Tips and Tweaks Plugin to possibly improve performance of Unraid and VMs

[Daniel15]

3 minutes ago, dlandon said:

It looks like this applies to the intel_pstate governor only. 

That's right. The plugin could check for the existence of energy_performance_available_preferences (and the values it contains) to determine if it's supported.

 

3 minutes ago, dlandon said:

There are more than two states available on my inel cpu:

I've got the other ones too. In my case at least, I've found "performance" focuses too much on performance (CPUs turbo a lot even when not needed - maybe good for gaming PCs where power saving isn't as important), and "power" focuses too much on power savings. "balance_performance" and "balance_power" are pretty well balanced.

Interesting that performance is the default for you... it was balance_performance for me. It might depend on BIOS settings maybe? I have some of the higher performance options disabled in the BIOS.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Daniel15

[dlandon]

I am interested in anything that can save power for Unraid users, especially users in Europe.  I'll have to study this a bit to determine feasability and the best way to implement a feature like this.

[Masterwishx]

i know its not belong to this plugin , but is 

vm.overcommit_memory=1 

is a good idea to use in Unraid as it has warning for Redis and other containers ?

by default is vm.overcommit_memory=0

[BVD]

51 minutes ago, Masterwishx said:

i know its not belong to this plugin , but is 

vm.overcommit_memory=1 

is a good idea to use in Unraid as it has warning for Redis and other containers ?

by default is vm.overcommit_memory=0

 

Not as a default, not in my opinion anyway, as setting this to a value of 1 can be dangerous.

 

The setting itself determines how the OS responds to memory allocation requests from applications, with the options being (take some of this with a grain of salt, been a while):

0 - default, responds to allocation requests via an algorithm to determine how much memory can be allocated based on currently reserved, free, and committed memory. Typically safe.

1 - always  accept any memory allocation request, regardless of (anything)

2 - never overcommit memory (never reserve more memory than actually exists, e.g. fail the allocation request if not enough exists)

 

In a system like unraid where we've no swap by default, setting to 1 could be problematic for some, especially lower memory systems, and should (I feel at least) have *some* kind of consideration from the user prior to making such a change (meaning 'make the user have to set this themselves, so at least they've the chance to consider the implications' lol). There are numerous use cases where it's beneficial to set vm.overcommit_memory=1, just have to be aware of the consequences... Which are potentially crashing your server if unraid attempts to allocate memory for itself (mover running, parity check, file access, etc) when there's not enough available.

 

If you plan to set vm.overcommit_memory to 1, it's important to be more cognizant of system memory utilization, being sure to monitor memory usage more closely than otherwise. I'd also consider setting up the swapfile ('fake it till you make it' ram) if you've any concerns over whether or not you've enough memory to handle all you're running on your server.

[MAM59]

I was wondering if it would be possible to turn the cpu booster feature

On and off per cron/scheduler?

My tests showed a dramatic decrease in CPU Temp and power consumption if turned off. But of course, sometimes you need faster responses so it might be manageble per time like the Gouvernor feature below does.

Could this be added to the plugin?

 

[dlandon]

5 hours ago, MAM59 said:

I was wondering if it would be possible to turn the cpu booster feature

On and off per cron/scheduler?

My tests showed a dramatic decrease in CPU Temp and power consumption if turned off. But of course, sometimes you need faster responses so it might be manageble per time like the Gouvernor feature below does.

Could this be added to the plugin?

 

I have to decide if it makes sense to turn off the boost with the power save cron, or be on it's own cron.  I'm kind of leaning towards its own cron.

[MAM59]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:36 PM, dlandon said:

I'm kind of leaning towards its own cron.

Tnx, already activated it right now 🙂

I think the seperate cron is the correct way to do it because it adds more flexibility.

 

[MAM59]

Hmm... something is wrong, or "mam is too stupid?":

Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Executing /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/ca.turbo/scripts/turboSchedule.php enable 999999
Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Warning: Overlapping schedules of CA Auto Turbo Mode Detected

Configured is 23:00 OFF and  06;00 On

So, why does it act on 00:00 ?

And yeah, its overlapping midnight, but what is wrong with this?

 

I set it to 00:00 - 08:00 now and see what happens...

Edited December 7, 2023 by MAM59

[dlandon]

5 hours ago, MAM59 said:

Hmm... something is wrong, or "mam is too stupid?":

Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Executing /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/ca.turbo/scripts/turboSchedule.php enable 999999
Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Warning: Overlapping schedules of CA Auto Turbo Mode Detected

Configured is 23:00 OFF and  06;00 On

So, why does it act on 00:00 ?

And yeah, its overlapping midnight, but what is wrong with this?

 

I set it to 00:00 - 08:00 now and see what happens...

There is something in the new cron tasks that triggers CA Turbo into thinking the schedule for T&T is the CA Turbo schedule and of course it could be seen as an overlapping schedule.

 

I'll have a fix once I know what I need to change.

[dlandon]

On 12/7/2023 at 12:34 AM, MAM59 said:

Hmm... something is wrong, or "mam is too stupid?":

Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Executing /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/ca.turbo/scripts/turboSchedule.php enable 999999
Dec  7 00:00:01 F root: Warning: Overlapping schedules of CA Auto Turbo Mode Detected

Configured is 23:00 OFF and  06;00 On

So, why does it act on 00:00 ?

