My recent post on using the new DiskSpd utility to help you benchmark your storage is a great primer on how to use DiskSpd. But… what if you want to run multiple tests? For example, what if you want to run both read and write tests with a varying degree of threads or operations per threads to see the ramp up curve? What if you wanted these automated? What about putting the results from all of these tests into something that you can quickly review?
Now you can – with a PowerShell script that I’m releasing for free. I call it DiskSpd Batch.
Not only does the script help automate your test cycles, it leverages the great DiskSpd feature of saving the results to an XML file. After the testing cycles complete, it then extracts the relevant information from each test cycle and places it into a CSV output file. You can use this file to perform your own analysis on the results.
This PowerShell script is available for free over at my business web site at Heraflux.com.
Usage
First, download DiskSpd from TechNet, and extract it to your hard drive on the server that you wish to test. Read the documentation that comes with it.
Next, find the subdirectory that matches your system architecture (32 or 64-bit). This path becomes your location to the DiskSpd executable.
Download and copy the DiskSpd Batch script into a folder on your file system.
From an elevated PowerShell prompt, execute the script with the following parameters that you specify.
Syntax
| Parameter | Description |
| -Time | Duration for each test cycle, measured in seconds |
| -DataFile | Path and filename for the workload file |
| -DataFileSize | Workload file size, in the format “500M” for 500MB, or “10G” for 10GB |
| -OutPath | Results output file location (output file is automatically named) |
| -SplitIO | “True” tests permutations of read and write tests in the same test cycle, in increments of 10%. “False” only tests 100% read or write test cycles. |
| -AllowIdle | So as not to overwhelm a storage device’s ability to flush inbound I/O to disk, pause for 20 seconds between test cycles |
Example
A normal test cycle might resemble the following screenshot.
The script performs numerous tests in the testing cycle, and then extracts the relevant data from the resultant XML file and creates a CSV file with the information that matters.
The output file can be opened with your favorite spreadsheet program. The columns that you will find the most interesting are:
- WriteRatio
- IsRandom
- MB/s
- IOps
- Read MB/s
- Read IOps
- Write MB/s
- Write IOps
- Read and write latencies, broken out by percentile
Download and experiment with it! Remember, storage testing can be dangerous to an IT infrastructure. Not only can you overwhelm one server that’s doing the testing, you can also negatively impact (or even bring offline) the entire storage device and all of the other dependent systems located on it. Do not execute any storage tests in your environment outside of your own workstation until you have the express permission to execute the tests during a pre-specified window of opportunity. Heraflux is not liable for any damage or disruption to your business from you executing these tests in your environment.
Special thanks goes to my friend Mike Fal ( b | t | l ) for helping me with the PoSH in this script. He’s an incredible PoSH resource!
If you have any feedback on these scripts, or have bugs or ideas for improvements, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
