Add filename_format option
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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
155.B If 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.P
201.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
202Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
203.TP
204.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
205Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
206.RS
207.RS
208.TP
209.B read
210Sequential reads.
211.TP
212.B write
213Sequential writes.
214.TP
215.B randread
216Random reads.
217.TP
218.B randwrite
219Random writes.
220.TP
221.B rw, readwrite
222Mixed sequential reads and writes.
223.TP
224.B randrw
225Mixed random reads and writes.
226.RE
227.P
228For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
229may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
230specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
231appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
232would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
233value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
234specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
235using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
236into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
237.RE
238.TP
239.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
240If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
241then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
242generated. Accepted values are:
243.RS
244.RS
245.TP
246.B sequential
247Generate sequential offset
248.TP
249.B identical
250Generate the same offset
251.RE
252.P
253\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
254generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
255would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
256only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
257that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
258would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
259fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
260new offset.
261.RE
262.P
263.TP
264.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
265The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
266manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
267reasons. Allow values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
268.TP
269.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
270Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
271read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
272set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
273.TP
274.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
275Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
276across runs. Default: true.
277.TP
278.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
279Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
280offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
281Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
282faster. Default: false.
283.TP
284.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
285Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
286are:
287.RS
288.RS
289.TP
290.B none
291Do not pre-allocate space.
292.TP
293.B posix
294Pre-allocate via posix_fallocate().
295.TP
296.B keep
297Pre-allocate via fallocate() with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
298.TP
299.B 0
300Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
301.TP
302.B 1
303Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
304.RE
305.P
306May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
307available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
308because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
309.RE
310.TP
311.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
312Use of \fIposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
313are likely to be issued. Default: true.
314.TP
315.BI size \fR=\fPint
316Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
317been transfered, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
318Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
319divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
320full size of the given files or devices. If the the files do not exist, size
321must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
322100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
323or devices.
324.TP
325.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
326Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
327device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
328For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
329the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
330since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
331writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
332.TP
333.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
334Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
335for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
336that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
337same size.
338.TP
339.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
340Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads and writes can be
341specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR, either of
342which may be empty to leave that value at its default.
343.TP
344.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
345Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
346multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
347to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
348separately with a comma seperating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
349Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
350.TP
351.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
352This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
353not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
354block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
355block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
356optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
357Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
358blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
359splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
360\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
361comma.
362.TP
363.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
364If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
365work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
366.TP
367.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
368At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
369the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
370for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
371This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
372will turn off that option.
373.TP
374.B zero_buffers
375Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
376.TP
377.B refill_buffers
378If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
379default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
380if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
381refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
382.TP
383.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
384If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
385deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
386contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
387more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
388of blocks. Default: true.
389.TP
390.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
391If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
392that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
393random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
394wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
395\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
396.TP
397.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
398See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
399big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
400provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
401the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
402size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
403.TP
404.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
405Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
406.TP
407.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
408Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
409.TP
410.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
411Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
412.RS
413.RS
414.TP
415.B random
416Choose a file at random
417.TP
418.B roundrobin
419Round robin over open files (default).
420.B sequential
421Do each file in the set sequentially.
422.RE
423.P
424The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
425appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
426.RE
427.TP
428.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
429Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
430.RS
431.RS
432.TP
433.B sync
434Basic \fIread\fR\|(2) or \fIwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fIfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
435position the I/O location.
436.TP
437.B psync
438Basic \fIpread\fR\|(2) or \fIpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
439.TP
440.B vsync
441Basic \fIreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
442coalescing adjacents IOs into a single submission.
443.TP
444.B libaio
445Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
446.TP
447.B posixaio
448POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fIaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fIaio_write\fR\|(3).
449.TP
450.B solarisaio
451Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
452.TP
453.B windowsaio
454Windows native asynchronous I/O.
455.TP
456.B mmap
457File is memory mapped with \fImmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
458\fImemcpy\fR\|(3).
