Benchmarking Local SSD performance

Local SSD performance limits provided in the Choose a storage option section were achieved by using specific settings on the Local SSD instance. If your virtual machine (VM) instance is having trouble reaching these performance limits and you have already configured the instance using the recommended local SSD settings, you can compare your performance limits against the published limits by replicating the settings used by the Compute Engine team.

These instructions assume that you are using a Linux operating system with the apt package manager installed.

Create a VM with one Local SSD device

The number of Local SSD that a VM can have is based on the machine type you use to create the VM. For details, see Choosing a valid number of Local SSDs.

Create a Local SSD instance that has four or eight vCPUs for each device, depending on your workload.

For example, the following command creates a C3 VM with 4 vCPUs and 1 Local SSD.
```
gcloud compute instances create c3-ssd-test-instance \
    --machine-type "c3-standard-4-lssd"
```
For second generation and earlier machine types, you specify the number of Local SSD to attach to the VM using the --local-ssd flag. The following command creates an N2 VM with 8 vCPUs and 1 Local SSD that uses the NVMe disk interface:
```
gcloud compute instances create ssd-test-instance \
    --machine-type "n2-standard-8" \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme
```

Run the following script on your VM. The script replicates the settings used to achieve the SSD performance figures provided in the performance section. Note that the --bs parameter defines the block size, which affects the results for different types of read and write operations.

# install tools
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get install -y fio util-linux

# discard Local SSD sectors
sudo blkdiscard /dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0

# full write pass - measures write bandwidth with 1M blocksize
sudo fio --name=writefile \
--filename=/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0 --bs=1M --nrfiles=1 \
--direct=1 --sync=0 --randrepeat=0 --rw=write --end_fsync=1 \
--iodepth=128 --ioengine=libaio

# rand read - measures max read IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --time_based --name=readbenchmark --runtime=30 --ioengine=libaio \
--filename=/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0  --randrepeat=0 \
--iodepth=128 --direct=1 --invalidate=1 --verify=0 --verify_fatal=0 \
--numjobs=4 --rw=randread --blocksize=4k --group_reporting

# rand write - measures max write IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --time_based --name=writebenchmark  --runtime=30 --ioengine=libaio \
--filename=/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0 --randrepeat=0 \
--iodepth=128 --direct=1 --invalidate=1 --verify=0 --verify_fatal=0 \
--numjobs=4 --rw=randwrite --blocksize=4k --group_reporting

Create a VM with the maximum number of Local SSD

If you want to attach 24 or more Local SSD devices to an instance, use a machine type with 32 or more vCPUs.

The following commands create a VM with the maximum allowed number of Local SSD disks using the NVMe interface:

Attach Local SSD to VM

gcloud compute instances create ssd-test-instance \
    --machine-type "n1-standard-32" \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme \
    --local-ssd interface=nvme

Use -lssd machine types

Newer machine series offer -lssd machine types that come with a predetermined number of Local SSD disks. For example, to benchmark a VM with 32 Local SSD (12 TiB capacity), use the following command:

gcloud compute instances create ssd-test-instance \
    --machine-type "c3-standard-176-lssd"

