Windows Server 2012 with SSD local drives -- Random or Sequential I/O?

Solution 1:

On SSDs, sequential i/o is not at the same speed as random i/o, even though there are no moving parts. SSD drive specs shows that clearly.

Back to the original question, it is an inquiry whether the workload in action is x% sequential and y% random.

In the Linux world, there's a 'blktrace' utility that does it. In the Windows world, I'm currently on the lookout for now and will know soon. Heard from an SNDK Perf Engr that there's 'perfstat' so i'll validate that claim.

--SSD

Solution 2:

I don't know any good tools, directly from the server. Instead, I'd recommend answering their question with a question- if you're doing IO to SSD, which has no moving parts and thus does sequential IO at the same speed as random IO, why do they care? Are they trying to size new storage for you that would be partly on regular disk?