How can I test the read speed of a RAID1 device?

raid raid1 performance

17,128

There are a couple of utilities out there, you don't say what OS so here are a few:

bonnie (Linux)
HD Tune (Windows)
Intel IOMeter (Windows & Linux)

Also the tools that test a single hard drive will work just as well against a raid volume.

17,128

Arseni Mourzenko

Developer, architect, project manager, tester, and active DevOps supporter, I'm studying, observing and advising companies which have an important risk to fail their IT-related projects. I specialize in quality and productivity. After six years of freelancing, I worked for several companies, including Tata Consultancy Services. Today, I'm a happy member of Finaxys. I mostly work with Linux, Python, and Node.js, as well as the Microsoft stack. Outside information technology, I'm interested by photography. I'm mostly active on SE.SE, and also maintain my blog. If you want to contact me, my email is [email protected]. Feel free to drop me a note about any development-related discussions. If you live in Paris or want to visit Paris, you're very welcome to contact me too.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Arseni Mourzenko over 1 year

Some RAID controllers speed-up read access when using RAID1. Other controllers can't do that.

Trying some RAID1 configurations, I want to know if the read speed is faster both on a single file and on several files.

There are plenty of tools which test the read/write speed of a hard drive. What about testing a RAID speed, including software RAID? Are there any tools for Windows which can do it?
Arseni Mourzenko almost 14 years

HD Tune tests the speed of hard disk, so it bypass the software RAID (and probably the hardware RAID too). Does Intel IOMeter do the same?
Arseni Mourzenko almost 14 years

Sorry, I've forgotten to say that I'm using Windows.
Zypher almost 14 years

@MainMa I never use software raid so i can't give you definitive answer. I know HD Tune doesn't bypass the hardware raid (it's what i used to benchmark my work desktop w/ hardware raid for fun.)
Spence almost 14 years

IOMeter can do a good job modeling real-world workloads. I highly recommend it. It won't "bypass" any RAID functionality. It reads and writes to files thru the standard Windows (or Linux) APIs.