10.3 and 3.1 High CPU on Windows Server with Balanced Power Plan Settings
Problem
We are experiencing a high CPU utilization on our VMware bare-metal server. Our Windows operating system has a Balanced Power Plan setting.
Solution
VSI customers should be aware that the Power Plan setting in Windows can have a significant impact on RecTrac/WebTrac performance. You may see higher than expected CPU utilization and general performance issues when the Power Plan is not set to 'High Performance.'
With this customer, research into VMware and Windows 2008R2/2012 performance problems revealed that huge performance hits, including latency, database disconnects, and CPU utilization, can be caused by having the Windows Power Plan set to Balanced. In Windows Server 2008 and 2012, Balanced is the default setting!
All VSI customers should change their server Power Plan to High Performance. Depending on the use of VM or not, and depending on the machine BIOS, this setting may actually be controlled in more than one place. So customers should research how and where to set it for their configuration. With VM for example, it can be controlled by BIOS or the VM Host as well as the setting you can see in the OS.
The Balanced Power Plan setting is particularly problematic for CPU-heavy, heavy network traffic, enterprise systems. This issue can expose itself in very unpredictable and hard to diagnose ways, which we experienced firsthand with one enterprise account. Changing this setting had a significantly positive impact in their RecTrac/WebTrac performance.
Please be aware of the Power Plan settings on servers and ensure that High Performance is set for all RecTrac/WebTrac servers. This is NOT a VM specific problem.
Sources:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2207548
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2008925
http://jeffstevenson.karamazovgroup.com/2011/06/windows-2008s-magic-performance-button.html
Note:
A bare metal environment is a computer system or network in which a virtual machine is installed directly on hardware rather than within the host operating system (OS). The term 'bare metal' refers to a hard disk, the usual medium on which a computer's OS is installed.