And yeah, its overlapping midnight, but what is wrong with this?

 

I set it to 00:00 - 08:00 now and see what happens...

I think your issue is that you've set a time value for turbo mode to be on for 999999 minutes which is way over a day (1440 minutes).

[MAM59]

8 hours ago, dlandon said:

I think your issue is that you've set a time value for turbo mode to be on for 999999 minutes which is way over a day (1440 minutes).

I never used 999999 anywhere (btw: WHERE? you can only set start and end time and feature on or off).

They come somewhere deep outside your plugin. A miscalculation?

 

Since I've used 00:00 to 08:00 there are no message in syslog about this anymore (no message from the plugin at all?)

My educated guess would be that you just subtract the times and do not count in the time wrap.

23:00 - 07:00 should give 420mins.

 

[dlandon]

3 hours ago, MAM59 said:

I never used 999999 anywhere (btw: WHERE? you can only set start and end time and feature on or off).

They come somewhere deep outside your plugin. A miscalculation?

 

Since I've used 00:00 to 08:00 there are no message in syslog about this anymore (no message from the plugin at all?)

My educated guess would be that you just subtract the times and do not count in the time wrap.

23:00 - 07:00 should give 420mins.

 

The log messages are from CA Turbo, not T&T.  Check your schedule for CA Turbo.

[MAM59]

14 minutes ago, dlandon said:

The log messages are from CA Turbo, not T&T.  Check your schedule for CA Turbo.

Sorry, but I have nothing like "CA Turbo" installed here. At least I dont know of any and installed Apps dont show it too.

So, where should I check???

 

Or, could it be "CA Auto Write Turbo" ?

Anyway, I deleted this one now, sorry that I have mixed up CPU Turbo with Write Turbo..

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by MAM59

[dlandon]

5 minutes ago, MAM59 said:

Or, could it be "CA Auto Write Turbo"

Yes, and you'll find it on the Settings tab towards the bottom called "TurboWrite".

[MAM59]

8 minutes ago, MAM59 said:

r, could it be "CA Auto Write Turbo" ?

Anyway, I deleted this one now, sorry that I have mixed up CPU Turbo with Write Turbo..

 

fixed

[dopeytree]

Turned boost off today and then server hang up... never had this before but I haven't tried it since the plugin was updated to have a turbo schedule.

 

am on 6.12.6

 

Will upload diagnostics if it saved them.

[dopeytree]

On reboot the server becomes unresponsive after a few seconds. 

I can boot unraid and log in on web guy.

But as soon as it starts loading the array & docker it seems to lockup.

This could be more of a 6.12.6 issue

[dlandon]

Uninstall Tips and Tweaks and reboot to be sure it is not causing any issues.

[dopeytree]

After a reboot I quickly logged in & turned turbo back on and back to normal. 

 

There is something wrong in 6.12.6 though as server never powers down it unmounts everything but then stays at the diagnostics collection bit on screen. So you have to do a manual hold of the power button. No parity check though as it does safely unmount drives etc.

 

May downgrade to 6.12.4

 

Anyway thanks for super fast reply.

Edited December 14, 2023 by dopeytree

[Jannik_]

Thank you for the tool. It helped me to understand unraid better due to the large help section (one thing that makes it hard for me to get into unraid sometimes when there is no good explanation available).

 

I have one issue with the plugin and I dont understand why it does not do what I want it to do:

- I did set different NIC settings, saved and rebooted

-> Current settings wont change on the NIC section. In the disk section changes work

 

[dlandon]

8 hours ago, Jannik_ said:

Thank you for the tool. It helped me to understand unraid better due to the large help section (one thing that makes it hard for me to get into unraid sometimes when there is no good explanation available).

 

I have one issue with the plugin and I dont understand why it does not do what I want it to do:

- I did set different NIC settings, saved and rebooted

-> Current settings wont change on the NIC section. In the disk section changes work

 

Post diagnostics.  I suspect your NIC doesn't allow any changes.

[Jannik_]

I have two NICs:

- One Realtek onboard

- One Trendnet USB-C Adapter w/ Marvell/Aquantia NIC

 

I think its the Realtek. Had the same issure when I just used the Realtek.

Would changing the order help here perhaps?

tower-diagnostics-20231219-1659.zip

Edited December 19, 2023 by Jannik_

[dopeytree]

Having some issues getting boost scheduling to work. It may just need a re-boot after changing boost to schedule? Currently boost is ON and it should have swapped to Off due to the time being before 18:00. 

 

Also we should match the settings for the 2x scheduled items.

Boost & CPU mode.

 

Easiest is add the word schedule to the title so 'enable / schedule Intel Turbo/AMD Performance Boost?'

 

But maybe 'Intel Turbo/AMD Performance Boost MODE' is better contextually?

 

Or add another line 'Schedule Boost' = On / Off

 

See screenshot below.

 

Edited January 8 by dopeytree

[dlandon]

I'll take a look at it.  I guess you want to be able to set the current mode and also be able to have it scheduled?

[Rhuarc]

Any chance of getting fs.inotify.max_user_instances added to this plugin?  I had to increase that because of a Plex issue, but not sure if it is going to persist after reboot.  Would love to be able to set that and the existing one (max_user_watches) both.

 

Thank you!