Getting started

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the first steps to get started with PowerAPI. The objective is to get a quick view of the capabilities of PowerAPI. A few things are required before we start:

• A compatible processor (you can see the compatible CPU architecture here). You can take a look on the following links to find your CPU architecture:
  • For Intel Processor.
  • For Intel Xeon Processor.
  • For AMD Processor.
• You can also use the lscpu command to get information about your processor.
• Docker (refer to this official documentation and the post-install steps if needed!).
• Root access.

Which components to get a complete stack

The complete stack of PowerAPI is composed of:

• A Sensor and a Formula that enable us to define a Software Power Meter. The Sensor retrieves power consumption related metrics and the Formula compute an estimation of the power consumption. Currently, PowerAPI provides HWPC-Sensor and SmartWatts Formula

• The Sensor and the Formula need an output. The supported output are listed here. The Formula will also use the Sensor output as its input.

• Finally, they need a configuration as described in the HWPC-Sensor and SmartWatts documentation. The configuration parameters can be defined via a configuration file or via the CLI.

To learn more see the overview section.