Adds check for rand_seed during verify phase.
[fio.git] / fio.1
... / ...
CommitLineData
1.TH fio 1 "October 2013" "User Manual"
2.SH NAME
3fio \- flexible I/O tester
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B fio
6[\fIoptions\fR] [\fIjobfile\fR]...
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B fio
9is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
10particular type of I/O action as specified by the user.
11The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the I/O load
12one wants to simulate.
13.SH OPTIONS
14.TP
15.BI \-\-debug \fR=\fPtype
16Enable verbose tracing of various fio actions. May be `all' for all types
17or individual types separated by a comma (eg \-\-debug=io,file). `help' will
18list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
21Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-runtime \fR=\fPruntime
24Limit run time to \fIruntime\fR seconds.
25.TP
26.B \-\-latency\-log
27Generate per-job latency logs.
28.TP
29.B \-\-bandwidth\-log
30Generate per-job bandwidth logs.
31.TP
32.B \-\-minimal
33Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
34.TP
35.B \-\-version
36Display version information and exit.
37.TP
38.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
39Set terse version output format (Current version 3, or older version 2).
40.TP
41.B \-\-help
42Display usage information and exit.
43.TP
44.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
45Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
46.TP
47.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fPioengine[,command]
48List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR defined by \fIioengine\fR.
49.TP
50.BI \-\-showcmd \fR=\fPjobfile
51Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command-line options.
52.TP
53.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
54Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
55be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
56.TP
57.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
58Force an ETA newline for every `time` period passed.
59.TP
60.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
61Report full output status every `time` period passed.
62.TP
63.BI \-\-readonly
64Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
65.TP
66.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
67Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. Multiple of these options can be given, adding more sections to run.
68.TP
69.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
70Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
71.TP
72.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
73All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
74.TP
75.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
76Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
77.TP
78.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
79Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
80.TP
81.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
82Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
83.TP
84.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
85Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host.
86.TP
87.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
88Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
89.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
90Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
91job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
92extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
93except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
94a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
95behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
96considered a comment and ignored.
97.P
98If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
99standard input.
100.SS "Global Section"
101The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
102job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
103and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
104may override any parameter set in global sections.
105.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
106.SS Types
107Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type. The types used are:
108.TP
109.I str
110String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
111.TP
112.I int
113SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
114of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
115kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
116respectively. The suffix is not case sensitive. If prefixed with '0x', the
117value is assumed to be base 16 (hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b',
118for instance 'kb' is identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value
119by using 'KiB', 'MiB', 'GiB', etc. This is useful for disk drives where
120values are often given in base 10 values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you
12130*1000^3 bytes.
122.TP
123.I bool
124Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
125.TP
126.I irange
127Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
128\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
129\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
130sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
131`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
132.TP
133.I float_list
134List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
135a ':' character.
136.SS "Parameter List"
137.TP
138.BI name \fR=\fPstr
139May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
140has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
141.TP
142.BI description \fR=\fPstr
143Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
144otherwise has no special purpose.
145.TP
146.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
147Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
148than `./'.
149.TP
150.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
151.B fio
152normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
153number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
154specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
155If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
156a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
157reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
158set.
159.TP
160.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
161If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
162fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
163based on the default file format specification of
164\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
165customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
166string:
167.RS
168.RS
169.TP
170.B $jobname
171The name of the worker thread or process.
172.TP
173.B $jobnum
174The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
175.TP
176.B $filenum
177The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
178.RE
179.P
180To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
181have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
182if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
183be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
184will be used if no other format specifier is given.
185.RE
186.P
187.TP
188.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
189Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
190file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
191result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
192The lock modes are:
193.RS
194.RS
195.TP
196.B none
197No locking. This is the default.
198.TP
199.B exclusive
200Only one thread or process may do IO at the time, excluding all others.
201.TP
202.B readwrite
203Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
204time, but writes get exclusive access.
205.RE
206.RE
207.P
208.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
209Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
210.TP
211.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
212Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
213.RS
214.RS
215.TP
216.B read
217Sequential reads.
