Provided by: iperf3_3.14-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       iperf3 - perform network throughput tests

SYNOPSIS

       iperf3 -s [ options ]
       iperf3 -c server [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       iperf3 is a tool for performing network throughput measurements.  It can test TCP, UDP, or
       SCTP throughput.  To perform an iperf3 test the user must establish both a  server  and  a
       client.

       The iperf3 executable contains both client and server functionality.  An iperf3 server can
       be started using either of the -s or --server command-line parameters, for example:

              iperf3 -s

              iperf3 --server

       Note that many iperf3 parameters have both short (-s) and long (--server) forms.  In  this
       section  we  will generally use the short form of command-line flags, unless only the long
       form of a flag is available.

       By default, the iperf3 server listens on TCP port 5201  for  connections  from  an  iperf3
       client.  A custom port can be specified by using the -p flag, for example:

              iperf3 -s -p 5002

       After  the server is started, it will listen for connections from iperf3 clients (in other
       words, the iperf3 program run in client mode).  The client mode can be started  using  the
       -c  command-line  option,  which also requires a host to which iperf3 should connect.  The
       host can by specified by hostname, IPv4 literal, or IPv6 literal:

              iperf3 -c iperf3.example.com

              iperf3 -c 192.0.2.1

              iperf3 -c 2001:db8::1

       If the iperf3 server is running on a non-default TCP port, that port number  needs  to  be
       specified on the client as well:

              iperf3 -c iperf3.example.com -p 5002

       The  initial TCP connection is used to exchange test parameters, control the start and end
       of the test, and to exchange test results.  This is sometimes referred to as the  "control
       connection".   The  actual test data is sent over a separate TCP connection, as a separate
       flow of UDP packets, or as an independent SCTP connection, depending on what protocol  was
       specified by the client.

       Normally,  the  test  data  is sent from the client to the server, and measures the upload
       speed of the client.  Measuring the  download  speed  from  the  server  can  be  done  by
       specifying  the -R flag on the client.  This causes data to be sent from the server to the
       client.

              iperf3 -c iperf3.example.com -p 5202 -R

       Results are displayed on both the client and server.  There will be at least one  line  of
       output  per  measurement interval (by default a measurement interval lasts for one second,
       but this can be changed by the -i option).  Each line of output includes  (at  least)  the
       time  since the start of the test, amount of data transferred during the interval, and the
       average bitrate over that interval.  Note that the values for  each  measurement  interval
       are  taken  from  the point of view of the endpoint process emitting that output (in other
       words, the output on the client shows the measurement interval data for the client.

       At the end of the test is a set of statistics that shows (at least as much as possible)  a
       summary  of  the  test  as  seen  by  both  the sender and the receiver, with lines tagged
       accordingly.  Recall that by default the client is  the  sender  and  the  server  is  the
       receiver, although as indicated above, use of the -R flag will reverse these roles.

       The  client  can be made to retrieve the server-side output for a given test by specifying
       the --get-server-output flag.

       Either the client or the server can produce its output in a  JSON  structure,  useful  for
       integration  with  other programs, by passing it the -J flag.  Because the contents of the
       JSON structure are only completely known after the test has finished, no JSON output  will
       be emitted until the end of the test.

       iperf3  has  a  (overly)  large  set  of  command-line options that can be used to set the
       parameters of a test.  They are given in the "GENERAL OPTIONS" section of the manual  page
       below,  as  well  as  summarized  in  iperf3's help output, which can be viewed by running
       iperf3 with the -h flag.

GENERAL OPTIONS

       -p, --port n
              set server port to listen on/connect to to n (default 5201)

       -f, --format
              [kmgtKMGT]   format to report: Kbits/Mbits/Gbits/Tbits

       -i, --interval n
              pause n seconds between periodic throughput reports; default is 1, use 0 to disable

       -I, --pidfile file
              write a file with the process ID, most useful when running as a daemon.

       -F, --file name
              Use a file as the source (on the sender) or sink (on the receiver) of data,  rather
              than  just  generating  random  data or throwing it away.  This feature is used for
              finding whether or not the storage subsystem is the bottleneck for file  transfers.
              It  does not turn iperf3 into a file transfer tool.  The length, attributes, and in
              some cases contents of the received file may not match those of the original file.

