init: remove leftover unused variable
[fio.git] / fio.1
... / ...
CommitLineData
1.TH fio 1 "September 2007" "User Manual"
2.SH NAME
3fio \- flexible I/O tester
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B fio
6[\fIoptions\fR] [\fIjobfile\fR]...
7.SH DESCRIPTION
8.B fio
9is a tool that will spawn a number of threads or processes doing a
10particular type of I/O action as specified by the user.
11The typical use of fio is to write a job file matching the I/O load
12one wants to simulate.
13.SH OPTIONS
14.TP
15.BI \-\-debug \fR=\fPtype
16Enable verbose tracing of various fio actions. May be `all' for all types
17or individual types separated by a comma (eg \-\-debug=io,file). `help' will
18list all available tracing options.
19.TP
20.BI \-\-output \fR=\fPfilename
21Write output to \fIfilename\fR.
22.TP
23.BI \-\-runtime \fR=\fPruntime
24Limit run time to \fIruntime\fR seconds.
25.TP
26.B \-\-latency\-log
27Generate per-job latency logs.
28.TP
29.B \-\-bandwidth\-log
30Generate per-job bandwidth logs.
31.TP
32.B \-\-minimal
33Print statistics in a terse, semicolon-delimited format.
34.TP
35.B \-\-version
36Display version information and exit.
37.TP
38.BI \-\-terse\-version \fR=\fPversion
39Set terse version output format (Current version 3, or older version 2).
40.TP
41.B \-\-help
42Display usage information and exit.
43.TP
44.BI \-\-cmdhelp \fR=\fPcommand
45Print help information for \fIcommand\fR. May be `all' for all commands.
46.TP
47.BI \-\-enghelp \fR=\fPioengine[,command]
48List all commands defined by \fIioengine\fR, or print help for \fIcommand\fR defined by \fIioengine\fR.
49.TP
50.BI \-\-showcmd \fR=\fPjobfile
51Convert \fIjobfile\fR to a set of command-line options.
52.TP
53.BI \-\-eta \fR=\fPwhen
54Specifies when real-time ETA estimate should be printed. \fIwhen\fR may
55be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
56.TP
57.BI \-\-eta\-newline \fR=\fPtime
58Force an ETA newline for every `time` period passed.
59.TP
60.BI \-\-status\-interval \fR=\fPtime
61Report full output status every `time` period passed.
62.TP
63.BI \-\-readonly
64Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing any attempted write.
65.TP
66.BI \-\-section \fR=\fPsec
67Only run section \fIsec\fR from job file. Multiple of these options can be given, adding more sections to run.
68.TP
69.BI \-\-alloc\-size \fR=\fPkb
70Set the internal smalloc pool size to \fIkb\fP kilobytes.
71.TP
72.BI \-\-warnings\-fatal
73All fio parser warnings are fatal, causing fio to exit with an error.
74.TP
75.BI \-\-max\-jobs \fR=\fPnr
76Set the maximum allowed number of jobs (threads/processes) to support.
77.TP
78.BI \-\-server \fR=\fPargs
79Start a backend server, with \fIargs\fP specifying what to listen to. See client/server section.
80.TP
81.BI \-\-daemonize \fR=\fPpidfile
82Background a fio server, writing the pid to the given pid file.
83.TP
84.BI \-\-client \fR=\fPhost
85Instead of running the jobs locally, send and run them on the given host.
86.TP
87.BI \-\-idle\-prof \fR=\fPoption
88Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis (\fIoption\fP=system,percpu) or run unit work calibration only (\fIoption\fP=calibrate).
89.SH "JOB FILE FORMAT"
90Job files are in `ini' format. They consist of one or more
91job definitions, which begin with a job name in square brackets and
92extend to the next job name. The job name can be any ASCII string
93except `global', which has a special meaning. Following the job name is
94a sequence of zero or more parameters, one per line, that define the
95behavior of the job. Any line starting with a `;' or `#' character is
96considered a comment and ignored.
97.P
98If \fIjobfile\fR is specified as `-', the job file will be read from
99standard input.
100.SS "Global Section"
101The global section contains default parameters for jobs specified in the
102job file. A job is only affected by global sections residing above it,
103and there may be any number of global sections. Specific job definitions
104may override any parameter set in global sections.
105.SH "JOB PARAMETERS"
106.SS Types
107Some parameters may take arguments of a specific type. The types used are:
108.TP
109.I str
110String: a sequence of alphanumeric characters.
111.TP
112.I int
113SI integer: a whole number, possibly containing a suffix denoting the base unit
114of the value. Accepted suffixes are `k', 'M', 'G', 'T', and 'P', denoting
115kilo (1024), mega (1024^2), giga (1024^3), tera (1024^4), and peta (1024^5)
116respectively. The suffix is not case sensitive. If prefixed with '0x', the
117value is assumed to be base 16 (hexadecimal). A suffix may include a trailing 'b',
118for instance 'kb' is identical to 'k'. You can specify a base 10 value
119by using 'KiB', 'MiB', 'GiB', etc. This is useful for disk drives where
120values are often given in base 10 values. Specifying '30GiB' will get you
12130*1000^3 bytes.
122.TP
123.I bool
124Boolean: a true or false value. `0' denotes false, `1' denotes true.
125.TP
126.I irange
127Integer range: a range of integers specified in the format
128\fIlower\fR:\fIupper\fR or \fIlower\fR\-\fIupper\fR. \fIlower\fR and
129\fIupper\fR may contain a suffix as described above. If an option allows two
130sets of ranges, they are separated with a `,' or `/' character. For example:
131`8\-8k/8M\-4G'.
132.TP
133.I float_list
134List of floating numbers: A list of floating numbers, separated by
135a ':' charcater.
136.SS "Parameter List"
137.TP
138.BI name \fR=\fPstr
139May be used to override the job name. On the command line, this parameter
140has the special purpose of signalling the start of a new job.
141.TP
142.BI description \fR=\fPstr
143Human-readable description of the job. It is printed when the job is run, but
144otherwise has no special purpose.
145.TP
146.BI directory \fR=\fPstr
147Prefix filenames with this directory. Used to place files in a location other
148than `./'.
149.TP
150.BI filename \fR=\fPstr
151.B fio
152normally makes up a file name based on the job name, thread number, and file
153number. If you want to share files between threads in a job or several jobs,
154specify a \fIfilename\fR for each of them to override the default.
155If the I/O engine is file-based, you can specify
156a number of files by separating the names with a `:' character. `\-' is a
157reserved name, meaning stdin or stdout, depending on the read/write direction
158set.
159.TP
160.BI filename_format \fR=\fPstr
161If sharing multiple files between jobs, it is usually necessary to have
162fio generate the exact names that you want. By default, fio will name a file
163based on the default file format specification of
164\fBjobname.jobnumber.filenumber\fP. With this option, that can be
165customized. Fio will recognize and replace the following keywords in this
166string:
167.RS
168.RS
169.TP
170.B $jobname
171The name of the worker thread or process.
172.TP
173.B $jobnum
174The incremental number of the worker thread or process.
175.TP
176.B $filenum
177The incremental number of the file for that worker thread or process.
178.RE
179.P
180To have dependent jobs share a set of files, this option can be set to
181have fio generate filenames that are shared between the two. For instance,
182if \fBtestfiles.$filenum\fR is specified, file number 4 for any job will
183be named \fBtestfiles.4\fR. The default of \fB$jobname.$jobnum.$filenum\fR
184will be used if no other format specifier is given.
