# rpk cluster self-test start

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/llms.txt). Component-specific: [streaming-full.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming-full.txt)

---
title: rpk cluster self-test start
latest-redpanda-tag: v26.2.1
latest-console-tag: v3.9.0
latest-operator-version: v26.2.1
# EOL = End-of-Life (support lifecycle status)
page-is-nearing-eol: "false"
page-is-past-eol: "false"
page-eol-date: July 28, 2027
latest-connect-version: 4.104.0
docname: rpk/rpk-cluster/rpk-cluster-self-test-start
page-component-name: streaming
page-version: "26.2"
page-component-version: "26.2"
page-component-title: Streaming
page-relative-src-path: rpk/rpk-cluster/rpk-cluster-self-test-start.adoc
page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/docs/edit/main/modules/reference/pages/rpk/rpk-cluster/rpk-cluster-self-test-start.adoc
description: "Starts one or more benchmark tests on one or more nodes of the cluster. NOTE: Redpanda self-test runs benchmarks that consume significant system resources."
page-git-created-date: "2023-08-04"
page-git-modified-date: "2026-08-03"
support-status: supported
---

<!-- Source: https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/current/reference/rpk/rpk-cluster/rpk-cluster-self-test-start.md -->

Starts one or more benchmark tests on one or more nodes of the cluster.

> 📝 **NOTE**
>
> Redpanda self-test runs benchmarks that consume significant system resources. Do not start self-test if large workloads are already running on the system.

Available tests to run:

-   Disk tests:


```text
** Throughput test: 512 KB messages, sequential read/write
   *** Uses a larger request message sizes and deeper I/O queue depth to write/read more bytes in a shorter amount of time, at the cost of IOPS/latency.
** Latency and io depth tests: 4 KB messages, sequential read/write, varying io depth
   *** Uses small IO sizes and varying levels of parallelism to determine the relationship between io depth and IOPS
   *** Includes one test without using dsync (fdatasync) on each write to establish the cost of dsync
** 16 KB test
   *** One high io depth test at 16 KB to reflect performance at Redpanda's default chunk size
```

-   Network tests:


```text
** Throughput test: 8192-bit messages
   *** Unique pairs of Redpanda nodes each act as a client and a server.
   *** The test pushes as much data over the wire, within the test parameters.
```

-   Cloud storage tests

    -   Configuration/Latency test: 1024-byte object.

    -   If cloud storage is enabled (`cloud_storage_enabled`), a series of remote operations are performed:



```text
*** Upload an object (a random buffer of 1024 bytes) to the cloud storage bucket/container.
*** List objects in the bucket/container.
*** Download the uploaded object from the bucket/container.
*** Download the uploaded object's metadata from the bucket/container.
*** Delete the uploaded object from the bucket/container.
*** Upload and then delete multiple objects (random buffers of 1024 bytes) at once from the bucket/container.
```

This command prompts users for confirmation (unless the flag `--no-confirm` is specified), then returns a test identifier ID, and runs the tests.

To view the test status, poll `rpk cluster self-test status`. Once the tests end, the cached results will be available with `rpk cluster self-test status`.

## [](#usage)Usage

```bash
rpk cluster self-test start [flags]
```

## [](#flags)Flags

| Value | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| --cloud-backoff-ms | uint | The backoff in milliseconds for a cloud storage request. |
| --cloud-timeout-ms | uint | The timeout in milliseconds for a cloud storage request. |
| --disk-duration-ms | uint | The duration in milliseconds of individual disk test runs. |
| --network-duration-ms | uint | The duration in milliseconds of individual network test runs. |
| --no-confirm | bool | Acknowledge warning prompt skipping read from stdin. |
| --only-cloud-test | bool | Runs only cloud storage verification. |
| --only-disk-test | bool | Runs only the disk benchmarks. |
| --only-network-test | bool | Runs only network benchmarks. |
| --participant-node-ids | intSlice | Comma-separated list of broker IDs that the tests will run on. If not set, tests will run for all node IDs. |

## [](#global-flags)Global flags

| Value | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| --config | string | Redpanda or rpk config file; default search paths are ~/.config/rpk/rpk.yaml, $PWD/redpanda.yaml, and /etc/redpanda/redpanda.yaml. |
| -X, --config-opt | stringArray | Override rpk configuration settings; -X help for detail or -X list for terser detail. |
| --ignore-profile | bool | Ignore rpk.yaml and redpanda.yaml; use default settings. |
| --profile | string | rpk profile to use. |
| -v, --verbose | bool | Enable verbose logging. |

## [](#suggested-reading)Suggested reading

-   [`rpk cluster self-test status`](https://docs.redpanda.com/streaming/current/reference/rpk/rpk-cluster/rpk-cluster-self-test-status/)