218.TP
219.B write
220Sequential writes.
221.TP
222.B trim
223Sequential trim (Linux block devices only).
224.TP
225.B randread
226Random reads.
227.TP
228.B randwrite
229Random writes.
230.TP
231.B randtrim
232Random trim (Linux block devices only).
233.TP
234.B rw, readwrite
235Mixed sequential reads and writes.
236.TP
237.B randrw
238Mixed random reads and writes.
239.RE
240.P
241For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
242may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
243specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
244appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
245would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
246value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
247specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
248using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
249into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
250.RE
251.TP
252.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
253If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
254then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
255generated. Accepted values are:
256.RS
257.RS
258.TP
259.B sequential
260Generate sequential offset
261.TP
262.B identical
263Generate the same offset
264.RE
265.P
266\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
267generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
268would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
269only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
270that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
271would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
272fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
273new offset.
274.RE
275.P
276.TP
277.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
278The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
279manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
280reasons. Allowed values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
281.TP
282.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
283Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
284read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
285set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
286.TP
287.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
288Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
289across runs. Default: true.
290.TP
291.BI randseed \fR=\fPint
292Seed the random number generators based on this seed value, to be able to
293control what sequence of output is being generated. If not set, the random
294sequence depends on the \fBrandrepeat\fR setting.
295.TP
296.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
297Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
298offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
299Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
300faster. Default: false.
301.TP
302.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
303Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
304are:
305.RS
306.RS
307.TP
308.B none
309Do not pre-allocate space.
310.TP
311.B posix
312Pre-allocate via \fBposix_fallocate\fR\|(3).
313.TP
314.B keep
315Pre-allocate via \fBfallocate\fR\|(2) with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
316.TP
317.B 0
318Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
319.TP
320.B 1
321Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
322.RE
323.P
324May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
325available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
326because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
327.RE
328.TP
329.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
330Use of \fBposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
331are likely to be issued. Default: true.
332.TP
333.BI size \fR=\fPint
334Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
335been transferred, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
336Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
337divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
338full size of the given files or devices. If the files do not exist, size
339must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
340100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
341or devices.
342.TP
343.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
344Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
345device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
346For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
347the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
348since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
349writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
350.TP
351.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
352Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
353for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
354that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
355same size.
356.TP
357.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
358Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads, writes, and trims
359can be specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR,\fItrim\fR
360either of which may be empty to leave that value at its default. If a trailing
361comma isn't given, the remainder will inherit the last value set.
362.TP
363.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
364Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
365multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
366to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
367separately with a comma separating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
368Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
369.TP
370.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
371This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
372not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
373block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
374block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
375optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
376Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
377blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
378splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
379\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
380comma.
381.TP
382.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
383If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
384work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
385.TP
386.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
387At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
388the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
389for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
390This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
391will turn off that option.
392.TP
393.BI bs_is_seq_rand \fR=\fPbool
394If this option is set, fio will use the normal read,write blocksize settings as
395sequential,random instead. Any random read or write will use the WRITE
396blocksize settings, and any sequential read or write will use the READ
397blocksize setting.
398.TP
399.B zero_buffers
400Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
401.TP
402.B refill_buffers
403If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
404default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
405if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
406refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
407.TP
408.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
409If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
410deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
411contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
412more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
413of blocks. Default: true.
414.TP
415.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
416If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
417that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
418random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
419wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
420\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
421.TP
422.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
423See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
424big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
425provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
426the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
427size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
428.TP
429.BI buffer_pattern \fR=\fPstr
430If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. If not set, the contents
431of io buffers is defined by the other options related to buffer contents. The
432setting can be any pattern of bytes, and can be prefixed with 0x for hex
433values.
434.TP
435.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
436Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
437.TP
438.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
439Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
440.TP
441.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
442Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
443.RS
444.RS
445.TP
446.B random
447Choose a file at random.
448.TP
449.B roundrobin
450Round robin over open files (default).
451.TP
452.B sequential
453Do each file in the set sequentially.
