Provided by: sysbench_0.4.12-1.1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
sysbench - A modular, cross-platform and multi-threaded benchmark tool.
SYNOPSIS
sysbench [common-options] --test=name [test-options] command
sysbench [{-h | --help} | {-v | --version}]
DESCRIPTION
SysBench is a modular, cross-platform and multi-threaded benchmark tool for evaluating OS
parameters that are important for a system running a database under intensive load.
The idea of this benchmark suite is to quickly get an impression about system performance
without setting up complex database benchmarks or even without installing a database at
all.
Current features allow to test the following system parameters:
• file I/O performance
• scheduler performance
• memory allocation and transfer speed
• POSIX threads implementation performance
• database server performance
The design is very simple. SysBench runs a specified number of threads and they all
execute requests in parallel. The actual workload produced by requests depends on the
specified test mode. You can limit either the total number of requests or the total time
for the benchmark, or both.
Available test modes are implemented by compiled-in modules, and SysBench was designed to
make adding new test modes an easy task. Each test mode may have additional (or
workload-specific) options.
OPTIONS
--num-threads
The total number of worker threads to create (defaut: 1)
--max-requests
Limit for total number of requests. 0 means unlimited (defaut: 10000)
--max-time
Limit for total execution time in seconds. 0 (defaut: 0)
--thread-stack-size
Size of stack for each thread (defaut: 32K)
--init-rnd
Specifies if random numbers generator should be initialized from timer before the test
start (defaut: off)
--test
Name of the test mode to run Required
--debug
Print more debug info (default: off)
--validate
Perform validation of test results where possible (default: off)
--help
Print help on general syntax or on a test mode specified with --test, and exit
--version
Show version of program.
--percentile
SysBench measures execution times for all processed requests to display statistical
information like minimal, average and maximum execution time. For most benchmarks it
is also useful to know a request execution time value matching some percentile (e.g.
95% percentile means we should drop 5% of the most long requests and choose the
maximal value from the remaining ones).
This option allows to specify a percentile rank of query execution times to count
(default: 95)
--batch
Dump current results periodically (default: off - see also the section called “Batch
mode”)
--batch-delay
Delay between batch dumps in secods (default: 300 - see also the section called “Batch
mode”)
Note that numerical values for all size options (like --thread-stack-size in this table)
may be specified by appending the corresponding multiplicative suffix (K for kilobytes, M
for megabytes, G for gigabytes and T for terabytes).
Batch mode
In some cases it is useful to have not only the final benchmarks statistics, but also
periodical dumps of current stats to see how they change over the test run. For this
purpose SysBench has a batch execution mode which is turned on by the --batch option. You
may specify the delay in seconds between the consequent dumps with the --batch-delay
option.
Example:
sysbench --batch --batch-delay=5 --test=threads run
This will run SysBench in a threads test mode, with the current values of minimum,
average, maximum and percentile for request execution times printed every 5 seconds.
Test modes
This section gives a detailed description for each test mode available in SysBench.
cpu
The cpu is one of the most simple benchmarks in SysBench. In this mode each request
consists in calculation of prime numbers up to a value specified by the
--cpu-max-primes option. All calculations are performed using 64-bit integers.
Each thread executes the requests concurrently until either the total number of
requests or the total execution time exceed the limits specified with the common
command line options.
Example:
sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
threads
This test mode was written to benchmark scheduler performance, more specifically the
cases when a scheduler has a large number of threads competing for some set of
mutexes.
SysBench creates a specified number of threads and a specified number of mutexes. Then
each thread starts running the requests consisting of locking the mutex, yielding the
CPU, so the thread is placed in the run queue by the scheduler, then unlocking the
mutex when the thread is rescheduled back to execution. For each request, the above
actions are run several times in a loop, so the more iterations is performed, the more
concurrency is placed on each mutex.
The following options are available in this test mode:
--thread-yields
Number of lock/yield/unlock loops to execute per each request (default: 1000)
--thread-locks
Number of mutexes to create (default: 8)
Example:
sysbench --num-threads=64 --test=threads --thread-yields=100 --thread-locks=2 run
mutex
This test mode was written to emulate a situation when all threads run concurrently
most of the time, acquiring the mutex lock only for a short period of time
(incrementing a global variable). So the purpose of this benchmarks is to examine the
performance of mutex implementation.
The following options are available in this test mode:
--mutex-num
Number of mutexes. The actual mutex to lock is chosen randomly before each lock
(default: 4096)
--memory-scope
Possible values: global, local. Specifies whether each thread will use a globally
allocated memory block, or a local one. (default: global)
--memory-total-size
Total size of data to transfer (default: 100G)
--memory-oper
Type of memory operations. Possible values: read, write
fileio
This test mode can be used to produce various kinds of file I/O workloads. At the
prepare stage SysBench creates a specified number of files with a specified total
size, then at the run stage, each thread performs specified I/O operations on this set
of files.