185.RE
186.P
187.TP
188.BI lockfile \fR=\fPstr
189Fio defaults to not locking any files before it does IO to them. If a file or
190file descriptor is shared, fio can serialize IO to that file to make the end
191result consistent. This is usual for emulating real workloads that share files.
192The lock modes are:
193.RS
194.RS
195.TP
196.B none
197No locking. This is the default.
198.TP
199.B exclusive
200Only one thread or process may do IO at the time, excluding all others.
201.TP
202.B readwrite
203Read-write locking on the file. Many readers may access the file at the same
204time, but writes get exclusive access.
205.RE
206.RE
207.P
208.BI opendir \fR=\fPstr
209Recursively open any files below directory \fIstr\fR.
210.TP
211.BI readwrite \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP rw" \fR=\fPstr
212Type of I/O pattern. Accepted values are:
213.RS
214.RS
215.TP
216.B read
217Sequential reads.
218.TP
219.B write
220Sequential writes.
221.TP
222.B randread
223Random reads.
224.TP
225.B randwrite
226Random writes.
227.TP
228.B rw, readwrite
229Mixed sequential reads and writes.
230.TP
231.B randrw
232Mixed random reads and writes.
233.RE
234.P
235For mixed I/O, the default split is 50/50. For certain types of io the result
236may still be skewed a bit, since the speed may be different. It is possible to
237specify a number of IO's to do before getting a new offset, this is done by
238appending a `:\fI<nr>\fR to the end of the string given. For a random read, it
239would look like \fBrw=randread:8\fR for passing in an offset modifier with a
240value of 8. If the postfix is used with a sequential IO pattern, then the value
241specified will be added to the generated offset for each IO. For instance,
242using \fBrw=write:4k\fR will skip 4k for every write. It turns sequential IO
243into sequential IO with holes. See the \fBrw_sequencer\fR option.
244.RE
245.TP
246.BI rw_sequencer \fR=\fPstr
247If an offset modifier is given by appending a number to the \fBrw=<str>\fR line,
248then this option controls how that number modifies the IO offset being
249generated. Accepted values are:
250.RS
251.RS
252.TP
253.B sequential
254Generate sequential offset
255.TP
256.B identical
257Generate the same offset
258.RE
259.P
260\fBsequential\fR is only useful for random IO, where fio would normally
261generate a new random offset for every IO. If you append eg 8 to randread, you
262would get a new random offset for every 8 IO's. The result would be a seek for
263only every 8 IO's, instead of for every IO. Use \fBrw=randread:8\fR to specify
264that. As sequential IO is already sequential, setting \fBsequential\fR for that
265would not result in any differences. \fBidentical\fR behaves in a similar
266fashion, except it sends the same offset 8 number of times before generating a
267new offset.
268.RE
269.P
270.TP
271.BI kb_base \fR=\fPint
272The base unit for a kilobyte. The defacto base is 2^10, 1024. Storage
273manufacturers like to use 10^3 or 1000 as a base ten unit instead, for obvious
274reasons. Allow values are 1024 or 1000, with 1024 being the default.
275.TP
276.BI unified_rw_reporting \fR=\fPbool
277Fio normally reports statistics on a per data direction basis, meaning that
278read, write, and trim are accounted and reported separately. If this option is
279set, the fio will sum the results and report them as "mixed" instead.
280.TP
281.BI randrepeat \fR=\fPbool
282Seed the random number generator in a predictable way so results are repeatable
283across runs. Default: true.
284.TP
285.BI use_os_rand \fR=\fPbool
286Fio can either use the random generator supplied by the OS to generator random
287offsets, or it can use it's own internal generator (based on Tausworthe).
288Default is to use the internal generator, which is often of better quality and
289faster. Default: false.
290.TP
291.BI fallocate \fR=\fPstr
292Whether pre-allocation is performed when laying down files. Accepted values
293are:
294.RS
295.RS
296.TP
297.B none
298Do not pre-allocate space.
299.TP
300.B posix
301Pre-allocate via posix_fallocate().
302.TP
303.B keep
304Pre-allocate via fallocate() with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE set.
305.TP
306.B 0
307Backward-compatible alias for 'none'.
308.TP
309.B 1
310Backward-compatible alias for 'posix'.
311.RE
312.P
313May not be available on all supported platforms. 'keep' is only
314available on Linux. If using ZFS on Solaris this must be set to 'none'
315because ZFS doesn't support it. Default: 'posix'.
316.RE
317.TP
318.BI fadvise_hint \fR=\fPbool
319Use of \fIposix_fadvise\fR\|(2) to advise the kernel what I/O patterns
320are likely to be issued. Default: true.
321.TP
322.BI size \fR=\fPint
323Total size of I/O for this job. \fBfio\fR will run until this many bytes have
324been transfered, unless limited by other options (\fBruntime\fR, for instance).
325Unless \fBnrfiles\fR and \fBfilesize\fR options are given, this amount will be
326divided between the available files for the job. If not set, fio will use the
327full size of the given files or devices. If the the files do not exist, size
328must be given. It is also possible to give size as a percentage between 1 and
329100. If size=20% is given, fio will use 20% of the full size of the given files
330or devices.
331.TP
332.BI fill_device \fR=\fPbool "\fR,\fB fill_fs" \fR=\fPbool
333Sets size to something really large and waits for ENOSPC (no space left on
334device) as the terminating condition. Only makes sense with sequential write.
335For a read workload, the mount point will be filled first then IO started on
336the result. This option doesn't make sense if operating on a raw device node,
337since the size of that is already known by the file system. Additionally,
338writing beyond end-of-device will not return ENOSPC there.
339.TP
340.BI filesize \fR=\fPirange
341Individual file sizes. May be a range, in which case \fBfio\fR will select sizes
342for files at random within the given range, limited to \fBsize\fR in total (if
343that is given). If \fBfilesize\fR is not specified, each created file is the
344same size.
345.TP
346.BI blocksize \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB bs" \fR=\fPint[,int]
347Block size for I/O units. Default: 4k. Values for reads, writes, and trims
348can be specified separately in the format \fIread\fR,\fIwrite\fR,\fItrim\fR
349either of which may be empty to leave that value at its default. If a trailing
350comma isn't given, the remainder will inherit the last value set.
351.TP
352.BI blocksize_range \fR=\fPirange[,irange] "\fR,\fB bsrange" \fR=\fPirange[,irange]
353Specify a range of I/O block sizes. The issued I/O unit will always be a
354multiple of the minimum size, unless \fBblocksize_unaligned\fR is set. Applies
355to both reads and writes if only one range is given, but can be specified
356separately with a comma seperating the values. Example: bsrange=1k-4k,2k-8k.
357Also (see \fBblocksize\fR).
358.TP
359.BI bssplit \fR=\fPstr
360This option allows even finer grained control of the block sizes issued,
361not just even splits between them. With this option, you can weight various
362block sizes for exact control of the issued IO for a job that has mixed
363block sizes. The format of the option is bssplit=blocksize/percentage,
364optionally adding as many definitions as needed separated by a colon.
365Example: bssplit=4k/10:64k/50:32k/40 would issue 50% 64k blocks, 10% 4k
366blocks and 40% 32k blocks. \fBbssplit\fR also supports giving separate
367splits to reads and writes. The format is identical to what the
368\fBbs\fR option accepts, the read and write parts are separated with a
369comma.
370.TP
371.B blocksize_unaligned\fR,\fP bs_unaligned
372If set, any size in \fBblocksize_range\fR may be used. This typically won't
373work with direct I/O, as that normally requires sector alignment.
