In order to meet the diverse needs of users under different workloads, this document introduces configuration guidance for setting BIOS parameters based on the services running on the server, and describes applicable scenarios and configuration instructions for related workload modes.

Introduction

The Basic Input and Output System (BIOS) is a non-volatile firmware stored in the system ROM of a server. It is used to perform hardware initialization during server booting and provide runtime services for the operating systems. As shown in Figure 1, the BIOS interacts between the server hardware and the operating system (OS).

The main functions of BIOS include:

· Performing POST self-test.

· Detecting input and output devices and bootable devices, including memory initialization, hardware scanning, finding boot devices, and starting the system.

· Providing advanced power management ACPI.

· Configuring RAID.

Figure 1 Layered architecture of a server system

Applicable products

This document is applicable to the following products:

· H3C UniServer R3950 G6

· H3C UniServer R4950 G6

· H3C UniServer R5350 G6

· H3C UniServer R5500 G6 AMD

Applicable versions

The BIOS version applicable to this article is BIOS-6.30.XX.

Using this document

The information in this document is subject to change over time.

The information in this document might differ from your product if it contains custom configuration options or features.

BIOS Recommended Configuration

Introduction

Configuration template is a collection of configuration options that deploys BIOS settings to suit the expected application of the server. BIOS provides multiple sets of configuration templates to help users deploy the most suitable BIOS settings according to different scenarios. The configuration parameters in the templates are suggested values for various application scenarios.

Recommended BIOS parameter configurations for various workload modes

The recommended BIOS parameter configurations for various workload patterns are shown in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4, illustrating the dependencies associated with scenario configuration templates. X indicates no requirement for that option in the configuration template and defaults to the default value of the current model. The meaning of X might vary among different models. When applying a configuration template, X values in the template will be restored to the default values of the current model.

IMPORTANT:

· Not all options corresponding to the table are displayed in BIOS, but when using the configuration template, the corresponding option settings will default to the values shown in the table.

· Selecting a configuration template other than Custom will gray out the relevant options in the template, making them unmodifiable. Modifying associated options using the out-of-band Redfish and in-band SCE tools will also not take effect.

For applicable scenarios and configuration explanations of various workload mdoes, see Introduction to workload mode.

Table 1 General-Purpose Workloads and configuration template dependencies

Dependencies	CPU intensive	Java throughput intensive	Java latency sensitive	Power efficiency
SMT Control	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stride Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Region Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Burst Prefetch Mode	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Up/Down Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
BoostFmaxEn	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Power Profile Selection	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	Efficiency Mode
Determinism Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Determinism Enable	X	X	X	X
TDP Control	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
TDP	OPN Max	OPN Max	OPN Max	OPN Max
PPT Control	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
PPT	OPN Max	OPN Max	OPN Max	OPN Max
CPPC	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
ACPI SRAT L3 Cache As NUMA Domain	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Enable
NUMA Nodes per Socket	NPS1	NPS4	NPS2	NPS4
Memory Target Speed	DDR4800	DDR4800	DDR4800	DDR4800
Memory Interleaving	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
3-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
4-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
xGMI Link Width Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
xGMI Max Link Width	X	X	X	X
xGMI Max Link Width Control	X	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width Control	X	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width	X	X	X	X
APBDIS	0	0	0	1
DF Cstates	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
Local APIC Mode	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
PCIE Speed PMM Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
SRIOV	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
PCIe Ten Bit Tag Support	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
IOMMU	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
TSME	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Note: The OPN Max values of TDP and PPT options are related to the CPU model. For more information about the OPN Max value, see Table 5.

Table 2 Memory and I/O Intensive Workloads and configuration template dependencies

Dependencies	Memory throughput intensive	Storage I/O intensive	NIC throughput intensive	NIC latency sensitive
SMT Control	Enabled	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled
L1 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stride Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Region Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Burst Prefetch Mode	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Up/Down Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
BoostFmaxEn	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Power Profile Selection	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode
Determinism Control	Auto	Manual	Manual	Manual
Determinism Enable	X	Power	Performance	Performance
TDP Control	Manual	Auto	Auto	Auto
TDP	OPN Max	X	X	X
PPT Control	Manual	Auto	Auto	Auto
PPT	OPN Max	X	X	X
CPPC	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
ACPI SRAT L3 Cache As NUMA Domain	Enabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
NUMA Nodes per Socket	NPS1	NPS1	NPS1	NPS1
Memory Target Speed	DDR4800	DDR4800	DDR4800	DDR4800
Memory Interleaving	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
3-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
4-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
xGMI Link Width Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Manual
xGMI Max Link Width	X	X	X	2
xGMI Max Link Width Control	X	X	X	Manual
xGMI Force Link Width Control	X	X	X	Unforce
xGMI Force Link Width	X	X	X	X
APBDIS	0	1	0	0
DF Cstates	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
Local APIC Mode	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
PCIE Speed PMM Control	Auto	Static Target Link Speed (GEN5)	Static Target Link Speed (GEN5)	Static Target Link Speed (GEN5)
SRIOV	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
PCIe Ten Bit Tag Support	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
IOMMU	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
TSME	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Note: The OPN Max values of TDP and PPT options are related to the CPU model. For more information about the OPN Max value, see Table 5.

