Linux Server Power Saving Ideas

[filterxg]

I've had my server (750GB) for about 6 months, and for the most part I'm happy with it. Mostly it serves as a Myth backend, recording TV shows. However I also use it as a fax machine, print server, network drive, and a router (I use a gigabit switch).

Anyway the thing isn't the most power friendly, and with FPL raising rates 25% on 1 Jan, I'm making an effort to cut back. Right now my only real solutions are dropping the multiplier on the Sempron getting it around 1GHz (which should be plenty for my apps), and drop the 6600GT in favor of an old GF4 I have.

Just want to know if you have any other ideas...esp software side as I know hardware pretty well but am still very much a newbie in Linux. Is there a way to shut down some of the hard drives while they aren't in use?

 

[bersl2]

There is a subsystem of the kernel called cpufreq. It uses the interfaces available on all recent processors (Speedstep, PowerNow, etc.) to scale down frequency (and sometimes voltage) according to a policy, determined by a "governor". There are several in-kernel governors (one of these scales up and down clock speed to meet demand), and you can also defer this to a userspace daemon to control.

Using the utility hdparm, you can command hard drives on how aggressively to save power or how long to stay spun up.

See your distro's documentation, as there might be a better way to set these options than how I would tell you to.

 

[Nothinman]

You'll also want to look at the laptop-mode scripts, because even if you use hdparm to tell the drive to spindown it'll be spinning back up rather quickly because of filesystem activity without those scripts.

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: filterxg
I've had my server (750GB) for about 6 months, and for the most part I'm happy with it. Mostly it serves as a Myth backend, recording TV shows. However I also use it as a fax machine, print server, network drive, and a router (I use a gigabit switch).

Anyway the thing isn't the most power friendly, and with FPL raising rates 25% on 1 Jan, I'm making an effort to cut back. Right now my only real solutions are dropping the multiplier on the Sempron getting it around 1GHz (which should be plenty for my apps), and drop the 6600GT in favor of an old GF4 I have.

Just want to know if you have any other ideas...esp software side as I know hardware pretty well but am still very much a newbie in Linux. Is there a way to shut down some of the hard drives while they aren't in use?

This slashdot article may interest you:
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/16/1651231.shtml?tid=163

If you plan on selling that video card, please PM me. My sorry GF3 needs to be upgraded.

 

[drag]

One thing you could do is find a more efficient power supply. Most people buy power supplies way to powerfull for their needs. A typical P4 system with a modest video card, dvdrom, and big harddrive will draw maybe 150-200 watts at full use. If you use a 250 watt powersupply with it then you'd maybe (just pulling numbers out of the air) get 180-240 watts out of the wall, but if you use a 500+ watt powersupply you may be pulling 300 watts out of the wall due to the inefficiencies of larger componates or whatnot. Also there are some powersupplies that are simply more efficient then others. Some cheapos are freaking hogs.

For instance in this silent pc review website the seasonic powersupplies are very quiet and very efficient. Also they have wattages for different computers. The highest computer at full output was a 3.8ghz P4 unit with big vid card and multiple harddrives. It ate 264 watts out of the wall. And your underclocked sonoma is MUCH MUCH more efficient then a 3.8ghz p4.

The only thing I can think of is to get a more efficient power supply (which may or may not be cost effective). Underclock and undervolt your cpu. Reduce the amount of ram installed. Get a low-end vid card that is good quality. And maybe park the harddrives when not in use (maybe not worth the trouble).

Other then that when buying the next computer just keep in mind stuff like motherboard controlled fan speeds, efficient PSU's and efficient cpus (pentium-M for instance)

That's all I can think of.

A usefull gadget that I want to get is Kill-A-Watt. http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/kill_a_watt_electric_usage_monitor_review

You plug it into your wall to test power draws by various things.

For instance many VCRs are so poorly designed that they use more power "OFF", then when they are in operation.

 

[n0cmonkey]

VIA C3!

 

[SeTeS]

RE the Kill-A-Watt gadget. I bought one of these earlier this year. Pretty interesting gadget. Just plug it inline w/ an electrical device and it just starts a timer and kw counter. Let it run for a while, do some math w/ it and your electric bill and you end up w/ a rough monthly cost for running that device.

I was shocked to find out that our hot water dispenser used more than double the juice of our 7cu ft floor freezer.

Or should I say, "former" hot water dispenser. That fkr was costing an estimated $10/mo to run!

 

[EatSpam]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
VIA C3!

I have 2 of these... great little motherboards/CPU combos.