Energy Efficiency Bios Profile or Policy

Cisco UCS – Energy
Efficient BIOS Profile/Policy

M5 Generation Servers with Skylake Processors
CSPG UCS Product Management and Data Center Solutions Engineering
Released: November 2017
Jeffrey Metcalf – Technical Marketing Engineer
Introduction
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
Introduction
• Performance-per-watt efficiency improves approximately 20% each
tick (microarchitecture) and tock (manufacturing process) release
• Maximum server power consumption is steadily increasing, where
actual power consumption is based on (1) hardware configuration, (2)
BIOS settings, (3) OS power management settings and (4) workload
• Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) and UCS-Manager
(UCSM-M) policy based approach assist the data center administrator
in these critical management tasks using CLI, UI or XML API with
PowerShell, Python or Ruby SDK
Primary BIOS Settings
Impacting Power Consumption
Tokens Impacting Power Consumption (1 of 8)
• Turbo Mode: Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 accelerates
processor and graphics performance for peak loads, automatically
allowing processor cores to run faster than the rated operating
frequency
• Availability and frequency upside depends upon a number of factors
including: (1) type of workload, (2) number of active cores, (3)
estimated current consumption, (4) estimated power consumption
and (5) processor temperature
• Recommend disabling to minimize peak power consumption
• Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology: Allows the system to
dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency (referred to
as P-states), decreasing average power consumption and heat
production
• Processor power consumption is a function of capacitance,
frequency and voltage where: P = CV2f
• Recommend enabling to minimize power consumption during periods
that require fewer compute cycles, which balances performance and
power savings
• Processor P-state Coordination: There are three modes of P-state
resolution defined by ACPI: SW_ANY, SW_ALL and HW_ALL
• In SW_ANY mode, the OS Power Manager (OSPM) is responsible
for coordinating the P-state among logical processors with
dependencies (all Logical Processors in a package) and may initiate
the transition on any of those Logical Processors in the domain
• Recommend setting to SW_ANY to minimize power consumption
during periods that require fewer compute cycles, which balances
performance and power savings
• Power Performance Tuning: Intel processors support Energy
Efficiency Policy where the OS can provide hints to the Power Control
Unit (PCU). The PCU uses these hints to manipulate the internal
behavior of the processor and determine whether to target higher
performance or power savings.
• If set to BIOS, PCU will only honor the energy policy selected in BIOS
• Recommend setting to OS with an OSPM policy of power save to
minimize power consumption, where an OSPM policy allows in-band
policy changes – a reboot is NOT required to implement a policy
change, (e.g. a time-of-day policy)
• To minimize the idle power consumption of the processor, multiple
low power idle states (C-states) are implemented, where the highest
state results in the highest power savings
• The interface describing the low power states provided on the
processor and how they are used by the operating system is
described via the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface) specification
• The move to a multi-core architecture with significant logic shared
between cores has resulted in the need to manage idle power
consumption at the core and package (shared logic)
• Processor C6 Report and C1E: Core C-states controlled by the OS
directed configuration and OSPM as defined by the ACPI specification
• OS tells the threads in a core to go to a particular C-state (using
MWAIT(Cx) instruction), and cores (HW) do the thread-level
coordination to get each of the threads in the correct core Cx state and
then the boot strap processor (BSP) thread takes the core to the
correct Cx state
• Recommend to enable core C-states to minimize power consumption
during idle periods
• Package C State: A function of the individual C-states that the cores
enter, which impacts the state of the mesh, the LLC, the core's power
planes, the uncore PLL, and indirectly the state of the integrated
peripherals
• The deepest sleep state is C6 Retention, where the package operates
at a retention voltage, rather than Pn voltage
• Recommend setting to C6 Retention
• Additional BIOS settings can reduce server power consumption, e.g.
Active State Power Management (ASPM), Link Speeds, Prefetchers,
Execute Disable Bit, Corrected Machine Check Interrupt (CMCI), etc..
• However, these BIOS settings could adversely impact typical
enterprise workloads – therefore, BIOS settings impacting power
consumption are limited to those described earlier
OS Power Management Policy
Linux (RHEL) Operating System
• RHEL includes separate profiles for specific use cases, together with
the tuned-adm tool, that allows easy switching between
• server-powersave is a power-saving profile directed at server
systems: (1) enables ALPM power saving, (2) disables CD-ROM
polling and (3) activates the CPU and disk plugins of tuned
• cpufreq_powersave forces the CPU to use the lowest possible clock
frequency, that will be statically set. This particular governor offers
maximum power savings at the cost of the lowest CPU performance.
• RHEL Power Management Guide
VMware ESXi Hypervisor Operating System
• High performance – this power policy maximizes performance, using
no power management features
• Balanced policy (default in ESXi 6.0) is designed to reduce host power
consumption while having little or no impact on performance
• Low power policy is designed to more aggressively reduce host power
consumption at the risk of reduced performance
• Custom policy starts out the same as Balanced, but allows for the
modification of individual parameters
• Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere
Windows and Hyper-V Operating System
• Starting with Windows Server 2008, Windows Server provides three
power plans: Balanced, High Performance, and Power Saver
• Balanced power plan is the default choice that aims to give the best
energy efficiency for a set of typical server workloads
• Power Saver plan is provides maximize power savings; however,
server workload performance may be adversely impacted
• Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server
Configure BIOS – Standalone
Using CIMC CLI
STEP 1: Toggle Navigation and STEP 2: Select Processor Tab
Select Compute to Change BIOS Parameters
STEP 3: Check Reboot Immediately and Click

