Iometer is both a workload generator (it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark. It can also be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems.
The tool consists of two programs, Iometer and Dynamo.
For testing the performance on Windows systems, Iometer can be installed and started directly.
An additional installation of Dynamo is not necessary. Below you find instructions for installing the tool and for starting the test procedure.
First, you have to download Iometer from Iometer.org.
Right-click the setup file and then click Run as administrator
Figure 1.2: Iometer file on the desktop
Click Next > on the Welcome screen.
Figure 1.4: Welcome screen
Select the components that should be installed and click Next
Figure 1.6: Choose Components
Select the installation destination and click Install
Figure 1.7: Define the destination folder
When installation is done, click Finish
Figure 1.8: Finished installation
Start Iometer
Agree to the license conditions
Figure 2.1: License conditions
Click the folder button
Figure 2.2: Folder button in the upper left corner
Download a test configuration file or create one and open it with Iometer.
Figure 2.3: Choose a configuration file
Choose the device to be tested
Figure 2.4: Choose the device to be tested
Start the test by clicking the green flag button
Figure 2.5: Green flag button in the upper middle
Define the destination where to save the results file
Figure 2.6: Choose a destination for results
Now the test starts and will run for about 10-15 minutes
Figure 2.7: Running test
The program Iometer only runs on Windows OS. So on Linux systems the tool Dynamo is used for sending the relevant information to a Windows system, where Iometer is installed.
This means that an installation of Iometer on a Windows system or Windows emulator is necessary for testing a system with Linux installed. Download Iometer from Iometer.org.
First Install Iometer on a windows system in the same network as the server that you want to test.
If there is no Windows client available to run the Iometer .exe, it can be run with WinE emulator as well.
Figure 3.1: Iometer GUI
Connect using SSH to a Linux server (for example using Putty)
Figure 3.2: Putty
Figure 3.3: Click Yes
Login into the server
Figure 3.4: Console using Putty
To receive information about the hardware platform, which is necessary to choose the right version of Dynamo, you can run the command:
uname -i
Figure 3.5: Check hardware version
With the following command you can check the installed version of glibc
rpm -qa|grep -i glibc
Figure 3.6: Command output
Switch to the /tmp
folder
Figure 3.7: /tmp folder
Uncompress the downloaded Iometer file with:
tar xvf Iometer-1.1.0-linux.x86_64-bin.tar.bz2
Figure 3.8: Uncompress the dynamo file
Check the IP address of the Windows system by using the CLI command:
ipconfig
Figure 4.1: Check IP of Windows system
Check the IP addresses of the Linux system with:
ip addr show or ifconfig -a
Figure 4.2: Check IP of Linux system
Stop the Linux firewall to allow communication between Dynamo and Iometer
rcSuSEfirewall2 stop
service iptables stop
or systemctl stop firewalld
service iptables stop
ufw disable
Figure 4.3: Stop firewall on Linux system
Use an editor such as "vi" to change the host file for the name resolution:
vi /etc/hosts
Figure 4.4: Edit /etc/hosts file
Add the IP address and the name of the Linux system
Figure 4.5: Add IP and name
Now connect dynamo to Iometer by using the command:
dynamo -i <IP of machine with Iometer = windows system> -m <IP of machine to run workload = linux system>
Figure 4.6: Connect dynamo to Iometer
Figure 4.7: Connection established
In Iometer now the Linux server is visible
Figure 4.8: Linux system listed in Iometer
Before loading the test template some changes must be done on the file.
Open the file in an editor (for example Notepad). Change the Manager name and Manager network address by using the information that you used in step 5. Save the file when the changes are done.
Figure 4.9: Search "MANAGER LIST"
Figure 4.10: Add Linux server name
Figure 4.11: Add Linux server IP address and save the file
Load the changed template
Figure 4.12: Load the configuration file
Choose the device to be tested
Figure 4.13: Choose the device to be tested
Start the test by clicking the green flag button
Figure 4.14: Green flag in the upper middle
Choose the destination where the results shall be saved after testing.
Figure 4.15: Choose a destination for results
Now the test starts
Figure 4.16: Running test
When the test is done..
Figure 4.17: Finished test in the console view
…do not forget to re-activate the firewall, delete the information from /etc/host (undo step 5) and exit
.
Figure 4.18: Exit console