459.TP
460.B splice
461\fIsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
462transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
463.TP
464.B syslet-rw
465Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
466.TP
467.B sg
468SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
469the target is an sg character device, we use \fIread\fR\|(2) and
470\fIwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
471.TP
472.B null
473Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
474itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
475.TP
476.B net
477Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
478\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
479\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
480This ioengine defines engine specific options.
481.TP
482.B netsplice
483Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fIsplice\fR\|(2) and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
484and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
485.TP
486.B cpuio
487Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
488\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
489.TP
490.B guasi
491The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
492approach to asycnronous I/O.
493.br
494See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
495.TP
496.B rdma
497The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
498and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
499.TP
500.B external
501Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
502`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
503.TP
504.B falloc
505 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate callt to simulate data
506transfer as fio ioengine
507.br
508 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
509.br
510 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
511.br
512 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
513.TP
514.B e4defrag
515IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
516request to DDIR_WRITE event
517.RE
518.P
519.RE
520.TP
521.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
522Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
523iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
524degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
525restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
526Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
527not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
528fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
529.TP
530.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
531Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
532.TP
533.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
534This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
535 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
536kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
537\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
538completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
539cost of more retrieval system calls.
540.TP
541.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
542Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
543\fBiodepth\fR.
544.TP
545.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
546If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
547.TP
548.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
549If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
550Default: true.
551.TP
552.BI offset \fR=\fPint
553Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
554.TP
555.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
556If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
557offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
558that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
559there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
560disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
561.TP
562.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
563How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
5640, don't sync. Default: 0.
565.TP
566.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
567Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
568data parts of the file. Default: 0.
569.TP
570.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
571Use sync_file_range() for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
572track range of writes that have happened since the last sync_file_range() call.
573\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
574.RS
575.TP
576.B wait_before
577SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
578.TP
579.B write
580SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
581.TP
582.B wait_after
583SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
584.TP
585.RE
586.P
587So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
588\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
589Also see the sync_file_range(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
590.TP
591.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
592If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
593.TP
594.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
595Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
596.TP
597.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
598If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
599it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
600.TP
601.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
602Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
603.TP
604.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
605Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
606\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
607overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
608asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
609the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
610.TP
611.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
612By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
613to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
614specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
615Fio includes the following distribution models:
616.RS
617.TP
618.B random
619Uniform random distribution
620.TP
621.B zipf
622Zipf distribution
623.TP
624.B pareto
625Pareto distribution
626.TP
627.RE
628.P
629When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
630define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
631it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
632used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
633If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
634random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
635fio will disable use of the random map.
636.TP
637.B norandommap
638Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
639this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
640I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
641.TP
642.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
643See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
644fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
645random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
646option is disabled by default.
647.TP
648.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
649Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
650.RS
651.TP
652.B tausworthe
653Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
654.TP
655.B lfsr
656Linear feedback shift register generator
657.TP
658.RE
659.P
660Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
661side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
662guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
663computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
664for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
665sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
666workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
667.TP
668.BI nice \fR=\fPint
669Run job with given nice value. See \fInice\fR\|(2).
670.TP
671.BI prio \fR=\fPint
672Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
673\fIionice\fR\|(1).
674.TP
675.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
676Set I/O priority class. See \fIionice\fR\|(1).
677.TP
678.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
679Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
680.TP
681.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
682Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
683of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
684.TP
685.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
686Number of blocks to issue before waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds.
687Default: 1.
688.TP
689.BI rate \fR=\fPint
690Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
691rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
692or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
693limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
694can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
695limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
696.TP
697.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
698Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
699Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
700as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
701.TP
702.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
703Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
704specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
705read vs write seperation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
706size is used as the metric.
707.TP
708.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
709If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
710is used for read vs write seperation.
711.TP
712.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
713Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
714milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
715.TP
716.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
717If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
718with an ETIME error.
