.TH IPERF3 1 "March 2018" ESnet "User Manuals"

.SH NAME

iperf3 \- perform network throughput tests

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B iperf3 -s [

.I options

.B ]

.br

.B iperf3 -c 

.I server

.B [

.I options

.B ]

.SH DESCRIPTION

iperf3 is a tool for performing network throughput measurements.

It can test TCP, UDP, or SCTP throughput.

To perform an iperf3 test the user must establish both a server and a

client.

.PP

The iperf3 executable contains both client and server functionality.

An iperf3 server can be started using either of the -s or

--server command-line parameters, for example:

.IP

\fCiperf3 -s\fR

.IP

\fCiperf3 --server \fR

.PP

Note that many iperf3 parameters have both short (-s) and long

(--server) forms.

In this section we will generally use the short form of command-line

flags, unless only the long form of a flag is available.

.PP

By default, the iperf3 server listens on TCP port 5201 for connections

from an iperf3 client.

A custom port can be specified by using the -p flag, for

example:

.IP

\fCiperf3 -s -p 5002\fR

.PP

After the server is started, it will listen for connections from

iperf3 clients (in other words, the iperf3 program run in client

mode).

The client mode can be started using the -c command-line option,

which also requires a host to which iperf3 should connect.

The host can by specified by hostname, IPv4 literal, or IPv6 literal:

.IP

\fCiperf3 -c iperf3.example.com\fR

.IP

\fCiperf3 -c 192.0.2.1\fR

.IP

\fCiperf3 -c 2001:db8::1\fR

.PP

If the iperf3 server is running on a non-default TCP port, that port

number needs to be specified on the client as well:

.IP

\fCiperf3 -c iperf3.example.com -p 5002\fR

.PP

The initial TCP connection is used to exchange test parameters,

control the start and end of the test, and to exchange test results.

This is sometimes referred to as the "control connection".

The actual test data is sent over a separate TCP connection, as a

separate flow of UDP packets, or as an independent SCTP connection,

depending on what protocol was specified by the client.

.PP

Normally, the test data is sent from the client to the server, and

measures the upload speed of the client.

Measuring the download speed from the server can be done by specifying

the -R flag on the client.

This causes data to be sent from the server to the client.

.IP

\fCiperf3 -c iperf3.example.com -p 5202 -R

.PP

Results are displayed on both the client and server.

There will be at least one line of output per measurement interval (by

default a measurement interval lasts for one second, but this can be

changed by the -i option).

Each line of output includes (at least) the time since the start of

the test, amount of data transferred during the interval, and the

average bitrate over that interval.

Note that the values for each measurement interval are taken from the

point of view of the endpoint process emitting that output (in other

words, the output on the client shows the measurement interval data for

the client.

.PP

At the end of the test is a set of statistics that shows (at

least as much as possible) a summary of the test as seen by both the

sender and the receiver, with lines tagged accordingly.

Recall that by default the client is the sender and the server is the

receiver, although as indicated above, use of the \fC-R\fR flag will

reverse these roles.

.PP

The client can be made to retrieve the server-side output for a given

test by specifying the --get-server-output flag.

.PP

Either the client or the server can produce its output in a JSON

structure, useful for integration with other programs, by passing it

the -J flag.

Because the contents of the JSON structure are only competely known

after the test has finished, no JSON output will be emitted until the

end of the test.

.PP

iperf3 has a (overly) large set of command-line options that can be

used to set the parameters of a test.

They are given in the "GENERAL OPTIONS" section of the manual page

below, as well as summarized in iperf3's help output, which can be

viewed by running iperf3 with the -h flag.

.SH "GENERAL OPTIONS"

.TP

.BR -p ", " --port " \fIn\fR"

set server port to listen on/connect to to \fIn\fR (default 5201)

.TP

.BR -f ", " --format " "

[kmgtKMGT]   format to report: Kbits/Mbits/Gbits/Tbits

.TP

.BR -i ", " --interval " \fIn\fR"

pause \fIn\fR seconds between periodic throughput reports;

default is 1, use 0 to disable

.TP

.BR -F ", " --file " \fIname\fR"

Use a file as the source (on the sender) or sink (on the receiver) of

data, rather than just generating random data or throwing it away.

This feature is used for finding whether or not the storage subsystem

is the bottleneck for file transfers.

It does not turn iperf3 into a file transfer tool.

The length, attributes, and in some cases contents of the received

file may not match those of the original file.

.TP

.BR -A ", " --affinity " \fIn/n,m\fR"

Set the CPU affinity, if possible (Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows only).

On both the client and server you can set the local affinity by using

the \fIn\fR form of this argument (where \fIn\fR is a CPU number).

In addition, on the client side you can override the server's

affinity for just that one test, using the \fIn,m\fR form of

argument.

Note that when using this feature, a process will only be bound

to a single CPU (as opposed to a set containing potentialy multiple

CPUs).

.TP

.BR -B ", " --bind " \fIhost\fR"

bind to the specific interface associated with address \fIhost\fR.

If the host has multiple interfaces, it will use the first interface

by default.

