bios settings for nas

[Paul042020]

I wanted to know, if there are any optimizations, settings,... in the BIOS. Do you disable some features that are useless for a storage server (NAS) use. My motherboard is an X10SL7-F with an AMI BIOS.
There is not much info on this part.
Regards

 

[Nick2253]

There really isn't a best practices for everyone, since it can change based on the use case. And the difference between optimal settings and default settings is probably pretty small for most people.

For my stuff, I generally do:

• Disable all hardware that won't be used (serial/parallel ports, audio, etc).
• Enable all powersaving features on the CPU.
• Disable hyper-threading (NASes generally are not CPU limited, and with today's multi-core CPUs, hyperthreading is mostly unnecessary). I find that single-threaded performance is slightly better without hyper-threading, though we're talking marginal amounts here.
• Disable booting from all HDDs or Controllers (except for the drives I'm actually booting off of).

 

[HoneyBadger]

Enable all powersaving features on the CPU

Notable exceptions here:

If you're using Ryzen, disable C6 and the "Cool N Quiet" functionality. Those have been shown to negatively impact stability on FreeBSD (CORE) - I'm unsure if the same applies to SCALE.

If you're seeking low-latency performance (eg: peak IOPS for VM/block workloads) then disable power-savings entirely for best results. It might seem trivial, but the rapid enter/exit cycles for power savings add latency each time.

 

[Paul042020]

hello, ok I will look into it.
My application is very basic: 1x raidz2 (4x3TB) for network storage. No plugin.
I don't know much about it. I'll look at the options I find in my BIOS, and I think I'll come ask you on a case by case basis.
For hyperthreading, do you think I'm better off cutting for my i3-4130T?
Hyperthreading is useless on a nas application?