719.TP
720.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
721Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
722may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
723.TP
724.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
725Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
726.TP
727.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
728Set this job running on spcified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
729comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
730.TP
731.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
732Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
733the argements:
734.RS
735.TP
736.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
737.TP
738.B mode
739is one of the following memory policy:
740.TP
741.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
742.TP
743.RE
744For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
745needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
746allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
747comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
748.TP
749.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
750Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
751.TP
752.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
753Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
754.TP
755.B time_based
756If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
757completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
758as \fBruntime\fR allows.
759.TP
760.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
761If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
762logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
763logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
764that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
765increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
766.TP
767.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
768Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
769.TP
770.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
771Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
772this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
773.TP
774.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
775Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
776.RS
777.RS
778.TP
779.B malloc
780Allocate memory with \fImalloc\fR\|(3).
781.TP
782.B shm
783Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fIshmget\fR\|(2).
784.TP
785.B shmhuge
786Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
787.TP
788.B mmap
789Use \fImmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
790is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
791.TP
792.B mmaphuge
793Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
794.RE
795.P
796The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
797job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
798the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
799have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
800huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
801and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
802number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
803use.
804.RE
805.TP
806.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
807This indiciates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
808given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
809the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
810other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
811system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
812is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
813sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
814.TP
815.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
816Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
817Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
818.TP
819.B exitall
820Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
821.TP
822.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
823Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
824500ms.
825.TP
826.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
827Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
828500ms.
829.TP
830.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
831If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
832.TP
833.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
834\fIfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
835.TP
836.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
837If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
838.TP
839.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
840If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
841laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
842are not executed.
843.TP
844.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
845If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
846IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
847pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
848engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
849multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
850.TP
851.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
852Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
853.TP
854.BI loops \fR=\fPint
855Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
856Default: 1.
857.TP
858.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
859Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
860Default: true.
861.TP
862.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
863Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
864values are:
865.RS
866.RS
867.TP
868.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
869Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
870hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
871not supported by the system.
872.TP
873.B meta
874Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
875block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
876.TP
877.B null
878Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
879.RE
880
881This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
882that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
883is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
884written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
885be of the newly written data.
886.RE
887.TP
888.BI verify_sort \fR=\fPbool
889If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
890read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
891.TP
892.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
893Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
894writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
895.TP
896.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
897Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
898\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
899.TP
900.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
901If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
902with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
903pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
904fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
905decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
906has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
907\fBverify\fP=meta.
908.TP
909.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
910If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
911false.
912.TP
913.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
914If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
915read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
916data corruption occurred. Off by default.
917.TP
918.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
919Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
920takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
921verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
922to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
923engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
924allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
925.TP
926.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
927Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
928See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
929.TP
930.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
931Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
932once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
933everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
934instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
935IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
936be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
937only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
938.TP
939.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
940Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
941will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
942read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
943\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
944\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
945will be verified more than once.
946.TP
947.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
948Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
949\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
950.TP
951.B new_group
952Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
953of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
954.TP
955.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
956Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
957Default: 1.
958.TP
959.B group_reporting
960If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
961specified.
962.TP
963.B thread
964Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
965with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
966.TP
967.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
968Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
969.TP
970.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
971Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
972read.
973.TP
974.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
975Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
976for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
977corrupt.
978.TP
979.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
980Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
981\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
982.TP
983.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
984While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
985attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
986\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
987still respecting ordering.
988.TP
989.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
990While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
991is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
992from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
993single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
994.TP
995.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
996If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
997store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
998fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
999graphs. See \fBwrite_log_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1000option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1001.TP
1002.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1003Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1004filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1005is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1006.TP
1007.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1008Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1009option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1010filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1011.TP
1012.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1013By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1014IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1015very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1016over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1017Defaults to 0.
1018.TP
1019.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1020Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1021back the number of calls to gettimeofday, as that does impact performance at
1022really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1023calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1024.TP
1025.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1026Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1027.TP
1028.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1029Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1030.TP
1031.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1032Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1033.TP
1034.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1035Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1036simulate a smaller amount of memory.
