TP (Throughput) Test

Summary:

Throughput (TP) test measures large block Sequential IOs at 100% Read and 100% Write accesses under PTS Steady State condition.  TP measurements are displayed in a summary Table and in 2D Plots. 

Test Setup:

The general TP test sequence is: 

1. PURGE the device.
2. Perform the necessary Workload Independent Preconditioning (WIPC). 
3. Perform Workload Dependent Preconditioning (WDPC), which is also the actual test stimulus, until Steady State Criteria as set forth in the Specification is reached.  The Steady State Criteria calls for maximum data excursion and maximum slope excursion to be within 20% and 10% of the average, respectively.

Note that the PTS-E (PTS Enterprise) and PTS-C (PTS Client) have different Block Size requirements.  The PTS-E calls for both 128 KiB and 1024 KiB, while the PTS-C requires just 1024 KiB.  The Steady State Measurement Window (the portion of data that is used to determine conformance to Steady State) is made up of 5 “Rounds”.    A “Round” in the TP test is a single block size at 100% Read and 100% Write, each performed for 1 minute.  Each Round is thus 2 minutes.

Benefits of THROUGHPUT Test:

1. Provides Critical Steady State Values:  Key to the SNIA test specification is the emphasis on “Steady State Results”.   This test shows how the device will perform UNDER STEADY STATE CONDITIONS.   
2. Easy to Run:  Simply PURGE the device and apply stimulus.  Steady State determination is required, however.
3. Verify Manufacturer Claims:  Depending on the appropriate settings of demand intensity and write cache settings, one can easily compare the results produced by this test with box-top numbers, which are usually stated as “Up to xxxx MB/S”.