Overview: Suggested bios settings for Cisco UCS
This tip represents a quick set of recommendation best practices for bios settings and bios policies on Cisco UCS from a performance and functionality optimization perspective. The source for these settings came from Cisco documentation.
Disclaimer: Conditions of use of content
Since the steps below detail how to intentionally "break" your system I feel like to need to remind you that this is NOT an official cisco web site or resource. This page as with all information found on this site does NOT take any legal responsibility for the results of performing any of these tests in your environment.
The content of this page and site including may include errors and inaccuracies and are provided for informational purposes only and should be considered "use at your own risk". Please refer to http://cisco.com/go/ucs and it's related support web sites for "official" and "legally responsible" types of information.
Section 1: Resources for suggested configuration
- Cisco UCS Manager Configuration Guides - Choose the GUI configuration guide or the CLI configuration guide for the version of UCS Manager you are using and follow the instructions under Server Configuration > Configuring Server-Related Policies > Creating a BIOS Policy
- Video: BIOS Policies (4:31 min) - Manage BIOS firmware versions and settings on a per-service basis.
Section 2: Table listing of suggestion configuration
| Location | Bios Option | VMware Host | VMware VDI | Windows Server | Windows Host | Windows VDI | Linux Server | Linux Host | Linux VDI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main | Quiet Boot | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled |
| Processor | Turbo Boost | enabled | enabled | enabled | enabled | enabled | enabled | enabled | enabled |
| Processor | Enhanced Intel SpeedStep | enabled | disabled | enabled | enabled | disabled | enabled | enabled | disabled |
| Processor | Hyper Threading | enabled | disabled | enabled | enabled | disabled | enabled | enabled | disabled |
| Processor | Core Multi Processing | all | all | all | all | all | all | all | all |
| Processor | Execute Disabled bit | enabled | enabled | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Processor | Virtualization Technology (VT) | enabled | enabled | ? | enabled | enabled | ? | enabled | enabled |
| Processor | C1E | disabled1 | <-- | <-- | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Processor | Processor C3 report | disabled | <-- | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Processor | Processor C6 report | disabled | <-- | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Processor | CPU Performance | Enterprise | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- |
| Intel Directed IO | VT for Directed IO | enabled | enabled | ? | enabled | enabled | ? | enabled | enabled |
| RAS Memory | Memory RAS Config | maximum-performance | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- |
| RAS Memory | NUMA | enabled | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- |
| RAS Memory | LV DDR Mode | performance-mode2 | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- | <-- |
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT set bios settings without a sound reason. If you don't know what it does you are better off leaving the settings at the manufacturer's default settings.
1 Manual setting in F2 server bios for UCS Manager versions earlier than 2.0. Specific to Intel 6500, 7500, and 7600 processors.
2 Some CPU's including E5 series lower memory speed to 1333Mhz rather than 1600 to save power..
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