FreeNAS 11 Constant High CPU from Python3.6 process

[Stux]

System dataset. I don't want to keep it on a spinning platter because it prevents the drives from spinning down, and my goal is to minimize power consumption. The NAS is used infrequently and a constantly spinning drive is a waste 23.5 hours a day.

I'm guessing SATADOMs are really only designed for booting... and have only slightly better write endurance than USB flash drives

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm guessing SATADOMs are really only designed for booting... and have only slightly better write endurance than USB flash drives

The hardware is basically the same as a USB drive, just a different connection with the system.
In this case, a regular SSD would be the best way to get the results.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[joeschmuck]

So it looks like you have a failing boot drive so you should at a minimum replace it. You can replace it with a USB flash drive or a SSD. If you replace it with a SSD then you can place your .system dataset on that too.

Going back to the original posting, is this the culprit for the python usage? Let us know once you have done this replacement.

 

[Ericloewe]

I can't help with the original post, but on my phone I notice that when I turn it 90 degree to widescreen, the footers/tagline become visible.

Phablets with proper browsers can generally turn to landscape to get the desktop view.

 

[joeschmuck]

Phablets

Can I get a Phablet too?

 

[Ericloewe]

Can I get a Phablet too?

I thought you were the resident smartphone-free person.

 

[joeschmuck]

I thought you were the resident smartphone-free person.

I still am but that may change soon. The battery on my flip phone is not holding a charge very well lately so when I request a replacement I fear I will end up with an Apple iPhone (keep in mind that my phone is provided by my company). My flip phone would only need to be recharged once a week, a smart phone needs to be charged every day or two. I'm not resistant to technology, I'm resistant to all the charging.

 

[Ericloewe]

It is a bit of a pain. Apple was also nice enough to place the parts of their connector that wear out on the phone side instead of on the (absurdly overpriced) cable, so that you can have the pleasure of buying a new phone when the connector on the old one breaks. /s

MicroUSB was great in that regard. With the tongue at the right angle, a favorite charger or cable could be convinced to stay in place again. At least USB Type C still has the springs on the connector, like microUSB, but only time will tell how it compares in longevity under real use.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Maybe try a bug report. Do it from the GUI so that you can attach a debug report.

Something is making me average between 50% and 85% for days on end with no connected users, no active jails or plugins, and no user-created cron jobs. Just idle. That's insane.

Going back to the original posting, is this the culprit for the python usage? Let us know once you have done this replacement.

Yes, please let us know once you have done this replacement. There is a current bug report about high autosnap.py CPU usage (target version 11.1) and I'm almost sure that there were some other reports about CPU usage caused by autorepl.py and/or autosnap.py in the past, besides other complaints regarding spurious ZFS ARC hit ratio reporting also related to these Python modules (not related to this thread).

BTW: Load average with FreeNAS 11 on my Avoton system (C2750) is about 0.4 in the medium term range (4 weeks or more) and was about 0.21 ... 0.25 in FreeNAS 9.10. I don't know how many watts are burnt in surplus compared to prior versions of FreeNAS caused by this "misbehaviour" on an Avoton system and how much this really matters, compared to 4 or more HDDs spinning in most FreeNAS systems. A WD Red 3GB takes 2.7 Watts when spinning idle. A single Avoton core takes how much Watts when fully loaded compared to that? I seriously doubt that this would be more than 2 Watts.

And yes, I am a smartphone-free person too, aged 51, the second one in this forum as it appears to me.

 

[FreeNASBob]

BTW: Load average with FreeNAS 11 on my Avoton system (C2750) is about 0.4 in the medium term range (4 weeks or more) and was about 0.21 ... 0.25 in FreeNAS 9.10. I don't know how many watts are burnt in surplus compared to prior versions of FreeNAS caused by this "misbehaviour" on an Avoton system and how much this really matters, compared to 4 or more HDDs spinning in most FreeNAS systems. A WD Red 3GB takes 2.7 Watts when spinning idle. A single Avoton core takes how much Watts when fully loaded compared to that? I seriously doubt that this would be more than 2 Watts.

The 2550 is 14W at base frequency, which is about 5 spinning WD Reds - almost double many system's power consumption.

Ironically, my FreeNAS system built to safeguard my data has been the most unreliable collection of hardware I've ever built in the past 25 years of building various PCs. With three motherboard failures and a drive failure it has surpassed anything in my past experience for unreliability (not FreeNAS fault, just ironic given its mission).

 

[Stux]

The 2550 is 14W at base frequency, which is about 5 spinning WD Reds - almost double many system's power consumption.

