| Last Modified On : | October 19, 2009 2:50 PM PDT |
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The Intel® NAS Performance Toolkit (NASPT) is a file system exerciser and analysis tool designed to enable direct measurement of home network attached storage (NAS) performance. Designed to emulate the behavior of an actual application, NASPT uses a set of real world workload traces gathered from typical digital home applications. Traces of high definition video playback and recording, office productivity applications, video rendering/content creation and more provide a broad range of different application behaviors. With the latest version of NASPT, users may even add their own custom traces. NASPT reproduces the file system traffic recorded in these traces onto whatever storage solution the user provides, records the system response, and reports a rich variety of performance information.
NASPT includes an intuitive graphical user interface to get teams up and running quickly, a graphical data analyzer for in-depth performance investigations, and a convenient batch mode feature for performing multiple test runs with a single click.
While NASPT runs on a 32-bit client version of Windows XP or Windows Vista, the target NAS device may run any operating system.
Version 1.7.0 adds the ability for users to add their own custom workloads to the lists of test run the NASPT, further expanding the utility and flexibility of the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. Version 1.7.0 also adds support for the Windows Vista operating system.
Version 1.7.1 relaxes the operating system check to allow the program to run on 32-bit client versions of Windows 7. The program also checks for host systems with large amounts of installed memory, issuing a warning message when appropriate. Large amounts of host DRAM skew test results by enabling the host machine to cache large amounts of storage data locally rather than making requests of the NAS device the program is supposed to be testing. This can lead to higher scores than the NAS device itself can deliver. Most testers will not want their host machines "helping" in this way. Version 1.7.1 is otherwise identical to v1.7.0.
The source code for the NASPT Exerciser is now available. Visual Studio 2008 project. Please refer to the included build_environment.txt file for information on how to build the NASPT Exerciser. Questions, comments and suggestions are welcomed at NASPT_support@intel.com.Downloads
- NASPT User Guide [PDF 393KB]
- Creating Custom NASPT Traces [PDF 92KB]
- Measuring and Improving NAS Performance – whitepaper [PDF 446KB]
- Fall IDF Presentation [PPT 2MB]
Software
- Latest - Intel NAS Performance Toolkit v1.7.1 [49MB]
- NAS Performance Toolkit v1.7 – Exerciser Source Code [20MB]
- Intel NAS Performance Toolkit v1.6 [56MB]
For questions or comments regarding the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit, please send mail to NASPT_support@intel.com.
Comments (25) 
October 23, 2008 12:12 PM PDT
 Mike |
"While NASPT runs on a Windows XP or Windows Vista client, the target NAS device may run any operating system." The NASPT client is the PC platform that runs the actual software. At runtime, NASPT generates traffic from the client platform to the desired storage device. • Windows XP* SP2 or Windows Vista* operating system. PLEASE don't lie in your documentation and say that you support XP SP2. It does _NOT_ support XP 64bit. If there is a work around for the error "NASPT Exerciser only supports client versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista" please feel free to post it. |
| October 28, 2008 3:03 AM PDT
LAN |
PDT, Are you running this software on an Intel or AMD box? Please note that this software only works on INTEL processors: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-nas-toolkit,review-31393-4.html |
| November 23, 2008 9:42 AM PST
Dennis Wood |
This test series is everything we've been looking for in terms of NAS testing. If you could have read my mind, then write a program, it would have looked a lot like this. Two questions: 1. Would it be possible to extend each test to include file sizes etc set by the user? 2. Where did the multi-io options go in version 1.7? Cheers, Dennis Wood http://www.cinevate.com |
| December 11, 2008 2:29 AM PST
Nick | Unfortunately this didn't work for me. It spends an age running through the first step just to tell me it can't find the target drive anymore when I can quite happily access it myself. I have an Intel CPU and am using an ICYBOX NAS which runs SAMBA. Several attempts later I gave up and uninstalled it. |
| December 22, 2008 3:43 AM PST
Alexander Volkov |
It doesn't work on nfs mounted disk, tried on 2 diff. comps. WinXP SP3, latest unix services for windows. Both vers 1.6 and 1.7 |
| January 9, 2009 10:24 AM PST
Tony Bock |
For questions or comments regarding configuration issues please feel free to make use of NASPT_support@intel.com. They've got lots of experience working with different machines and configurations and should be able to help you. Many times, configuration issues can be worked through in a fairly short timeframe. Plus, if you are trying to use the software in a way we didn't foresee, we'd like to know so we can make the tool better for everyone. Note that v1.7 runs on any 32-bit Intel Architecture processor. |
| January 17, 2009 2:24 AM PST
Nikhil | Where is the officeproductivity.zip file? It's neither in the main NASPT 1.7 zip file nor in the installation folder. Would someone please clarify? |
| March 4, 2009 6:34 AM PST
father_mande |
Hi, I run NAS-PT 1.7, all run fine, I have on one NAS a very low value (if I compare to another NAS on same network, other result are coherent with the difference of cpu and disk ...) the very low result is in "Content Creation", my question is : where I can read what exactly "content creation" do ? to try to understand the difference ... for info : for two similar NAS one run at : Test: ContentCreation Throughput: 13.212 the other (lowest) at : Test: ContentCreation Throughput: 2.162 ... other result are similar. Thanks to redirect me to a link with explain about wath NAS-PT do in this test. Regards. |
| May 8, 2009 12:18 PM PDT
