Hi,
I have been using Clonezilla for quite a few years ( Live/PXE, etc.)
I noticed that clonezilla-live-20141208-utopic-amd64 ( and probably not only ) somehow limits usage on CPU cores. No matter what MP compression pre-processor is chosen ( pigz / pixz ) all threads ( 8 cores / 2x e5430 ) are maxing at 25% per core... so on 8 core system, only 2 are used.
Some might say that there is a bottleneck on disk/ethernet I/O - well, no. Such bottleneck could appear rather GZ, then on XZ. In all parallel ( GZ, XZ and BZip ) same situation - 2 out of 8 cores used 100%, the rest is near idle, all spawned processes are maxing at 25% per core.
I used sysstat/sar/iostat, top, htop when I noticed this...
Maybe I would not care or notice, if I would not spend years with different compression appz, benchmarking, and bottlenecks... this one looks to be an "artificial" one...
Thanks,
Mike
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It seems that if I make an image with Clonezilla in one version, then write it back in a later version, it can write back very slowly, taking hours. I've wanted clonezilla to use all the cpu cores all the time, and to disable cpu core power saving modes. Writing a clonezilla image back to an SSD drive, from a usb C port, should take about 1.5-2 hours, writing a 1TB Clonezilla-encrypted image to the hard drive. Using 3.0.1-8amd64, MBR version. Is there a way to make sure that clonezilla doesn't enter power saving mode nor to put any of the cpu cores into power saving mode? I want it to run at maximum power all the time.
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"Is there a way to make sure that clonezilla doesn't enter power saving mode nor to put any of the cpu cores into power saving mode? I want it to run at maximum power all the time." -> I do not think Clonezilla live will enter power saving mode when image is saving or restoring. Why do you think so? Do you find that?
It's slow, sometimes the culprit is not in...
Steven
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After having used clonezilla over the years, I ask: Do you really need to constantly be updating the underlying system? It seems like there are always errors from one version to the next, like, for instance, clonezilla not using full cpu usage as the original poster mentioned. Do you always need the bleeding edge technology so that you can reach the latest device? Maybe yes, for some. I just find it a bit frustrating if I use a different clonezilla image for restoring as for creating. It would be nice to stick with one version that just works. I guess I can do that if I find one clonezilla version that works for me.
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Thanks for your feedback.
"Do you really need to constantly be updating the underlying system? " -> Well, I believe yes. With the latest one, Clonezilla live can support the latest hardware. Most of the cases are people need to do massive deployment using Clonezilla live for the new machines.
We do our best to have backward compatibility for the image. It should not be an issue normally. If it is, please report.
Nowadays it's almost impossible to have one version to fit all hardware, including new and old.
We keep all versions of Clonezilla live on the repository, hence if you find some version is robust, then stick to it. You do not have to use the latest one. However, I believe someone will need that.
Steven
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I just find that it usually ends up being the case where I make an image with one version of Clonezilla, but if I restore using a different newer version, then it can write back slowly, even if writing to an internal SSD drive. I often wonder what causes that. I'd love to know what I can do to diagnose perhaps internal power issues with the laptop, or if there are just constant error messages that happen that slow the computer down because one version of Clonezilla just doesn't work quite right with another.
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"there are just constant error messages that happen that slow the computer down" -> Maybe... What error messages are they? Could you please take some photos about that?
Thanks.
Steven
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No, I meant maybe they're internal error messages. Otherwise, I'm not sure why one version of clonezilla can be so slow with restoring another clonezilla version. If it's my laptop having weird power issues, I'd love to learn how to fix it.
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No idea. Actually we did not see this kind of weird behavior here. We tested newer version of Clonezilla live with the old images quite often. Never encounter this issue.
Maybe you can show us the specific versions of Clonezilla live you saved and restored, and share the image you have with us. We will try to reproduce this issue here.
Thanks.
Steven
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi,
I have been using Clonezilla for quite a few years ( Live/PXE, etc.)