374.TP
375.BI blockalign \fR=\fPint[,int] "\fR,\fB ba" \fR=\fPint[,int]
376At what boundary to align random IO offsets. Defaults to the same as 'blocksize'
377the minimum blocksize given. Minimum alignment is typically 512b
378for using direct IO, though it usually depends on the hardware block size.
379This option is mutually exclusive with using a random map for files, so it
380will turn off that option.
381.TP
382.B zero_buffers
383Initialise buffers with all zeros. Default: fill buffers with random data.
384.TP
385.B refill_buffers
386If this option is given, fio will refill the IO buffers on every submit. The
387default is to only fill it at init time and reuse that data. Only makes sense
388if zero_buffers isn't specified, naturally. If data verification is enabled,
389refill_buffers is also automatically enabled.
390.TP
391.BI scramble_buffers \fR=\fPbool
392If \fBrefill_buffers\fR is too costly and the target is using data
393deduplication, then setting this option will slightly modify the IO buffer
394contents to defeat normal de-dupe attempts. This is not enough to defeat
395more clever block compression attempts, but it will stop naive dedupe
396of blocks. Default: true.
397.TP
398.BI buffer_compress_percentage \fR=\fPint
399If this is set, then fio will attempt to provide IO buffer content (on WRITEs)
400that compress to the specified level. Fio does this by providing a mix of
401random data and zeroes. Note that this is per block size unit, for file/disk
402wide compression level that matches this setting, you'll also want to set
403\fBrefill_buffers\fR.
404.TP
405.BI buffer_compress_chunk \fR=\fPint
406See \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR. This setting allows fio to manage how
407big the ranges of random data and zeroed data is. Without this set, fio will
408provide \fBbuffer_compress_percentage\fR of blocksize random data, followed by
409the remaining zeroed. With this set to some chunk size smaller than the block
410size, fio can alternate random and zeroed data throughout the IO buffer.
411.TP
412.BI nrfiles \fR=\fPint
413Number of files to use for this job. Default: 1.
414.TP
415.BI openfiles \fR=\fPint
416Number of files to keep open at the same time. Default: \fBnrfiles\fR.
417.TP
418.BI file_service_type \fR=\fPstr
419Defines how files to service are selected. The following types are defined:
420.RS
421.RS
422.TP
423.B random
424Choose a file at random
425.TP
426.B roundrobin
427Round robin over open files (default).
428.B sequential
429Do each file in the set sequentially.
430.RE
431.P
432The number of I/Os to issue before switching a new file can be specified by
433appending `:\fIint\fR' to the service type.
434.RE
435.TP
436.BI ioengine \fR=\fPstr
437Defines how the job issues I/O. The following types are defined:
438.RS
439.RS
440.TP
441.B sync
442Basic \fIread\fR\|(2) or \fIwrite\fR\|(2) I/O. \fIfseek\fR\|(2) is used to
443position the I/O location.
444.TP
445.B psync
446Basic \fIpread\fR\|(2) or \fIpwrite\fR\|(2) I/O.
447.TP
448.B vsync
449Basic \fIreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIwritev\fR\|(2) I/O. Will emulate queuing by
450coalescing adjacents IOs into a single submission.
451.TP
452.B pvsync
453Basic \fIpreadv\fR\|(2) or \fIpwritev\fR\|(2) I/O.
454.TP
455.B libaio
456Linux native asynchronous I/O. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
457.TP
458.B posixaio
459POSIX asynchronous I/O using \fIaio_read\fR\|(3) and \fIaio_write\fR\|(3).
460.TP
461.B solarisaio
462Solaris native asynchronous I/O.
463.TP
464.B windowsaio
465Windows native asynchronous I/O.
466.TP
467.B mmap
468File is memory mapped with \fImmap\fR\|(2) and data copied using
469\fImemcpy\fR\|(3).
470.TP
471.B splice
472\fIsplice\fR\|(2) is used to transfer the data and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to
473transfer data from user-space to the kernel.
474.TP
475.B syslet-rw
476Use the syslet system calls to make regular read/write asynchronous.
477.TP
478.B sg
479SCSI generic sg v3 I/O. May be either synchronous using the SG_IO ioctl, or if
480the target is an sg character device, we use \fIread\fR\|(2) and
481\fIwrite\fR\|(2) for asynchronous I/O.
482.TP
483.B null
484Doesn't transfer any data, just pretends to. Mainly used to exercise \fBfio\fR
485itself and for debugging and testing purposes.
486.TP
487.B net
488Transfer over the network. The protocol to be used can be defined with the
489\fBprotocol\fR parameter. Depending on the protocol, \fBfilename\fR,
490\fBhostname\fR, \fBport\fR, or \fBlisten\fR must be specified.
491This ioengine defines engine specific options.
492.TP
493.B netsplice
494Like \fBnet\fR, but uses \fIsplice\fR\|(2) and \fIvmsplice\fR\|(2) to map data
495and send/receive. This ioengine defines engine specific options.
496.TP
497.B cpuio
498Doesn't transfer any data, but burns CPU cycles according to \fBcpuload\fR and
499\fBcpucycles\fR parameters.
500.TP
501.B guasi
502The GUASI I/O engine is the Generic Userspace Asynchronous Syscall Interface
503approach to asycnronous I/O.
504.br
505See <http://www.xmailserver.org/guasi\-lib.html>.
506.TP
507.B rdma
508The RDMA I/O engine supports both RDMA memory semantics (RDMA_WRITE/RDMA_READ)
509and channel semantics (Send/Recv) for the InfiniBand, RoCE and iWARP protocols.
510.TP
511.B external
512Loads an external I/O engine object file. Append the engine filename as
513`:\fIenginepath\fR'.
514.TP
515.B falloc
516 IO engine that does regular linux native fallocate callt to simulate data
517transfer as fio ioengine
518.br
519 DDIR_READ does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE,)
520.br
521 DIR_WRITE does fallocate(,mode = 0)
522.br
523 DDIR_TRIM does fallocate(,mode = FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE|FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE)
524.TP
525.B e4defrag
526IO engine that does regular EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctls to simulate defragment activity
527request to DDIR_WRITE event
528.RE
529.P
530.RE
531.TP
532.BI iodepth \fR=\fPint
533Number of I/O units to keep in flight against the file. Note that increasing
534iodepth beyond 1 will not affect synchronous ioengines (except for small
535degress when verify_async is in use). Even async engines my impose OS
536restrictions causing the desired depth not to be achieved. This may happen on
537Linux when using libaio and not setting \fBdirect\fR=1, since buffered IO is
538not async on that OS. Keep an eye on the IO depth distribution in the
539fio output to verify that the achieved depth is as expected. Default: 1.
540.TP
541.BI iodepth_batch \fR=\fPint
542Number of I/Os to submit at once. Default: \fBiodepth\fR.
543.TP
544.BI iodepth_batch_complete \fR=\fPint
545This defines how many pieces of IO to retrieve at once. It defaults to 1 which
546 means that we'll ask for a minimum of 1 IO in the retrieval process from the
547kernel. The IO retrieval will go on until we hit the limit set by
548\fBiodepth_low\fR. If this variable is set to 0, then fio will always check for
549completed events before queuing more IO. This helps reduce IO latency, at the
550cost of more retrieval system calls.
551.TP
552.BI iodepth_low \fR=\fPint
553Low watermark indicating when to start filling the queue again. Default:
554\fBiodepth\fR.
555.TP
556.BI direct \fR=\fPbool
557If true, use non-buffered I/O (usually O_DIRECT). Default: false.