Save to Immediately Apply BIOS Changes © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
Using CIMC CLI
Step Command or Action Purpose
1 Server# scope bios Enters BIOS command mode
2 Server /bios# scope processor Enters processor settings command

mode
3 Server /bios/processor# show detail Display current processor settings
4 Server /bios/processor# set ? Display all processor object names
5 Server /bios/processor# set object_name ? Display selectable property values for

particular processor object
6 Server /bios/processor# set object_name Specify property value to assign
property_value particular processor object
7 Server /bios/processor *# commit Commit transaction(s)
Example Using CLI to Disable Turbo Boost
Display Object Name for Each

BIOS Token Name
Display Current Value, Display

Available Values and Change
Value from Enabled to Disabled
Using Python SDK for CIMC XML API (1 of 6)
1. Create an ImcHandle object and login to the IMC, at the prompt type
Request:
from imcsdk.imchandle import ImcHandle
handle = ImcHandle(”ip_address_or_hostname",”username",”password")
handle.login()
Response:
True
2. Query the server’s Turbo Boost bios token, determine how many objects where returned
Request:
bios_turbo_boost_mo = handle.query_classid("BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech")
len(bios_turbo_boost_mo)
Response:
2
3. Query returned two objects, print variable to display available property values for Turbo Boost
Request:
for i in range(2): print bios_turbo_boost_mo[i]
Response:
Managed Object : BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech
--------------
child_action :None
dn :sys/rack-unit-1/bios/bios-settings/Intel-Turbo-Boost-Tech
rn :Intel-Turbo-Boost-Tech
status :None
vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech :disabled
Managed Object : BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech Available Turbo Boost BIOS

