Storage Device Stress test (SDStress)

Article
09/14/2012

Note This content applies to the Windows Logo Kit (WLK). For the latest information using the new Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK), see Windows HCK User's Guide on the Windows Hardware Dev Center.

Type: Automated Test

Overview

This test stresses the hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives in a system and validates storage API commands.

Details

The SDStress test verifies that:

The drive functions properly in Device 0, Device 1, and cable-select configurations.
The device driver for partitioned media supports all Microsoft Windows partition types (STOR-0365)
The removable media drives function properly with designated controllers.

When SDStress test is started using DTM, the test will stress the drives that are associated with the drive letters passed to the test.

When using DTM to run SDStress, you can specify the driver letters by setting the parameter StorageDriveLetters to a list of letters of the drives that need to be stress-tested. NOTE: Do NOT leave spaces in between multiple drive letters. For example if drives C, D, and E need to be stressed using SDStress, set the parameter StorageDriveLetters to CDE. When stressing an optical drive, the test uses an additional parameter: StorageWritableTarget. This is any writable volume on the system. This parameter should be NULL when not testing an optical drive. When running this job from Device console, this parameter should be populated automatically. You can verify the parameters by right clicking the job in job monitor, choosing view result report, and checking the section marked effective parameters.

There is also the SDStressOptions parameter that gives the user the flexibility to choose from a list of options when running SDStress. This parameters takes a list of arguments. In this case, make sure to leave spaces in between the arguments.

The arguments that can be used for SDStressOptions parameter are:

/B:n Specify block size (multiples of 512 bytes, maximum 128 KB).

/BPCONCORRUPTION Enter debugger using DebugBreak on data corruption.

/C:n Specify the CD thread multiplier.

/DEBUG Debug into the debugger when error occurs.

/D:n Specify the disk thread multiplier.

/P:n Specify the number of passes per thread.

/R Randomize block size.

/T:n Test file size (in megabytes).

/WT Perform I/O operations using cache write through.

/Z1 Perform first test scenario (CopyTestFile).

/Z2 Perform second test scenario (CopyTestFileUsingIoC).

/Z3 Perform third test scenario (CopyTestFileMultiple).

/ZA Perform all test scenarios.

By default the parameter [SDStressOptions] is set to: /P:5 /C:5 /D:2 /ZA /R

Run Time: Up to 12 hours

Log File:

System Restart Required: No

Test Category:

Supported operating systems for Logo or Signature testing:

Windows Vista
Windows Server 2003
Windows XP

Program:

Requirements

Software Requirements

The test tool requires the following software:

Supported operating system (see list above)
Software components included with the device that is being tested
DTM Log Dynamic Link Library or a DTM client service running on the test machine

Hardware Requirements

The test tool requires the following hardware:

Device to be tested
Computer that meets the minimum software requirements
Windows keyboard
Two-button pointing device
Color display monitor capable of at least 1024 by 768 resolution, 32-bits per pixel, 60 Hz
Hard drive with a minimum of 20 GB available on partition C:
Media and Cleaning cartridge.

Processor

The test tool runs on the following processor architectures:

x86
x64
Itanium

Running Storage Device Stress test (SDStress)

Ensure your machine pool has been configured for the proper logo program.
Create a submission (Logo) or select device mode in device console.
Run SDStress DTM Job from device console.

Command Syntax

Command option	Description
SDStress /S:[StorageWritableTarget][StorageDriveLetters] /P:5 /C:5 /D:2 /ZA /R	See the Full Description and Theory of Operation section for details.

Code Tour

File Manifest

File	Location
SDStress.exe	[WTT\TestBinRoot]\nttest\DriversTest\storage\wdk\SDStress