1037.TP
1038.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1039Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1040.TP
1041.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1042Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1043.TP
1044.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1045Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1046.TP
1047.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1048If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1049CPU cycles.
1050.TP
1051.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1052If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1053given time in milliseconds.
1054.TP
1055.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1056Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1057.TP
1058.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1059Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1060.RS
1061.TP
1062.B gettimeofday
1063gettimeofday(2)
1064.TP
1065.B clock_gettime
1066clock_gettime(2)
1067.TP
1068.B cpu
1069Internal CPU clock source
1070.TP
1071.RE
1072.P
1073\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1074(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1075if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1076unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1077means supporting TSC Invariant.
1078.TP
1079.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1080Enable all of the gettimeofday() reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1081disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1082gettimeofday() call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1083the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1084.TP
1085.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1086Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1087the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1088gettimeofday() calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1089nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1090threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1091entering the kernel with a gettimeofday() call. The CPU set aside for doing
1092these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1093from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1094.TP
1095.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1096Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1097error list for each error type.
1098.br
1099ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1100.br
1101errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1102Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1103.br
1104Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1105.br
1106This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1107.TP
1108.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1109If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1110only fatal error will be dumped
1111.TP
1112.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1113Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1114The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1115your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1116
1117# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1118.TP
1119.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1120Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1121with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1122.TP
1123.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1124Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1125To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1126set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1127cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1128.TP
1129.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1130Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1131the thread/process does any work.
1132.TP
1133.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1134Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1135.TP
1136.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1137The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1138\fBflow\fR.
1139.TP
1140.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1141Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1142\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1143two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1144\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1145flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1146\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
11471:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1148.TP
1149.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1150The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1151reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1152.TP
1153.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1154The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1155exceeded before retrying operations
1156.TP
1157.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1158Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1159.TP
1160.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1161Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1162latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1163the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1164numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1165report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1166the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1167.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1168Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1169used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1170command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1171.TP
1172.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1173Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1174the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1175With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1176from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1177enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1178iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1179.TP
1180.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1181The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1182If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1183used and must be omitted.
1184.TP
1185.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1186The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1187.TP
1188.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1189Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1190.TP
1191.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1192The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1193.RS
1194.RS
1195.TP
1196.B tcp
1197Transmission control protocol
1198.TP
1199.B udp
1200User datagram protocol
1201.TP
1202.B unix
1203UNIX domain socket
1204.RE
1205.P
1206When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1207as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1208reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1209used and the port is invalid.
1210.RE
1211.TP
1212.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1213For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1214connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1215hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1216.TP
1217.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1218Normal a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1219will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1220payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1221This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1222latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1223completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1224send back.
1225.TP
1226.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1227File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1228.TP
1229.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1230Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1231.RS
1232.BI 0(default) :
1233Preallocate donor's file on init
1234.TP
1235.BI 1:
1236allocate space immidietly inside defragment event, and free right after event
1237.RE
1238.TP
1239.SH OUTPUT
1240While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1241example:
1242.RS
1243.P
1244Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1245.RE
1246.P
1247The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1248threads. The possible values are:
1249.P
1250.PD 0
1251.RS
1252.TP
1253.B P
1254Setup but not started.
1255.TP
1256.B C
1257Thread created.
1258.TP
1259.B I
1260Initialized, waiting.
1261.TP
1262.B R
1263Running, doing sequential reads.
1264.TP
1265.B r
1266Running, doing random reads.
1267.TP
1268.B W
1269Running, doing sequential writes.
1270.TP
1271.B w
1272Running, doing random writes.
1273.TP
1274.B M
1275Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1276.TP
1277.B m
1278Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1279.TP
1280.B F
1281Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1282.TP
1283.B V
1284Running, verifying written data.
