{"id":1698,"date":"2016-03-09T07:38:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T12:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swildow.darktech.org\/wp\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2016-03-09T07:38:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T12:38:25","slug":"microsoft-diskspd-storage-performance-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1698","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft DiskSpd Storage Performance Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft DiskSpd Storage Performance Tool<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
by<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Martin Brinkmann<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>March 10, 2016<\/abbr>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Software<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>–\u00a0<\/span>Last Update:\u00a0<\/span>March 10, 2016<\/abbr>\u00a0<\/span>1<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
DiskSpd is a free open source performance benchmarking tool by Microsoft for systems running Windows.<\/p>\n

The program has been designed for professional use to analyze and diagnose storage performance issues without having to run a full end-to-end workload.<\/p>\n

At its core, it can be used to test files, partitions or physical disks on devices running supported client or server versions of the Windows operating system.<\/p>\n

DiskSpd is a command line tool which you need to run from an elevated command prompt. You can open one with a tap on the Windows-key, typing cmd.exe, holding down Shift and Ctrl, and tapping on the enter key in the end.<\/p>\n

DiskSpd review<\/h2>\n

DiskSpd is a highly customizable I\/O load generator tool that can be used to run storage performance tests against files, partitions, or physical disks. DiskSpd can generate a wide variety of disk request patterns for use in analyzing and diagnosing storage performance issues, without running a full end-to-end workload. You can simulate SQL Server I\/O activity or more complex, changing access patterns, returning detailed XML output for use in automated results analysis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The program may look intimidating at first as it ships with dozens of switches that you can add to the main command to configure specific test scenarios.<\/p>\n

At its core though however, it is simple to execute. Use the command diskspd.exe c: to run a 10 second test on drive c of the computer using default parameters.<\/p>\n

\"diskspd\"<\/p>\n

You can redirect the output to a text file using the > pathtotext option, e.g. diskspd.exe c: > c:\\users\\martin\\output.txt<\/p>\n

DiskSpd displays information about cpu usage during the test, as well as total, read and write IO.<\/p>\n

The command diskspd.exe -c1G -b4K -t2 -d60 -a0,1 testfile1.dat testfile2.dat on the other hand creates two 1GB testfiles, sets the block size to 4KB, creates 2 threads per file, sets the cpu affinity to CPUs 0 and 1, and runs the test for 60 seconds.<\/p>\n

You find other advanced test configuration parameters in the help file that is included with the program.<\/p>\n

Among them options to measure the latency, start parallel sequentional I\/O operations, configure write buffers, disable or configure caching, or add event tracing parameters that trace page faults, threads or Registry calls among other things.<\/p>\n

The documentation that ships with the program is 28 pages long. It explains every test parameter in detail, provides a set of example tests and explanations, and visualizations for certain key concepts such as threading.<\/p>\n

Closing Words<\/strong><\/p>\n

DiskSpd is a professional benchmarking tool for Windows that provides system and network administrators with the means to test drive performance thoroughly.<\/p>\n

Home users may use it as well, but the command line nature of the program may keep the majority of users from giving it a try considering that there are several GUI applications out there ..\u00a0<\/span>CrystalDiskMark<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/span>ATTO Disk Benchmark<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for example — that are a tad easier to use and more appealing to the eye.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft DiskSpd Storage Performance Tool by\u00a0Martin Brinkmann\u00a0on\u00a0March 10, 2016\u00a0in\u00a0Software\u00a0–\u00a0Last Update:\u00a0March 10, 2016\u00a01 DiskSpd is a free open source performance benchmarking tool by Microsoft for systems running Windows. The program has been designed for professional use to analyze and diagnose storage … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1699,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}