.TP

.BR -V ", " --verbose " "

give more detailed output 

.TP

.BR -J ", " --json " "

output in JSON format

.TP

.BR --logfile " \fIfile\fR"

send output to a log file.

.TP

.BR --forceflush " "

force flushing output at every interval.

Used to avoid buffering when sending output to pipe.

.TP

.BR -d ", " --debug " "

emit debugging output.

Primarily (perhaps exclusively) of use to developers.

.TP

.BR -v ", " --version " "

show version information and quit

.TP

.BR -h ", " --help " "

show a help synopsis

.SH "SERVER SPECIFIC OPTIONS"

.TP

.BR -s ", " --server " "

run in server mode

.TP

.BR -D ", " --daemon " "

run the server in background as a daemon

.TP

.BR -I ", " --pidfile " \fIfile\fR"

write a file with the process ID, most useful when running as a daemon.

.TP

.BR -1 ", " --one-off

handle one client connection, then exit.

.TP

.BR --rsa-private-key-path " \fIfile\fR"

path to the RSA private key (not password-protected) used to decrypt 

authentication credentials from the client (if built with OpenSSL

support).

.TP          

.BR --authorized-users-path " \fIfile\fR"

path to the configuration file containing authorized users credentials to run 

iperf tests (if built with OpenSSL support).

The file is a comma separated list of usernames and password hashes;

more information on the structure of the file can be found in the

EXAMPLES section.

.SH "CLIENT SPECIFIC OPTIONS"

.TP

.BR -c ", " --client " \fIhost\fR"

run in client mode, connecting to the specified server.

By default, a test consists of sending data from the client to the

server, unless the \-R flag is specified.

.TP

.BR --sctp

use SCTP rather than TCP (FreeBSD and Linux)

.TP

.BR -u ", " --udp

use UDP rather than TCP

.TP

.BR --connect-timeout " \fIn\fR"

set timeout for establishing the initial control connection to the

server, in milliseconds.

The default behavior is the operating system's timeout for TCP

connection establishment.

Providing a shorter value may speed up detection of a down iperf3

server.

.TP

.BR -b ", " --bitrate " \fIn\fR[KM]"

set target bitrate to \fIn\fR bits/sec (default 1 Mbit/sec for UDP,

unlimited for TCP/SCTP).

If there are multiple streams (\-P flag), the throughput limit is applied

separately to each stream.

You can also add a '/' and a number to the bitrate specifier.

This is called "burst mode".

It will send the given number of packets without pausing, even if that

temporarily exceeds the specified throughput limit.

Setting the target bitrate to 0 will disable bitrate limits

(particularly useful for UDP tests).

This throughput limit is implemented internally inside iperf3, and is

available on all platforms.

Compare with the \--fq-rate flag.

This option replaces the \--bandwidth flag, which is now deprecated

but (at least for now) still accepted.

.TP

.BR --pacing-timer " \fIn\fR[KMG]"

set pacing timer interval in microseconds (default 1000 microseconds,

or 1 ms).

This controls iperf3's internal pacing timer for the \-b/\--bitrate

option.

The timer fires at the interval set by this parameter.

Smaller values of the pacing timer parameter smooth out the traffic

emitted by iperf3, but potentially at the cost of performance due to

more frequent timer processing.

.TP

.BR --fq-rate " \fIn\fR[KM]"

Set a rate to be used with fair-queueing based socket-level pacing,

in bits per second.

This pacing (if specified) will be in addition to any pacing due to

iperf3's internal throughput pacing (\-b/\--bitrate flag), and both can be

specified for the same test.

Only available on platforms supporting the

\fCSO_MAX_PACING_RATE\fR socket option (currently only Linux).

The default is no fair-queueing based pacing.

.TP

.BR --no-fq-socket-pacing

This option is deprecated and will be removed.

It is equivalent to specifying --fq-rate=0.

.TP

.BR -t ", " --time " \fIn\fR"

time in seconds to transmit for (default 10 secs)

.TP

.BR -n ", " --bytes " \fIn\fR[KM]"

number of bytes to transmit (instead of \-t)

.TP

.BR -k ", " --blockcount " \fIn\fR[KM]"

number of blocks (packets) to transmit (instead of \-t or \-n)

.TP

.BR -l ", " --length " \fIn\fR[KM]"

length of buffer to read or write.  For TCP tests, the default value

is 128KB.

In the case of UDP, iperf3 tries to dynamically determine a reasonable

sending size based on the path MTU; if that cannot be determined it

uses 1460 bytes as a sending size.

For SCTP tests, the default size is 64KB.

.TP

.BR --cport " \fIport\fR"

bind data streams to a specific client port (for TCP and UDP only,

default is to use an ephemeral port)

.TP

.BR -P ", " --parallel " \fIn\fR"

number of parallel client streams to run. Note that iperf3 is single threaded, so if you are CPU bound, this will not yield higher throughput.