When the global --validate option is used with the fileio test mode, SysBench performs
checksums validation on all data read from the disk. On each write operation the block
is filled with random values, then the checksum is calculated and stored in the block
along with the offset of this block within a file. On each read operation the block is
validated by comparing the stored offset with the real offset, and the stored checksum
with the real calculated checksum.
The following I/O operations are supported:
seqwr
sequential write
seqrewr
sequential rewrite
seqrd
sequential read
rndrd
random read
rndwr
random write
rndrw
combined random read/write
Also, the following file access modes can be specified, if the underlying platform
supports them:
Asynchronous I/O mode
At the moment only Linux AIO implementation is supported. When running in
asynchronous mode, SysBench queues a specified number of I/O requests using Linux
AIO API, then waits for at least one of submitted requests to complete. After that
a new series of I/O requests is submitted.
Slow mmap() mode
In this mode SysBench will use mmap'ed I/O. However, a separate mmap will be used
for each I/O request due to the limitation of 32-bit architectures (we cannot
mmap() the whole file, as its size migth possibly exceed the maximum of 2 GB of
the process address space).
Fast mmap() mode
On 64-bit architectures it is possible to mmap() the whole file into the process
address space, avoiding the limitation of 2 GB on 32-bit platforms.
Using fdatasync() instead of fsync()
Flush only data buffers, but not the metadata.
Additional flags to open(2)
SysBench can use additional flags to open(2), such as O_SYNC, O_DSYNC and
O_DIRECT.
Below is a list of test-specific option for the fileio mode:
--file-num
Number of files to create (default: 128)
--file-block-size
Block size to use in all I/O operations (default: 16K)
--file-total-size
Total size of files (default: 2G)
--file-test-mode
Type of workload to produce. Possible values: seqwr, seqrewr, seqrd, rndrd, rndwr,
rndwr (see above) required
--file-io-mode
I/O mode. Possible values: sync, async, fastmmap, slowmmap (only if supported by
the platform, see above). (default: sync)
--file-async-backlog
Number of asynchronous operations to queue per thread (only for
--file-io-mode=async, see above) (default: 128)
--file-extra-flags
Additional flags to use with open(2)
--file-fsync-freq
Do fsync() after this number of requests (default: 0 - don't use fsync())
--file-fsync-all
Do fsync() after each write operationi (default: no)
--file-fsync-end
Do fsync() at the end of the test (default: yes)
--file-fsync-mode
Which method to use for synchronization. Possible values: fsync, fdatasync
(default: fsync)
--file-merged-requests
Merge at most this number of I/O requests if possible (default: 0 - don't merge)
--file-rw-ratio
reads/writes ration for combined random read/write test (default: 1.5)
Usage example:
$ sysbench --num-threads=16 --test=fileio --file-total-size=3G --file-test-mode=rndrw prepare
$ sysbench --num-threads=16 --test=fileio --file-total-size=3G --file-test-mode=rndrw run
$ sysbench --num-threads=16 --test=fileio --file-total-size=3G --file-test-mode=rndrw cleanup
In the above example the first command creates 128 files with the total size of 3 GB
in the current directory, the second command runs the actual benchmark and displays
the results upon completion, and the third one removes the files used for the test.
oltp
This test mode was written to benchmark a real database performance. At the prepare
stage the following table is created in the specified database (sbtest by default):
CREATE TABLE `sbtest` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`k` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`c` char(120) NOT NULL default '',
`pad` char(60) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `k` (`k`);
Then this table is filled with a specified number of rows.
The following execution modes are available at the run stage:
Simple
In this mode each thread runs simple queries of the following form:
SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id=N
where N takes a random value in range 1..<table size>
Advanced transactional
Each thread performs transactions on the test table. If the test table and
database support transactions (e.g. InnoDB engine in MySQL), then BEGIN/COMMIT
statements will be used to start/stop a transaction. Otherwise, SysBench will use
LOCK TABLES/UNLOCK TABLES statements (e.g. for MyISAM engine in MySQL). If some
rows are deleted in a transaction, the same rows will be inserted within the same
transaction, so this test mode does not destruct any data in the test table and
can be run multiple times on the same table.
Depending on the command line options, each transaction may contain the following
statements:
• Point queries:
SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id=N
• Range queries:
SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N AND M
• Range SUM() queries:
SELECT SUM(K) FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N and M
• Range ORDER BY queries:
SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id between N and M ORDER BY c
• Range DISTINCT queries:
SELECT DISTINCT c FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N and M ORDER BY c
• UPDATEs on index column:
UPDATE sbtest SET k=k+1 WHERE id=N
• UPDATEs on non-index column:
UPDATE sbtest SET c=N WHERE id=M
• DELETE queries:
DELETE FROM sbtest WHERE id=N
• INSERT queries:
INSERT INTO sbtest VALUES (...)
