This tool lets you monitor I/O latency in real time. It shows disk latency in the same way as ping shows network latency.
Install
just download the sourcefile from ioping.googlecode.com
wget https://ioping.googlecode.com/files/ioping-0.6.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ioping-0.6.tar.gz
cd ioping-0.6/
make ioping
./ioping
Usage: ioping [-LCDRq] [-c count] [-w deadline] [-p period] [-i interval]
[-s size] [-S wsize] [-o offset] device|file|directory
ioping -h | -v
-c
-w
-p
-i
-s
-S
-o
-L use sequential operations (includes -s 256k)
-C use cached I/O
-D use direct I/O
-R seek rate test (same as -q -i 0 -w 3 -S 64m)
-q suppress human-readable output
-h display this message and exit
-v display version and exit
Supported OS
GNU/Linux
GNU/HURD
Windows
OS X
FreeBSD
DragonFlyBSD
Examples
./ioping .
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=1 time=0.1 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=2 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=3 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=4 time=0.1 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=5 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=6 time=0.2 ms
4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/root): request=7 time=0.1 ms
--- . (ext3 /dev/root) ioping statistics ---
7 requests completed in 6336.0 ms, 6082 iops, 23.8 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 0.1/0.2/0.2/0.0 ms
Measure disk seek rate (iops, avg)
$ ioping -R /dev/sda
--- /dev/sda (device 465.8 Gb) ioping statistics ---
186 requests completed in 3004.6 ms, 62 iops, 0.2 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 6.4/16.0/26.8/4.7 ms
Measure disk sequential speed (mb/s)
$ ioping -RL /dev/sda
--- /dev/sda (device 465.8 Gb) ioping statistics ---
837 requests completed in 3004.1 ms, 292 iops, 72.9 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 2.0/3.4/28.9/2.0 ms