454.RE
455.P
456The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
457appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
458.RE
459.TP
460.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
461Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
462.RS
463.RS
464.TP
465.B sync
466Basic \fBread\fR\|(2) or \fBwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fBfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
467position the I/O location.
468.TP
469.B psync
470Basic \fBpread\fR\|(2) or \fBpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
471.TP
472.B vsync
473Basic \fBreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
474coalescing adjacent IOs into a single submission.
475.TP
476.B pvsync
477Basic \fBpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fBpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
478.TP
479.B libaio
480Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
481.TP
482.B posixaio
483POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fBaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fBaio_write\fR\|(3).
484.TP
485.B solarisaio
486Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
487.TP
488.B windowsaio
489Windows native asynchronous I/O.
490.TP
491.B mmap
492File is memory mapped with \fBmmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
493\fBmemcpy\fR\|(3).
494.TP
495.B splice
496\fBsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
497transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
498.TP
499.B syslet-rw
500Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
501.TP
502.B sg
503SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
504the target is an sg character device, we use \fBread\fR\|(2) and
505\fBwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
506.TP
507.B null
508Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
509itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
510.TP
511.B net
512Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
513\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
514\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
515This ioengine defines engine specific options.
516.TP
517.B netsplice
518Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fBsplice\fR\|(2) and \fBvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
519and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
520.TP
521.B cpuio
522Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
523\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
524.TP
525.B guasi
526The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
527approach to asynchronous I/O.
528.br
529See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
530.TP
531.B rdma
532The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
533and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
534.TP
535.B external
536Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
537`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
538.TP
539.B falloc
540 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate call to simulate data
541transfer as fio ioengine
542.br
543 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
544.br
545 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
546.br
547 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
548.TP
549.B e4defrag
550IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
551request to DDIR_WRITE event
552.RE
553.P
554.RE
555.TP
556.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
557Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
558iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
559degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
560restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
561Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
562not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
563fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
564.TP
565.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
566Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
567.TP
568.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
569This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
570 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
571kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
572\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
573completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
574cost of more retrieval system calls.
575.TP
576.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
577Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
578\fBiodepth\fR.
579.TP
580.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
581If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
582.TP
583.BI atomic \fR=\fPbool
584If value is true, attempt to use atomic direct IO. Atomic writes are guaranteed
585to be stable once acknowledged by the operating system. Only Linux supports
586O_ATOMIC right now.
587.TP
588.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
589If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
590Default: true.
591.TP
592.BI offset \fR=\fPint
593Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
594.TP
595.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
596If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
597offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
598that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
599there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
600disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
601.TP
602.BI number_ios \fR=\fPint
603Fio will normally perform IOs until it has exhausted the size of the region
604set by \fBsize\fR, or if it exhaust the allocated time (or hits an error
605condition). With this setting, the range/size can be set independently of
606the number of IOs to perform. When fio reaches this number, it will exit
607normally and report status.
608.TP
609.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
610How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
6110, don't sync. Default: 0.
612.TP
613.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
614Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
615data parts of the file. Default: 0.
616.TP
617.BI write_barrier \fR=\fPint
618Make every Nth write a barrier write.
619.TP
620.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
621Use \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
622track range of writes that have happened since the last \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) call.
623\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
624.RS
625.TP
626.B wait_before
627SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
628.TP
629.B write
630SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
631.TP
632.B wait_after
633SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
634.TP
635.RE
636.P
637So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
638\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
639Also see the \fBsync_file_range\fR\|(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
640.TP
641.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
642If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
643.TP
644.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
645Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
646.TP
647.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
648If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
649it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
650.TP
651.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
652Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
653.TP
654.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
655Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
656\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
657overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
658asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
659the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
660.TP
661.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
662By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
663to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
664specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
665Fio includes the following distribution models:
666.RS
667.TP
668.B random
669Uniform random distribution
670.TP
671.B zipf
672Zipf distribution
673.TP
674.B pareto
675Pareto distribution
676.TP
677.RE
678.P
679When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
680define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
681it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
682used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
683If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
684random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
685fio will disable use of the random map.
