Low CPU utilization?

[sardaukar]

I'm running around 20 Docker containers on my Synology, and the CPU utilization is very low - my DroneCI runner, for example, takes 80 seconds to run a build that runs in 3 seconds on my local PC. On the Resource Monitor, I see CPU usage never going above 15% which is weird because I want it to be higher, if it means faster builds. Is this a known issue? Also, stopping/starting a Docker container takes _forever_

 

Running DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 1 using Automated Red Pill Loader v0.4-alpha12

Edited October 10, 2022 by sardaukar

[WiteWulf]

Hey @sardaukar, welcome to the forums. Some more information on your hardware would be really helpful, particularly comparing what's in your Xpeno box to your desktop PC.

 

I'm not familiar with DroneCI, is it particularly disk intensive? What storage do you have in the two systems? Are you running DroneCI in docker on your desktop PC? Docker is an abstraction layer and will introduce slow downs, but shouldn't be at the level you've described.

[sardaukar]

This is a B450 Ryzen motherboard with an Athlon 200GE (low power) CPU, 16GB of RAM and 4x 4TB SATA drives, plus a 120GB M2 SSD.

 

DroneCI is just a build runner, but usually they're CPU-bound, not IO-bound. I do run DroneCI on my Ryzen 5800 in Docker on my main workstation.

 

The CPU on the NAS is under-powered, but I'd expect to see the CPU meter at 100% most of the time, since it'd be struggling to cope under the load. But the average is around 12-15% at idle and 20-25% when running a build.

Edited October 10, 2022 by sardaukar

[WiteWulf]

Yeah, that is weird. On an under-powered CPU you'd expect to see higher-CPU utilisation for a CPU heavy task. Something else must be throttling it (hence me asking about your disk subsystem).

 

Have you tried stopping the other docker containers and seeing if it runs any better? 20 docker containers on a 2-core, 4-thread CPU may just be overwhelming the scheduler. Also, what Synology model are you emulating?

[sardaukar]

I'll try fewer containers. I'm emulating the DS2422+ since using the 1621 didn't allow the loader to see my drives, I think because RedPill sees 10 ports and so a 6-bay model doesn't work.

[WiteWulf]

@flyride could this be anything to do with the kernel thread limits you mentioned yesterday? I don't see the DS2422+ listed in your table on the Loaders thread, but it's got a AMD Ryzen V1500B, 4-core 2.2 GHz, in it and @sardaukar is using a Athlon 200GE (2 core, 4 threads @ 3.2GHz).

 

20 docker containers does seem a lot to be running on a 2 core system, tbh.

[flyride]

The experimental platforms are not in the Loaders and Platforms matrix.  But I would think it would be equivalent to the 1621+ which is Ryzen 4-core/8-threads, and 16 threads in the kernel.  So it's probably that they are trying to do too much on the limited 2-core CPU.

[sardaukar]

7 hours ago, flyride said:

So it's probably that they are trying to do too much on the limited 2-core CPU.

 

Yeah, will replace it with a Ryzen 5600G soon. But I still find it weird that the CPU usage is not maxed out, if the CPU is too busy.

[sardaukar]

OK, replaced the CPU and now the build that took 5:49 concludes in 2:08 so massive improvement. Still think it's weird the CPU usage was so low with the 200GE, but oh well.