Windows Server® 2008 R2 performs well out of the box while consuming the least energy possible for most customer workloads. However, you might have business needs that are not met by using the default server settings. You might need the lowest possible energy consumption, or the lowest possible latency, or the maximum possible throughput on your server. This guide describes how you can further tune the server settings and obtain incremental performance or energy efficiency gains, especially when the nature of the workload varies little over time.
To have the most impact, your tuning changes should consider the hardware, the workload, the power budgets, and the performance goals of your server. This guide describes important tuning considerations and settings that can result in improved performance or energy efficiency. This guide describes each setting and its potential effect to help you make an informed decision about its relevance to your system, workload, performance, and energy usage goals.
Since the release of Windows Server 2008, customers have become increasingly concerned about energy efficiency in the datacenter. To address this need, Microsoft and its partners invested a large amount of engineering resources in developing and optimizing the features, algorithms, and settings in Windows Server 2008 R2 to maximize energy efficiency with minimal effects on performance. This paper describes energy consumption considerations for servers and provides guidelines for meeting your energy usage goals. Although “power consumption” is a more commonly used term, “energy consumption” is more accurate because power is an instantaneous measurement (Energy = Power *Time). Power companies typically charge datacenters for both the energy consumed (megawatt-hours) and the peak power draw required (megawatts).
Note: Registry settings and tuning parameters changed significantly from Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2. Be sure to use the latest tuning guidelines to avoid unexpected results.
As always, be careful when you directly manipulate the registry. If you must edit the registry, back it up before you make any changes.
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