[ale] Server Power Reduction

[Scott Castaline]

On 07/08/2010 05:44 PM, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
>    What hardware/software features do I need to look for with respect to
> reducing the amount of electric power a Linux server requires (beyond
> n.-s.-Sherlocks like fewer cores/drives/DIMMs)?  I'm talking about
> things like clock speed control - perhaps even disk spin-down (unless I
> go SSDs).
>
> - Jeff
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Doesn't most current BIOS already have clock speed based upon demand 
already? Mine will automatically boost the speed when doing intense 
tasks and then drops down when in idle. I beleive there is also a 
setting for locking in at lower speeds as well as voltage levels. Also 
it allows tweaking voltage/speed for the DIMM if I remember correctly. 
Never fooled with it too much though. As far as spinning down the hard 
drives power manger (or something like that) should do the trick as well 
as turning off the screen when inactive for a time. I don't remember how 
to do it from CLI, I do remember that the spin down was a bit of a drag 
particularly if you have one of those "Green" drives like WD Caviar 
Green as they tend to be slow in spinup. I have 2 1TB Black Caviars and 
had 1 500GB Blue Caviar and the 1TB would be spun-up waiting for the 500 
to spin-up to boot. It's not a big deal in my situation just looked 
funny to me.