Disktest Version v1.4.x README
WHAT IS DISKTEST?
Disktest performs repeated i/o accesses to disk devices or filesystems
and optionally writes to, reads from, and verifies the data.
There are many optional parameters that can be supplied to disktest to have
it perform in a multitude of test cases.
It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - See the LICENSE
file that accompanies this distribution for more details.
CHANGES
Please read the CHANGELOG for details on the changes to disktest from
previous releases.
WHAT Operating Systems/Architectures DOES IT RUN ON?
This code has been written to compile on Linux, AIX, and Windows. Both
on a 32bit and 64bit environments on Intel and Power. There should be no
compatibility issues at the time of compilation or execution. If you have
the time and can expand that list of OS/Arch types please feel free.
DOCUMENTATION:
At present, the only documentation provided with disktest is the man page
which is included with the source files as man1/disktest.1. You can either
install it as a man page on your system, use groff to view it if man is
not available, or export the man page to another readable format such as
html.
INSTALLING THE SOURCE:
You can install the source by untaring the source tar files:
gzip -cd disktest.<version>.tar.gz | tar xvf -
This will create a directory in the current directory of:
disktest.<version>
The directory contents that should have been included in this source package
are:
/
README LICENSE childmain.c childmain.h
defs.h Getopt.c Getopt.h globals.c
globals.h main.c main.h Makefile.windows
Makefile.aix Makefile.linux parse.c parse.h
sfunc.c sfunc.h threading.c threading.h
usage.c usage.h timer.c timer.h
stats.c stats.h io.c io.h
dump.c dump.h signals.c signals.h
CHANGELOG
man1/
disktest.1.gz
BUILDING THE SOURCE
You will need a compiler for the machine that you want to build the source
for. There is a make file included for each OS type, which will attempt to
use the default compiler on your system.
If you wish, create a symbolic link to the correct Makefile for the system
that you are compiling the code for, the following defines are used in the
code to #ifdef code fragments:
Windows: -D"WINDOWS"
AIX: -D"AIX"
Linux: -D"LINUX"
This will set up the includes and typedefs correctly to support the
different system types.
Issue the make command:
"make all"
The result should be a file in the source directory that is executable with
'disktest' as the name.
There are other make commands defined:
"make clean" Will remove executable and object files only
"make all-clean" Will remove executable, temp files, object files and
archives (*tar* & *zip*)
"make distro" Will repackage the source files
"make install" Will copy man page to /usr/share/man1, and binary to
/usr/bin/
"make uninstall" Will remove man page and binary out of install
directories.
EXECUTING
To get started, run disktest with the -? flag:
"disktest -?"
This will display a simplified usage to get started. More descriptive
documentation is located in the man page, along with examples of executions
and output that can give you the first look and feel of how disktest will
receive inputs and display outputs.
SO WHAT ABOUT BUGS, FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS?
It is possible that there will be issues, whether they are bugs or features
that would like to be added. You can do a couple of things, one, fix/add the
code yourself and send it to me. This is the fastest way to get improvements
into the code. Two, You can send me a note that has a description of the
problem and if possible the recreate setup. I will see what I can do about
getting these things added to the code.
Comments are always welcome, even if it is just a note to let me know how
well the tool is working for you. I am also interested in comparing the
tool to others people have used. I would be interested in any feedback
about the usability, data output, functionality, etc. as compared to other
tools or testing needs.
ON THE TODO LIST
- if filesystem IO testing is requested, pre-init the file if not created
- non-destructive read/write IO function
- allow user to specify complete LBA/block data
- RPC functionality to support client server type testing
- Butterfly seek option: test will seek block
start/end/start+1/end-1/.../end-1/start+1/end/start
- Ping-Pong seek option: test will seek block start/end/start/end/etc...
- min seek: force a minimum seek distance during any IO access
- max seek: force a maximum seek distance during any IO access
- add metric for the average response time for all IOs
- implement flock for filesystem testing on clusters
- OCFSv2 Oracle Cluster File System, compets with gpfs, gfs
CONTACT
My email address is: yardleyb@us.ibm.com (Brent Yardley)