1285.TP
1286.B E
1287Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1288.TP
1289.B \-
1290Exited, thread reaped.
1291.RE
1292.PD
1293.P
1294The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1295the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1296respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1297.P
1298When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1299for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1300.P
1301Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1302error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1303.RS
1304.TP
1305.B io
1306Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1307.TP
1308.B bw
1309Average data rate (bandwidth).
1310.TP
1311.B runt
1312Threads run time.
1313.TP
1314.B slat
1315Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1316the time it took to submit the I/O.
1317.TP
1318.B clat
1319Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1320is the time between submission and completion.
1321.TP
1322.B bw
1323Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1324and standard deviation.
1325.TP
1326.B cpu
1327CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1328this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1329.TP
1330.B IO depths
1331Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1332to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1333.TP
1334.B IO issued
1335Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1336.TP
1337.B IO latencies
1338Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1339as \fBIO depths\fR.
1340.RE
1341.P
1342The group statistics show:
1343.PD 0
1344.RS
1345.TP
1346.B io
1347Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1348.TP
1349.B aggrb
1350Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1351.TP
1352.B minb
1353Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1354.TP
1355.B maxb
1356Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1357.TP
1358.B mint
1359Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1360.TP
1361.B maxt
1362Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1363.RE
1364.PD
1365.P
1366Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1367.PD 0
1368.RS
1369.TP
1370.B ios
1371Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1372.TP
1373.B merge
1374Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1375.TP
1376.B ticks
1377Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1378.TP
1379.B io_queue
1380Total time spent in the disk queue.
1381.TP
1382.B util
1383Disk utilization.
1384.RE
1385.PD
1386.P
1387It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1388running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1389signal.
1390.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1391If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1392semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1393(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1394number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1395for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1396change. The fields are:
1397.P
1398.RS
1399.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1400.P
1401Read status:
1402.RS
1403.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1404.P
1405Submission latency:
1406.RS
1407.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1408.RE
1409Completion latency:
1410.RS
1411.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1412.RE
1413Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1414.RS
1415.B Xth percentile=usec
1416.RE
1417Total latency:
1418.RS
1419.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1420.RE
1421Bandwidth:
1422.RS
1423.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1424.RE
1425.RE
1426.P
1427Write status:
1428.RS
1429.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1430.P
1431Submission latency:
1432.RS
1433.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1434.RE
1435Completion latency:
1436.RS
1437.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1438.RE
1439Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1440.RS
1441.B Xth percentile=usec
1442.RE
1443Total latency:
1444.RS
1445.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1446.RE
1447Bandwidth:
1448.RS
1449.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1450.RE
1451.RE
1452.P
1453CPU usage:
1454.RS
1455.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1456.RE
1457.P
1458IO depth distribution:
1459.RS
1460.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1461.RE
1462.P
1463IO latency distribution:
1464.RS
1465Microseconds:
1466.RS
1467.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1468.RE
1469Milliseconds:
1470.RS
1471.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1472.RE
1473.RE
1474.P
1475Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1476.RS
1477.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
1478.RE
1479.P
1480Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1481.RS
1482.B total # errors, first error code
1483.RE
1484.P
1485.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1486.RE
1487.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1488Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1489where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1490run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1491have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1492be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1493
1494To start the server, you would do:
1495
1496\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1497
1498on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1499are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1500for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1501socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1502listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1503
15041) fio \-\-server
1505
1506 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1507
15082) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1509
1510 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1511
15123) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1513
1514 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1515
15164) fio \-\-server=,4444
1517
1518 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1519
15205) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1521
1522 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1523
15246) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1525
1526 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1527
1528When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1529is run with:
1530
1531fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1532
1533where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1534running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1535are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1536does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1537You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1538
1539fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1540.SH AUTHORS
1541
1542.B fio
1543was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1544now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1545.br
1546This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1547on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1548.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1549Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1550See \fBREADME\fR.
1551.SH "SEE ALSO"
1552For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1553.br
1554Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1555