-------------- Token Property Values Are
vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech :enabled
Disabled and Enabled
4. Query Turbo Boost DN and assign object to variable
Request:
bios_turbo_boost_token_mo = handle.query_dn(“sys/rack-unit-1/bios/bios-settings/Intel-
Turbo-Boost-Tech”)
print bios_turbo_boost_token_mo
Response:
--------------
child_action :None
status :None
vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech :disabled
5. Change value for vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech from disabled to enabled
Request:
bios_turbo_boost_token_mo.vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech = “enabled”
print bios_turbo_boost_token_mo
Response:
--------------
child_action :None
status :None
vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech :enabled
6. Commit change to IMC, and turn on XML dump feature to see XML request and response
Request:
handle.set_dump_xml()
handle.set_mo(bios_turbo_boost_token_mo)
Response:
{time_stamp},410 - imc - DEBUG - https://{ip_address}:443 ====> <configConfMo
cookie=”{cookie}" dn="sys/rack-unit-1/bios/bios-settings/Intel-Turbo-Boost-Tech"
inHierarchical="false"><inConfig><biosVfIntelTurboBoostTech dn="sys/rack-unit-1/bios/bios-
settings/Intel-Turbo-Boost-Tech" status="modified" vpIntelTurboBoostTech="enabled"
/></inConfig></configConfMo>
(time_stamp}- imc - DEBUG - https://{ip_address}:443 <==== <configConfMo dn="sys/rack-
unit-1/bios/bios-settings/Intel-Turbo-Boost-Tech" cookie=”{cookie}" response="yes">
<outConfig><biosVfIntelTurboBoostTech dn="sys/rack-unit-1/bios/bios-settings/Intel-Turbo-
Boost-Tech" vpIntelTurboBoostTech="enabled" status="modified"
></biosVfIntelTurboBoostTech></outConfig></configConfMo>
7. Immediate power cycle server to apply committed BIOS change
Request:
handle.unset_dump_xml()
from imcsdk.mometa.compute.ComputeRackUnit import ComputeRackUnitConsts
server_mo = handle.query_dn(“sys/rack-unit-1”)
mo_class = ComputeRackUnitConsts
server_mo.admin_power = mo_class.ADMIN_POWER_CYCLE_IMMEDIATE
handle.set_mo(server_mo)
Response:
Using BIOS Profile
Configuring a BIOS profile helps you to utilize pre-configured
token files with the right combination of the token values. Some of
the pre-configured profiles that are available are virtualization,
high-performance, low power, and so on. You can download a
pre-configured profile from the Cisco UCS community website
and apply it to the servers.
BIOS Profile Schema
BIOS Profile Schema
{
"name": "{name}"
"description": "{description}"
"tokens": {
"{key}": "{value}"
}
}
Vars:
name = (str) unique name assigned to bios profile
description = (str) unique description assigned to bios profile
key = (dictionary) bios token object name
value = (dictionary) property value assigned to bios token object
Sample Energy Efficient BIOS Profile
General purpose energy efficiency BIOS profile
{
"name": "EnergyEfficiency",
"description": "A general purpose energy efficient profile (EnergyEfficiency.json)",
"tokens": {
"IntelTurboBoostTech": "Disabled",
"EnhancedIntelSpeedStep": "Enabled",
"PsdCoordType": "SW ANY",
"PwrPerfTuning": "OS",
"ProcessorC6Report": "Enabled",
"PackageCstateLimit": "C6 Retention",
"ProcessorC1E": "Enabled"
}
}
NOTE: ONLY BIOS Token Values Included in Profile are Evaluated, All
Other Tokens Maintain Their Current Value © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
Using CIMC CLI (1 of 2)
STEP 1: Toggle Navigation and STEP 2: Select Configure BIOS
Select Compute Profile
Using CIMC CLI (2 of 2)
STEP 3: Select Upload from STEP 4: Select BIOS Profile
Remote Server or Browser Client and Activate
NOTE: After BIOS Profile Activation, User

Prompted to Reboot Host and Apply Changes © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Using CIMC CLI
1 Server# scope bios Enters BIOS command mode
2 Server /bios # scope bios-profile Enters BIOS profile command mode
3 Server /bios/bios-profile # install protocol server Upload BIOS profile, followed by

server_address path username and password prompt
4 Server /bios/bios-profile # show detail Display validation status
5 Server /bios/bios-profile # activate profile_name Activate BIOS profile, followed by