558.TP
559.BI buffered \fR=\fPbool
560If true, use buffered I/O. This is the opposite of the \fBdirect\fR parameter.
561Default: true.
562.TP
563.BI offset \fR=\fPint
564Offset in the file to start I/O. Data before the offset will not be touched.
565.TP
566.BI offset_increment \fR=\fPint
567If this is provided, then the real offset becomes the
568offset + offset_increment * thread_number, where the thread number is a counter
569that starts at 0 and is incremented for each job. This option is useful if
570there are several jobs which are intended to operate on a file in parallel in
571disjoint segments, with even spacing between the starting points.
572.TP
573.BI fsync \fR=\fPint
574How many I/Os to perform before issuing an \fBfsync\fR\|(2) of dirty data. If
5750, don't sync. Default: 0.
576.TP
577.BI fdatasync \fR=\fPint
578Like \fBfsync\fR, but uses \fBfdatasync\fR\|(2) instead to only sync the
579data parts of the file. Default: 0.
580.TP
581.BI sync_file_range \fR=\fPstr:int
582Use sync_file_range() for every \fRval\fP number of write operations. Fio will
583track range of writes that have happened since the last sync_file_range() call.
584\fRstr\fP can currently be one or more of:
585.RS
586.TP
587.B wait_before
588SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
589.TP
590.B write
591SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
592.TP
593.B wait_after
594SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
595.TP
596.RE
597.P
598So if you do sync_file_range=wait_before,write:8, fio would use
599\fBSYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE\fP for every 8 writes.
600Also see the sync_file_range(2) man page. This option is Linux specific.
601.TP
602.BI overwrite \fR=\fPbool
603If writing, setup the file first and do overwrites. Default: false.
604.TP
605.BI end_fsync \fR=\fPbool
606Sync file contents when a write stage has completed. Default: false.
607.TP
608.BI fsync_on_close \fR=\fPbool
609If true, sync file contents on close. This differs from \fBend_fsync\fR in that
610it will happen on every close, not just at the end of the job. Default: false.
611.TP
612.BI rwmixread \fR=\fPint
613Percentage of a mixed workload that should be reads. Default: 50.
614.TP
615.BI rwmixwrite \fR=\fPint
616Percentage of a mixed workload that should be writes. If \fBrwmixread\fR and
617\fBrwmixwrite\fR are given and do not sum to 100%, the latter of the two
618overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
619asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
620the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
621.TP
622.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
623By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
624to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
625specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
626Fio includes the following distribution models:
627.RS
628.TP
629.B random
630Uniform random distribution
631.TP
632.B zipf
633Zipf distribution
634.TP
635.B pareto
636Pareto distribution
637.TP
638.RE
639.P
640When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
641define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
642it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
643used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
644If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
645random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
646fio will disable use of the random map.
647.TP
648.BI percentage_random \fR=\fPint
649For a random workload, set how big a percentage should be random. This defaults
650to 100%, in which case the workload is fully random. It can be set from
651anywhere from 0 to 100. Setting it to 0 would make the workload fully
652sequential. It is possible to set different values for reads, writes, and
653trim. To do so, simply use a comma separated list. See \fBblocksize\fR.
654.TP
655.B norandommap
656Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
657this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
658I/O history. This parameter is mutually exclusive with \fBverify\fR.
659.TP
660.BI softrandommap \fR=\fPbool
661See \fBnorandommap\fR. If fio runs with the random block map enabled and it
662fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
663random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
664option is disabled by default.
665.TP
666.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
667Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
668.RS
669.TP
670.B tausworthe
671Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
672.TP
673.B lfsr
674Linear feedback shift register generator
675.TP
676.RE
677.P
678Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
679side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
680guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
681computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
682for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
683sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
684workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
685.TP
686.BI nice \fR=\fPint
687Run job with given nice value. See \fInice\fR\|(2).
688.TP
689.BI prio \fR=\fPint
690Set I/O priority value of this job between 0 (highest) and 7 (lowest). See
691\fIionice\fR\|(1).
692.TP
693.BI prioclass \fR=\fPint
694Set I/O priority class. See \fIionice\fR\|(1).
695.TP
696.BI thinktime \fR=\fPint
697Stall job for given number of microseconds between issuing I/Os.
698.TP
699.BI thinktime_spin \fR=\fPint
700Pretend to spend CPU time for given number of microseconds, sleeping the rest
701of the time specified by \fBthinktime\fR. Only valid if \fBthinktime\fR is set.
702.TP
703.BI thinktime_blocks \fR=\fPint
704Only valid if thinktime is set - control how many blocks to issue, before
705waiting \fBthinktime\fR microseconds. If not set, defaults to 1 which will
706make fio wait \fBthinktime\fR microseconds after every block. This
707effectively makes any queue depth setting redundant, since no more than 1 IO
708will be queued before we have to complete it and do our thinktime. In other
709words, this setting effectively caps the queue depth if the latter is larger.
710Default: 1.
711.TP
712.BI rate \fR=\fPint
713Cap bandwidth used by this job. The number is in bytes/sec, the normal postfix
714rules apply. You can use \fBrate\fR=500k to limit reads and writes to 500k each,
715or you can specify read and writes separately. Using \fBrate\fR=1m,500k would
716limit reads to 1MB/sec and writes to 500KB/sec. Capping only reads or writes
717can be done with \fBrate\fR=,500k or \fBrate\fR=500k,. The former will only
718limit writes (to 500KB/sec), the latter will only limit reads.
719.TP
720.BI ratemin \fR=\fPint
721Tell \fBfio\fR to do whatever it can to maintain at least the given bandwidth.
722Failing to meet this requirement will cause the job to exit. The same format
723as \fBrate\fR is used for read vs write separation.
724.TP
725.BI rate_iops \fR=\fPint
726Cap the bandwidth to this number of IOPS. Basically the same as rate, just
727specified independently of bandwidth. The same format as \fBrate\fR is used for
728read vs write seperation. If \fBblocksize\fR is a range, the smallest block
729size is used as the metric.
730.TP
731.BI rate_iops_min \fR=\fPint
732If this rate of I/O is not met, the job will exit. The same format as \fBrate\fR
733is used for read vs write seperation.
734.TP
735.BI ratecycle \fR=\fPint
736Average bandwidth for \fBrate\fR and \fBratemin\fR over this number of
737milliseconds. Default: 1000ms.
738.TP
739.BI max_latency \fR=\fPint
740If set, fio will exit the job if it exceeds this maximum latency. It will exit
741with an ETIME error.
742.TP
743.BI cpumask \fR=\fPint
744Set CPU affinity for this job. \fIint\fR is a bitmask of allowed CPUs the job
745may run on. See \fBsched_setaffinity\fR\|(2).
746.TP
747.BI cpus_allowed \fR=\fPstr
748Same as \fBcpumask\fR, but allows a comma-delimited list of CPU numbers.
749.TP
750.BI numa_cpu_nodes \fR=\fPstr
751Set this job running on spcified NUMA nodes' CPUs. The arguments allow
752comma delimited list of cpu numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
753.TP
754.BI numa_mem_policy \fR=\fPstr
755Set this job's memory policy and corresponding NUMA nodes. Format of
756the argements:
757.RS
758.TP
759.B <mode>[:<nodelist>]
760.TP
761.B mode
762is one of the following memory policy:
763.TP
764.B default, prefer, bind, interleave, local
765.TP
766.RE
767For \fBdefault\fR and \fBlocal\fR memory policy, no \fBnodelist\fR is
768needed to be specified. For \fBprefer\fR, only one node is
769allowed. For \fBbind\fR and \fBinterleave\fR, \fBnodelist\fR allows
770comma delimited list of numbers, A-B ranges, or 'all'.
