[gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Jarry]

Hi,

admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).

Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).

Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
welcomed...

Jarry

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This mailbox accepts e-mails only from selected mailing-lists!
Everything else is considered to be spam and therefore deleted.

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Michael Hampicke]

> Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
> all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
> cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
> I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
> off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
> 
> Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
> welcomed...

Does you cpu support a technique like speed stepping? Then try setting
the scaling governor to ondemand

% modprobe acpi_cpufreq
% echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

This may be working betten than using coufreqd?

Or maybe you could lower the cpu and ram voltage in bios? But this can
cause an unstable system.

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

Am Sonntag, 1. April 2012, 17:04:58 schrieb Jarry:
> Hi,
> 
> admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
> 
> Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
> all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
> cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
> I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
> off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
> 
> Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
> welcomed...
> 
> Jarry

don't use cpufreqd? Just use the ondemand cpu governor. Only run services you 
need. If there is graphics hardware make sure the driver knows about power 
saving. An amd card on a virtual terminal needs as much power as an amd card 
in X doing heavy 3d lifting ...


-- 
#163933

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 05:56:20PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> Am Sonntag, 1. April 2012, 17:04:58 schrieb Jarry:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).

> don't use cpufreqd? Just use the ondemand cpu governor. Only run
> services you need. If there is graphics hardware make sure the driver
> knows about power saving. An amd card on a virtual terminal needs
> as much power as an amd card in X doing heavy 3d lifting ...

  The following may seem obvious, but here goes...

* remove unnecessary video cards, and drivers.  Most colo machines
  should do OK with just a text console running on the onboard GPU.
  Dump all video driver stuff "/dev/agpgart (AGP Support)" and
  "Direct Rendering Manager".  This assumes you're not running X on
  your colo machines.  mc (Midnight Commander) is a great text-based
  tool, along the lines of ye olde Norton Commander.

* disable sound cards/chips in BIOS and remove drivers and kernel
  support.

* Run "rc-update show" and look for any services you don't need.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed... particulary on laptops

[Frank Steinmetzger]

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On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 01:22:50AM -0400, Walter Dnes wrote:

> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> > > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> > > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> > > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> > > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
> […]
> The following may seem obvious, but here goes...
> 
> * remove unnecessary video cards, and drivers.  Most colo machines
>   should do OK with just a text console running on the onboard GPU.
>   Dump all video driver stuff "/dev/agpgart (AGP Support)" and
>   "Direct Rendering Manager".  This assumes you're not running X on
>   your colo machines.  mc (Midnight Commander) is a great text-based
>   tool, along the lines of ye olde Norton Commander.
> 
> * disable sound cards/chips in BIOS and remove drivers and kernel
>   support.

As a follow-up question that’s been on my mind for a long time: can I always
assume that when there is no driver loaded, the device is really (physically)
off, so it doesn't use any power (at all)?  Or are there exceptions to that
rule (like hardware known to be buggy)?  My concern comes from having an
ageing laptop whose battery I want to preserve as well as I can.

In my case, that would be bluetooth, ethernet, possibly even the optical
drive, and even the touchpad. I can switch the latter off using Fn+F9, which
even works on the tty. But does that really switch it off, or does the kernel
merely ignore its input then?

In case it matters: it’s a Samsung P50 (professional line laptop from 2006).
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
Please do not use my email addresses within any Facebook service.

Dyslexics of the world untie!

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Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed... particulary on laptops

[Michael Mol]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Frank Steinmetzger <Warp_7@gmx.de> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 01:22:50AM -0400, Walter Dnes wrote:
>
>> > > Hi,
>> > >
>> > > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
>> > > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
>> > > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
>> > > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
>> > > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
>> […]
>> The following may seem obvious, but here goes...
>>
>> * remove unnecessary video cards, and drivers.  Most colo machines
>>   should do OK with just a text console running on the onboard GPU.
>>   Dump all video driver stuff "/dev/agpgart (AGP Support)" and
>>   "Direct Rendering Manager".  This assumes you're not running X on
>>   your colo machines.  mc (Midnight Commander) is a great text-based
>>   tool, along the lines of ye olde Norton Commander.
>>
>> * disable sound cards/chips in BIOS and remove drivers and kernel
>>   support.
>
> As a follow-up question that’s been on my mind for a long time: can I always
> assume that when there is no driver loaded, the device is really (physically)
> off, so it doesn't use any power (at all)?  Or are there exceptions to that
> rule (like hardware known to be buggy)?