       -A, --affinity n/n,m
              Set the CPU affinity, if possible (Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows only).  On both  the
              client  and  server  you  can  set  the  local affinity by using the n form of this
              argument (where n is a CPU number).  In  addition,  on  the  client  side  you  can
              override  the  server's  affinity  for  just  that  one test, using the n,m form of
              argument.  Note that when using this feature, a process will only  be  bound  to  a
              single CPU (as opposed to a set containing potentially multiple CPUs).

       -B, --bind host[%dev]
              bind  to  the  specific  interface  associated  with  address host.  If an optional
              interface is specified, it is treated as a shortcut for --bind-dev dev.  Note  that
              a  percent  sign and interface device name are required for IPv6 link-local address
              literals.

       --bind-dev dev
              bind to the specified network interface.  This option uses SO_BINDTODEVICE, and may
              require root permissions.  (Available on Linux and possibly other systems.)

       -V, --verbose
              give more detailed output

       -J, --json
              output in JSON format

       --logfile file
              send output to a log file.

       --forceflush
              force  flushing  output  at  every  interval.  Used to avoid buffering when sending
              output to pipe.

       --timestamps[=format]
              prepend a timestamp at the start of each output line.  By default, timestamps  have
              the  format  emitted by ctime(1).  Optionally, = followed by a format specification
              can be passed to customize the  timestamps,  see  strftime(3).   If  this  optional
              format  is  given,  the  =  must immediately follow the --timestamps option with no
              whitespace intervening.

       --rcv-timeout #
              set idle timeout for receiving data during active tests. The receiver will  halt  a
              test if no data is received from the sender for this number of ms (default to 12000
              ms, or 2 minutes).

       --snd-timeout #
              set timeout for unacknowledged TCP data (on both test and control connections) This
              option  can  be  used to force a faster test timeout in case of a network partition
              during a test. The required parameter is specified  in  ms,  and  defaults  to  the
              system settings.  This functionality depends on the TCP_USER_TIMEOUT socket option,
              and will not work on systems that do not support it.

       -d, --debug
              emit debugging output.  Primarily (perhaps exclusively) of use to developers.

       -v, --version
              show version information and quit

       -h, --help
              show a help synopsis

SERVER SPECIFIC OPTIONS

       -s, --server
              run in server mode

       -D, --daemon
              run the server in background as a daemon

       -1, --one-off
              handle one client connection, then exit.  If an idle time is set, the  server  will
              exit after that amount of time with no connection.

       --idle-timeout n
              restart the server after n seconds in case it gets stuck.  In one-off mode, this is
              the number of seconds the server will wait before exiting.

       --server-bitrate-limit n[KMGT]
              set a limit on the server side, which will cause a test  to  abort  if  the  client
              specifies  a  test  of  more than n bits per second, or if the average data sent or
              received by the client (including all data streams) is  greater  than  n  bits  per
              second.   The  default  limit  is  zero, which implies no limit.  The interval over
              which to average the data rate is 5 seconds by default, but  can  be  specified  by
              adding a '/' and a number to the bitrate specifier.

       --rsa-private-key-path file
              path to the RSA private key (not password-protected) used to decrypt authentication
              credentials from the client (if built with OpenSSL support).

       --authorized-users-path file
              path to the configuration file containing authorized users credentials to run iperf
              tests  (if  built  with  OpenSSL  support).   The file is a comma separated list of
              usernames and password hashes; more information on the structure of the file can be
              found in the EXAMPLES section.

       --time-skew-thresholdsecond seconds
              time  skew  threshold  (in  seconds)  between  the  server  and  client  during the
              authentication process.

CLIENT SPECIFIC OPTIONS

       -c, --client host[%dev]
              run in client mode, connecting  to  the  specified  server.   By  default,  a  test
              consists  of  sending  data  from  the  client to the server, unless the -R flag is
              specified.  If an optional interface is specified, it is treated as a shortcut  for
              --bind-dev  dev.   Note  that a percent sign and interface device name are required
              for IPv6 link-local address literals.

       --sctp use SCTP rather than TCP (FreeBSD and Linux)

       -u, --udp
              use UDP rather than TCP

       --connect-timeout n
              set timeout for establishing the initial  control  connection  to  the  server,  in
              milliseconds.   The  default  behavior  is  the  operating system's timeout for TCP
              connection establishment.  Providing a shorter value may speed up  detection  of  a
              down iperf3 server.