686.TP
687.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint
688For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This defaults
689to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set from
690anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
691sequential. It is possible to set different values for reads, writes, and
692trim. To do so, simply use a comma separated list. See \fBblocksize\fR.
693.TP
694.B norandommap
695Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
696this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
697I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
698.TP
699.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
700See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
701fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
702random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
703option is disabled by default.
704.TP
705.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
706Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
707.RS
708.TP
709.B tausworthe
710Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
711.TP
712.B lfsr
713Linear feedback shift register generator
714.TP
715.RE
716.P
717Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
718side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
719guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
720computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
721for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
722sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
723workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
724.TP
725.BI nice \fR=\fPint
726Run job with given nice value. See \fBnice\fR\|(2).
727.TP
728.BI prio \fR=\fPint
729Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
730\fBionice\fR\|(1).
731.TP
732.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
733Set I/O priority class. See \fBionice\fR\|(1).
734.TP
735.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
736Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
737.TP
738.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
739Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
740of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
741.TP
742.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
743Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks to issue, before
744waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds. If not set, defaults to 1 which will
745make fio wait \fBthinktime\fR microseconds after every block. This
746effectively makes any queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 IO
747will be queued before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other
748words, this setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
749Default: 1.
750.TP
751.BI rate \fR=\fPint
752Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
753rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
754or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
755limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
756can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
757limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
758.TP
759.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
760Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
761Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
762as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
763.TP
764.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
765Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
766specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
767read vs write separation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
768size is used as the metric.
769.TP
770.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
771If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
772is used for read vs write separation.
773.TP
774.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
775Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
776milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
777.TP
778.BI latency_target \fR=\fPint
779If set, fio will attempt to find the max performance point that the given
780workload will run at while maintaining a latency below this target. The
781values is given in microseconds. See \fBlatency_window\fR and
782\fBlatency_percentile\fR.
783.TP
784.BI latency_window \fR=\fPint
785Used with \fBlatency_target\fR to specify the sample window that the job
786is run at varying queue depths to test the performance. The value is given
787in microseconds.
788.TP
789.BI latency_percentile \fR=\fPfloat
790The percentage of IOs that must fall within the criteria specified by
791\fBlatency_target\fR and \fBlatency_window\fR. If not set, this defaults
792to 100.0, meaning that all IOs must be equal or below to the value set
793by \fBlatency_target\fR.
794.TP
795.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
796If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
797with an ETIME error.
798.TP
799.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
800Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
801may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
802.TP
803.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
804Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
805.TP
806.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
807Set this job running on specified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
808comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
809.TP
810.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
811Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
812the arguments:
813.RS
814.TP
815.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
816.TP
817.B mode
818is one of the following memory policy:
819.TP
820.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
821.TP
822.RE
823For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
824needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
825allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
826comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
827.TP
828.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
829Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
830.TP
831.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
832Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
833.TP
834.B time_based
835If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
836completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
837as \fBruntime\fR allows.
838.TP
839.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
840If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
841logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
842logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
843that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
844increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
845.TP
846.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
847Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
848.TP
849.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
850Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
851this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
852.TP
853.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
854Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
855.RS
856.RS
857.TP
858.B malloc
859Allocate memory with \fBmalloc\fR\|(3).
860.TP
861.B shm
862Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fBshmget\fR\|(2).
863.TP
864.B shmhuge
865Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
866.TP
867.B mmap
868Use \fBmmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
869is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
870.TP
871.B mmaphuge
872Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
873.RE
874.P
875The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
876job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
877the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
878have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
879huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
880and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
881number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
882use.
883.RE
884.TP
885.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
886This indicates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
887given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
888the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
889other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
890system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
891is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
892sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
893.TP
894.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
895Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
896Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
897.TP
898.B exitall
899Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
900.TP
901.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
902Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
903500ms.
904.TP
905.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
906Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
907500ms.
908.TP
909.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
910If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
911.TP
912.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
913\fBfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
914.TP
915.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
916If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
917.TP
918.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
919If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
920laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
921are not executed.
