CPU parameters

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CPU parameters in Grid'5000 : Hyperthreading, C-State, P-State and Turboboost

This page describes the CPU configuration of Grid'5000 systems and explains how to change the CPU parameters by using either sysfs (with root privileges) or kernel boot parameters.

This page focus on the following CPU parameters:

  • Hyperthreading (HT): for each physical core, the operating system addresses two logical cores.
  • C-States: Processors and cores idle states management.
  • P-States: Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS).
  • Turboboost: allows cores to run faster than their original frequency if they are operating below power and temperature specification limits.

Grid'5000 configuration

Note that the CPU configuration depends on both the BIOS configuration and the operating system.

Default BIOS configuration on Grid'5000:

  • HT and Turboboost are enabled on every clusters installed since 2012. This corresponds to clusters with Intel CPU using Sandy Bridge, Haswell or later archi­tectures.
  • P-States and C-States (including C1E) are enabled but managed by the operating system (see below).

Grid'5000 reference images:

  • The min reference images is a standard Debian installation. Therefore (with Debian Jessie) the P-States governor is powersave for clusters using the intel_pstate module and ondemand for clusters using the acpi-cpufreq module.
  • Starting with base, the Grid'5000 reference images are tuned for performance. In particular, the P-States governor is 'performance' and C-States are limited to C0, C1 and C1E (see changes). This applies to xen, nfs, big and std environments. See Tuning_CPU_parameters for more information.

The following table presents the status of the platform as of 09/2016.

Installation date Site Cluster CPU model Server type HT enabled Turboboost enabled P-State driver C-State driver
2007-01-01 lyon sagittaire Opteron 250 2.40GHz Sun Fire V20z Fail.png Fail.png none none
2007-02-23 sophia sol Opteron 2218 2.60GHz Sun Fire X2200 M2 Fail.png Fail.png none none
2007-11-08 luxembourg granduc Xeon L5335 Merom 2.00GHz Dell PowerEdge 1950ES Fail.png Fail.png none none
2008-03-01 lille chinqchint Xeon E5440 Penryn 2.83GHz SGI Altix Xe 310 Fail.png Fail.png none none
2008-10-01 grenoble genepi Xeon E5420 Penryn 2.50GHz Bull R422-E1 Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq none
2009-03-01 nancy griffon Xeon L5420 Penryn 2.50GHz Carri System CS-5393B Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq none
2009-08-01 nancy talc Xeon L5420 Penryn 2.50GHz Carri System CS-5393B Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq none
2009-10-15 rennes parapide Xeon X5570 Nehalem 2.93GHz SUN FIRE X2270 Fail.png Check.png acpi-cpufreq intel_idle
2009-12-01 grenoble edel Xeon E5520 Nehalem 2.27GHz Bullx Blade B500 Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq intel_idle
2009-12-01 sophia suno Xeon E5520 Nehalem 2.27GHz Dell R410 Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq intel_idle
2010-03-19 grenoble adonis Xeon E5520 Nehalem 2.27GHz Bullx R422-E2 Fail.png Check.png acpi-cpufreq intel_idle
2010-10-06 rennes parapluie Opteron 6164HE 1.70GHz HP Proliant DL165 G7 Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq none
2011-01-01 lille chirloute Xeon E5620 Westmere 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge C6100 Fail.png Fail.png none intel_idle
2011-01-03 nancy graphene Xeon X3440 Nehalem 2.53GHz Carri System CS-5393B Fail.png Check.png acpi-cpufreq intel_idle
2011-03-28 lille chimint Xeon E5620 Westmere 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R410 Fail.png Fail.png none intel_idle
2011-04-20 reims stremi Opteron 6164HE 1.70GHz HP Proliant DL165 G7 Fail.png Fail.png acpi-cpufreq none
2012-07-26 lyon hercule Xeon E5-2620 Sandy Bridge 2.00GHz Dell PowerEdge C6220 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2012-07-26 lyon orion Xeon E5-2630 Sandy Bridge 2.30GHz Dell PowerEdge R720 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2012-07-26 lyon taurus Xeon E5-2630 Sandy Bridge 2.30GHz Dell PowerEdge R720 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2012-11-29 nantes econome Xeon E5-2660 Sandy Bridge 2.20GHz Dell PowerEdge C6220 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2013-09-11 luxembourg petitprince Xeon E5-2630L Sandy Bridge 2.00GHz Dell PowerEdge M620 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2013-12-01 nancy graphite Xeon E5-2650 Sandy Bridge 2.00GHz Dell PowerEdge R720 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2013-12-02 rennes paranoia Xeon E5-2660 Sandy Bridge 2.20GHz Dell PowerEdge C6220 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2014-08-01 nancy graphique Xeon E5-2620 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R730 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2015-01-01 rennes parasilo Xeon E5-2630 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R630 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2015-01-01 rennes paravance Xeon E5-2630 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R630 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2016-01-01 nancy graoully Xeon E5-2630 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R630 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2016-01-05 nancy grimoire Xeon E5-2630 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R630 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle
2016-01-05 nancy grisou Xeon E5-2630 v3 Haswell 2.40GHz Dell PowerEdge R630 Check.png Check.png intel_pstate intel_idle


Up-to-date information can be found by querying the Grid'5000 Reference-API:

See also Special:G5KHardware for more information about Grid'5000 hardware.

Checking the configuration

  • The CPU configuration is checked automatically by g5k-checks and nodes are disabled if the configuration is wrong.
  • You can also retrieve the CPU configuration of a node by running g5k-checks manually:
Terminal.png fnancy:
oarsub -I -l nodes=1,walltime=00:30 -t deploy
Terminal.png fnancy:
kadeploy3 -f $OAR_NODE_FILE -e jessie-x64-base -k
Terminal.png node:
g5k-checks -m api
Terminal.png node:
cat /tmp/*.yaml
  • The Execo user guide also provides an example for checking the CPU performance settings of Grid5000 clusters.