771.TP
772.BI startdelay \fR=\fPint
773Delay start of job for the specified number of seconds.
774.TP
775.BI runtime \fR=\fPint
776Terminate processing after the specified number of seconds.
777.TP
778.B time_based
779If given, run for the specified \fBruntime\fR duration even if the files are
780completely read or written. The same workload will be repeated as many times
781as \fBruntime\fR allows.
782.TP
783.BI ramp_time \fR=\fPint
784If set, fio will run the specified workload for this amount of time before
785logging any performance numbers. Useful for letting performance settle before
786logging results, thus minimizing the runtime required for stable results. Note
787that the \fBramp_time\fR is considered lead in time for a job, thus it will
788increase the total runtime if a special timeout or runtime is specified.
789.TP
790.BI invalidate \fR=\fPbool
791Invalidate buffer-cache for the file prior to starting I/O. Default: true.
792.TP
793.BI sync \fR=\fPbool
794Use synchronous I/O for buffered writes. For the majority of I/O engines,
795this means using O_SYNC. Default: false.
796.TP
797.BI iomem \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP mem" \fR=\fPstr
798Allocation method for I/O unit buffer. Allowed values are:
799.RS
800.RS
801.TP
802.B malloc
803Allocate memory with \fImalloc\fR\|(3).
804.TP
805.B shm
806Use shared memory buffers allocated through \fIshmget\fR\|(2).
807.TP
808.B shmhuge
809Same as \fBshm\fR, but use huge pages as backing.
810.TP
811.B mmap
812Use \fImmap\fR\|(2) for allocation. Uses anonymous memory unless a filename
813is given after the option in the format `:\fIfile\fR'.
814.TP
815.B mmaphuge
816Same as \fBmmap\fR, but use huge files as backing.
817.RE
818.P
819The amount of memory allocated is the maximum allowed \fBblocksize\fR for the
820job multiplied by \fBiodepth\fR. For \fBshmhuge\fR or \fBmmaphuge\fR to work,
821the system must have free huge pages allocated. \fBmmaphuge\fR also needs to
822have hugetlbfs mounted, and \fIfile\fR must point there. At least on Linux,
823huge pages must be manually allocated. See \fB/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugehages\fR
824and the documentation for that. Normally you just need to echo an appropriate
825number, eg echoing 8 will ensure that the OS has 8 huge pages ready for
826use.
827.RE
828.TP
829.BI iomem_align \fR=\fPint "\fR,\fP mem_align" \fR=\fPint
830This indiciates the memory alignment of the IO memory buffers. Note that the
831given alignment is applied to the first IO unit buffer, if using \fBiodepth\fR
832the alignment of the following buffers are given by the \fBbs\fR used. In
833other words, if using a \fBbs\fR that is a multiple of the page sized in the
834system, all buffers will be aligned to this value. If using a \fBbs\fR that
835is not page aligned, the alignment of subsequent IO memory buffers is the
836sum of the \fBiomem_align\fR and \fBbs\fR used.
837.TP
838.BI hugepage\-size \fR=\fPint
839Defines the size of a huge page. Must be at least equal to the system setting.
840Should be a multiple of 1MB. Default: 4MB.
841.TP
842.B exitall
843Terminate all jobs when one finishes. Default: wait for each job to finish.
844.TP
845.BI bwavgtime \fR=\fPint
846Average bandwidth calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
847500ms.
848.TP
849.BI iopsavgtime \fR=\fPint
850Average IOPS calculations over the given time in milliseconds. Default:
851500ms.
852.TP
853.BI create_serialize \fR=\fPbool
854If true, serialize file creation for the jobs. Default: true.
855.TP
856.BI create_fsync \fR=\fPbool
857\fIfsync\fR\|(2) data file after creation. Default: true.
858.TP
859.BI create_on_open \fR=\fPbool
860If true, the files are not created until they are opened for IO by the job.
861.TP
862.BI create_only \fR=\fPbool
863If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
864laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
865are not executed.
866.TP
867.BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
868If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
869IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
870pointless to pre-read and then drop the cache. This will only work for IO
871engines that are seekable, since they allow you to read the same data
872multiple times. Thus it will not work on eg network or splice IO.
873.TP
874.BI unlink \fR=\fPbool
875Unlink job files when done. Default: false.
876.TP
877.BI loops \fR=\fPint
878Specifies the number of iterations (runs of the same workload) of this job.
879Default: 1.
880.TP
881.BI do_verify \fR=\fPbool
882Run the verify phase after a write phase. Only valid if \fBverify\fR is set.
883Default: true.
884.TP
885.BI verify \fR=\fPstr
886Method of verifying file contents after each iteration of the job. Allowed
887values are:
888.RS
889.RS
890.TP
891.B md5 crc16 crc32 crc32c crc32c-intel crc64 crc7 sha256 sha512 sha1
892Store appropriate checksum in the header of each block. crc32c-intel is
893hardware accelerated SSE4.2 driven, falls back to regular crc32c if
894not supported by the system.
895.TP
896.B meta
897Write extra information about each I/O (timestamp, block number, etc.). The
898block number is verified. See \fBverify_pattern\fR as well.
899.TP
900.B null
901Pretend to verify. Used for testing internals.
902.RE
903
904This option can be used for repeated burn-in tests of a system to make sure
905that the written data is also correctly read back. If the data direction given
906is a read or random read, fio will assume that it should verify a previously
907written file. If the data direction includes any form of write, the verify will
908be of the newly written data.
909.RE
910.TP
911.BI verify_sort \fR=\fPbool
912If true, written verify blocks are sorted if \fBfio\fR deems it to be faster to
913read them back in a sorted manner. Default: true.
914.TP
915.BI verify_offset \fR=\fPint
916Swap the verification header with data somewhere else in the block before
917writing. It is swapped back before verifying.
918.TP
919.BI verify_interval \fR=\fPint
920Write the verification header for this number of bytes, which should divide
921\fBblocksize\fR. Default: \fBblocksize\fR.
922.TP
923.BI verify_pattern \fR=\fPstr
924If set, fio will fill the io buffers with this pattern. Fio defaults to filling
925with totally random bytes, but sometimes it's interesting to fill with a known
926pattern for io verification purposes. Depending on the width of the pattern,
927fio will fill 1/2/3/4 bytes of the buffer at the time(it can be either a
928decimal or a hex number). The verify_pattern if larger than a 32-bit quantity
929has to be a hex number that starts with either "0x" or "0X". Use with
930\fBverify\fP=meta.
931.TP
932.BI verify_fatal \fR=\fPbool
933If true, exit the job on the first observed verification failure. Default:
934false.
935.TP
936.BI verify_dump \fR=\fPbool
937If set, dump the contents of both the original data block and the data block we
938read off disk to files. This allows later analysis to inspect just what kind of
939data corruption occurred. Off by default.
940.TP
941.BI verify_async \fR=\fPint
942Fio will normally verify IO inline from the submitting thread. This option
943takes an integer describing how many async offload threads to create for IO
944verification instead, causing fio to offload the duty of verifying IO contents
945to one or more separate threads. If using this offload option, even sync IO
946engines can benefit from using an \fBiodepth\fR setting higher than 1, as it
947allows them to have IO in flight while verifies are running.
948.TP
949.BI verify_async_cpus \fR=\fPstr
950Tell fio to set the given CPU affinity on the async IO verification threads.