       -b, --bitrate n[KMGT]
              set  target  bitrate  to  n  bits/sec  (default  1  Mbit/sec for UDP, unlimited for
              TCP/SCTP).  If there are multiple  streams  (-P  flag),  the  throughput  limit  is
              applied  separately  to  each  stream.   You can also add a '/' and a number to the
              bitrate specifier.  This is called "burst mode".  It will send the given number  of
              packets  without pausing, even if that temporarily exceeds the specified throughput
              limit.  Setting the target bitrate to 0 will disable bitrate  limits  (particularly
              useful  for  UDP  tests).   This  throughput limit is implemented internally inside
              iperf3, and is available on all platforms.  Compare with the --fq-rate flag.   This
              option  replaces  the  --bandwidth  flag, which is now deprecated but (at least for
              now) still accepted.

       --pacing-timer n[KMGT]
              set pacing timer interval in microseconds (default 1000  microseconds,  or  1  ms).
              This  controls  iperf3's  internal  pacing  timer for the -b/--bitrate option.  The
              timer fires at the interval set by this parameter.  Smaller values  of  the  pacing
              timer  parameter  smooth  out the traffic emitted by iperf3, but potentially at the
              cost of performance due to more frequent timer processing.

       --fq-rate n[KMGT]
              Set a rate to be used with fair-queueing based socket-level  pacing,  in  bits  per
              second.   This  pacing  (if  specified)  will  be  in addition to any pacing due to
              iperf3's internal throughput pacing (-b/--bitrate flag), and both can be  specified
              for  the  same test.  Only available on platforms supporting the SO_MAX_PACING_RATE
              socket option (currently only  Linux).   The  default  is  no  fair-queueing  based
              pacing.

       --no-fq-socket-pacing
              This  option  is  deprecated  and  will be removed.  It is equivalent to specifying
              --fq-rate=0.

       -t, --time n
              time in seconds to transmit for (default 10 secs)

       -n, --bytes n[KMGT]
              number of bytes to transmit (instead of -t)

       -k, --blockcount n[KMGT]
              number of blocks (packets) to transmit (instead of -t or -n)

       -l, --length n[KMGT]
              length of buffer to read or write.  For TCP tests, the default value is 128KB.   In
              the  case  of  UDP, iperf3 tries to dynamically determine a reasonable sending size
              based on the path MTU; if that cannot be determined it uses 1460 bytes as a sending
              size.  For SCTP tests, the default size is 64KB.

       --cport port
              bind  data  streams  to a specific client port (for TCP and UDP only, default is to
              use an ephemeral port)

       -P, --parallel n
              number of parallel client streams to run. Note that iperf3 is single  threaded,  so
              if you are CPU bound, this will not yield higher throughput.

       -R, --reverse
              reverse the direction of a test, so that the server sends data to the client

       --bidir
              test  in  both  directions  (normal  and  reverse), with both the client and server
              sending and receiving data simultaneously

       -w, --window n[KMGT]
              set socket buffer size / window size.  This value gets sent to the server and  used
              on  that  side  too;  on both sides this option sets both the sending and receiving
              socket buffer sizes.  This option can be used to set (indirectly) the  maximum  TCP
              window  size.   Note  that  on  Linux systems, the effective maximum window size is
              approximately double what is specified by this option (this behavior is not  a  bug
              in  iperf3  but  a  "feature"  of  the  Linux  kernel,  as documented by tcp(7) and
              socket(7)).

       -M, --set-mss n
              set TCP/SCTP maximum segment size (MTU - 40 bytes)

       -N, --no-delay
              set TCP/SCTP no delay, disabling Nagle's Algorithm

       -4, --version4
              only use IPv4

       -6, --version6
              only use IPv6

       -S, --tos n
              set the IP type of service. The usual prefixes for octal and hex can be used,  i.e.
              52, 064 and 0x34 all specify the same value.

       --dscp dscp
              set  the  IP  DSCP  bits.   Both  numeric and symbolic values are accepted. Numeric
              values can be specified in decimal, octal and hex (see --tos above).  To  set  both
              the DSCP bits and the ECN bits, use --tos.

       -L, --flowlabel n
              set the IPv6 flow label (currently only supported on Linux)

       -X, --xbind name
              Bind  SCTP associations to a specific subset of links using sctp_bindx(3).  The --B
              flag will be ignored if this flag is specified.  Normally  SCTP  will  include  the
              protocol  addresses  of  all  active  links  on  the  local host when setting up an
              association. Specifying at least one --X name will disable  this  behaviour.   This
              flag  must  be  specified  for  each link to be included in the association, and is
              supported for both iperf servers and clients (the latter are supported  by  passing
              the  first  --X  argument to bind(2)).  Hostnames are accepted as arguments and are
              resolved using getaddrinfo(3).  If the --4 or --6 flags are specified, names  which
              do not resolve to addresses within the specified protocol family will be ignored.