Table 3 Database and Analytics and configuration template dependencies

Dependencies	RDBMS optimized	Big data analytics optimized	AI optimized	IOT gateway
SMT Control	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
L1 Stride Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
L1 Region Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
L1 Burst Prefetch Mode	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
L2 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
L2 Up/Down Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
BoostFmaxEn	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Power Profile Selection	Maximum IO Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode
Determinism Control	Manual	Auto	Manual	Auto
Determinism Enable	Power	X	Performance	X
TDP Control	Manual	Auto	Auto	Auto
TDP	OPN Max	X	X	X
PPT Control	Manual	Auto	Auto	Auto
PPT	OPN Max	X	X	X
CPPC	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
ACPI SRAT L3 Cache As NUMA Domain	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Disabled
NUMA Nodes per Socket	NPS1	NPS1	Auto	NPS1
Memory Target Speed	DDR4800	DDR4800	Auto	DDR4800
Memory Interleaving	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
3-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	Auto	32Gbps
4-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	Auto	32Gbps
xGMI Link Width Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
xGMI Max Link Width	X	X	X	X
xGMI Max Link Width Control	X	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width Control	X	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width	X	X	X	X
APBDIS	1	0	Auto	0
DF Cstates	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
Local APIC Mode	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
PCIE Speed PMM Control	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
SRIOV	Disabled	Disabled	Auto	Disabled
PCIe Ten Bit Tag Support	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
IOMMU	Enabled	Enabled	Auto	Enabled
TSME	Auto	Auto	Auto	Auto
Global C-state Control	N/A	N/A	Disabled	N/A
Note: The OPN Max values of TDP and PPT options are related to the CPU model. For more information about the OPN Max value, see Table 5.

Table 4 HPC and Telco settings

Dependencies	HPC optimized	OpenStack NFV	OpenStack for realtime Kernel
SMT Control	Disabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Stride Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Region Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L1 Burst Prefetch Mode	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Stream HW Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
L2 Up/Down Prefetcher	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
BoostFmaxEn	Auto	Auto	Auto
Power Profile Selection	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode	High Performance Mode
Determinism Control	Manual	Manual	Manual
Determinism Enable	Performance	Performance	Performance
TDP Control	Manual	Auto	Auto
TDP	OPN Max	X	X
PPT Control	Manual	Auto	Auto
PPT	OPN Max	X	X
CPPC	Auto	Auto	Auto
ACPI SRAT L3 Cache As NUMA Domain	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
NUMA Nodes per Socket	NPS4	NPS1	NPS1
Memory Target Speed	DDR4800	DDR4800	DDR4800
Memory Interleaving	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
3-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
4-link xGMI max speed	32Gbps	32Gbps	32Gbps
xGMI Link Width Control	Auto	Auto	Auto
xGMI Max Link Width	X	X	X
xGMI Max Link Width Control	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width Control	X	X	X
xGMI Force Link Width	X	X	X
APBDIS	0	0	0
DF Cstates	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
Local APIC Mode	Auto	Auto	Auto
PCIE Speed PMM Control	Auto	Auto	Auto
SRIOV	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled
PCIe Ten Bit Tag Support	Enabled	Enabled	Enabled
IOMMU	Enable	Enabled	Enabled
TSME	Auto	Auto	Auto
Note: The OPN Max value of TDP and PPT options is related to the CPU model. For more information about the OPN Max value, see Table 5.

Table 5 OPN MAX comparison table

CPU model	TDP value	PPT value
9654	400	400
9634	300	300
9554	400	400
9534	300	300
9474	400	400
9454	300	300
9374	400	400
9354	300	300
9334	240	240
9274	400	400
9254	240	240
9224	240	240
9174	400	400
9124	240	240

Introduction to workload mode

This chapter introduces the applicable scenarios and configuration instructions for each workload mode.

IMPORTANT:

In this document, the BIOS configuration solutions in different scenarios are general solutions. For special needs, configure it as needed.

BIOS provides the following configuration templates.

CPU intensive

CPU intensive mode is applicable to scenarios that require a large amount of processor computational power. Scientific calculations, graphics processing, and game servers all require high CPU performance. As a best practice, use a multi-core CPU with high-speed cache and high-performance memory to improve processing efficiency.

Java throughput intensive

Java throughput intensive mode is applicable to Java applications that require high throughput data processing. Common scenarios include web services, large-scale data processing, and multimedia processing. It typically involves handling numerous requests and completing complex computations or data processing tasks.

