diff --git a/HOWTO b/HOWTO
index 693eeb11b12a..854843df5ea9 100644
--- a/HOWTO
+++ b/HOWTO
@@ -1160,6 +1160,11 @@ create_only=bool	If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job.
 			that will be done. The actual job contents are not
 			executed.
 
+allow_file_create=bool	If true, fio is permitted to create files as part
+		of its workload. This is the default behavior. If this
+		option is false, then fio will error out if the files it
+		needs to use don't already exist.
+
 pre_read=bool	If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before
 		starting the given IO operation. This will also clear
 		the 'invalidate' flag, since it is pointless to pre-read
diff --git a/cconv.c b/cconv.c
index 4a40ed0d647b..913313b68d47 100644
--- a/cconv.c
+++ b/cconv.c
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ void convert_thread_options_to_cpu(struct thread_options *o,
 	string_to_cpu(&o->profile, top->profile);
 	string_to_cpu(&o->cgroup, top->cgroup);
 
+	o->allow_create = le32_to_cpu(top->allow_create);
 	o->td_ddir = le32_to_cpu(top->td_ddir);
 	o->rw_seq = le32_to_cpu(top->rw_seq);
 	o->kb_base = le32_to_cpu(top->kb_base);
@@ -278,6 +279,7 @@ void convert_thread_options_to_net(struct thread_options_pack *top,
 	string_to_net(top->profile, o->profile);
 	string_to_net(top->cgroup, o->cgroup);
 
+	top->allow_create = cpu_to_le32(o->allow_create);
 	top->td_ddir = cpu_to_le32(o->td_ddir);
 	top->rw_seq = cpu_to_le32(o->rw_seq);
 	top->kb_base = cpu_to_le32(o->kb_base);
diff --git a/filesetup.c b/filesetup.c
index 43146ba7671f..cca877634e95 100644
--- a/filesetup.c
+++ b/filesetup.c
@@ -65,7 +65,9 @@ static int extend_file(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f)
 		}
 	}
 
-	flags = O_WRONLY | O_CREAT;
+	flags = O_WRONLY;
+	if (td->o.allow_create)
+		flags |= O_CREAT;
 	if (new_layout)
 		flags |= O_TRUNC;
 
@@ -76,7 +78,13 @@ static int extend_file(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f)
 	dprint(FD_FILE, "open file %s, flags %x\n", f->file_name, flags);
 	f->fd = open(f->file_name, flags, 0644);
 	if (f->fd < 0) {
-		td_verror(td, errno, "open");
+		int err = errno;
+
+		if (err == ENOENT && !td->o.allow_create)
+			log_err("fio: file creation disallowed by "
+					"allow_file_create=0\n");
+		else
+			td_verror(td, err, "open");
 		return 1;
 	}
 
@@ -557,7 +565,7 @@ int generic_open_file(struct thread_data *td, struct fio_file *f)
 	}
 	if (td->o.sync_io)
 		flags |= O_SYNC;
-	if (td->o.create_on_open)
+	if (td->o.create_on_open && td->o.allow_create)
 		flags |= O_CREAT;
 skip_flags:
 	if (f->filetype != FIO_TYPE_FILE)
@@ -568,7 +576,7 @@ open_again:
 		if (!read_only)
 			flags |= O_RDWR;
 
-		if (f->filetype == FIO_TYPE_FILE)
+		if (f->filetype == FIO_TYPE_FILE && td->o.allow_create)
 			flags |= O_CREAT;
 
 		if (is_std)
diff --git a/fio.1 b/fio.1
index d64fbb7ab5e0..ef53bd6302a7 100644
--- a/fio.1
+++ b/fio.1
@@ -1029,6 +1029,11 @@ If true, fio will only run the setup phase of the job. If files need to be
 laid out or updated on disk, only that will be done. The actual job contents
 are not executed.
 .TP
+.BI allow_file_create \fR=\fPbool
+If true, fio is permitted to create files as part of its workload. This is
+the default behavior. If this option is false, then fio will error out if the
+files it needs to use don't already exist.
+.TP
 .BI pre_read \fR=\fPbool
 If this is given, files will be pre-read into memory before starting the given
 IO operation. This will also clear the \fR \fBinvalidate\fR flag, since it is
diff --git a/options.c b/options.c
index 918de8e8e34b..a7dd58adb418 100644
--- a/options.c
+++ b/options.c
@@ -2962,6 +2962,15 @@ struct fio_option fio_options[FIO_MAX_OPTS] = {
 		.def	= "0",
 	},
 	{
+		.name	= "allow_file_create",
+		.type	= FIO_OPT_BOOL,
+		.off1	= td_var_offset(allow_create),
+		.help	= "Permit fio to create files, if they don't exist",
+		.def	= "1",
+		.category = FIO_OPT_C_FILE,
+		.group	= FIO_OPT_G_FILENAME,
+	},
+	{
 		.name	= "pre_read",
 		.lname	= "Pre-read files",
 		.type	= FIO_OPT_BOOL,
diff --git a/server.h b/server.h
index 1b131b92f08a..5213e6ac9e08 100644
--- a/server.h
+++ b/server.h
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ struct fio_net_cmd_reply {
 };
 
 enum {
-	FIO_SERVER_VER			= 36,
+	FIO_SERVER_VER			= 37,
 
 	FIO_SERVER_MAX_FRAGMENT_PDU	= 1024,
 	FIO_SERVER_MAX_CMD_MB		= 2048,
diff --git a/thread_options.h b/thread_options.h
index a45d7b79b7ef..5cf697d2bb9c 100644
--- a/thread_options.h
+++ b/thread_options.h
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ struct thread_options {
 	char *opendir;
 	char *ioengine;
 	char *mmapfile;
+	unsigned int allow_create;
 	enum td_ddir td_ddir;
 	unsigned int rw_seq;
 	unsigned int kb_base;
@@ -271,6 +272,7 @@ struct thread_options_pack {
 	uint8_t opendir[FIO_TOP_STR_MAX];
 	uint8_t ioengine[FIO_TOP_STR_MAX];
 	uint8_t mmapfile[FIO_TOP_STR_MAX];
+	uint32_t allow_create;
 	uint32_t td_ddir;
 	uint32_t rw_seq;
 	uint32_t kb_base;