Tony Bock | Version 1.7 no longer requires that the user manually unzip the Office Productivity file. That's why you don't see the .zip file, it's already decompressed and should be ready to run. |
| May 8, 2009 12:28 PM PDT
Tony Bock |
Content Creation transfers a few gigabytes of data using roughly 95% writes along with reads of numerous small files. The traced workload is a user gathering several small input files into one big "mashup" style movie. The write stream appears fairly random, which may be troublesome for some NAS devices. Low performance could come from a variety of factors. Perhaps there's not enough memory on the device to keep up with all those random writes. The device could also be more optimized for sequential file access, which could be a good thing in most cases, but show up as a performance hit in this non-sequential case. |
| May 8, 2009 12:47 PM PDT
Tony Bock |
Dennis Wood wrote: Two questions: 1. Would it be possible to extend each test to include file sizes etc set by the user? 2. Where did the multi-io options go in version 1.7? ------------------------- 1. This is being seriously considered for future development. I will pass your request along. 2. Multi-IO was confusing for many novice users, all the more so since Windows XP's* SMB redirector at the time did not really issue more than one I/O at a time anyway. Users would crank up the queue depth to find that all they did was add threading overhead for a net performance loss. With the release of SMBv2, with Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista*, the network redirector will now do more than one transaction at a time, so it may be worth putting back in. Again, I'll pass your interest along. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. |
| August 7, 2009 10:15 AM PDT
Kell |
This simply does not work and gives know reason why. I am using version 1.7. The Office productivity test is prepared (which means it can find the NAS and write the files on to it). I can access the NAS and view these files. When I run the test - I simply get ERROR Test:Office Productivity was not successfully completed. < OK > And it does nothing after that. Can someone please give some guidance - I tried the same with other tests and the result is the same. It gives no comment as to why it failed. Nothing written to logs of error msgs or anything. Nothing. |
| August 10, 2009 7:30 PM PDT
Alex | Why don't you get command line options to run NASPT? It would help us a lot! |
| August 19, 2009 12:52 PM PDT
Tony Bock |
Kell: There are some things you can try to narrow down the source of your issue: -Try targeting another device with your test, even if you just target you local hard drive, and see if that works -Try running a few different tests one at a time to see if any of them will work. -Inside your results directory (default is <my documents>naspt tests ) you should see the results of your tests organised by manufacturer, model name, and date/time. In each branch, you should see a NASPerf-APP.log file that may contain more information as to the source of the error. Finally, please work with NASPT_support@intel.com. They should be able to work with you and get your system up and running. |
| August 19, 2009 12:54 PM PDT
Tony Bock |
Alex: I'll pass your request along for consideration with the next release. |
| September 2, 2009 3:48 PM PDT
Gulamabbas |
Hello, I am trying to use the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit to test my NAS boxes; however when I prepare the target drive it returns with error code 5: Access is Denied. In addition when I click run it claims it has lost the target drives path, but I can access it perfectly fine. Please help Thank You |
| September 19, 2009 11:00 PM PDT
Chris Ramseyer | Windows 7 support asap plz. |
| September 23, 2009 8:03 AM PDT
Clas Mehus |
Yeah. Windows 7-support would be great. I guess support for CPUs from The Green Company also would have been nice, but my guess is also that ain't gonna happend ;-) |
| October 12, 2009 3:51 PM PDT
NemoPeti | Wundows 7 support please |
| October 12, 2009 4:16 PM PDT
NemoPeti |
Hello! I download the source, and comment out the OS check part, recompile, and run perfectly on Windows 7 x86 Ultimate and Professional systems. If Intel agree with it, I post a link to the modified .exe. All You have to do is: - install the application from the official installer - replace the original NASPerf.exe file with the one compiled myself |
| October 19, 2009 3:33 PM PDT
Chris Ramseyer | If you can go ahead and email that over to me. chrisram at tweaktown dot com |
| October 24, 2009 11:03 AM PDT
John Pastor | If you could email it to me as well: jpastor at carbonitemedia dot com |
| October 27, 2009 2:58 PM PDT
Tony Bock | New version posted that relaxes operating system version check, anabling exxecutable to run on Windows 7. |
| October 29, 2009 11:08 PM PDT
Jan Tillung |
Getting an error when preparing the Office Productivity files... My guess is there is an error in the xml? End of log file have the following: Parse result code: c00ce553 Fatal Error: The following tags were not closed: TRACE. Line: 0 Column: 0 |
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NASPerf Test Results
( FileCopyToNAS )
FS_replay.exe "C:Program FilesIntelNASPTapp_tracesFileCopyToNAS.xml" "Z:NASFileCopyToNAS" "C:Documents and SettingsadminMy DocumentsNASPT_TestsIOmegaModel23 October 2008, 00 57" -prep
NASPerf Test Results
( FileCopyFromNAS )
FS_replay.exe "C:Program FilesIntelNASPTapp_tracesFileCopyFromNAS.xml" "Z:NASFileCopyFromNAS" "C:Documents and SettingsadminMy DocumentsNASPT_TestsIOmegaModel23 October 2008, 00 57" -prep
Failed restoring file: Backup.bkf
CreateFile failed
Error Code: 32 -- The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
My system and network drive is working quite good, so I don't know what is happening. The network drive is Read/Write.
OK. So I go to ADD REMOVE PROGRAM to uninstall this program, but there is no entry. I read NASPT.pdf but I did not found any information.
So.. I will erase this program from Program Files, and then I will go on Registry to manually delete some entries, and hope that I will not mess up Windows. :D:D:D