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Windows
This document describes how to benchmark Persistent Disk performance on Windows virtual machine (VM) instances. For Linux VMs, see benchmark Persistent Disk performance on a Linux VM.
To measure IOPS and throughput of a disk in use on a running instance, benchmark the file system with its intended configuration. Use this option to test a realistic workload without losing the contents of your existing disk. Note that when you benchmark the file system on an existing disk, there are many factors specific to your development environment that may affect benchmarking results, and you may not reach the disk performance limits.
To measure the raw performance of a Persistent Disk, benchmark the block device directly. Use this option to compare raw disk performance to disk performance limits.
On C4 VMs, Windows supports a maximum depth of 1024 per device submission queue. When a queue fills, Windows stops submitting I/O until the queue has partially drained, which significantly reduces performance. To avoid triggering this condition, we recommend limiting your benchmarking workloads to an aggregate queue depth of 1024 per attached volume.
Configure benchmarking softwareTo benchmark Persistent Disk performance on Windows VMs, use DISKSPD.
Open Powershell and download the DISKSPD tool using the following command:
$client = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$client.DownloadFile("https://github.com/Microsoft/diskspd/releases/latest/download/DiskSpd.zip","$env:temp\DiskSpd-download.zip")
Expand-Archive -LiteralPath "$env:temp\DiskSpd-download.zip" C:\DISKSPD
Get-ChildItem C:\DISKSPD
Note: You can also download the latest version of the DISKSPD tool directly from GitHub and extract it manually.To measure IOPS and throughput for a realistic workload on an active disk on a running VM instance without losing the contents of your disk, benchmark against a new directory on the existing file system.
In the following steps assume the disk to test is mounted as D: and the commands are executed in a Command Prompt (cmd.exe) window that has administrator privileges:
Verify DISKSPD software configuration and change directory to the 64-bit binary:
DISKSPD was installed at C:\DISKSPD.
cd C:\DISKSPD\amd64
Create a new 10 GB file named DISKTEST.DAT on the disk:
set TESTFILE=D:\DISKTEST.DAT diskspd -d0 -c10G %TESTFILE%
Test write throughput by performing sequential writes with multiple parallel streams (16 or more), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -w100 -t16 -si %TESTFILE%
Test write IOPS by performing random writes, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 256:
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o256 -Sh -w100 -r %TESTFILE%
Test read throughput by performing sequential reads with multiple parallel streams (16 or more), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -t16 -si %TESTFILE%
Test read IOPS by performing random reads, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 256:
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o256 -Sh -r %TESTFILE%
Clean up:
del %TESTFILE%
To measure the performance of Persistent Disk volumes alone outside of your development environment, test read and write performance for a block device on a throwaway Persistent Disk and VM.
Warning: The commands in this section overwrite the contents of your disk. We strongly recommend using a throwaway VM and disk.Add a Persistent Disk to the VM instance that you intend to benchmark.
Verify DISKSPD software configuration and change directory to the 64-bit binary:
cd C:\DISKSPD\amd64
Verify that there are no non-reserved partitions on the disk. Enter diskpart into an elevated Command Prompt window.
diskpart
List the disks attached to the VM:
DISKPART> list disk
The output shows the newly created 1 TB disk which is Disk 1 in the following example output:
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 120 GB 1024 KB * Disk 1 Online 1024 GB 1023 GB *
Select the disk that you intend to benchmark.
DISKPART> select disk 1
List the partitions on the selected disk.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- -------- -------
Partition 1 Reserved 15 MB 17 KB
Partition 2 Primary 1024 GB 16 MB
Select the primary partition 2:
DISKPART> select partition 2
Delete the selected partition:
DISKPART> delete partitionWarning: This step will cause permanent loss of data.
Exit diskpart
DISKPART> exit
The preceding steps should be repeated if the disk you intend to benchmark has any other partitions apart from the Reserved partition. When only the Reserved partition remains, continue with the following steps:
After you've identified the disk and verified that there are no partitions, set the TESTDRIVE environment variable to '#' followed by the number of the disk to test.
C:/> set TESTDRIVE=#1
Test write throughput by performing sequential writes with multiple parallel streams (16 or more), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -t16 -si -w0 %TESTDRIVE%
Test write IOPS by performing random writes, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 256:
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o256 -Sh -r -w0 %TESTDRIVE%
Test write latency. While testing I/O latency, the VM must not reach maximum bandwidth or IOPS; otherwise, the observed latency won't reflect the actual Persistent Disk I/O latency.
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o4 -Sh -r -w0 -L %TESTDRIVE%
Test read throughput by performing sequential reads with multiple parallel streams (16 or more), using an I/O block size of 1 MB and an I/O depth of at least 64:
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -t16 -si %TESTDRIVE%
Test read IOPS by performing random reads, using an I/O block size of 4 KB and an I/O depth of at least 256:
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o256 -Sh -r %TESTDRIVE%
To test read latency, it's important to fill the disk with data to get a realistic latency measurement. The VM must not reach IOPS or throughput limits during this test because after the Persistent Disk reaches its saturation limit, it pushes back on incoming I/O operations, and this is reflected as an artificial increase in I/O latency.
diskspd -d300 -b4K -o4 -Sh -r -L %TESTDRIVE%
Test sequential read bandwidth.
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -t4 -si %TESTDRIVE%
Test sequential write bandwidth.
diskspd -d300 -b1M -o64 -Sh -t4 -si -w100 %TESTDRIVE%
Clean up the throwaway Persistent Disk and VM:
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-15 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-15 UTC."],[[["This document guides users on how to benchmark Persistent Disk performance on Windows virtual machines (VMs) using the `DISKSPD` tool."],["You can measure IOPS and throughput on an existing disk, allowing you to assess performance under real-world conditions without data loss."],["Benchmarking raw disk performance involves testing a block device directly on a throwaway disk and VM, providing a way to compare raw performance against disk limits."],["On C4 VMs, it is recommended to limit benchmarking workloads to an aggregate queue depth of 1024 per attached volume to avoid performance reduction."],["The document includes detailed instructions for testing various aspects of disk performance, including read/write throughput, IOPS, and latency, for both existing and raw disks."]]],[]]
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