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Test file storage performance

For your information

This guide provides an example of testing file storage performance on a cloud server.

To thoroughly benchmark file storage performance (bandwidth values and read/write limits in IOPS), use the fio utility.

  1. Install the fio utility.

  2. Benchmark performance.

You can compare the test results with the expected performance, which depends on the file storage type. You can view the values in the table Limits and restrictions.

1. Install the fio utility

  1. Connect to the cloud server.

  2. Open the CLI.

  3. Install the fio utility:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install fio

2. Test the performance

You can use:

Test IOPS limits

  1. Open the CLI.

  2. Run the test:

    fio \
    --name=test1 \
    --blocksize=4k \
    --rw=randwrite \
    --direct=1 \
    --buffered=0 \
    --ioengine=libaio \
    --iodepth=16 \
    --loops=1000 \
    --runtime=30 \
    --filename=/mnt/nfs/test \
    --size=99G

    Specify:

    • blocksize — size of a single block for the read or write operation;
    • iodepth — number of threads;
    • filename — file for writing or reading. The examples below show tests with the parameter filename=/mnt/nfs/test — a separate file will be created for testing in the directory with the mounted file storage;
    • size — total size of the test file. To obtain relevant results, we recommend testing on file storage larger than 100 GB.

  3. In the test output, see the write limit value in IOPS (IOPS):

    write: IOPS=118, BW=475KiB/s (487kB/s)(2000MiB/4310296msec); 0 zone resets

Test throughput

  1. Open the CLI.

  2. Run the test:

    fio \
    --name=test1 \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --rw=write \
    --direct=1 \
    --buffered=0 \
    --ioengine=libaio \
    --iodepth=16 \
    --loops=1000 \
    --runtime=30 \
    --filename=/mnt/nfs/test \
    --size=99G

    Specify:

    • blocksize — size of a single block for the read or write operation;
    • iodepth — number of threads;
    • filename — file for writing or reading. The examples below show tests with the parameter filename=/mnt/nfs/test — a separate file will be created for testing in the directory with the mounted file storage;
    • size — total size of the test file. To obtain relevant results, we recommend testing on file storage larger than 100 GB.

  3. In the test output, see the bandwidth value (BW):

    write: IOPS=25, BW=100MiB/s (105MB/s)(2000MiB/19974msec); 0 zone resets