
1154.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1155The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1156exceeded before retrying operations
1157.TP
1158.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1159Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1160.TP
1161.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1162Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1163latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1164the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1165numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1166report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1167the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1168.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1169Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1170used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1171command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1172.TP
1173.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1174Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1175.TP
1176.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1177Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1178.TP
1179.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1180Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1181the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1182With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1183from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1184enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1185iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1186.TP
1187.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1188The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1189If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1190used and must be omitted.
1191.TP
1192.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1193The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1194.TP
1195.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1196Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1197.TP
1198.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1199The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1200.RS
1201.RS
1202.TP
1203.B tcp
1204Transmission control protocol
1205.TP
1206.B udp
1207User datagram protocol
1208.TP
1209.B unix
1210UNIX domain socket
1211.RE
1212.P
1213When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1214as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1215reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1216used and the port is invalid.
1217.RE
1218.TP
1219.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1220For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1221connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1222hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1223.TP
1224.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1225Normal a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1226will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1227payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1228This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1229latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1230completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1231send back.
1232.TP
1233.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1234File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1235.TP
1236.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1237Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1238.RS
1239.BI 0(default) :
1240Preallocate donor's file on init
1241.TP
1242.BI 1:
1243allocate space immidietly inside defragment event, and free right after event
1244.RE
1245.TP
1246.SH OUTPUT
1247While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1248example:
1249.RS
1250.P
1251Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1252.RE
1253.P
1254The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1255threads. The possible values are:
1256.P
1257.PD 0
1258.RS
1259.TP
1260.B P
1261Setup but not started.
1262.TP
1263.B C
1264Thread created.
1265.TP
1266.B I
1267Initialized, waiting.
1268.TP
1269.B R
1270Running, doing sequential reads.
1271.TP
1272.B r
1273Running, doing random reads.
1274.TP
1275.B W
1276Running, doing sequential writes.
1277.TP
1278.B w
1279Running, doing random writes.
1280.TP
1281.B M
1282Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1283.TP
1284.B m
1285Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1286.TP
1287.B F
1288Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1289.TP
1290.B V
1291Running, verifying written data.
1292.TP
1293.B E
1294Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1295.TP
1296.B \-
1297Exited, thread reaped.
1298.RE
1299.PD
1300.P
1301The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1302the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1303respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1304.P
1305When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1306for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1307.P
1308Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1309error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1310.RS
1311.TP
1312.B io
1313Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1314.TP
1315.B bw
1316Average data rate (bandwidth).
1317.TP
1318.B runt
1319Threads run time.
1320.TP
1321.B slat
1322Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1323the time it took to submit the I/O.
1324.TP
1325.B clat
1326Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1327is the time between submission and completion.
1328.TP
1329.B bw
1330Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1331and standard deviation.
1332.TP
1333.B cpu
1334CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1335this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1336.TP
1337.B IO depths
1338Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1339to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1340.TP
1341.B IO issued
1342Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1343.TP
1344.B IO latencies
1345Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1346as \fBIO depths\fR.
1347.RE
1348.P
1349The group statistics show:
1350.PD 0
1351.RS
1352.TP
1353.B io
1354Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1355.TP
1356.B aggrb
1357Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1358.TP
1359.B minb
1360Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1361.TP
1362.B maxb
1363Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1364.TP
1365.B mint
1366Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1367.TP
1368.B maxt
1369Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1370.RE
1371.PD
1372.P
1373Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1374.PD 0
1375.RS
1376.TP
1377.B ios
1378Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1379.TP
1380.B merge
1381Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1382.TP
1383.B ticks
1384Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1385.TP
1386.B io_queue
1387Total time spent in the disk queue.
1388.TP
1389.B util
1390Disk utilization.
1391.RE
1392.PD
1393.P
1394It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1395running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1396signal.
1397.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1398If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1399semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1400(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1401number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1402for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1403change. The fields are:
1404.P
1405.RS
1406.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1407.P
1408Read status:
1409.RS
1410.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1411.P
1412Submission latency:
1413.RS
1414.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1415.RE
1416Completion latency:
1417.RS
1418.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1419.RE
1420Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1421.RS
1422.B Xth percentile=usec
1423.RE
1424Total latency:
1425.RS
1426.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1427.RE
1428Bandwidth:
1429.RS
1430.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1431.RE
1432.RE
1433.P
1434Write status:
1435.RS
1436.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1437.P
1438Submission latency:
1439.RS
1440.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1441.RE
1442Completion latency:
1443.RS
1444.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1445.RE
1446Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1447.RS
1448.B Xth percentile=usec
1449.RE
1450Total latency:
1451.RS
1452.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1453.RE
1454Bandwidth:
1455.RS
1456.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1457.RE
1458.RE
1459.P
1460CPU usage:
1461.RS
1462.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1463.RE
1464.P
1465IO depth distribution:
1466.RS
1467.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1468.RE
1469.P
1470IO latency distribution:
1471.RS
1472Microseconds:
1473.RS
1474.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1475.RE
1476Milliseconds:
1477.RS
1478.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1479.RE
1480.RE
1481.P
1482Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1483.RS
1484.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
1485.RE
1486.P
1487Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1488.RS
1489.B total # errors, first error code
1490.RE
1491.P
1492.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1493.RE
1494.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1495Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1496where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1497run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1498have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1499be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1500
1501To start the server, you would do:
1502
1503\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1504
1505on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1506are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1507for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1508socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1509listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1510
15111) fio \-\-server
1512
1513 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1514
15152) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1516
1517 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1518
15193) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1520
1521 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1522
15234) fio \-\-server=,4444
1524
1525 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1526
15275) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1528
1529 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1530
15316) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1532
1533 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1534
1535When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1536is run with:
1537
1538fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1539
1540where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1541running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1542are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1543does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1544You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1545
1546fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1547.SH AUTHORS
1548
1549.B fio
1550was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1551now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1552.br
1553This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1554on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1555.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1556Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1557See \fBREADME\fR.
1558.SH "SEE ALSO"
1559For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1560.br
1561Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1562