What is the default SQLIO test doing?

If you run the "sqlio" command without any options, you are running the SQLIO default test, which is equivalent to:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio -kR -t1 -s30 -f64 -b2 -i64 -BN testfile.dat

Let's try it out:

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>sqlio

sqlio v1.5.SG
1 thread reading for 30 secs from file testfile.dat
        using 2KB IOs over 128KB stripes with 64 IOs per run
size of file testfile.dat needs to be: 8388608 bytes
current file size:      0 bytes
need to expand by:      8388608 bytes
expanding testfile.dat ... done.
initialization done
CUMULATIVE DATA:
throughput metrics:
IOs/sec:  2995.43
MBs/sec:     5.85

C:\fyicenter\SQLIO>dir testfile.dat
         8,388,608 testfile.dat

As you can see, the tool created a test data file, testfile.dat, of 8388608 bytes, in the current directory, C:\fyicenter\SQLIO. Then it performed a single thread reading test on this data file. The result is about 3000 IO blocks per second and 6 MB of data per second.

⇒ SQLIO Related Terminology

⇐ SQLIO Command Line Options

⇑ Getting Started with Microsoft SQLIO

⇑⇑ SQLIO Disk I/O Benchmark Test Tutorials