--- /dev/null
+.\" @(#)nhfsstone.man 1.13 89/10/05 Copyright (c) 1989, Legato Systems Inc
+.\" See DISCLAIMER file for restrictions
+.TH NHFSSTONE 1 "4 October 1989"
+.SH NAME
+nhfsstone \- Network File System benchmark program
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B nhfsstone
+[
+.B \-v
+] [[
+.B \-t secs
+] | [
+.B -c calls
+]] [
+.B \-l load
+] [
+.B \-p nprocs
+] [
+.B \-m mixfile
+] [
+.B dir
+]...
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B nhfsstone
+(pronounced n\-f\-s\-stone, the "h" is silent)
+is used on a
+.SM NFS
+client to generate an artificial load with a particular mix of
+.SM NFS
+operations. It reports the average response time of the server in
+milliseconds per call and the load in calls per second.
+The program adjusts its calling patterns based on the client's kernel
+.SM NFS
+statistics and the elapsed time.
+Load can be generated over a given time or number of
+.SM NFS
+calls.
+.LP
+Because it uses the kernel
+.SM NFS
+statistics to monitor its progress,
+.B nhfsstone
+cannot be used to measure the performance of non\-NFS filesystems.
+.LP
+The
+.B nhfsstone
+program uses file and directory manipulation in an attempt to generate
+particular
+.SM NFS
+operations in response to particular system calls.
+To do this it uses several tricks
+that are based on a knowledge of the implementation of the
+.SM NFS
+client side reference port.
+For example, it uses long file names to circumvent the kernel name lookup
+cache so that a
+.BR stat (2)
+system call generates an
+.SM NFS
+lookup operation.
+.LP
+The mix of
+.SM NFS
+operations can be set with a mix file, which is the output of the
+.BR nfsstat (8C)
+command (see the "\-m" option below).
+The percentages taken from
+the mix file are calculated based on the number of
+.SM NFS
+calls, not on the percentages printed by nfsstat. Operations with
+0% in the mix will never get called by
+.BR nhfsstone .
+In a real server load mix, even though the percentage of call for
+a particular
+.SM NFS
+operation may be zero, the number of calls is often nonzero.
+.B Nhfsstone
+makes the assumption that the number of calls to these 0 percent
+operations will have an insignificant effect on server response.
+.LP
+Normally
+.B nhfsstone
+should be given a list of two or more test directories to use
+(default is to use the current directory).
+The test directories used should be located on different disks and
+partitions on the server to realistically simulate typical server loads.
+Each
+.B nhfsstone
+process looks for a directory
+.B <dir>/testdir<n>
+(where <n> is a number from 0 to
+.B nprocs
+\- 1).
+If a process directory name already exists,
+it is checked for the correct set of test files.
+Otherwise the directory is created and populated.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP 12
+.B \-v
+Verbose output.
+.TP
+.B \-t secs
+Sets
+.B calls
+based on the given running time (in seconds) and the load.
+.TP
+.B \-c calls
+Total number of
+.SM NFS
+calls to generate (default is 5000).
+.TP
+.B \-l load
+Load to generate in
+.SM NFS
+calls per second (default is 30).
+.TP
+.B \-p nprocs
+Number of load generating sub\-processes to fork (default is 7).
+This can be used to maximize the amount of load a single machine can generate.
+On a small client machine (slow CPU or small amount of memory)
+fewer processes might be used to avoid swapping.
+.TP
+.B \-m mixfile
+Mix of
+.SM NFS
+operations to generate.
+The format of
+.B mixfile
+is the same as the output of the
+.BR nfsstat (8C)
+program.
+A mix file can be created on a server by typing "nfsstat \-s > mixfile".
+The default mix of operations is: null 0%, getattr 13%, setattr 1%,
+root 0%, lookup 34%, readlink 8%, read 22%, wrcache 0%, write 15%, create 2%,
+remove 1%, rename 0%, link 0%, symlink 0%, mkdir 0%, rmdir 0%, readdir 3%,
+fsstat 1%.
+.SH USING NHFSSTONE
+As with all benchmarks,
+.B nhfsstone
+can only provide numbers that are useful if experiments that use it are
+set up carefully.
+Since it is measuring servers, it should be run on a client
+that will not limit the generation of
+.SM NFS
+requests.
+This means it should have a fast CPU,
+a good ethernet interface and the machine
+should not be used for anything else during testing.
+A Sun\-3/50 can generate about 60
+.SM NFS
+calls per second before it runs out of CPU.
+.LP
+.B Nhfsstone
+assumes that all
+.SM NFS
+calls generated on the client are going to a single server, and that
+all of the
+.SM NFS
+load on that server is due to this client.
+To make this assumption hold,
+both the client and server should be as quiescent as possible during tests.
+.LP
+If the network is heavily utilized the delays due to collisions
+may hide any changes in server performance.
+High error rates on either the client or server can also
+cause delays due to retransmissions of lost or damaged packets.
+.BR netstat (8C)
+.B \-i
+can be used to measure the error and collision rates on the client and server.
+.LP
+To best simulate the effects of
+.SM NFS
+clients on the server, the test
+directories should be set up so that they are on at least two of the
+disk partitions that the server exports and the partitions should be
+as far apart as possible. The
+.BR dkinfo (8)
+command can be used to find the physical geometry of disk on BSD based systems.
+.SM NFS
+operations tend to randomize
+access the whole disk so putting all of the
+.B nhfsstone
+test directories on a single partition or on
+two partitions that are close together will not show realistic results.
+.LP
+On all tests it is a good idea to run the tests repeatedly and compare results.
+The number of calls can be increased
+(with the
+.B \-c
+option) until the variance in milliseconds per call is acceptably small.
+If increasing the number of calls does not help there may be something
+wrong with the experimental setup.
+One common problem is too much memory on the client
+test machine. With too much memory,
+.B nhfsstone
+is not able to defeat the client caches and the
+.SM NFS
+operations do not end up going to the server at all. If you suspect that
+there is a caching problem you can use the
+.B -p
+option to increase the number of processes.
+.LP
+The numbers generated by
+.B nhfsstone
+are most useful for comparison if the test setup on the client machine
+is the same between different server configurations.
+Changing
+.B nhfsstone
+parameters between runs will produce numbers that can not be
+meaningfully compared.
+For example, changing the number of generator processes
+may affect the measured response
+time due to context switching or other delays on the client machine, while
+changing the mix of
+.SM NFS
+operations will change the whole nature of the experiment.
+Other changes to the client configuration may also effect the comparability
+of results.
+While
+.B nhfsstone
+tries to compensate for differences in client configurations
+by sampling the actual
+.SM NFS
+statistics and adjusting both the load and mix of operations, some changes
+are not reflected in either the load or the mix. For example, installing
+a faster CPU or mounting different
+.SM NFS
+filesystems may effect the response time without changing either the
+load or the mix.
+.LP
+To do a comparison of different server configurations, first set up the
+client test directories and do
+.B nhfsstone
+runs at different loads to be sure that the variability is
+reasonably low. Second, run
+.B nhfsstone
+at different loads of interest and
+save the results. Third, change the server configuration (for example,
+add more memory, replace a disk controller, etc.). Finally, run the same
+.B nhfsstone
+loads again and compare the results.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.LP
+The
+.B nhfsstone.c
+source file has comments that describe in detail the operation of
+of the program.
+.SH ERROR MESSAGES
+.TP
+.B "illegal calls value"
+The
+.B calls
+argument following the
+.B \-c
+flag on the command line is not a positive number.
+.TP
+.B "illegal load value"
+The
+.B load
+argument following the
+.B \-l
+flag on the command line is not a positive number.
+.TP
+.B "illegal time value"
+The
+.B time
+argument following the
+.B \-t
+flag on the command line is not a positive number.
+.TP
+.B "bad mix file"
+The
+.B mixfile
+file argument following the
+.B \-m
+flag on the command line could not be accessed.
+.TP
+.B "can't find current directory"
+The parent process couldn't find the pathname of the current directory.
+This usually indicates a permission problem.
+.TP
+.B "can't fork"
+The parent couldn't fork the child processes. This usually results from
+lack of resources, such as memory or swap space.
+.TP
+.PD 0
+.B "can't open log file"
+.TP
+.B "can't stat log"
+.TP
+.B "can't truncate log"
+.TP
+.B "can't write sync file"
+.TP
+.B "can't write log"
+.TP
+.B "can't read log"
+.PD
+A problem occurred during the creation, truncation, reading or writing of the
+synchronization log file. The parent process creates the
+log file in /tmp and uses it to synchronize and communicate with its children.
+.TP
+.PD 0
+.B "can't open test directory"
+.TP
+.B "can't create test directory"
+.TP
+.B "can't cd to test directory"
+.TP
+.B "wrong permissions on test dir"
+.TP
+.B "can't stat testfile"
+.TP
+.B "wrong permissions on testfile"
+.TP
+.B "can't create rename file"
+.TP
+.B "can't create subdir"
+.PD
+A child process had problems creating or checking the contents of its
+test directory. This is usually due to a permission problem (for example
+the test directory was created by a different user) or a full filesystem.
+.TP
+.PD 0
+.B "bad mix format: unexpected EOF after 'nfs:'"
+.TP
+.B "bad mix format: can't find 'calls' value"
+.TP
+.B "bad mix format: unexpected EOF after 'calls'"
+.TP
+.B "bad mix format: can't find %d op values"
+.TP
+.B "bad mix format: unexpected EOF"
+.PD
+A problem occurred while parsing the
+.B mix
+file. The expected format of the file is the same as the output of
+the
+.BR nfsstat (8C)
+command when run with the "\-s" option.
+.TP
+.B "op failed: "
+One of the internal pseudo\-NFS operations failed. The name of the operation,
+e.g. read, write, lookup, will be printed along with an indication of the
+nature of the failure.
+.TP
+.B "select failed"
+The select system call returned an unexpected error.
+.SH BUGS
+.LP
+Running
+.B nhfsstone
+on a non\-NFS filesystem can cause the program to run forever because it
+uses the kernel NFS statistics to determine when enough calls have been made.
+.LP
+.B Nhfsstone
+uses many file descriptors. The kernel on the client may
+have to be reconfigured to increase the number of available file table entries.
+.LP
+Shell scripts that used
+.B nhfsstone
+will have to catch and ignore SIGUSR1 (see
+.BR signal (3)).
+This signal is
+used to synchronize the test processes. If the signal is not caught
+the shell that is running the script will be killed.
+.SH FILES
+.PD 0
+.TP 20
+.B /vmunix
+system namelist
+.TP
+.B /dev/kmem
+kernel virtual memory
+.TP
+.B ./testdir*
+per process test directory
+.TP
+.B /tmp/nhfsstone%d
+process synchronization log file
+.PD
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