Optimizing energy efficiency on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Optimizing energy efficiency on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Testing methodology Measuring network throughput Measuring CPU utilization Computational efficiency Network-intensive process operating regimes Single process Multi-process Saturated Optimizing workloads for hardware locality NUMA-aware resource allocation for network-intensive processes Pinning interrupts and processes Hardware environment in the test Evaluating computer system power consumption External power meter System utility Platform management Normalizing performance against power consumption A note about power supplies Mitigation strategies Use lower-rated power supplies Enable hot standby mode Measure DC output directly Benefits of considering PSU efficiency Conclusion Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | Product Trial About the authors Adam Okuliar Otto Šabart More like this Blog post Blog post Original podcast Original podcast Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share The energy efficiency of data centers and high-performance systems is becoming increasingly important. Energy costs can make up a substantial portion of the operating expenditure (OPEX) budget, potentially serving as a critical factor in the success or failure of a business. This article breaks down the issue of energy efficiency in modern server platforms, presenting tools and an example methodology for measuring power consumption and performance. As a case study, we present measurement results from two server platforms with different CPU architectures. We will emphasize network performance (including throughput measurements), CPU utilization, and power consumption, with a particular emphasis on achieving the highest possible throughput per watt of energy consumed. Evaluating the relationship between a computer’s performance and its power requirements can be broken down into three key steps: Assess the computer’s performance Measure the computer’s power requirements Normalize performance relative to power consumption We measure system performance in terms of gigabits per second of achievable throughput per physical CPU core. It is important to note that with modern, high-speed (100 Gbps and above) Ethernet adapters, it's virtually impossible for a single user-space process to utilize all available bandwidth. Moreover, network throughput is only part of the performance story. Handling network traffic ideally consumes minimal resources, leaving the majority of the system available for creating or processing the data transmitted over the network. Ideally, the CPU is saturated with as few cores as possible. To quantify these requirements, we monitor the following metrics: Maximum achievable throughput in gigabits per second. Total CPU utilization, measured in cores.