PCMark 10 Storage Benchmarks produce large amounts of detailed result data that is not shown on the in-app result screen. You can export this result data as an Excel file for in-depth analysis.
- Load the result on the Results screen in the PCMark 10 app.
- Click on the OPTIONS button
- Select “Save as" -> Excel
The exported Excel file contains the raw data as well as prebuilt tables and charts with various filters and options that let you choose how to view the data.
Output files
The Storage benchmarks and Drive Performance Consistency Test produce two output files that are included in the result file. Result files are usually saved in your Documents folder, and can be opened with any ZIP program.
- pcmark_storage_trace_statistics.csv
- pcmark_storage_trace_metrics.csv.
The first file lists statistics for each trace used in the benchmark. They do not change run to run if the selection of traces is the same.
The second file lists various metrics for each playback of a trace and cumulative aggregated metrics. The data from these files can be exported from PCMark 10 to an Excel file.
Additional output files can be generated by using the dump_output setting with value the true in the Command Line definition file. With this setting, a file for each trace playback is produced listing the measured timing for every single I/O executed during the playback.
Trace statistics
The variables in the table below provide basic information on each trace. The statistics remain constant from run to run when the benchmark is run with the same settings.
Statistics can be found in the pcmark_storage_trace_statistics.csv output file.
| Metric name | Unit | Description |
| bytes_read | bytes | Number of bytes read |
| bytes_write | bytes | Number of bytes written |
| bytes_read_aligned | bytes | Number of bytes read after alignment to the target drive |
| bytes_write_aligned | bytes | Number of bytes read after alignment to the target drive |
| reads | Number of read operations | |
| writes | Number of write operations | |
| createfiles | Number of CreateFile operations (in the file system level) | |
| closefiles | Number of CloseFile operations (in the file system level) | |
| flushes | Number of flushes | |
| idle_periods | Number of idle periods | |
| idle | μs | The sum of all idle times |
| idle_compressed | μs | The sum of idle times after the idle time compression |
| busy | μs | The sum of all busy times |
| access | μs | The sum of all access times |
| compressed_playback_time | ms | The playback time with idle times compressed (= busy + idle_compressed) |
| bandwidth | B/s | The bandwidth (= bytes moved / busy) |
| average_access | μs | The average access time (= access / the number of I/Os) |
| max_read_size | B | The largest read operation |
| max_write_size | B | The largest write operation |
| max_read_location | The largest read location | |
| max_write_location | The largest write location | |
| max_queue_depth | The largest queue depth |
Metrics and filters
The benchmarks calculate several useful metrics. The metrics are calculated many times taking into account the varying set of operations. For example, bandwidth is calculated separately for read and write operations, for small or large operations, and for sequential and random operations. This allows users to select the most important metrics for their needs.
Calculated metrics are listed below. Possible prefix values (taking the place of <mf>) are listed later.
| Metric name | Unit | Description |
| <mf>_count | - | The number of operations executed |
| <mf>_bytes | B | The number of bytes transferred. |
| <mf>_busy | μs | The total busy time during the playback |
| <mf>_notbusy | μs | The total time being not busy during the playback* |
| <mf>_dc | 1/1000 | The duty cycle calculated as the ratio of busy and notbusy in permilles. |
| <mf>_bw | B/s | The bandwidth (= bytes moved / busy) |
| <mf>_aat | μs | The average access time (= total access / the number of I/Os) |
| <mf>_at50 | μs | The 50% percentile of access times |
| <mf>_at90 | μs | The 90% percentile of access times |
| <mf>_at90 | μs | The 95% percentile of access times |
| <mf>_at99 | μs | The 99% percentile of access times |
| <mf>_at9999 | μs | The 99.99% percentile of access times |
* Usually called "idle", in this case, "notbusy”, reminds that the storage device may not be idling but executing some other operations. This metric focuses on some operation types ignoring the rest. Total playback time can be calculated with busy and not busy times as: <total_playback time> = busy time + not busy time.
Metric filters (<mf>) available are listed in the table below.
| Metrics filter | Description |
| all | All operations |
| rw | Read and write operations |
| read | Read operations |
| write | Write operations |
| read_s, write_s | Small size read / write operations with the data size up to 16k (inclusive) |
| read_m, write_m | Medium size read / write operations with the data size between 16k (exclusive) and 128k (inclusive) |
| read_l, write_m | Large read / write operations with the data size larger than 128k (exclusive) |
| read_s_rnd, write_s_rnd | Small random read / write operations |
| read_seq, write_seq | Sequential read / write operations. Operation is considered sequential if it starts from the offset that continues from where the last operation finished, otherwise it is random. |
| create | Create file operations |
| close | Close file operations |
| flush | Flush operations |
Trace metrics
Trace metrics are calculated for each playback of a trace. Trace metrics can be found in the pcmark_storage_trace_metrics.csv output file with column type having the value trace. Column trace specifies the trace (refer to the table listing of the traces).
Aggregated metrics
Aggregated metrics are estimates calculated from all the trace metrics. The values reported are the geometric mean over samples for rate values. For counts (bytes and times) the aggregation function is the sum of the values.
Aggregated metrics are in the pcmark_storage_trace_metrics.csv output file with column type having the value aggregated.
The column trace specifies the trace with one special item: trace all_traces is an average over all the trace results in the pass.
Two multi-pass metrics, rw_bw and rw_aat, are reported as the secondary metrics. They can be found in the Ariel.xml data file in the result file.