Setting custom rc.conf values

[Tsaukpaetra]

I noticed while attempting to configure powerd that there is no obvious way to set any rc.conf values at all in the GUI. This, coupled with the /etc/rc.d/powerd script ignoring powerd_flags anyways led me to wonder how much needed to be done for this simple thing.
(I only needed to specify "-n adaptive" for powerd flags, since powerd can't determine the ac-line state)

I think that since freenas uses a database for almost all configuration, maybe we could have a small section in the settings panel for this? I envision it would be somewhat identical to the sysctl and tunables pages.

If others think this may be worth it, I'll post this as a feature request on the tracker...

 

[cyberjock]

Editing files isn't supported, condoned, or even recommended here for various reasons.

9.2.2 will actively prevent you from editing the files.

Before you go much further read my thread on powerd. If your equipment is old enough to benefit significantly from powerd it probably is already so inefficient that buying newer equipment is probably more economical. I've tested powerd on 3 systems. One saved a whole 9w(out of 110w idle.. old hardware.. yep). The two newer systems, one from last year and one from this year saved 2w and 1w. This was validating that every machine clocked down from full frequency to <400Mhz.

So don't be fooled. From my perspective you're about to do something that is a very bad idea for no significant gain.

 

[Tsaukpaetra]

Maybe. I dunno. After testing I suppose you're right. Without throttling the PC is idling at ~75 watts, while throttling to 200 MHz it only goes down to 65 watts.
It's 13% power savings, but since I can't get powerd to automatically throttle that low on idle, it won't ever happen normally anyways.

 

[DrKK]

I got better results setting by setting the processor C2 state to be available. powerd was a mere blip in the total savings.

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# sysctl -a | grep cx_
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: C2
dev.cpu.0.cx_supported: C1/1/1 C2/2/108
dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest: C2
dev.cpu.0.cx_usage: 21.80% 78.19% last 138us
dev.cpu.1.cx_supported: C1/1/1 C2/2/108
dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest: C2
dev.cpu.1.cx_usage: 10.18% 89.81% last 0us

If you set the hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest sysctl to allow C2 (it'll come out of the box at C1), you'll have savings. ASSUMING of course of you have the right kind of CPU.

 

[cyberjock]

Just for comparison, I went from that old crappy hardware to an E3-1230v2 and dropped idle wattage from 110w to something like 34w. So if power savings is *really* what oyu are looking for.. go with newer stuff.

 

[Tsaukpaetra]

go with newer stuff.

I tried to go as new as reasonably possible for my budget. ;)
Indeed, with my new hardware I jumped down from 130 w idle to 75 w, so I got excited at the possibilities.

Seeing as the server is literally doing nothing for a majority of the day...

 

[Tsaukpaetra]

I got better results setting by setting the processor C2 state to be available. powerd was a mere blip in the total savings.

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# sysctl -a | grep cx_
If you set the hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest sysctl to allow C2 (it'll come out of the box at C1), you'll have savings. ASSUMING of course of you have the right kind of CPU.

[/quote]

Seems my processor supports down to C3 even, though C2 got it down to 65 watts as well, so that's cool.
I think that's the lowest I'll ever see due to the hard drives.