922.TP
923.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
924If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
925IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
926pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
927engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
928multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
929.TP
930.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
931Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
932.TP
933.BI loops \fR=\fPint
934Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
935Default: 1.
936.TP
937.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
938Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
939Default: true.
940.TP
941.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
942Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
943values are:
944.RS
945.RS
946.TP
947.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
948Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
949hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
950not supported by the system.
951.TP
952.B meta
953Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
954block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
955.TP
956.B null
957Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
958.RE
959
960This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
961that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
962is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
963written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
964be of the newly written data.
965.RE
966.TP
967.BI verifysort \fR=\fPbool
968If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
969read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
970.TP
971.BI verifysort_nr \fR=\fPint
972Pre-load and sort verify blocks for a read workload.
973.TP
974.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
975Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
976writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
977.TP
978.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
979Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
980\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
981.TP
982.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
983If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
984with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
985pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
986fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
987decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
988has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
989\fBverify\fP=meta.
990.TP
991.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
992If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
993false.
994.TP
995.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
996If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
997read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
998data corruption occurred. Off by default.
999.TP
1000.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
1001Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
1002takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
1003verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
1004to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
1005engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
1006allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
1007.TP
1008.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
1009Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
1010See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
1011.TP
1012.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
1013Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
1014once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
1015everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
1016instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
1017IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
1018be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
1019only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
1020.TP
1021.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1022Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
1023will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
1024read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
1025\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
1026\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
1027will be verified more than once.
1028.TP
1029.BI trim_percentage \fR=\fPint
1030Number of verify blocks to discard/trim.
1031.TP
1032.BI trim_verify_zero \fR=\fPbool
1033Verify that trim/discarded blocks are returned as zeroes.
1034.TP
1035.BI trim_backlog \fR=\fPint
1036Trim after this number of blocks are written.
1037.TP
1038.BI trim_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
1039Trim this number of IO blocks.
1040.TP
1041.BI experimental_verify \fR=\fPbool
1042Enable experimental verification.
1043.TP
1044.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
1045Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
1046\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
1047.TP
1048.B new_group
1049Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
1050of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
1051.TP
1052.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
1053Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
1054Default: 1.
1055.TP
1056.B group_reporting
1057If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
1058specified.
1059.TP
1060.B thread
1061Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
1062with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
1063.TP
1064.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
1065Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1066.TP
1067.BI zonerange \fR=\fPint
1068Give size of an IO zone. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
1069.TP
1070.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
1071Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
1072read.
1073.TP
1074.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1075Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
1076for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
1077corrupt.
1078.TP
1079.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1080Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
1081\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
1082.TP
1083.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
1084While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1085attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
1086\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
1087still respecting ordering.
1088.TP
1089.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
1090While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1091is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
1092from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
1093single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
1094.TP
1095.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
1096If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
1097store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
1098fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1099graphs. See \fBwrite_lat_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1100option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1101.TP
1102.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1103Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1104filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1105is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1106.TP
1107.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1108Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1109option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1110filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1111.TP
1112.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1113By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1114IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1115very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1116over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1117Defaults to 0.
1118.TP
1119.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1120Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1121back the number of calls to \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2), as that does impact performance at
1122really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1123calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1124.TP
1125.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1126Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1127.TP
1128.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1129Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1130.TP
1131.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1132Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1133.TP
1134.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1135Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1136simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1137.TP
1138.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1139Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1140.RS
1141Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.prerun.txt\fR
1142.RE
1143.TP
1144.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1145Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1146.RS
1147Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.postrun.txt\fR
1148.RE
1149.TP
1150.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1151Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1152.TP
1153.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1154If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1155CPU cycles.
1156.TP
1157.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1158If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1159given time in milliseconds.
1160.TP
1161.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1162Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1163.TP
1164.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1165Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1166.RS
1167.TP
1168.B gettimeofday
1169\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2)
1170.TP
1171.B clock_gettime
1172\fBclock_gettime\fR\|(2)
1173.TP
1174.B cpu
1175Internal CPU clock source
1176.TP
1177.RE
1178.P
1179\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1180(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1181if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1182unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1183means supporting TSC Invariant.