The hardware will be energized, but won't typically consume as much
energy as it would were it under active use and load.

>  My concern comes from having an
> ageing laptop whose battery I want to preserve as well as I can.
>
> In my case, that would be bluetooth, ethernet, possibly even the optical
> drive, and even the touchpad. I can switch the latter off using Fn+F9, which
> even works on the tty. But does that really switch it off, or does the kernel
> merely ignore its input then?

For wireless devices, I believe the radio is switched off if you use
the hardware or software switches, but controlling hardware would
still be energized.

For ethernet, you probably want the driver installed, so you can
access any power-saving modes available to it. (Ditto most other
things)

Regarding touchpad...no idea.

Most of this is probably very case-by-case. Check the kernel configs.
Perhaps even measure power consumption changes after doing things like
disabling devices via sysfs.

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Robert David]

Hi,

maybe write your hw configuration first. Eg: CPUs, graphic cards, HDDs
(size, speed, type) and others. 

Also provide lspci output and /proc/cpuinfo.

Then this is a server, maybe with more than one GB nic. If you dont use
spare nics disable them in bios. Do the same with other unneeded stuff.

If you can access your server and replace cards, remove everything you
dont need. Do not lower fans or dont play with cpu voltage. If you want
to run this server 24/7 it can cause serious problems. It will not save
you much power. Paradoxly this could lead to higher power usage in
some cases, because of hotter devices.

Remove spare memory cards, if you dont need much memory, etc.

Robert.

V Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:04:58 +0200
Jarry <mr.jarry@gmail.com> napsáno:

> Hi,
> 
> admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
> 
> Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
> all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
> cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
> I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
> off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
> 
> Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
> welcomed...
> 
> Jarry
> 

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Apr 2, 2012 5:00 PM, "Robert David" <robert.david.public@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> maybe write your hw configuration first. Eg: CPUs, graphic cards, HDDs
> (size, speed, type) and others.
>
> Also provide lspci output and /proc/cpuinfo.
>
> Then this is a server, maybe with more than one GB nic. If you dont use
> spare nics disable them in bios. Do the same with other unneeded stuff.
>
> If you can access your server and replace cards, remove everything you
> dont need. Do not lower fans or dont play with cpu voltage. If you want
> to run this server 24/7 it can cause serious problems. It will not save
> you much power. Paradoxly this could lead to higher power usage in
> some cases, because of hotter devices.
>
> Remove spare memory cards, if you dont need much memory, etc.
>
> Robert.
>
> V Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:04:58 +0200
> Jarry <mr.jarry@gmail.com> napsáno:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
> >
> > Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
> > all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
> > cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
> > I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
> > off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
> >
> > Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
> > welcomed...
> >
> > Jarry
> >
>
>

I'd rather have *more* RAM than causing unnecessary swaps.

Try using a smaller swapfile to reduce swap tendencies. You can always push
a larger swapfile into service when needed.

