How to Set Up CPU Governor

Prerequisites

Before setting CPU governor, make sure you have:

• SSH access to your VPS
• Root or sudo privileges
• CPU frequency scaling support (most VPSes support this)

Step 1: Check Available Governors

Connect to your VPS:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

Common governors:

• performance – Max frequency always (max performance, higher power)
• powersave – Min frequency always (power saving, lower performance)
• ondemand – Scales up on demand (good balance)
• conservative – Scales up slowly (balanced)
• schedutil – Uses scheduler hints (modern default)

Step 2: Check Current Governor

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Step 3: Change Governor Temporarily

For all CPU cores:

sudo cpufreq-set -g performance

If cpufreq-set not installed:

sudo apt install linux-tools-common -y

Alternative – echo the governor:

echo "performance" | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Step 4: Make Permanent (cpufrequtils)

Install cpufrequtils:

sudo apt install cpufrequtils -y

Edit config:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/cpufrequtils

Or create file:

sudo nano /etc/default/cpufrequtils

Add:

GOVERNOR="performance"

Enable service:

sudo systemctl enable cpufrequtils
sudo systemctl start cpufrequtils

Step 5: Install and Use tuned (Red Hat / Modern Systems)

sudo apt install tuned -y
sudo systemctl enable tuned
sudo systemctl start tuned

List available profiles:

tuned-adm list

Activate profile:

sudo tuned-adm profile throughput-performance

Check CPU Frequency in Real Time

watch -n 1 "cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq"

Reset to Default Governor

sudo cpufreq-set -g ondemand

Note for VPS Users

Many VPS providers do not expose CPU frequency control to guests. Check if /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ exists. If not, this guide may not apply.