VMware released a new version of their VMware I/O Analyzer Fling. VMware I/O Analyzer is an integrated framework designed to measure storage performance in a virtual environment and to help diagnose storage performance concerns. I/O Analyzer, supplied as an easy-to-deploy virtual appliance, automates storage performance analysis through a unified interface that can be used to configure and deploy storage tests and view graphical results for those tests.

I/O Analyzer can use IOmeter to generate synthetic I/O loads or a trace replay tool to deploy real application workloads. It uses the VMware VI SDK to remotely collect storage performance statistics from VMware ESX/ESXi hosts. Standardizing load generation and statistics collection allows users and VMware engineers to have a high level of confidence in the data collected.

VMware I/O Analyzer features

  • Integrated framework for storage performance testing
  • Readily deployable virtual appliance
  • Easy configuration and launch of storage I/O tests on one or more hosts
  • Integrated performance results at both guest and host levels
  • Storage I/O trace replay as an additional workload generator
  • Ability to upload storage I/O traces for automatic extraction of vital metrics
  • Graphical visualization of workload metrics and performance results
VMware IO Analyzer
VMware IO Analyzer

New in version 1.6.1

  • Changed guest I/O scheduler to NOOP and disable I/O coalescing at I/O scheduler level.
  • Downgraded VM version to 7 to be compatible with ESX/ESXi 4.0.
  • Back-end improvements to workload generator synchronization to support 240+ workers.
  • Bug fixes.

System Requirements

I/O Analyzer has the following minimum system requirements:

  • VMware ESX/ESXi version 4.0 or later
  • 16.5 GB of storage space (additional space recommended)
  • 1 vCPU and 2048 MB VM memory
  • A supported Internet browser (Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox)

You can download the VMware I/O Analyzer Fling here.