What is the Hardware/Software Buffering option, "sqlio -B"?

The Hardware/Software Buffering option, "sqlio -B", specifies the buggering mode, "-BN" to turn off buffering, "-BY" to turn on both hardware and software buffering, "-BH" to turn on hardware buffering only, and "-BH" to turn on software buffering only.

The default value is "-BN", no buffering.

Example 1 - Run SQLIO with no buffering:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio -BN

1 thread reading for 30 secs from file testfile.dat
        using 2KB IOs over 128KB stripes with 64 IOs per run
initialization done
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec:  2890.22
MBs/sec:     5.64

Example 2 - Run SQLIO with software buffering only:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio -BS

1 thread reading for 30 secs from file testfile.dat
        using 2KB IOs over 128KB stripes with 64 IOs per run
        buffering set to use software file cache (but not disk cache)
initialization done
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec: 186665.78
MBs/sec:   364.58

Example 2 - Run SQLIO with hardware buffering only:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio -BH

1 thread reading for 30 secs from file testfile.dat
        using 2KB IOs over 128KB stripes with 64 IOs per run
        buffering set to use hardware disk cache (but not file cache)
initialization done
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec: 12483.85
MBs/sec:    24.38

Example 2 - Run SQLIO with hardware buffering only:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio -BY

1 thread reading for 30 secs from file testfile.dat
        using 2KB IOs over 128KB stripes with 64 IOs per run
        buffering set to use both file and disk caches
initialization done
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec: 189066.10
MBs/sec:   369.26

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>

As you can see, when more threads are used, buffering helps a lot on the throughput for reading data as we expected.

⇒ "sqlio -o" - Outstanding Tests in Asynchronous Queue

⇐ "sqlio -t" - Number of Threads

⇑ Getting Started with Microsoft SQLIO

⇑⇑ SQLIO Disk I/O Benchmark Test Tutorials