I noticed that clonezilla-live-20141208-utopic-amd64 ( and probably not only ) somehow limits usage on CPU cores. No matter what MP compression pre-processor is chosen ( pigz / pixz ) all threads ( 8 cores / 2x e5430 ) are maxing at 25% per core... so on 8 core system, only 2 are used.
Some might say that there is a bottleneck on disk/ethernet I/O - well, no. Such bottleneck could appear rather GZ, then on XZ. In all parallel ( GZ, XZ and BZip ) same situation - 2 out of 8 cores used 100%, the rest is near idle, all spawned processes are maxing at 25% per core.
I used sysstat/sar/iostat, top, htop when I noticed this...
photo1
photo2
Maybe I would not care or notice, if I would not spend years with different compression appz, benchmarking, and bottlenecks... this one looks to be an "artificial" one...
Thanks,
Mike
Is this issue reproducible on testing Clonezilla live?
like 20150210-vivid and 2.3.2-18 on
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
Steven.
just tested 20150210 vivid & 2.3.2-18 - big difference - all cores at almost 100% - 3.7GiB/min compared to about 0.8-1GiB on 0141208-utopic-amd64.
Great - Thank You Steven!
Mike
Great! Thanks for your feedback.
Steven.
It seems that if I make an image with Clonezilla in one version, then write it back in a later version, it can write back very slowly, taking hours. I've wanted clonezilla to use all the cpu cores all the time, and to disable cpu core power saving modes. Writing a clonezilla image back to an SSD drive, from a usb C port, should take about 1.5-2 hours, writing a 1TB Clonezilla-encrypted image to the hard drive. Using 3.0.1-8amd64, MBR version. Is there a way to make sure that clonezilla doesn't enter power saving mode nor to put any of the cpu cores into power saving mode? I want it to run at maximum power all the time.
"Is there a way to make sure that clonezilla doesn't enter power saving mode nor to put any of the cpu cores into power saving mode? I want it to run at maximum power all the time." -> I do not think Clonezilla live will enter power saving mode when image is saving or restoring. Why do you think so? Do you find that?
It's slow, sometimes the culprit is not in...
Steven
After having used clonezilla over the years, I ask: Do you really need to constantly be updating the underlying system? It seems like there are always errors from one version to the next, like, for instance, clonezilla not using full cpu usage as the original poster mentioned. Do you always need the bleeding edge technology so that you can reach the latest device? Maybe yes, for some. I just find it a bit frustrating if I use a different clonezilla image for restoring as for creating. It would be nice to stick with one version that just works. I guess I can do that if I find one clonezilla version that works for me.
Thanks for your feedback.
"Do you really need to constantly be updating the underlying system? " -> Well, I believe yes. With the latest one, Clonezilla live can support the latest hardware. Most of the cases are people need to do massive deployment using Clonezilla live for the new machines.
We do our best to have backward compatibility for the image. It should not be an issue normally. If it is, please report.
Nowadays it's almost impossible to have one version to fit all hardware, including new and old.
We keep all versions of Clonezilla live on the repository, hence if you find some version is robust, then stick to it. You do not have to use the latest one. However, I believe someone will need that.
Steven
I just find that it usually ends up being the case where I make an image with one version of Clonezilla, but if I restore using a different newer version, then it can write back slowly, even if writing to an internal SSD drive. I often wonder what causes that. I'd love to know what I can do to diagnose perhaps internal power issues with the laptop, or if there are just constant error messages that happen that slow the computer down because one version of Clonezilla just doesn't work quite right with another.
"there are just constant error messages that happen that slow the computer down" -> Maybe... What error messages are they? Could you please take some photos about that?
Thanks.
Steven
No, I meant maybe they're internal error messages. Otherwise, I'm not sure why one version of clonezilla can be so slow with restoring another clonezilla version. If it's my laptop having weird power issues, I'd love to learn how to fix it.
No idea. Actually we did not see this kind of weird behavior here. We tested newer version of Clonezilla live with the old images quite often. Never encounter this issue.
Maybe you can show us the specific versions of Clonezilla live you saved and restored, and share the image you have with us. We will try to reproduce this issue here.
Thanks.
Steven