[CentOS] Benchmark Disk IO

Wed May 5 16:47:19 UTC 2010
nate <centos at linuxpowered.net>

Matt Keating wrote:
> What is the best way to benchmark disk IO?
>
> I'm looking to move one of my servers, which is rather IO intense. But
> not without first benchmarking the current and new disk array, To make
> sure this isn't a full waste of time.

You can do a pretty easy calculation based on the #/type of drives
to determine the approx number of raw IOPS that are available, since
it's I/O intensive your probably best off with RAID 1+0, which further
simplifies the calculation, parity based raid can make it really
complicated.

7200 RPM disk = ~90 IOPS
10000 RPM disk = ~150-180 IOPS
15000 RPM disk = ~230-250 IOPS
SSD = <many more IOPS depending on flash type>

Otherwise, Iozone is a neat benchmark. SPC-1 is a great benchmark
for SQL-type apps though it's very high end and designed for testing
full storage arrays not a dinky server.

nate