Services and controller app in Windows 2019 Server consume CPU resources

[Storberg]

The idling CPU usage on a HPE Proliant ML110 Gen10 with Windows 2019 Server STD is at 5 to 8%, which is higher than my other Gen9 ML servers with windows 2012 R2 or 2016. Particularly the Services and controller app seem stuck in the 2 to 4% range. It is not very much, but still annoying and I would like to understand if this is normal and what this process actually does! I have not seen this process in any of my older Windows servers, but I may have missed it? This particular server has the first generation Xeon 3104 scalable processor, is mail server and is just recently configured with no particular problem during setup.

Any observations or experiance is appreciated!

[Storberg]

The Services and controller app stopped being active just like that after reboot and power off overnight. Server idling at 2-4% which is more normal. Not the first reboot since the condition occured. Addition of missing Ilo 5 automatic server recovery driver and Windows defender update was the last download and installations done. Not sure if I rebooted after that. Problem is gone anyway!

[hshrib]

Hello

Please set the Workload Profiles to "Virtualization - Max Performance".
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00016407en_us

Power management settings are disabled in favor of delivering maximum performance.

Please update your servers to latest version "Gen10 Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) Version 2020.03.0"
https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/products/service_pack/spp/index.aspx

[Storberg]

Hi

I have now adjusted the Workload Profiles to Virtualization - Max Performance. I tried first to access the system utilities through ILO 5 but the IRC .NET didn't fire up. It also took me a while to understand that i couldn't just change the performance setting without putting the profile to custom, as greyed out. After instead changing the profile to Virtualization - Max Performance per the recommendation I ran the HealthChecker for Exhchange Server to see if the recommended power setting was proven. Since it was not I also changed the energy setting under Windows, and then it complies.

I do believe I have the most recent firmware and drivers for Windows Server 2019 from HPE although they were all installed separately. This is since I was intially unable to boot to Intelligient Provisioning during POST and perform Windows installation from there. Booting directly from ProLiant (SPP) Version 2020.03.0 seems end up in Linux installation always. Instead I installed directly from the windows disk, installed software RAID driver and then under windows I installed all required drivers. I have now also reinstalled Intelligent Provisioning and it is operative in booting.

Exchange Server is indeed working better with "Virtualization - Max Performance" profile and there is hardly any noticable increase in power consumption, I have a watt meter installed to the server supply!

The service and controller app (services.exe) is still present though and it takes about 2-4% CPU load. Maybe someone can check their corresponding server and compare, maybe this is quite normal?