Java latency sensitive

Java latency sensitive mode is applicable to Java applications that require quick and accurate response to requests. It requires low-latency storage and network transmission mechanisms to support real-time use cases. It is commonly used in real-time data analysis, online gaming, healthcare, and other fields.

Power efficiency

Power efficiency mode is applicable to scenarios such as data centers, cloud computing, virtualization, and high-performance computing. Its main goal is to provide higher energy efficiency. It involves considering actual needs and hardware devices to maximize server energy efficiency.

Memory throughput intensive

Memory throughput intensive mode is applicable to scenarios that require high memory throughput. These scenarios involve extensive memory operations and data processing.

Common use cases include large-scale data processing, real-time data processing, and streaming and large-scale distributed systems. They require high-performance and high memory throughput hardware, as well as considerations for software architecture and technology.

Storage I/O intensive

Storage I/O intensive mode is applicable to scenarios that involve a large volume of data read and write operations. Common use cases include databases, video processing, and big data analytics. It requires efficient I/O systems to ensure high efficiency and accuracy in data processing.

NIC throughput intensive

NIC throughput intensive mode is applicable to scenarios that require high NIC throughput. These scenarios typically involve handling a large number of I/O operations, concurrent operations, and network operations.

Common use cases include data centers, large-scale cloud service providers, and video streaming, which require high-speed and high-throughput network cards to ensure fast data transmission and efficient network operations.

NIC latency sensitive

NIC latency sensitive mode is applicable to scenarios that have high requirements for network latency/response time. For example, real-time video content delivery, high-frequency trading systems, and online gaming, which require a quick response to requests within a very short time. Any delay in these scenarios can have a negative impact on the system.

RDBMS optimized

Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) are often a critical component of data centers. Efficient RDBMS services are crucial for organizations handling massive data like large enterprises, financial institutions, and healthcare facilities. RDBMS optimization improves server configuration to enhance system performance and reliability in these scenarios.

Big data analytics optimized

The application of big data analytics optimized mode requires meeting the demands of data storage, data processing, data visualization, and other aspects. By appropriately adjusting server parameters in line with the characteristics of this scenario, performance improvements can be achieved in the aspect of Big Data analytics processing.

IOT gateway

IoT gateway is a crucial component of the IoT architecture, commonly used for data exchange, data collection, data processing, and more between IoT devices and cloud platforms.

HPC optimized

HPC Optimized is a mode that is optimized for high-performance computing (HPC) applications. HPC is commonly used in scenarios involving intensive computations, such as handling multiple concurrent tasks. As a best practice, enable hyper-threading technology for better CPU performance in this HPC scenario.

OpenStack NFV

OpenStack NFV provides higher scalability, flexibility, security and integration for telecom networks. It virtualizes network functions using virtualization and cloud computing technologies, providing operators with an advanced network management tool to meet evolving market demands.

OpenStack for realtime kernel

OpenStack for realtime kernel mode uses real-time kernel to make applications on OpenStack more real-time. This helps applications to quickly respond and process real-time data, thereby improving system performance and usability. Additionally, real-time kernel ensures a higher quality application experience.

AI Optimized

The AI Optimized mode is used for application scenarios that perform artificial intelligence inference or training on large-scale computational resources to meet performance requirements.

Similar to the high performance computing template, this mode boosts server performance in scenarios involving artificial intelligence inference or training by locking the CPU to its highest performance level.

Custom

Custom mode utilizes the default BIOS settings or the values of the most recent configuration template. Users can customize various parameters based on this template. For specific description of each option, see the user guide for the default BIOS settings.

Configure the template

The options for the scenario configuration template is called Workload Profile Configuration and can be found on the Miscellaneous Configuration tab within the Advanced page. The specific steps for configuring this option are described below.

Access to the BIOS Setup page

1. Connect the keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the server, or access the remote console through the HDM web interface. For more information about detailed instructions on launching the remote console, see HDM user guide.

2. Start or restart the server. Once you access to the BIOS startup interface, press Del or Esc.

Figure 2 Starting BIOS

3. Enter the startup password in the dialog box that opens.

Figure 3 Entering the startup password

4. If a BIOS administrator and user password is set, you can select the login role first when entering the BIOS Setup page. Only the BIOS administrator role can configure BIOS.

Figure 4 Selecting the login role

5. Enter the password corresponding to the selected role.

Figure 5 Entering the password

6. Enter the BIOS Setup page.

Figure 6 Entering the BIOS Setup page

H3C Servers AMD Genoa & Bergamo Platform Scenario-Based BIOS Configuration Guide-6W101

Recommended BIOS parameter configurations for various workload modes

CPU intensive

Access to the Miscellaneous Configuration page

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