Performance Mode fails on 10.11 Server/5.0.4 Server App

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Level 1

19 points

Performance Mode fails on 10.11 Server/5.0.4 Server App

After having upgraded some servers to 10.11 El Capitan with Server.app 5.0.4, I realized performance mode was disabled on all of them. Trying to enable it again just returns:

bash-3.2# serverinfo --setperfmode 1

ERROR: Server performance mode could not be modified.

Failed to create write propery list to disk!

Any ideas why this doesn't work any longer? Why can't it write the plist when sudo:ed? This was also a bug in 9.0.0 Server with upgraded systems.

Posted on Oct 19, 2015 12:42 PM

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Answer 1

gunverth Author

Level 1

19 points

Oct 20, 2015 10:26 AM in response to gunverth

OK. Got an official answer from our technical contact at Apple (we are Apple consultants): Servers doesn´t need SIP. Turn it off. 😀

"sudo nvram boot-args="srv=1"" doesn't do "all the stuff" that "serverinfo--setperfmode 1" does, so use the latter.

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Answer 2

gunverth Author

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19 points

Jul 29, 2016 1:31 AM in response to gunverth

In case somebody else finds this thread: Apple has now changed the way you activate performance mode in 10.11. It now works with SIP turned on, as it should do.

Turn on performance mode for OS X Server - Apple Support

Enable

sudo nvram boot-args="serverperfmode=1 $(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | cut -f 2-)"

Disable

sudo nvram boot-args="$(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | sed -e $'s/boot-args\t//;s/serverperfmode=1//')"

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Answer 3

gunverth Author

Level 1

19 points

Oct 19, 2015 1:17 PM in response to gunverth

Well, "serverinfo--setperfmode" usually writes to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist, which is disallowed in El Capitan.

Is the only way around this to run csrutil on Recovery HD?

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Answer 4

gunverth Author

Level 1

19 points

Oct 20, 2015 2:41 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you! I'll try it and see what happens.

So, "srv=1" actually tunes the OS for server work, not just tells the OS it's a server?

Performance mode or not is like night and day, especially with File Sharing and Profile Manager under load. Running a Profile Manager with 1000+ devices is a pain without performance mode. Enable it and everything flows like water...except Finder on the server itself. All resources to background services. Like the check box "Dedicate system resources to server services" in Lion Server.

You will see different server stats after it's enabled. Load and memory fluctuates much more and the server root volume loses some more storage. I'm quiet confident it does matter a lot.

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