1184.TP
1185.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1186Enable all of the \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1187disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1188\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1189the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1190.TP
1191.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1192Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1193the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1194\fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1195nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1196threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1197entering the kernel with a \fBgettimeofday\fR\|(2) call. The CPU set aside for doing
1198these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1199from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1200.TP
1201.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1202Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1203error list for each error type.
1204.br
1205ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1206.br
1207errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1208Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1209.br
1210Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1211.br
1212This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1213.TP
1214.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1215If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1216only fatal error will be dumped
1217.TP
1218.BI profile \fR=\fPstr
1219Select a specific builtin performance test.
1220.TP
1221.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1222Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1223The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1224your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1225
1226# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1227.TP
1228.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1229Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1230with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1231.TP
1232.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1233Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1234To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1235set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1236cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1237.TP
1238.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1239Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1240the thread/process does any work.
1241.TP
1242.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1243Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1244.TP
1245.BI unit_base \fR=\fPint
1246Base unit for reporting. Allowed values are:
1247.RS
1248.TP
1249.B 0
1250Use auto-detection (default).
1251.TP
1252.B 8
1253Byte based.
1254.TP
1255.B 1
1256Bit based.
1257.RE
1258.P
1259.TP
1260.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1261The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1262\fBflow\fR.
1263.TP
1264.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1265Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1266\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1267two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1268\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1269flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1270\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
12711:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1272.TP
1273.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1274The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1275reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1276.TP
1277.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1278The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1279exceeded before retrying operations
1280.TP
1281.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1282Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1283.TP
1284.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1285Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1286latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1287the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1288numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1289report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1290the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1291.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1292Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1293used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1294command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1295.TP
1296.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1297Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1298.TP
1299.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1300Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1301.TP
1302.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1303Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1304the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1305With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1306from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1307enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1308iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1309.TP
1310.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1311The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1312If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1313used and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1314.TP
1315.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1316The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1317.TP
1318.BI (net,netsplice)interface \fR=\fPstr
1319The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP multicast
1320packets.
1321.TP
1322.BI (net,netsplice)ttl \fR=\fPint
1323Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1
1324.TP
1325.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1326Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1327.TP
1328.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1329The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1330.RS
1331.RS
1332.TP
1333.B tcp
1334Transmission control protocol
1335.TP
1336.B tcpv6
1337Transmission control protocol V6
1338.TP
1339.B udp
1340User datagram protocol
1341.TP
1342.B udpv6
1343User datagram protocol V6
1344.TP
1345.B unix
1346UNIX domain socket
1347.RE
1348.P
1349When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1350as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1351reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1352used and the port is invalid.
1353.RE
1354.TP
1355.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1356For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1357connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1358hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1359.TP
1360.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1361Normally a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1362will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1363payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1364This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1365latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1366completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1367send back. For UDP multicast traffic pingpong=1 should only be set for a single
1368reader when multiple readers are listening to the same address.
1369.TP
1370.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1371File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1372.TP
1373.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1374Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1375.RS
1376.BI 0(default) :
1377Preallocate donor's file on init
1378.TP
1379.BI 1:
1380allocate space immediately inside defragment event, and free right after event
1381.RE
1382.SH OUTPUT
1383While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1384example:
1385.RS
1386.P
1387Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1388.RE
1389.P
1390The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1391threads. The possible values are:
1392.P
1393.PD 0
1394.RS
1395.TP
1396.B P
1397Setup but not started.
1398.TP
1399.B C
1400Thread created.
1401.TP
1402.B I
1403Initialized, waiting.
1404.TP
1405.B R
1406Running, doing sequential reads.
1407.TP
1408.B r
1409Running, doing random reads.
1410.TP
1411.B W
1412Running, doing sequential writes.
1413.TP
1414.B w
1415Running, doing random writes.
1416.TP
1417.B M
1418Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1419.TP
1420.B m
1421Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1422.TP
1423.B F
1424Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1425.TP
1426.B V
1427Running, verifying written data.