Non-transactional
This mode is similar to Simple, but you can also choose the query to run. Note
that unlike the Advanced transactional mode, this one does not preserve the test
table between requests, so you should recreate it with the appropriate
cleanup/prepare commands between consecutive benchmarks.
Below is a list of possible queries:
• Point queries:
SELECT pad FROM sbtest WHERE id=N
• UPDATEs on index column:
UPDATE sbtest SET k=k+1 WHERE id=N
• UPDATEs on non-index column:
UPDATE sbtest SET c=N WHERE id=M
• DELETE queries:
DELETE FROM sbtest WHERE id=N
The generated row IDs are unique over each test run, so no row is deleted
twice.
• INSERT queries:
INSERT INTO sbtest (k, c, pad) VALUES(N, M, S)
--oltp-test-mode
Execution mode (see above). Possible values: simpe (simple), complex (advanced
transactional) and nontrx (non-transactional) (default: complex)
--oltp-read-only
Read-only mode. No UPDATE, DELETE or INSERT queries will be performed. (default:
off)
--oltp-range-size
Range size for range queries (default: 100)
--oltp-point-selects
Number of point select queries in a single transaction (default: 10)
--oltp-simple-ranges
Number of simple range queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-sum-ranges
Number of SUM range queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-order-ranges
Number of ORDER range queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-distinct-ranges
Number of DISTINCT range queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-index-updates
Number of index UPDATE queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-non-index-updates
Number of non-index UPDATE queries in a single transaction (default: 1)
--oltp-nontrx-mode
Type of queries for non-transactional execution mode (see above). Possible values:
select, update_key, update_nokey, insert, delete. (default: select)
--oltp-connect-delay
Time in microseconds to sleep after each connection to database (default: 10000)
--oltp-user-delay-min
Minimum time in microseconds to sleep after each request (default: 0)
--oltp-user-delay-max
Maximum time in microseconds to sleep after each request (default: 0)
--oltp-table-name
Name of the test table (default: sbtest)
--oltp-table-size
Number of rows in the test table (default: 10000)
--oltp-dist-type
Distribution of random numbers. Possible values: uniform (uniform distribution),
gauss (gaussian distribution) and special. (default: special)
With special distribution a specified percent of numbers is generated in a
specified percent of cases (see options below).
--oltp-dist-pct
Percentage of values to be treated as 'special' (for special distribution)
(default: 1)
--oltp-dist-res
Percentage of cases when 'special' values are generated (for special distribution)
(default: 75)
--db-ps-mode
If the database driver supports Prepared Statements API, SysBench will use
server-side prepared statements for all queries where possible. Otherwise,
client-side (or emulated) prepared statements will be used. This option allows to
force using emulation even when PS API is available. Possible values: disable,
auto. (default: auto)
Also, each database driver may provide its own options. Currently only MySQL driver is
available. Below is a list of MySQL-specific options:
--mysql-host
MySQL server host. (default: localhost)
Starting from version 0.4.5 you may specify a list of hosts separated by commas.
In this case SysBench will distribute connections between specified MySQL hosts on
a round-robin basis. Note that all connection ports and passwords must be the same
on all hosts. Also, databases and tables must be prepared explicitely on each host
before executing the benchmark.
--mysql-port
MySQL server port (in case TCP/IP connection should be used) (default: 3306)
--mysql-socket
Unix socket file to communicate with the MySQL server
--mysql-user
MySQL user (default: user)
--mysql-password
MySQL password
--mysql-db
MySQL database name. Note SysBench will not automatically create this database.
You should create it manually and grant the appropriate privileges to a user which
will be used to access the test table. (default: sbtest)
--mysql-table-engine
Type of the test table. Possible values: myisam, innodb, heap, ndbcluster, bdb,
maria, falcon, pbxt (default: innodb)
--mysql-ssl
Use SSL connections. (default: no)
--myisam-max-rows
MAX_ROWS option for MyISAM tables (required for big tables) (default: 1000000)
--mysql-create-options
Additional options passed to CREATE TABLE.
Example usage:
$ sysbench --test=oltp --mysql-table-type=myisam --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-socket=/tmp/mysql.sock prepare
$ sysbench --num-threads=16 --max-requests=100000 --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-socket=/tmp/mysql.sock --oltp-read-only run
The first command will create a MyISAM table 'sbtest' in a database 'sbtest' on a
MySQL server using /tmp/mysql.sock socket, then fill this table with 1M records. The
second command will run the actual benchmark with 16 client threads, limiting the
total number of request by 100,000.
AUTHOR
Alexey Kopytov <kaamos@users.sourceforge.net>
Author.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2004-2008 MySQL AB
This manual page was rewritten for the Debian system (and may be used by others) from the
manual.xml of the original package.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of
the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or (at your option) any later version published
by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in
/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.