Users Guide

Optimizing system performance and power
consumption
The power required to cool a server can contribute a significant amount to the overall system power. Thermal control is the
active management of system cooling through fan speed and system power management to make sure that the system is
reliable while minimizing system power consumption, airflow, and system acoustic output. You can adjust the thermal control
settings and optimize against the system performance and performance-per-Watt requirements.
Using the iDRAC Web interface, RACADM, or the iDRAC Settings Utility, you can change the following thermal settings:
●
Optimize for performance
● Optimize for minimum power
● Set the maximum air exhaust temperature
● Increase airflow through a fan offset, if required
● Increase airflow through increasing minimum fan speed
Following are the list of features in thermal management:
● System Airflow Consumption: Displays the real-time system airflow consumption (in CFM), allowing airflow balancing at
rack and datacenter level.
● Custom Delta-T: Limit air temperature rise from inlet air to exhaust to right-size your infrastructure level cooling.
● Exhaust Temperature Control: Specify the temperature limit of the air exiting the server to match your datacenter needs.
● Custom PCIe inlet temperature: Choose the right input inlet temperature to match 3rd party device requirements.
● PCIe Airflow settings: Provides a comprehensive PCIe device cooling view of the server and allows cooling customization
of 3rd party cards.
Modifying thermal settings using iDRAC web interface
To modify the thermal settings:
1. In the iDRAC Web interface, go to Configuration > System Settings > Hardware Settings > Cooling Configuration.
2. Specify the following:
● Thermal Profile Optimization — Select the thermal profile:
○ Default Thermal Profile Settings (Minimum Power) — Implies that the thermal algorithm uses the same system
profile settings that is defined under System BIOS > System BIOS Settings > System Profile Settings page.
By default, this option is set to Default Thermal Profile Settings. You can also select a custom algorithm, which is
independent of the BIOS profile. The options available are:
○ Maximum Performance (Performance Optimized) :
￭ Reduced probability of memory or CPU throttling.
￭ Increased probability of turbo mode activation.
￭ Generally, higher fan speeds at idle and stress loads.
○ Minimum Power (Performance per Watt Optimized):
￭ Optimized for lowest system power consumption based on optimum fan power state.
￭ Generally, lower fan speeds at idle and stress loads.
○ Sound Cap — Sound Cap provides reduced acoustical output from a server at the expense of some performance.
Enabling Sound Cap may include temporary deployment or evaluation of a server in an occupied space, but it should
not be used during benchmarking or performance sensitive applications.
NOTE:
Selecting Maximum Performance or Minimum Power, overrides thermal settings associated to System
Profile setting under System BIOS > System BIOS Settings.System Profile Settings page.
● Maximum Exhaust Temperature Limit — From the drop-down menu, select the maximum exhaust air temperature.
The values are displayed based on the system.
The default value is Default, 70°C (158 °F).
This option allows the system fans speeds to change such that the exhaust temperature does not exceed the selected
exhaust temperature limit. This cannot always be guaranteed under all system operating conditions due to dependency on
system load and system cooling capability.
● Fan Speed Offset — Selecting this option allows additional cooling to the server. In case hardware is added (example,
new PCIe cards), it may require additional cooling. A fan speed offset causes fan speeds to increase (by the offset %
value) over baseline fan speeds calculated by the Thermal Control algorithm. Possible values are:
62
Setting up managed system