Month: December 2014

HP Power settings to maximize perfomance

Leave a comment

Below are some BIOS settings we set on our ESXi hosts, but also on other HP DL series servers. Everything is used for maximum performance, we don’t look for powersaving features. Or processor C-states which scale up/down the frequencies, this mostly has a negative impact on hard working machines.

HP Power settings to maximize perfomance

Setting Value Description
Intel Turbo Boost Technology Enabled Allows processors to make a transition to a frequency that is higher than its rated speed
Thermal Configuration Optimal/Increased Cooling Use the one that provides the desired performance for the lowest power consumption
HP Power Profile Maximum Performance Disables all power management options that may negatively affect performance
HP Power Regulator HP Static High Performance Keeps processors in their maximum power/performance state
Intel QPI Link Power Management Disabled Precludes placing unutilized QPI links into low power state

Minimum Processor Idle Power Core State

No C-States

 Precludes processor transitions into low power core C-States
Minimum Processor Idle Power Package State No Package State

Precludes processor transitions into low power package C-States
Energy/Performance Bias

Maximum Performance

 Configures processor subsystems for high performance/low latency
Collaborative Power Control Disabled Precludes the OS from changing clock frequency
DIMM Voltage Preference Optimized for Performance Runs DIMMs at a higher voltage if it increases performance

Dynamic Power Capping Functionality

 Disabled This option allows for disabling System ROM Power Calibration during the boot process
Doing so accelerates boot times but precludes enabling of a Dynamic Power Cap

Memory Power Savings Mode

Maximum Performance

 This option configures several memory parameters to optimize the memory subsystems performance and is configured to Balanced by default

These are quite the main features to disable.

References:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-Tuning-Latency-Sensitive-Workloads.pdf

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01804533.pdf

 

 

Removing RDM’s through mirroring to VMDK

Leave a comment

While we are trying to reduce the use of RDM’s we also started to active migrate them to VMDK’s where possible. This helps us to keep the environment dynamic.

This is a short tutorial how we use the Windows Mirror feature to mirror the disk and then remove it.

First start with gathering the disk size about the disk you want to remove. Create a new VMDK  disk with the same size as the RDM disk. Go to Windows Disk management, initialize and create a dynamic disk.
*Note both disks should be dynamic

 

<<MMM somehow my text got removed will add it again>>

VMware : vim-cmd vmsvc list

2 comments

This is a list I gathered with the VIM commands used in a VMware environment

~ # vim-cmd vmsvc
Commands available under vmsvc/:
Command Function
acquiremksticket Acquire mks ticket.
acquireticket Acquire a virtual machine ticket.
connect Connects to product (solo|vpxa|vpxd) listening at hostname on
TCP port port using a private key and a certificate.
By default product is ‘solo’, hostname is ‘localhost’.
Port is 443.
private key is at /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.key
certificate is at /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt
vimVersion is vim.version.version8.
To disable SSL, use an empty key or certificate.
convert.toTemplate Convert the virtual machine to a template.
convert.toVm Convert the template to a virtual machine.
createdummyvm Create a pre-configured dummy vm
destroy Deletes the vmdk and vmx files from disk
device.connection Connect/Disconnect the virtual device specified
device.connusbdev Connect a USB device to this virtual machine.
device.disconnusbdev Remove a disk from this virtual machine
device.diskadd Add a disk to this virtual machine.
device.diskaddexisting Add an existing disk to this virtual machine.
device.diskremove Remove a disk from this virtual machine.
device.getdevices Retrieves and displays the virtual devices for the vm.
device.toolsSyncSet Set whether tools sync to host is enabled for the virtual machine
device.vmiadd Add the VMI ROM to the virtual machine
device.vmiremove Remove the VMI ROM from the virtual machine.
devices.createnic Add a NIC to this virtual machine.
disconnect Disconnects an already established connection
get.capability Get list of capabilities for virtual machine
get.config Retrieves and displays the configuration object for the vm
get.config.cpuidmask Retrieves and displays the cpu id masks for this virtual machine
get.configoption Get the configuration options for this virtual machine
get.datastores Show the list of datastores for this virtual machine
get.disabledmethods Show the list of disabled methods on the virtual machine
get.environment Retrieves the vm’s environment browser
get.filelayout Show the list of files for this virtual machine
get.filelayoutex Show the list of files for this virtual machine
get.guest Get guest information
get.guestheartbeatStatus Show the guest heartbeat status for this virtual machine
get.managedentitystatus Show the status for the virtual machine
get.networks Show the list of networks for this virtual machine
get.runtime Get runtime information
get.snapshotinfo Show the snapshot information for this virtual machine
get.spaceNeededForConsolidation Estimate the space needed to perform consolidation
get.summary Get summary information for a VM
get.tasklist Get list of recent tasks on virtual machine
getallvms Get a list of all VM’s
gethostconstraints Retrieves and displays the constraints object for the host
login Logs in to host, creating a new session.  If no password is specified, will use a local authentication mechanism.
logout Logs out from host, destroying existing session
message Replies to the current pending question on the vm
power.getstate Show power state of a VM
power.hibernate Cause guest to go into standby/hibernate and suspend
power.off Power off a VM
power.on Power on a VM
power.reboot Reboot a VM
power.reset Reset a VM
power.shutdown Shutdown a VM (shutdown guest)
power.suspend Suspend the specified virtual machine
power.suspendResume Suspend & resume the specified virtual machine
queryftcompat Query FT compatibility for a VM
reload Reload the virtual machine state from afresh
setscreenres Sets the Console window’s resolution
snapshot.create Creates a snapshot for the vm.
snapshot.dumpoption Set the snapshot dump option
snapshot.get Gets the snapshot info for the vm
snapshot.remove Remove a snapshot on the vm
snapshot.removeall Removes all the snapshots on the vm
snapshot.revert Revert to a snapshot on the vm.
snapshot.setoption Config snapshot behavior on the vm.
Options:
–locked=bool
Whether to lock the snapshot
–disabled=bool
whether to disable snapshot
–action=string
The snapshot power-off behavior
tools.cancelinstall Cancel the tools installation process
tools.install Start the tools installation process
tools.upgrade Upgrade VMware Tools in the virtual machine
unregister Unregister a VM from a host
upgrade Upgrade the virtual hardware of the VM if possible.