There's also a kernel knob to set 'swappiness', but I forget what exactly.
Try 'sysctl -a | grep swap'

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Michael Mol]

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 7:57 AM, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>
> On Apr 2, 2012 5:00 PM, "Robert David" <robert.david.public@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> maybe write your hw configuration first. Eg: CPUs, graphic cards, HDDs
>> (size, speed, type) and others.
>>
>> Also provide lspci output and /proc/cpuinfo.
>>
>> Then this is a server, maybe with more than one GB nic. If you dont use
>> spare nics disable them in bios. Do the same with other unneeded stuff.
>>
>> If you can access your server and replace cards, remove everything you
>> dont need. Do not lower fans or dont play with cpu voltage. If you want
>> to run this server 24/7 it can cause serious problems. It will not save
>> you much power. Paradoxly this could lead to higher power usage in
>> some cases, because of hotter devices.
>>
>> Remove spare memory cards, if you dont need much memory, etc.
>>
>> Robert.
>>
>> V Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:04:58 +0200
>> Jarry <mr.jarry@gmail.com> napsáno:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
>> > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
>> > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
>> > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
>> > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
>> >
>> > Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
>> > all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
>> > cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
>> > I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
>> > off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
>> >
>> > Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
>> > welcomed...
>> >
>> > Jarry
>> >
>>
>>
>
> I'd rather have *more* RAM than causing unnecessary swaps.
>
> Try using a smaller swapfile to reduce swap tendencies. You can always push
> a larger swapfile into service when needed.
>
> There's also a kernel knob to set 'swappiness', but I forget what exactly.
> Try 'sysctl -a | grep swap'

Swappiness is the knob you want to set if you want to reduce
swappiness. I set mine to 0; swap only when absolutely necessary.

In /etc/sysctl.conf:
vm.swappiness = 0

On the command line:
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=0

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed...

[Simon]

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There's "powertop" that I use, which shows a listing of things that are
keeping the computer busy.  And it gives recommendations on how to lower
power usage (including setting kernel options, enabling/disabling stuff in
/sys, etc...).  It also estimates power consumption in Watts and gives you
approx time left.

Many recomendations already posted in this emails will be suggested by
powertop.

Simon

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 8:10 AM, Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 7:57 AM, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> >
> > On Apr 2, 2012 5:00 PM, "Robert David" <robert.david.public@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> maybe write your hw configuration first. Eg: CPUs, graphic cards, HDDs
> >> (size, speed, type) and others.
> >>
> >> Also provide lspci output and /proc/cpuinfo.
> >>
> >> Then this is a server, maybe with more than one GB nic. If you dont use
> >> spare nics disable them in bios. Do the same with other unneeded stuff.
> >>
> >> If you can access your server and replace cards, remove everything you
> >> dont need. Do not lower fans or dont play with cpu voltage. If you want
> >> to run this server 24/7 it can cause serious problems. It will not save
> >> you much power. Paradoxly this could lead to higher power usage in
> >> some cases, because of hotter devices.
> >>
> >> Remove spare memory cards, if you dont need much memory, etc.
> >>
> >> Robert.
> >>
> >> V Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:04:58 +0200
> >> Jarry <mr.jarry@gmail.com> napsáno:
> >>
> >> > Hi,
> >> >
> >> > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going
> >> > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per
> >> > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find
> >> > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to
> >> > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing).
> >> >
> >> > Before going hard(ware) way, I would like to try first
> >> > all possible software solutions. What I tried up to now is
> >> > cpufreqd, CONFIG_NO_HZ=y, and spindown. In addition to that
> >> > I adjusted fan-speeds to a little lower values and turned
> >> > off some unneeded peripherials (in bios).
> >> >
> >> > Is there anything else I could do? Any tips would be greatly
> >> > welcomed...
> >> >
> >> > Jarry
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> > I'd rather have *more* RAM than causing unnecessary swaps.
> >
> > Try using a smaller swapfile to reduce swap tendencies. You can always
> push
> > a larger swapfile into service when needed.
> >
> > There's also a kernel knob to set 'swappiness', but I forget what
> exactly.
> > Try 'sysctl -a | grep swap'
>
> Swappiness is the knob you want to set if you want to reduce
> swappiness. I set mine to 0; swap only when absolutely necessary.
>
> In /etc/sysctl.conf:
> vm.swappiness = 0
>
> On the command line:
> sysctl -w vm.swappiness=0
>
> --
> :wq
>
>

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