Ironically, my FreeNAS system built to safeguard my data has been the most unreliable collection of hardware I've ever built in the past 25 years of building various PCs. With three motherboard failures and a drive failure it has surpassed anything in my past experience for unreliability (not FreeNAS fault, just ironic given its mission).

Yet, I assume you've lost no data ;)

 

[MrToddsFriends]

The 2550 is 14W at base frequency, which is about 5 spinning WD Reds - almost double many system's power consumption.

A C2550 consumes 14W at TDP workload while a C2750 consumes 20W at TDP workload. That is 6W for four additional cores at TDP workload or 1.5W per core, however Intel defines the "TDP workload" for their CPUs/SOCs (without much doubt not idling at base frequency of 2.4 GHz).

I'm convinced that that the excess energy consumption caused by a load average of 0.4 (that's the value I'm talking about) compared to a situation with several processes running and lower overall load average is less than those 1.5W. While differences in the range 0W ... 1.5W might be large when talking about mobile devices it's really not much when talking about a NAS/server.

 

[FreeNASBob]

I'm really learning to despise Asrock. I got my SSD, installed it in the system, and did a fresh install of FreeNAS onto it no problem. The problem is I can't select it in BIOS as a boot device. I can only select from the six drives in the Intel controller slots, which are all my zpool. This stupid motherboard has 12 SATA connectors, but you can apparently only boot from 6 of them. The BIOS sees the SSD no problem, it's just not an option when choosing boot devices in BIOS or in the F11 boot menu.

UPDATE: Sure as Shoot, when I swap SATA cables to put the SSD on the Intel controller and one of my data drives on the Marvell controller, everything boots fine.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

I can only select from the six drives in the Intel controller slots, which are all my zpool.

See section 3.3.1 of your manual (UEFI Setup, Storage Configuration).

Bootable Marvell 9230 SATAIII
Use this to enable or disable Marvell SATA Boot ROM.

Bootable Marvell 9172 SATA3
Use this to enable or disable Marvell SATA Boot ROM.

 

[FreeNASBob]

Those are already enabled. It appears there is a bug in the board that requires creating a DOS boot drive with some Marvel utilities to fix it, but I'm not that ambitious.

 

[FreeNASBob]

After installing the SSD and a fresh install of FreeNAS 11 from scratch, the CPU issue is not resolved. I left the FreeNAS box overnight with no crons, no connected users, etc.

Code:

[root@freenas ~]# uptime														
7:32AM  up  7:54, 0 users, load averages: 0.42, 0.41, 0.36

My system used to show numbers like 0.01. My main concern is heat. Since this is a silent system, this CPU use is causing some high temperatures in the case that used to be cold to the touch at all times.

 

[joeschmuck]

After installing the SSD and a fresh install of FreeNAS 11 from scratch, the CPU issue is not resolved. I left the FreeNAS box overnight with no crons, no connected users, etc.

Code:

[root@freenas ~]# uptime													
7:32AM  up  7:54, 0 users, load averages: 0.42, 0.41, 0.36

My system used to show numbers like 0.01. My main concern is heat. Since this is a silent system, this CPU use is causing some high temperatures in the case that used to be cold to the touch at all times.

What is wrong with those numbers? You know there are background processes.

EDIT:
These are my numbers and my machine sits idle 99% of the time.

Code:

root@freenas:~ # uptime
11:39AM  up 4 days, 19:53, 0 users, load averages: 0.20, 0.37, 0.43

And after being logged into the GUI for a few moments not doing anything but opening the Shell...

Code:

root@freenas:~ # uptime
11:54AM  up 4 days, 20:08, 1 users, load averages: 0.33, 0.57, 0.54

You can see how things appear to have changed. None of this is a problem as far as I'm aware.

 

[FreeNASBob]

What is wrong with those numbers? You know there are background processes.

It's wrong because it's at least 10 times more CPU activity than before. Did I miss 10 times more features? What is FreeNAS 11 accomplishing that takes 10 times the CPU work to accomplish over 9.3?

My problem, and what caused me to first notice it, is how hot it makes a passively cooled CPU. Where my CPU and HDDs used to sit around 30°C, the CPU is now always around 60°C and the HDDs at 40°C.

 

[FreeNASBob]

What does the System Reporting -> Memory tab show?

Sorry, this one got buried.

 

[joeschmuck]

Let me ask you this question again since I don't recall seeing an answer for it...
1) Are you using the GUI while you are getting these numbers, I mean using a GUI at all not just the shell in the GUI?
2) Which web browser are you using? Firefox on my system causes more usage wheras IE or Chrome uses less.