Install the mdadm tool. The install process for mdadm includes a user prompt that halts scripts, so run the process manually:
Debian and Ubuntu
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt install mdadm --no-install-recommends
```
CentOS and RHEL
```
sudo yum install mdadm -y
```
SLES and openSUSE
```
sudo zypper install -y mdadm
```

Use the find command to identify all of the Local SSDs that you want to mount together:

find /dev/ | grep google-local-nvme-ssd

The output looks similar to the following:

/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-23
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-22
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-21
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-20
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-19
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-18
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-17
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-16
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-15
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-14
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-13
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-12
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-11
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-10
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-9
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-8
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-7
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-6
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-5
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-4
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-3
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-2
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-1
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0

find does not guarantee an ordering. It's alright if the devices are listed in a different order as long as number of output lines match the expected number of SSD partitions.

If using SCSI devices, use the following find command:

find /dev/ | grep google-local-ssd

NVMe devices should all be of form google-local-nvme-ssd-# and SCSI devices should all be of form google-local-ssd-#.

Use the mdadm tool to combine multiple Local SSD devices into a single array named /dev/md0. The following example merges twenty four Local SSD devices that use the NVMe interface. For Local SSD devices that use SCSI, use the device names returned from the find command in step 3.

sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=24 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-1 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-2 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-3 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-4 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-5 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-6 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-7 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-8 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-9 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-10 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-11 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-12 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-13 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-14 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-15 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-16 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-17 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-18 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-19 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-20 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-21 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-22 \
/dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-23

The response is similar to the following:

mdadm: Defaulting to version 1.2 metadata
mdadm: array /dev/md0 started.

You can confirm the details of the array with mdadm --detail. Adding the --prefer=by-id flag will list the devices using the /dev/disk/by-id paths.

 sudo mdadm --detail --prefer=by-id /dev/md0

The output should look similar to the following for each device in the array.

 ...
 Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
 0     259        0        0      active sync   /dev/disk/by-id/google-local-nvme-ssd-0
 ...

Run the following script on your VM. The script replicates the settings used to achieve the SSD performance figures provided in the performance section. that the --bs parameter defines the block size, which affects the results for different types of read and write operations.

# install tools
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get install -y fio util-linux

# full write pass - measures write bandwidth with 1M blocksize
sudo fio --name=writefile \
--filename=/dev/md0 --bs=1M --nrfiles=1 \
--direct=1 --sync=0 --randrepeat=0 --rw=write --end_fsync=1 \
--iodepth=128 --ioengine=libaio

# rand read - measures max read IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --time_based --name=benchmark  --runtime=30 \
--filename=/dev/md0 --ioengine=libaio --randrepeat=0 \
--iodepth=128 --direct=1 --invalidate=1 --verify=0 --verify_fatal=0 \
--numjobs=48 --rw=randread --blocksize=4k --group_reporting --norandommap

# rand write - measures max write IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --time_based --name=benchmark  --runtime=30 \
--filename=/dev/md0 --ioengine=libaio --randrepeat=0 \
--iodepth=128 --direct=1 --invalidate=1 --verify=0 --verify_fatal=0 \
--numjobs=48 --rw=randwrite --blocksize=4k --group_reporting --norandommap

Benchmarking Storage Optimized VMs

Storage Optimized VMs (like the Z3 Family) should be benchmarked directly against the device partitions. You can get the partition names with lsblk

lsblk -o name,size -lpn | grep 2.9T | awk '{print $1}'

The output looks similar to the following:

/dev/nvme1n1
/dev/nvme2n1
/dev/nvme3n1
/dev/nvme4n1
/dev/nvme5n1
/dev/nvme6n1
/dev/nvme7n1
/dev/nvme8n1
/dev/nvme9n1
/dev/nvme10n1
/dev/nvme11n1
/dev/nvme12n1

Directly run the benchmarks against the Local SSD partitions by separating them with colon delimiters.

# install benchmarking tools
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get install -y fio util-linux

# Full Write Pass.
# SOVM achieves max read performance on previously written/discarded ranges.
sudo  fio --readwrite=write --blocksize=1m --iodepth=4 --ioengine=libaio \
--direct=1 --group_reporting \
--name=job1 --filename=/dev/nvme1n1 --name=job2 --filename=/dev/nvme2n1 \
--name=job3 --filename=/dev/nvme3n1 --name=job4 --filename=/dev/nvme4n1 \
--name=job5 --filename=/dev/nvme5n1 --name=job6 --filename=/dev/nvme6n1 \
--name=job7 --filename=/dev/nvme7n1 --name=job8 --filename=/dev/nvme8n1 \
--name=job9 --filename=/dev/nvme9n1 --name=job10 --filename=/dev/nvme10n1 \
--name=job11  --filename=/dev/nvme11n1 --name=job12 --filename=/dev/nvme12n1

# rand read - measures max read IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --readwrite=randread --blocksize=4k --iodepth=128  \
--numjobs=4 --direct=1 --runtime=30 --group_reporting  --ioengine=libaio \
--name=job1 --filename=/dev/nvme1n1 --name=job2 --filename=/dev/nvme2n1 \
--name=job3 --filename=/dev/nvme3n1 --name=job4 --filename=/dev/nvme4n1 \
--name=job5 --filename=/dev/nvme5n1 --name=job6 --filename=/dev/nvme6n1 \
--name=job7 --filename=/dev/nvme7n1 --name=job8 --filename=/dev/nvme8n1 \
--name=job9 --filename=/dev/nvme9n1 --name=job10 --filename=/dev/nvme10n1 \
--name=job11  --filename=/dev/nvme11n1 --name=job12 --filename=/dev/nvme12n1

# rand write - measures max write IOPS with 4k blocks
sudo fio --readwrite=randwrite --blocksize=4k --iodepth=128 \
--numjobs=4 --direct=1 --runtime=30 --group_reporting --ioengine=libaio \
--name=job1 --filename=/dev/nvme1n1 --name=job2 --filename=/dev/nvme2n1 \
--name=job3 --filename=/dev/nvme3n1 --name=job4 --filename=/dev/nvme4n1 \
--name=job5 --filename=/dev/nvme5n1 --name=job6 --filename=/dev/nvme6n1 \
--name=job7 --filename=/dev/nvme7n1 --name=job8 --filename=/dev/nvme8n1 \
--name=job9 --filename=/dev/nvme9n1 --name=job10 --filename=/dev/nvme10n1 \
--name=job11  --filename=/dev/nvme11n1 --name=job12 --filename=/dev/nvme12n1

What's next

Learn about Local SSD pricing.

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