prompt to back up BIOS
configuration
6 Prompted to reboot system to apply changes to Applies changes and initiates
the BIOS setup parameters immediate host reboot if Enter [y]
1. Using module that provides APIs for BIOS related activities, upload BIOS profile
Request:
from imcsdk.apis.server import bios
bios.bios_profile_upload(handle, remote_server='ip_address', remote_file='path', \
protocol='scp', user='username', pwd='password')
Response:
imcsdk.mometa.upload.UploadBiosProfile.UploadBiosProfile object at 0x1069f3c50
2. Using module that provides APIs for BIOS related activities, activate BIOS profile
Request:
bios.bios_profile_activate = (handle, name='EnergyEfficiency', backup_on_activate=True, \
reboot_on_activate=True)
Response:
imcsdk.mometa.bios.BiosProfile.BiosProfile object at 0x1069f32d0
Configure BIOS – Integrated
Server BIOS Settings
• Cisco UCS provides two methods for making global modifications to
the BIOS settings on servers in an Cisco UCS domain
1) Create one or more BIOS policies that include a specific grouping of
BIOS settings that match the needs of a server or set of servers
2) Use the default BIOS settings for a specific server platform
• Cisco UCS abstracts hardware into more than 100 configuration

variables, that fully specify each server – stateless computing
• BIOS token support varies by processor, e.g. some settings, such as,
Turbo Boost are not support across all servers
• Recommend verifying BIOS settings are supported
Verify Supported BIOS Tokens UCSM UI
STEP 1: Using Navigation Pane Select Server
STEP 4: Verify BIOS

STEP 2: Using Work Token(s) Presence
Pane Select
Inventory Tab and
Motherboard Tab STEP 3: Expand BIOS
Menu to View BIOS Tokens
Passed by UCSM to CIMC
Verify Supported BIOS Tokens UCSM CLI
1a UCS-A# scope server chassis-id / server-id Enters chassis server mode for the
specified blade server
1b UCS-A# scope server server-num Enters server mode for the specified
rack-mount server
2 UCS-A /server # scope bios Enter server bios mode
3 UCS-A /server # scope bios-settings Enters server defaults BIOS settings

mode for the server
4 UCS-A /server # scope detail Display supported BIOS tokens
Create/Associate Profile UCSM UI (1 of 2)
STEP 1: Using Navigation Pane Select Server and BISO Polices
STEP 2: Select Add,

Enter BIOS Policy:
Name, Description
and Reboot Setting,
and Select OK
Create/Associate Profile UCSM UI (2 of 2)
STEP 3: Using Navigation Pane Select Service Profile
STEP 4: Select
Policies Tab and
Select Desired
BIOS Policy from
Available Polices
STEP 6: Select Save

Changes © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 39
Create/Associate Profile UCSM CLI (1 of 2)
1 UCS-A# scope org org-name Enters org mode for the specified
organization. To enter the default org
mode, type / as the org-name
2 UCS-A /org # scope create bios-policy name Creates a BIOS policy with the
specified policy name, and enters org
BIOS policy mode
3 UCS-A /org/bios-policy # set bios-feature-name Configure BIOS settings
bios-parameter-name bios-parameter-value
3a UCS-A /org/bios-policy # set description Set BIOS policy description
“Energy Efficient BIOS policy”
3b UCS-A /org/bios-policy* # set reboot-on-update yes—server is rebooted according to
yes the service profile maintenance
policy
Create/Associate Profile UCSM CLI (2 of 2)
3c UCS-A /org/bios-policy* # set processor-c- Enable processor core C-state, which

state-config c-state enabled allows server to enter power saving
mode during idle periods
3d Configure remaining BIOS tokens
4 UCS-A /org/bios-policy* # commit-buffer Commits the transaction to the

system configuration
5 UCS-A# scope org org-name Enters org mode
6 UCS-A /org # scope service-profile sp-name Enters service profile configuration