951See \fBcpus_allowed\fP for the format used.
952.TP
953.BI verify_backlog \fR=\fPint
954Fio will normally verify the written contents of a job that utilizes verify
955once that job has completed. In other words, everything is written then
956everything is read back and verified. You may want to verify continually
957instead for a variety of reasons. Fio stores the meta data associated with an
958IO block in memory, so for large verify workloads, quite a bit of memory would
959be used up holding this meta data. If this option is enabled, fio will write
960only N blocks before verifying these blocks.
961.TP
962.BI verify_backlog_batch \fR=\fPint
963Control how many blocks fio will verify if verify_backlog is set. If not set,
964will default to the value of \fBverify_backlog\fR (meaning the entire queue is
965read back and verified). If \fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is less than
966\fBverify_backlog\fR then not all blocks will be verified, if
967\fBverify_backlog_batch\fR is larger than \fBverify_backlog\fR, some blocks
968will be verified more than once.
969.TP
970.B stonewall "\fR,\fP wait_for_previous"
971Wait for preceding jobs in the job file to exit before starting this one.
972\fBstonewall\fR implies \fBnew_group\fR.
973.TP
974.B new_group
975Start a new reporting group. If not given, all jobs in a file will be part
976of the same reporting group, unless separated by a stonewall.
977.TP
978.BI numjobs \fR=\fPint
979Number of clones (processes/threads performing the same workload) of this job.
980Default: 1.
981.TP
982.B group_reporting
983If set, display per-group reports instead of per-job when \fBnumjobs\fR is
984specified.
985.TP
986.B thread
987Use threads created with \fBpthread_create\fR\|(3) instead of processes created
988with \fBfork\fR\|(2).
989.TP
990.BI zonesize \fR=\fPint
991Divide file into zones of the specified size in bytes. See \fBzoneskip\fR.
992.TP
993.BI zoneskip \fR=\fPint
994Skip the specified number of bytes when \fBzonesize\fR bytes of data have been
995read.
996.TP
997.BI write_iolog \fR=\fPstr
998Write the issued I/O patterns to the specified file. Specify a separate file
999for each job, otherwise the iologs will be interspersed and the file may be
1000corrupt.
1001.TP
1002.BI read_iolog \fR=\fPstr
1003Replay the I/O patterns contained in the specified file generated by
1004\fBwrite_iolog\fR, or may be a \fBblktrace\fR binary file.
1005.TP
1006.BI replay_no_stall \fR=\fPint
1007While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1008attempts to respect timing information between I/Os. Enabling
1009\fBreplay_no_stall\fR causes I/Os to be replayed as fast as possible while
1010still respecting ordering.
1011.TP
1012.BI replay_redirect \fR=\fPstr
1013While replaying I/O patterns using \fBread_iolog\fR the default behavior
1014is to replay the IOPS onto the major/minor device that each IOP was recorded
1015from. Setting \fBreplay_redirect\fR causes all IOPS to be replayed onto the
1016single specified device regardless of the device it was recorded from.
1017.TP
1018.BI write_bw_log \fR=\fPstr
1019If given, write a bandwidth log of the jobs in this job file. Can be used to
1020store data of the bandwidth of the jobs in their lifetime. The included
1021fio_generate_plots script uses gnuplot to turn these text files into nice
1022graphs. See \fBwrite_log_log\fR for behaviour of given filename. For this
1023option, the postfix is _bw.log.
1024.TP
1025.BI write_lat_log \fR=\fPstr
1026Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes I/O completion latencies. If no
1027filename is given with this option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log"
1028is used. Even if the filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1029.TP
1030.BI write_iops_log \fR=\fPstr
1031Same as \fBwrite_bw_log\fR, but writes IOPS. If no filename is given with this
1032option, the default filename of "jobname_type.log" is used. Even if the
1033filename is given, fio will still append the type of log.
1034.TP
1035.BI log_avg_msec \fR=\fPint
1036By default, fio will log an entry in the iops, latency, or bw log for every
1037IO that completes. When writing to the disk log, that can quickly grow to a
1038very large size. Setting this option makes fio average the each log entry
1039over the specified period of time, reducing the resolution of the log.
1040Defaults to 0.
1041.TP
1042.BI disable_lat \fR=\fPbool
1043Disable measurements of total latency numbers. Useful only for cutting
1044back the number of calls to gettimeofday, as that does impact performance at
1045really high IOPS rates. Note that to really get rid of a large amount of these
1046calls, this option must be used with disable_slat and disable_bw as well.
1047.TP
1048.BI disable_clat \fR=\fPbool
1049Disable measurements of completion latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1050.TP
1051.BI disable_slat \fR=\fPbool
1052Disable measurements of submission latency numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1053.TP
1054.BI disable_bw_measurement \fR=\fPbool
1055Disable measurements of throughput/bandwidth numbers. See \fBdisable_lat\fR.
1056.TP
1057.BI lockmem \fR=\fPint
1058Pin the specified amount of memory with \fBmlock\fR\|(2). Can be used to
1059simulate a smaller amount of memory. The amount specified is per worker.
1060.TP
1061.BI exec_prerun \fR=\fPstr
1062Before running the job, execute the specified command with \fBsystem\fR\|(3).
1063.RS
1064Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.prerun.txt\fR
1065.RE
1066.TP
1067.BI exec_postrun \fR=\fPstr
1068Same as \fBexec_prerun\fR, but the command is executed after the job completes.
1069.RS
1070Output is redirected in a file called \fBjobname.postrun.txt\fR
1071.RE
1072.TP
1073.BI ioscheduler \fR=\fPstr
1074Attempt to switch the device hosting the file to the specified I/O scheduler.
1075.TP
1076.BI cpuload \fR=\fPint
1077If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, attempt to use the specified percentage of
1078CPU cycles.
1079.TP
1080.BI cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1081If the job is a CPU cycle-eater, split the load into cycles of the
1082given time in milliseconds.
1083.TP
1084.BI disk_util \fR=\fPbool
1085Generate disk utilization statistics if the platform supports it. Default: true.
1086.TP
1087.BI clocksource \fR=\fPstr
1088Use the given clocksource as the base of timing. The supported options are:
1089.RS
1090.TP
1091.B gettimeofday
1092gettimeofday(2)
1093.TP
1094.B clock_gettime
1095clock_gettime(2)
1096.TP
1097.B cpu
1098Internal CPU clock source
1099.TP
1100.RE
1101.P
1102\fBcpu\fR is the preferred clocksource if it is reliable, as it is very fast
1103(and fio is heavy on time calls). Fio will automatically use this clocksource
1104if it's supported and considered reliable on the system it is running on,
1105unless another clocksource is specifically set. For x86/x86-64 CPUs, this
1106means supporting TSC Invariant.
1107.TP
1108.BI gtod_reduce \fR=\fPbool
1109Enable all of the gettimeofday() reducing options (disable_clat, disable_slat,
1110disable_bw) plus reduce precision of the timeout somewhat to really shrink the
1111gettimeofday() call count. With this option enabled, we only do about 0.4% of
1112the gtod() calls we would have done if all time keeping was enabled.
1113.TP
1114.BI gtod_cpu \fR=\fPint
1115Sometimes it's cheaper to dedicate a single thread of execution to just getting
1116the current time. Fio (and databases, for instance) are very intensive on
1117gettimeofday() calls. With this option, you can set one CPU aside for doing
1118nothing but logging current time to a shared memory location. Then the other
1119threads/processes that run IO workloads need only copy that segment, instead of
1120entering the kernel with a gettimeofday() call. The CPU set aside for doing
1121these time calls will be excluded from other uses. Fio will manually clear it
1122from the CPU mask of other jobs.
