CPU parameters

See also: CPU parameters in Grid5000 | Tuning CPU parameters

CPU parameters in Grid'5000 : Hyperthreading, C-State, P-State and Turboboost

This page describes the CPU configuration of Grid'5000 systems and explains how to change the CPU parameters by using either sysfs (with root privileges) or kernel boot parameters.

This page focus on the following CPU parameters:

• Hyperthreading (HT): for each physical core, the operating system addresses two logical cores.
• C-States: Processors and cores idle states management.
• P-States: Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS).
• Turboboost: allows cores to run faster than their original frequency if they are operating below power and temperature specification limits.

• #Hyperthreading (HT)
• #C-States
• #P-States
• #Turboboost

Grid'5000 configuration

Note that the CPU configuration depends on both the BIOS configuration and the operating system.

Default BIOS configuration on Grid'5000:

• HT and Turboboost are enabled on every clusters installed since 2012. This corresponds to clusters with Intel CPU using Sandy Bridge, Haswell or later archi­tectures.
• P-States and C-States (including C1E) are enabled but managed by the operating system (see below).

Grid'5000 reference images:

• The min reference images is a standard Debian installation. Therefore (with Debian Jessie) the P-States governor is powersave for clusters using the intel_pstate module and ondemand for clusters using the acpi-cpufreq module.
• Starting with base, the Grid'5000 reference images are tuned for performance. In particular, the P-States governor is 'performance' and C-States are limited to C0, C1 and C1E (see changes). This applies to xen, nfs, big and std environments. See Tuning_CPU_parameters for more information.

The following table presents the status of the platform as of 09/2016.

Installation date	Site	Cluster	CPU model				Server type	HT enabled	Turboboost enabled	P-State driver	C-State driver
2007-01-01	lyon	sagittaire	Opteron	250		2.40GHz	Sun Fire V20z			none	none
2007-02-23	sophia	sol	Opteron	2218		2.60GHz	Sun Fire X2200 M2			none	none
2007-11-08	luxembourg	granduc	Xeon	L5335	Merom	2.00GHz	Dell PowerEdge 1950ES			none	none
2008-03-01	lille	chinqchint	Xeon	E5440	Penryn	2.83GHz	SGI Altix Xe 310			none	none
2008-10-01	grenoble	genepi	Xeon	E5420	Penryn	2.50GHz	Bull R422-E1			acpi-cpufreq	none
2009-03-01	nancy	griffon	Xeon	L5420	Penryn	2.50GHz	Carri System CS-5393B			acpi-cpufreq	none
2009-08-01	nancy	talc	Xeon	L5420	Penryn	2.50GHz	Carri System CS-5393B			acpi-cpufreq	none
2009-10-15	rennes	parapide	Xeon	X5570	Nehalem	2.93GHz	SUN FIRE X2270			acpi-cpufreq	intel_idle
2009-12-01	grenoble	edel	Xeon	E5520	Nehalem	2.27GHz	Bullx Blade B500			acpi-cpufreq	intel_idle
2009-12-01	sophia	suno	Xeon	E5520	Nehalem	2.27GHz	Dell R410			acpi-cpufreq	intel_idle
2010-03-19	grenoble	adonis	Xeon	E5520	Nehalem	2.27GHz	Bullx R422-E2			acpi-cpufreq	intel_idle
2010-10-06	rennes	parapluie	Opteron	6164HE		1.70GHz	HP Proliant DL165 G7			acpi-cpufreq	none
2011-01-01	lille	chirloute	Xeon	E5620	Westmere	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge C6100			none	intel_idle
2011-01-03	nancy	graphene	Xeon	X3440	Nehalem	2.53GHz	Carri System CS-5393B			acpi-cpufreq	intel_idle
2011-03-28	lille	chimint	Xeon	E5620	Westmere	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R410			none	intel_idle
2011-04-20	reims	stremi	Opteron	6164HE		1.70GHz	HP Proliant DL165 G7			acpi-cpufreq	none
2012-07-26	lyon	hercule	Xeon	E5-2620	Sandy Bridge	2.00GHz	Dell PowerEdge C6220			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2012-07-26	lyon	orion	Xeon	E5-2630	Sandy Bridge	2.30GHz	Dell PowerEdge R720			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2012-07-26	lyon	taurus	Xeon	E5-2630	Sandy Bridge	2.30GHz	Dell PowerEdge R720			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2012-11-29	nantes	econome	Xeon	E5-2660	Sandy Bridge	2.20GHz	Dell PowerEdge C6220			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2013-09-11	luxembourg	petitprince	Xeon	E5-2630L	Sandy Bridge	2.00GHz	Dell PowerEdge M620			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2013-12-01	nancy	graphite	Xeon	E5-2650	Sandy Bridge	2.00GHz	Dell PowerEdge R720			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2013-12-02	rennes	paranoia	Xeon	E5-2660	Sandy Bridge	2.20GHz	Dell PowerEdge C6220			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2014-08-01	nancy	graphique	Xeon	E5-2620 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R730			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2015-01-01	rennes	parasilo	Xeon	E5-2630 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R630			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2015-01-01	rennes	paravance	Xeon	E5-2630 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R630			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2016-01-01	nancy	graoully	Xeon	E5-2630 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R630			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2016-01-05	nancy	grimoire	Xeon	E5-2630 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R630			intel_pstate	intel_idle
2016-01-05	nancy	grisou	Xeon	E5-2630 v3	Haswell	2.40GHz	Dell PowerEdge R630			intel_pstate	intel_idle

Up-to-date information can be found by querying the Grid'5000 Reference-API:

fnancy:

curl -k https://api.grid5000.fr/stable/sites/nancy/clusters/graoully/nodes/graoully-1?pretty

See also Special:G5KHardware for more information about Grid'5000 hardware.

Checking the configuration

• The CPU configuration is checked automatically by g5k-checks and nodes are disabled if the configuration is wrong.
• You can also retrieve the CPU configuration of a node by running g5k-checks manually:

fnancy:

oarsub -I -l nodes=1,walltime=00:30 -t deploy

fnancy:

kadeploy3 -f $OAR_NODE_FILE -e jessie-x64-base -k

node:

g5k-checks -m api

node:

cat /tmp/*.yaml

• The Execo user guide also provides an example for checking the CPU performance settings of Grid5000 clusters.