mode for the specified service profile
7 UCS-A /org/service-profile # set bios- Associates the specified BIOS policy
policy policy-name with the service profile
8 UCS-A /org/service-profile* # commit-buffer Commits the transaction
Create/Associate Profile UCSM Python SDK
1. Create an UcsHandle object and login to the UCSM, at the prompt type
Request:
from ucsmsdk.ucshandle import UcsHandle
handle = UcsHandle("ip_address_or_hostname",”username","password", secure=False)
handle.login()
Response:
True
2. Create BOIS policy
Request:
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVProfile import BiosVProfile
mo = BiosVProfile(parent_mo_or_dn='org-root', name='energyefficiency', descr='General
purpose BIOS profile for energy efficiency', reboot_on_update='yes')
handle.add_mo(mo)
handle.commit()
3. Define BIOS token values for BIOS policy
Request:
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfEnergyPerformanceTuning import \
BiosVfEnergyPerformanceTuning
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfEnhancedIntelSpeedStepTech import \
BiosVfEnhancedIntelSpeedStepTech
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech import BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfPSTATECoordination import BiosVfPSTATECoordination
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfPackageCStateLimit import BiosVfPackageCStateLimit
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfProcessorCState import BiosVfProcessorCState
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfProcessorC1E import BiosVfProcessorC1E
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfProcessorC6Report import BiosVfProcessorC6Report
from ucsmsdk.mometa.bios.BiosVfCPUPowerManagement import \
BiosVfCPUPowerManagement
3. Define BIOS token values for BIOS policy (continued)
mo_1 = BiosVProfile(parent_mo_or_dn='org-root', name='energyefficiency')

mo_2 = BiosVfEnergyPerformanceTuning(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_pwr_perf_tuning='os')
mo_3 = BiosVfEnhancedIntelSpeedStepTech(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_enhanced_intel_speed_step_tech='enabled')
mo_4 = BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_intel_turbo_boost_tech='disabled')
mo_5 = BiosVfPSTATECoordination(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_pstate_coordination='sw-any')
mo_6 = BiosVfPackageCStateLimit(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_package_c_state_limit='c6-retention')
mo_7 = BiosVfProcessorCState(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, vp_processor_c_state='enabled')
mo_8 = BiosVfProcessorC1E(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, vp_processor_c1_e='enabled')
3. Define BIOS token values for BIOS policy (continued)
mo_9 = BiosVfProcessorC6Report(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_processor_c6_report='enabled')
mo_10 = BiosVfCPUPowerManagement(parent_mo_or_dn=mo_1, \
vp_cpu_power_management='custom')
handle.add_mo(mo_1, True)
handle.commit()
Response:
4. Associate BIOS policy previously created
Request:
from ucsmsdk.mometa.ls.LsServer import LsServer
mo_11 = LsServer(parent_mo_or_dn="org-root", name=”service-profile", \
bios_profile_name="energyefficiency")
handle.add_mo(mo_11, True)
handle.commit()
Response:

Energy Efficiency Bios Profile or Policy

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Cisco UCS – Energy

Efficient BIOS Profile/Policy

STEP 3: Check Reboot Immediately and Click

1 Server# scope bios Enters BIOS command mode

2 Server /bios# scope processor Enters processor settings command

4 Server /bios/processor# set ? Display all processor object names

5 Server /bios/processor# set object_name ? Display selectable property values for

Display Object Name for Each

Display Current Value, Display

Managed Object : BiosVfIntelTurboBoostTech Available Turbo Boost BIOS

NOTE: After BIOS Profile Activation, User

1 Server# scope bios Enters BIOS command mode

2 Server /bios # scope bios-profile Enters BIOS profile command mode

3 Server /bios/bios-profile # install protocol server Upload BIOS profile, followed by

5 Server /bios/bios-profile # activate profile_name Activate BIOS profile, followed by

• Cisco UCS abstracts hardware into more than 100 configuration

STEP 4: Verify BIOS

3 UCS-A /server # scope bios-settings Enters server defaults BIOS settings

STEP 2: Select Add,

STEP 6: Select Save

3c UCS-A /org/bios-policy* # set processor-c- Enable processor core C-state, which

4 UCS-A /org/bios-policy* # commit-buffer Commits the transaction to the

6 UCS-A /org # scope service-profile sp-name Enters service profile configuration

2. Create BOIS policy

mo_1 = BiosVProfile(parent_mo_or_dn='org-root', name='energyefficiency')

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