1123.TP
1124.BI ignore_error \fR=\fPstr
1125Sometimes you want to ignore some errors during test in that case you can specify
1126error list for each error type.
1127.br
1128ignore_error=READ_ERR_LIST,WRITE_ERR_LIST,VERIFY_ERR_LIST
1129.br
1130errors for given error type is separated with ':'.
1131Error may be symbol ('ENOSPC', 'ENOMEM') or an integer.
1132.br
1133Example: ignore_error=EAGAIN,ENOSPC:122 .
1134.br
1135This option will ignore EAGAIN from READ, and ENOSPC and 122(EDQUOT) from WRITE.
1136.TP
1137.BI error_dump \fR=\fPbool
1138If set dump every error even if it is non fatal, true by default. If disabled
1139only fatal error will be dumped
1140.TP
1141.BI cgroup \fR=\fPstr
1142Add job to this control group. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
1143The system must have a mounted cgroup blkio mount point for this to work. If
1144your system doesn't have it mounted, you can do so with:
1145
1146# mount \-t cgroup \-o blkio none /cgroup
1147.TP
1148.BI cgroup_weight \fR=\fPint
1149Set the weight of the cgroup to this value. See the documentation that comes
1150with the kernel, allowed values are in the range of 100..1000.
1151.TP
1152.BI cgroup_nodelete \fR=\fPbool
1153Normally fio will delete the cgroups it has created after the job completion.
1154To override this behavior and to leave cgroups around after the job completion,
1155set cgroup_nodelete=1. This can be useful if one wants to inspect various
1156cgroup files after job completion. Default: false
1157.TP
1158.BI uid \fR=\fPint
1159Instead of running as the invoking user, set the user ID to this value before
1160the thread/process does any work.
1161.TP
1162.BI gid \fR=\fPint
1163Set group ID, see \fBuid\fR.
1164.TP
1165.BI flow_id \fR=\fPint
1166The ID of the flow. If not specified, it defaults to being a global flow. See
1167\fBflow\fR.
1168.TP
1169.BI flow \fR=\fPint
1170Weight in token-based flow control. If this value is used, then there is a
1171\fBflow counter\fR which is used to regulate the proportion of activity between
1172two or more jobs. fio attempts to keep this flow counter near zero. The
1173\fBflow\fR parameter stands for how much should be added or subtracted to the
1174flow counter on each iteration of the main I/O loop. That is, if one job has
1175\fBflow=8\fR and another job has \fBflow=-1\fR, then there will be a roughly
11761:8 ratio in how much one runs vs the other.
1177.TP
1178.BI flow_watermark \fR=\fPint
1179The maximum value that the absolute value of the flow counter is allowed to
1180reach before the job must wait for a lower value of the counter.
1181.TP
1182.BI flow_sleep \fR=\fPint
1183The period of time, in microseconds, to wait after the flow watermark has been
1184exceeded before retrying operations
1185.TP
1186.BI clat_percentiles \fR=\fPbool
1187Enable the reporting of percentiles of completion latencies.
1188.TP
1189.BI percentile_list \fR=\fPfloat_list
1190Overwrite the default list of percentiles for completion
1191latencies. Each number is a floating number in the range (0,100], and
1192the maximum length of the list is 20. Use ':' to separate the
1193numbers. For example, \-\-percentile_list=99.5:99.9 will cause fio to
1194report the values of completion latency below which 99.5% and 99.9% of
1195the observed latencies fell, respectively.
1196.SS "Ioengine Parameters List"
1197Some parameters are only valid when a specific ioengine is in use. These are
1198used identically to normal parameters, with the caveat that when used on the
1199command line, the must come after the ioengine that defines them is selected.
1200.TP
1201.BI (cpu)cpuload \fR=\fPint
1202Attempt to use the specified percentage of CPU cycles.
1203.TP
1204.BI (cpu)cpuchunks \fR=\fPint
1205Split the load into cycles of the given time. In microseconds.
1206.TP
1207.BI (libaio)userspace_reap
1208Normally, with the libaio engine in use, fio will use
1209the io_getevents system call to reap newly returned events.
1210With this flag turned on, the AIO ring will be read directly
1211from user-space to reap events. The reaping mode is only
1212enabled when polling for a minimum of 0 events (eg when
1213iodepth_batch_complete=0).
1214.TP
1215.BI (net,netsplice)hostname \fR=\fPstr
1216The host name or IP address to use for TCP or UDP based IO.
1217If the job is a TCP listener or UDP reader, the hostname is not
1218used and must be omitted unless it is a valid UDP multicast address.
1219.TP
1220.BI (net,netsplice)port \fR=\fPint
1221The TCP or UDP port to bind to or connect to.
1222.TP
1223.BI (net,netsplice)interface \fR=\fPstr
1224The IP address of the network interface used to send or receive UDP multicast
1225packets.
1226.TP
1227.BI (net,netsplice)ttl \fR=\fPint
1228Time-to-live value for outgoing UDP multicast packets. Default: 1
1229.TP
1230.BI (net,netsplice)nodelay \fR=\fPbool
1231Set TCP_NODELAY on TCP connections.
1232.TP
1233.BI (net,netsplice)protocol \fR=\fPstr "\fR,\fP proto" \fR=\fPstr
1234The network protocol to use. Accepted values are:
1235.RS
1236.RS
1237.TP
1238.B tcp
1239Transmission control protocol
1240.TP
1241.B udp
1242User datagram protocol
1243.TP
1244.B unix
1245UNIX domain socket
1246.RE
1247.P
1248When the protocol is TCP or UDP, the port must also be given,
1249as well as the hostname if the job is a TCP listener or UDP
1250reader. For unix sockets, the normal filename option should be
1251used and the port is invalid.
1252.RE
1253.TP
1254.BI (net,netsplice)listen
1255For TCP network connections, tell fio to listen for incoming
1256connections rather than initiating an outgoing connection. The
1257hostname must be omitted if this option is used.
1258.TP
1259.BI (net, pingpong) \fR=\fPbool
1260Normaly a network writer will just continue writing data, and a network reader
1261will just consume packages. If pingpong=1 is set, a writer will send its normal
1262payload to the reader, then wait for the reader to send the same payload back.
1263This allows fio to measure network latencies. The submission and completion
1264latencies then measure local time spent sending or receiving, and the
1265completion latency measures how long it took for the other end to receive and
1266send back. For UDP multicast traffic pingpong=1 should only be set for a single
1267reader when multiple readers are listening to the same address.
1268.TP
1269.BI (e4defrag,donorname) \fR=\fPstr
1270File will be used as a block donor (swap extents between files)
1271.TP
1272.BI (e4defrag,inplace) \fR=\fPint
1273Configure donor file block allocation strategy
1274.RS
1275.BI 0(default) :
1276Preallocate donor's file on init
1277.TP
1278.BI 1:
1279allocate space immidietly inside defragment event, and free right after event
1280.RE
1281.TP
1282.SH OUTPUT
1283While running, \fBfio\fR will display the status of the created jobs. For
1284example:
1285.RS
1286.P
1287Threads: 1: [_r] [24.8% done] [ 13509/ 8334 kb/s] [eta 00h:01m:31s]
1288.RE
1289.P
1290The characters in the first set of brackets denote the current status of each
1291threads. The possible values are:
1292.P
1293.PD 0
1294.RS
1295.TP
1296.B P
1297Setup but not started.
1298.TP
1299.B C
1300Thread created.