       --nstreams n
              Set number of SCTP streams.

       -Z, --zerocopy
              Use a "zero copy" method of sending data, such as sendfile(2), instead of the usual
              write(2).

       -O, --omit n
              Perform pre-test for N seconds and omit the pre-test statistics, to skip  past  the
              TCP slow-start period.

       -T, --title str
              Prefix every output line with this string.

       --extra-data str
              Specify an extra data string field to be included in JSON output.

       -C, --congestion algo
              Set  the  congestion control algorithm (Linux and FreeBSD only).  An older --linux-
              congestion synonym for this flag is accepted but is deprecated.

       --get-server-output
              Get the output from the server.  The output format is determined by the server  (in
              particular,  if  the server was invoked with the --json flag, the output will be in
              JSON format, otherwise it will be in human-readable format).  If the client is  run
              with  --json,  the  server  output  is  included  in a JSON object; otherwise it is
              appended at the bottom of the human-readable output.

       --udp-counters-64bit
              Use 64-bit counters in UDP test packets.  The use of this option can  help  prevent
              counter  overflows  during  long or high-bitrate UDP tests.  Both client and server
              need to be running at least version 3.1 for this option to work.  It may become the
              default behavior at some point in the future.

       --repeating-payload
              Use  repeating  pattern  in  payload, instead of random bytes.  The same payload is
              used in iperf2 (ASCII '0..9' repeating).  It might help to test and reveal problems
              in  networking  gear with hardware compression (including some WiFi access points),
              where iperf2 and iperf3 perform differently, just based on payload entropy.

       --dont-fragment
              Set the IPv4 Don't Fragment (DF) bit on outgoing packets.  Only applicable to tests
              doing UDP over IPv4.

       --username username
              username  to  use  for  authentication  to  the iperf server (if built with OpenSSL
              support).  The password will be prompted for interactively when the  test  is  run.
              Note, the password to use can also be specified via the IPERF3_PASSWORD environment
              variable. If this variable is present, the password prompt will be skipped.

       --rsa-public-key-path file
              path to the RSA public key used to encrypt  authentication  credentials  (if  built
              with OpenSSL support)

EXAMPLES

   Authentication - RSA Keypair
       The  authentication  feature  of iperf3 requires an RSA public keypair.  The public key is
       used to encrypt the authentication  token  containing  the  user  credentials,  while  the
       private  key  is used to decrypt the authentication token.  The private key must be in PEM
       format and additionally must not have a password set.  The  public  key  must  be  in  PEM
       format  and use SubjectPrefixKeyInfo encoding.  An example of a set of UNIX/Linux commands
       using OpenSSL to generate a correctly-formed keypair follows:

            > openssl genrsa -des3 -out private.pem 2048
            > openssl rsa -in private.pem -outform PEM -pubout -out public.pem
            > openssl rsa -in private.pem -out private_not_protected.pem -outform PEM

       After these commands, the public key will be contained in  the  file  public.pem  and  the
       private key will be contained in the file private_not_protected.pem.

   Authentication - Authorized users configuration file
       A  simple  plaintext  file  must  be provided to the iperf3 server in order to specify the
       authorized user credentials.  The file is a simple list  of  comma-separated  pairs  of  a
       username  and  a  corresponding  password hash.  The password hash is a SHA256 hash of the
       string "{$user}$password".  The file can also contain commented lines (starting with the #
       character).   An  example of commands to generate the password hash on a UNIX/Linux system
       is given below:

            > S_USER=mario S_PASSWD=rossi
            > echo -n "{$S_USER}$S_PASSWD" | sha256sum | awk '{ print $1 }'

       An example of a password file (with an entry  corresponding  to  the  above  username  and
       password) is given below:
            > cat credentials.csv
            # file format: username,sha256
            mario,bf7a49a846d44b454a5d11e7acfaf13d138bbe0b7483aa3e050879700572709b

AUTHORS

       A  list  of  the  contributors  to iperf3 can be found within the documentation located at
       https://software.es.net/iperf/dev.html#authors.

SEE ALSO

       libiperf(3), https://software.es.net/iperf