.TP

.BR -R ", " --reverse

reverse the direction of a test, so that the server sends data to the

client

.TP

.BR -w ", " --window " \fIn\fR[KM]"

window size / socket buffer size (this gets sent to the server and used on that side too)

.TP

.BR -M ", " --set-mss " \fIn\fR"

set TCP/SCTP maximum segment size (MTU - 40 bytes)

.TP

.BR -N ", " --no-delay " "

set TCP/SCTP no delay, disabling Nagle's Algorithm

.TP

.BR -4 ", " --version4 " "

only use IPv4

.TP

.BR -6 ", " --version6 " "

only use IPv6

.TP

.BR -S ", " --tos " \fIn\fR"

set the IP type of service. The usual prefixes for octal and hex can be used,

i.e. 52, 064 and 0x34 all specify the same value.

.TP

.BR "--dscp " \fIdscp\fR

set the IP DSCP bits.  Both numeric and symbolic values are accepted. Numeric

values can be specified in decimal, octal and hex (see --tos above).

.TP

.BR -L ", " --flowlabel " \fIn\fR"

set the IPv6 flow label (currently only supported on Linux)

.TP

.BR -X ", " --xbind " \fIname\fR"

Bind SCTP associations to a specific subset of links using sctp_bindx(3).

The \fB--B\fR flag will be ignored if this flag is specified.

Normally SCTP will include the protocol addresses of all active links

on the local host when setting up an association. Specifying at least

one \fB--X\fR name will disable this behaviour.

This flag must be specified for each link to be included in the

association, and is supported for both iperf servers and clients

(the latter are supported by passing the first \fB--X\fR argument to bind(2)).

Hostnames are accepted as arguments and are resolved using

getaddrinfo(3).

If the \fB--4\fR or \fB--6\fR flags are specified, names

which do not resolve to addresses within the

specified protocol family will be ignored.

.TP

.BR --nstreams " \fIn\fR"

Set number of SCTP streams.

.TP

.BR -Z ", " --zerocopy " "

Use a "zero copy" method of sending data, such as sendfile(2),

instead of the usual write(2).

.TP

.BR -O ", " --omit " \fIn\fR"

Omit the first n seconds of the test, to skip past the TCP slow-start

period.

.TP

.BR -T ", " --title " \fIstr\fR"

Prefix every output line with this string.

.TP

.BR -C ", " --congestion " \fIalgo\fR"

Set the congestion control algorithm (Linux and FreeBSD only).  An

older

.B --linux-congestion

synonym for this flag is accepted but is deprecated.

.TP

.BR "--get-server-output"

Get the output from the server.

The output format is determined by the server (in particular, if the

server was invoked with the \fB--json\fR flag, the output will be in

JSON format, otherwise it will be in human-readable format).

If the client is run with \fB--json\fR, the server output is included

in a JSON object; otherwise it is appended at the bottom of the

human-readable output.

.TP

.BR --udp-counters-64bit

Use 64-bit counters in UDP test packets.

The use of this option can help prevent counter overflows during long

or high-bitrate UDP tests.  Both client and server need to be running

at least version 3.1 for this option to work.  It may become the

default behavior at some point in the future.

.TP

.BR --username " \fIusername\fR" 

username to use for authentication to the iperf server (if built with

OpenSSL support).

The password will be prompted for interactively when the test is run.

.TP

.BR --rsa-public-key-path " \fIfile\fR" 

path to the RSA public key used to encrypt authentication credentials

(if built with OpenSSL support)

.SH EXAMPLES

.SS "Authentication - RSA Keypair"

The authentication feature of requires an RSA public keypair.

The public key is used to encrypt the authentication token containing the 

user credentials, while the private key is used to decrypt the authentication token.

An example of a set of UNIX/Linux commands to generate correct keypair follows:

.sp 1 

.in +.5i

> openssl genrsa -des3 -out private.pem 2048

.sp 0

> openssl rsa -in private.pem -outform PEM -pubout -out public.pem

.sp 0

> openssl rsa -in private.pem -out private_not_protected.pem -outform PEM  

.in -.5i

.sp 1

After these commands, the public key will be contained in the file

public.pem and the private key will be contained in the file

private_not_protected.pem.

.SS "Authentication - Authorized users configuration file"

A simple plaintext file must be provided to the iperf3 server in order to specify 

the authorized user credentials.

The file is a simple list of comma-separated pairs of a username and a

corresponding password hash.

The password hash is a SHA256 hash of the string "{$user}$password".

The file can also contain commented lines (starting with the \fC#\fR

character).

An example of commands to generate the password hash on a UNIX/Linux system

is given below:

.sp 1 

.in +.5i

> S_USER=mario S_PASSWD=rossi

.sp 0

> echo -n "{$S_USER}$S_PASSWD" | sha256sum | awk '{ print $1 }'

.in -.5i

.sp 1

An example of a password file (with an entry corresponding to the

above username and password) is given below:

.sp 0

.in +.5i

> cat credentials.csv

.sp 0

# file format: username,sha256

.sp 0

mario,bf7a49a846d44b454a5d11e7acfaf13d138bbe0b7483aa3e050879700572709b

.in -.5i

.sp 1

.SH AUTHORS

A list of the contributors to iperf3 can be found within the

documentation located at

\fChttp://software.es.net/iperf/dev.html#authors\fR.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

libiperf(3),

http://software.es.net/iperf