1301.TP
1302.B I
1303Initialized, waiting.
1304.TP
1305.B R
1306Running, doing sequential reads.
1307.TP
1308.B r
1309Running, doing random reads.
1310.TP
1311.B W
1312Running, doing sequential writes.
1313.TP
1314.B w
1315Running, doing random writes.
1316.TP
1317.B M
1318Running, doing mixed sequential reads/writes.
1319.TP
1320.B m
1321Running, doing mixed random reads/writes.
1322.TP
1323.B F
1324Running, currently waiting for \fBfsync\fR\|(2).
1325.TP
1326.B V
1327Running, verifying written data.
1328.TP
1329.B E
1330Exited, not reaped by main thread.
1331.TP
1332.B \-
1333Exited, thread reaped.
1334.RE
1335.PD
1336.P
1337The second set of brackets shows the estimated completion percentage of
1338the current group. The third set shows the read and write I/O rate,
1339respectively. Finally, the estimated run time of the job is displayed.
1340.P
1341When \fBfio\fR completes (or is interrupted by Ctrl-C), it will show data
1342for each thread, each group of threads, and each disk, in that order.
1343.P
1344Per-thread statistics first show the threads client number, group-id, and
1345error code. The remaining figures are as follows:
1346.RS
1347.TP
1348.B io
1349Number of megabytes of I/O performed.
1350.TP
1351.B bw
1352Average data rate (bandwidth).
1353.TP
1354.B runt
1355Threads run time.
1356.TP
1357.B slat
1358Submission latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This is
1359the time it took to submit the I/O.
1360.TP
1361.B clat
1362Completion latency minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation. This
1363is the time between submission and completion.
1364.TP
1365.B bw
1366Bandwidth minimum, maximum, percentage of aggregate bandwidth received, average
1367and standard deviation.
1368.TP
1369.B cpu
1370CPU usage statistics. Includes user and system time, number of context switches
1371this thread went through and number of major and minor page faults.
1372.TP
1373.B IO depths
1374Distribution of I/O depths. Each depth includes everything less than (or equal)
1375to it, but greater than the previous depth.
1376.TP
1377.B IO issued
1378Number of read/write requests issued, and number of short read/write requests.
1379.TP
1380.B IO latencies
1381Distribution of I/O completion latencies. The numbers follow the same pattern
1382as \fBIO depths\fR.
1383.RE
1384.P
1385The group statistics show:
1386.PD 0
1387.RS
1388.TP
1389.B io
1390Number of megabytes I/O performed.
1391.TP
1392.B aggrb
1393Aggregate bandwidth of threads in the group.
1394.TP
1395.B minb
1396Minimum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1397.TP
1398.B maxb
1399Maximum average bandwidth a thread saw.
1400.TP
1401.B mint
1402Shortest runtime of threads in the group.
1403.TP
1404.B maxt
1405Longest runtime of threads in the group.
1406.RE
1407.PD
1408.P
1409Finally, disk statistics are printed with reads first:
1410.PD 0
1411.RS
1412.TP
1413.B ios
1414Number of I/Os performed by all groups.
1415.TP
1416.B merge
1417Number of merges in the I/O scheduler.
1418.TP
1419.B ticks
1420Number of ticks we kept the disk busy.
1421.TP
1422.B io_queue
1423Total time spent in the disk queue.
1424.TP
1425.B util
1426Disk utilization.
1427.RE
1428.PD
1429.P
1430It is also possible to get fio to dump the current output while it is
1431running, without terminating the job. To do that, send fio the \fBUSR1\fR
1432signal.
1433.SH TERSE OUTPUT
1434If the \fB\-\-minimal\fR option is given, the results will be printed in a
1435semicolon-delimited format suitable for scripted use - a job description
1436(if provided) follows on a new line. Note that the first
1437number in the line is the version number. If the output has to be changed
1438for some reason, this number will be incremented by 1 to signify that
1439change. The fields are:
1440.P
1441.RS
1442.B terse version, fio version, jobname, groupid, error
1443.P
1444Read status:
1445.RS
1446.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1447.P
1448Submission latency:
1449.RS
1450.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1451.RE
1452Completion latency:
1453.RS
1454.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1455.RE
1456Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1457.RS
1458.B Xth percentile=usec
1459.RE
1460Total latency:
1461.RS
1462.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1463.RE
1464Bandwidth:
1465.RS
1466.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1467.RE
1468.RE
1469.P
1470Write status:
1471.RS
1472.B Total I/O \fR(KB)\fP, bandwidth \fR(KB/s)\fP, IOPS, runtime \fR(ms)\fP
1473.P
1474Submission latency:
1475.RS
1476.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1477.RE
1478Completion latency:
1479.RS
1480.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1481.RE
1482Completion latency percentiles (20 fields):
1483.RS
1484.B Xth percentile=usec
1485.RE
1486Total latency:
1487.RS
1488.B min, max, mean, standard deviation
1489.RE
1490Bandwidth:
1491.RS
1492.B min, max, aggregate percentage of total, mean, standard deviation
1493.RE
1494.RE
1495.P
1496CPU usage:
1497.RS
1498.B user, system, context switches, major page faults, minor page faults
1499.RE
1500.P
1501IO depth distribution:
1502.RS
1503.B <=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, >=64
1504.RE
1505.P
1506IO latency distribution:
1507.RS
1508Microseconds:
1509.RS
1510.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000
1511.RE
1512Milliseconds:
1513.RS
1514.B <=2, 4, 10, 20, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 2000, >=2000
1515.RE
1516.RE
1517.P
1518Disk utilization (1 for each disk used):
1519.RS
1520.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
1521.RE
1522.P
1523Error Info (dependent on continue_on_error, default off):
1524.RS
1525.B total # errors, first error code
1526.RE
1527.P
1528.B text description (if provided in config - appears on newline)
1529.RE
1530.SH CLIENT / SERVER
1531Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
1532where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
1533run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
1534have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
1535be running, while controlling it from another machine.
1536
1537To start the server, you would do:
1538
1539\fBfio \-\-server=args\fR
1540
1541on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
1542are of the form 'type:hostname or IP:port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
1543for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain
1544socket. 'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
1545listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
1546
15471) fio \-\-server
1548
1549 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
1550
15512) fio \-\-server=ip:hostname,4444
1552
1553 Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
1554
15553) fio \-\-server=ip6:::1,4444
1556
1557 Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
1558
15594) fio \-\-server=,4444
1560
1561 Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
1562
15635) fio \-\-server=1.2.3.4
1564
1565 Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
1566
15676) fio \-\-server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
1568
1569 Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
1570
1571When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
1572is run with:
1573
1574fio \-\-local-args \-\-client=server \-\-remote-args <job file(s)>
1575
1576where \-\-local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
1577running, 'server' is the connect string, and \-\-remote-args and <job file(s)>
1578are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
1579does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
1580You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
1581
1582fio \-\-client=server2 \-\-client=server2 <job file(s)>
1583.SH AUTHORS
1584
1585.B fio
1586was written by Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>,
1587now Jens Axboe <jaxboe@fusionio.com>.
1588.br
1589This man page was written by Aaron Carroll <aaronc@cse.unsw.edu.au> based
1590on documentation by Jens Axboe.
1591.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
1592Report bugs to the \fBfio\fR mailing list <fio@vger.kernel.org>.
1593See \fBREADME\fR.
1594.SH "SEE ALSO"
1595For further documentation see \fBHOWTO\fR and \fBREADME\fR.
1596.br
1597Sample jobfiles are available in the \fBexamples\fR directory.
1598