1428.TP
1429.B E
1430Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1431.TP
1432.B \-
1433Exited, thread reaped.
1434.RE
1435.PD
1436.P
1437The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1438the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1439respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1440.P
1441When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1442for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1443.P
1444Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1445error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1446.RS
1447.TP
1448.B io
1449Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1450.TP
1451.B bw
1452Average data rate (bandwidth).
1453.TP
1454.B runt
1455Threads run time.
1456.TP
1457.B slat
1458Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1459the time it took to submit the I/O.
1460.TP
1461.B clat
1462Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1463is the time between submission and completion.
1464.TP
1465.B bw
1466Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1467and standard deviation.
1468.TP
1469.B cpu
1470CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1471this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1472.TP
1473.B IO depths
1474Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1475to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1476.TP
1477.B IO issued
1478Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1479.TP
1480.B IO latencies
1481Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1482as \fBIO depths\fR.
1483.RE
1484.P
1485The group statistics show:
1486.PD 0
1487.RS
1488.TP
1489.B io
1490Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1491.TP
1492.B aggrb
1493Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1494.TP
1495.B minb
1496Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1497.TP
1498.B maxb
1499Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1500.TP
1501.B mint
1502Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1503.TP
1504.B maxt
1505Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1506.RE
1507.PD
1508.P
1509Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1510.PD 0
1511.RS
1512.TP
1513.B ios
1514Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1515.TP
1516.B merge
1517Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1518.TP
1519.B ticks
1520Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1521.TP
1522.B io_queue
1523Total time spent in the disk queue.
1524.TP
1525.B util
1526Disk utilization.
1527.RE
1528.PD
1529.P
1530It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1531running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1532signal.
1533.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1534If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1535semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1536(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1537number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1538for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1539change. The fields are:
1540.P
1541.RS
1542.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1543.P
1544Read status:
1545.RS
1546.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1547.P
1548Submission latency:
1549.RS
1550.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1551.RE
1552Completion latency:
1553.RS
1554.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1555.RE
1556Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1557.RS
1558.B Xth percentile=usec
1559.RE
1560Total latency:
1561.RS
1562.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1563.RE
1564Bandwidth:
1565.RS
1566.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1567.RE
1568.RE
1569.P
1570Write status:
1571.RS
1572.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1573.P
1574Submission latency:
1575.RS
1576.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1577.RE
1578Completion latency:
1579.RS
1580.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1581.RE
1582Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1583.RS
1584.B Xth percentile=usec
1585.RE
1586Total latency:
1587.RS
1588.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1589.RE
1590Bandwidth:
1591.RS
1592.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1593.RE
1594.RE
1595.P
1596CPU usage:
1597.RS
1598.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1599.RE
1600.P
1601IO depth distribution:
1602.RS
1603.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1604.RE
1605.P
1606IO latency distribution:
1607.RS
1608Microseconds:
1609.RS
1610.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1611.RE
1612Milliseconds:
1613.RS
1614.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1615.RE
1616.RE
1617.P
1618Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1619.RS
1620.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
1621.RE
1622.P
1623Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1624.RS
1625.B total # errors, first error code
1626.RE
1627.P
1628.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1629.RE
1630.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1631Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1632where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1633run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1634have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1635be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1636
1637To start the server, you would do:
1638
1639\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1640
1641on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1642are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1643for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1644socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1645listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1646
16471) fio \-\-server
1648
1649 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1650
16512) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1652
1653 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1654
16553) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1656
1657 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1658
16594) fio \-\-server=,4444
1660
1661 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1662
16635) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1664
1665 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1666
16676) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1668
1669 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1670
1671When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1672is run with:
1673
1674fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1675
1676where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1677running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1678are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1679does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1680You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1681
1682fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1683.SH AUTHORS
1684
1685.B fio
1686was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1687now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1688.br
1689This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1690on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1691.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1692Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1693See \fBREADME\fR.
1694.SH "SEE ALSO"
1695For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1696.br
1697Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1698