Chapter 4. Use Cases
4.1. Example — Server
A webserver needs network and disk I/O. Depending on the external connection speed 100 Mbit/s might be enough. If the machine serves mostly static pages, CPU performance might not be very important. Power-management choices might therefore include:
- no disk or network plugins for tuned.
- ALPM turned on.
ondemandgovernor turned on.- network card limited to 100 Mbit/s.
A compute server mainly needs CPU. Power management choices might include:
- depending on the jobs and where data storage happens, disk or network plugins for tuned; or for batch-mode systems, fully active tuned.
- depending on utilization, perhaps the
performancegovernor.
A mailserver needs mostly disk I/O and CPU. Power management choices might include:
ondemandgovernor turned on, because the last few percent of CPU performance are not important.- no disk or network plugins for tuned.
- network speed should not be limited, because mail is often internal and can therefore benefit from a 1 Gbit/s or 10 Gbit/s link.
Fileserver requirements are similar to those of a mailserver, but depending on the protocol used, might require more CPU performance. Typically, Samba-based servers require more CPU than NFS, and NFS typically requires more than iSCSI. Even so, you should be able to use the ondemand governor.
A directory server typically has lower requirements for disk I/O, especially if equipped with enough RAM. Network latency is important although network I/O less so. You might consider latency network tuning with a lower link speed, but you should test this carefully for your particular network.
