SQLIO Related Terminology:

Affinity - Affinity refers to individual CPUs in a multi-CPU system. You can specify which single CPU to use by the "-p" option, or which group of CPUs to use by the "-a" option.

Asynchronous Queue - SQLIO supports asynchronous I/O tests within a single thread You can control the queue depth by the "-o" option. "-o0" is the default, which means no queuing, tests are performed asynchronously.

Block - Block is a single chunk of data used by SQLIO as a unit of test for reading or writing data from or to the storage device. The block size is specified by "-b" option in KB.

Data File - Data file is a file stored on target storage device to be used to for I/O tests. You can specify the data file name as the SQLIO command argument. If not specified, the default data file of "testfile.dat" from the current directory will be used.

Latency - Latency is the time took to perform a given I/O operation on a single block. The Latency is related to Throughput IOs/sec as shown below in an ideal parallel threading environment:

Latency = 1000 * Throughput IOs/sec / Threads

Stripe Factor - Stripe Factor is the number of blocks the next test unit should jump over. Stripe Factor creates a stripe pattern of data blocks used in consecutive tests on a test run. The Stripe Factor is specified by the "-f" option.

Test Run - Test Run is a step in main test loop of a test thread. A single Test Run may perform 1 or more test units, depending on the test size specified by the "-i" option.

Thread - Thread is a line of execution in parallel to other execution lines. The number of threads to use is specified by the "-t" option.

Throughput - Throughput is the number of operations that can be performed within a given period of time.

Throughput IOs/sec - Throughput IOs/sec is the number of I/O blocks that are performed per second.

Throughput MBs/sec - Throughput MBs/sec is the number of MB of I/O data that are performed per second. Throughput MBs/sec is related to Throughput IOs/sec as shown below:

Throughput MBs/sec = Block Size KB/1000 * Throughput IOs/sec

SQLIO - SQLIO is a Disk Subsystem Benchmark Tool provided by Microsoft for free.

 

⇒ "sqlio -L" - Latencies from System/Processor Timer

⇐ Default Test with SQLIO

⇑ Getting Started with Microsoft SQLIO

⇑⇑ SQLIO Disk I/O Benchmark Test Tutorials

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