posted Sep 12, 2012, 9:59 AM by Sachchida Ojha
The dcaperfcheck utility is used to test performance of the hardware in a DCA. This test is run to validate network, disk and memory are performing as expected. This is a useful tool to determine hardware failures, or mis-cabling. This utility can be run as the user gpadmin or root. If the utility is run as the user gpadmin, this user must have permissions to write and read from the test directory.


dcaperfcheck { -f hostfile | -h hostname } { -r [d | s | n | N | M ] } [-B size ] [ -S size ] {-d test_dir | --device } {-v | -V } [ -D ] [ --duration seconds ] [ --netperf ]
dcaperfcheck -?


-d test_directory
Directory where data will be written to and read from. Multiplt -d flags may be specified for multiple directories on each host. During network and memory tests, this can be the /tmp directory. During disk tests, use operating system mount points that will exercise each drive.
Enable verbose output.
Enable very verbose output.
Print statistics for each host. The default output will print only the hosts with lowest and highest values.
-rd, -rs, -rn, -rN, -rM
Specify type of test to run, d - disk, s - stream (memory), n - serial netperf, N - parallel netperf, or M - full matrix netperf. These options can be conbined, for example, -rds. The default is dsn. Typically, disk and network tests are seperated, because disk tests require more test directories specified, where network tests only require a single temporary directory.
-B size
Specify the block size for disk performance tests. The default is 32kb. Examples: 1KB, 4MB.
-S size
Specify the file size for disk performance tests. The default is 2x server memory. On a DCA, there is 48GB of memory, so the default is 96GB. Examples: 500MB, 16GB.
-h hostname
Specify a host to run the utility. Multiple hosts can be specified.
-f hostfile
Specify a file with a list of hosts to run the utility. The hostfile will differ based on the test (disk or network) you are running. A network test will typically be run against once interconnect, so hostnames should reflect only interfaces on this interconnect
--duration seconds
Specify a length of time to run the network test. Time specified is in seconds.
Use the netperf network test instead of gpnetbenchServer/gpnetbenchClient. This option can only be run if the network test is specified.
Use a raw device instead of a test directory, for example /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2. Multiple devices may be specified. This option requires dcaperfcheck be run as the user root. WARNING THIS WILL CAUASE DATA LOSS FOR SPECIFIED DEVICES.
Print online help.

Run a parallel network and stream test on Interconnect 1:
# dcaperfcheck -f /home/gpadmin/gpconfigs/hostfile_gpdb_ic1 -rsN -d /tmp
Run a disk test, using all the data directories on a segment server, sdw1: