KNELPerf/docs/report-amt-power-telemetry.md

🔌 Report: Intel AMT / vPro per-system power-telemetry feasibility (tsys1,3,4,5,9 + 6,7)

Status: PROPOSAL (v1, 2026-09-06). Ticket: #826. Hardware verified live via dmidecode 2026-09-06 (tsys9 not yet reachable — identification step included).

Executive answers

Does AMT provide power usage data? Can it be pulled from the BIOS? No — no Intel AMT version (9.x through current) exposes real-time watt telemetry, via BIOS or any API. Intel's own forum answer is categorical: AMT provides power control (on/off/cycle/boot-once), not power measurement. The Redfish Power/PowerConsumedWatts resource is a server-BMC feature (iDRAC/iLO wired to PSU metering hardware), not an AMT feature. So AMT is worth enabling only for remote KVM/power-control, never for watts.

Per-system table (hardware verified by dmidecode 2026-09-06)

System	Platform (verified)	AMT/vPro?	Watts via mgmt?	Best watt source
pfv-tsys1	OptiPlex 9020, i7-4770 (Haswell), Q87	YES — AMT 9.1 (Dell spec confirms vPro/iAMT 9.x)	NO	Linux RAPL: PKG + DRAM
pfv-tsys3	Precision 7510 (mobile WS), Xeon E3-1535M v5 (Skylake-H), CM236	YES — AMT 11.x (patch post-CVE-2017-5689!)	NO	Linux RAPL: PKG (DRAM domain often absent on mobile SKL — verify)
pfv-tsys4	Precision T1700, Xeon E3-1246 v3 (Haswell), C226	NO AMT — CPU is vPro-capable but C226 has no AMT ME stack (Haswell vPro needs Q87); no BMC either	NO	Linux RAPL: PKG + DRAM
pfv-tsys5	Precision T7500, Xeon E5620 (Westmere), 5520 chipset	NO — server-class chipset, pre-vPro era; no BMC	NO	Nothing software-readable: Westmere has NO RAPL (Sandy Bridge introduced it). Metered PDU / smart plug only
pfv-tsys6	PowerEdge R610, 2x E5530, iDRAC6	NO AMT (servers = BMC)	YES via iDRAC6	racadm getconfig -g cfgServerPower -o cfgServerActualPowerConsumption; ipmitool sensor "System Level" (watts often x10). DCMI partial/absent on old firmware
pfv-tsys7	PowerEdge R620, 2x E5-2630 v2 (Ivy Bridge-EP), iDRAC7	NO AMT (BMC)	YES via iDRAC7 (full DCMI)	ipmitool dcmi power reading; racadm getsysinfo -c; plus host-side RAPL PKG+DRAM
tsys9	unknown (2013-17 OptiPlex/Precision)	Identify first: dmidecode -t system + lspci | grep -i MEI + MEBx (Ctrl+P)	if AMT: still NO watts	RAPL if Haswell or newer

Practical pull methods

• AMT 9.x/10.x/11.x (tsys1, tsys3): WSMAN/SOAP via wsman CLI or MeshCommander (port 16993 TLS) — power state, on/off, KVM, inventory. AMT 11.6+ also speaks Redfish at https://<host>:16992/redfish/v1/ but with no Power telemetry resource.
• Local MEI/HECI discovery: /dev/mei0, intelmetool — tells you whether AMT firmware is present/provisioned (use this for tsys9 triage).
• RAPL readers: turbostat (most complete; PKG/cores/DRAM), powercap sysfs /sys/class/powercap/intel-rapl:* (poll energy_uj, delta/t = W), perf stat -e power/energy-pkg/. node_exporter has NO built-in RAPL collector — deploy a small rapl exporter or scrape turbostat. Caveat: RAPL measures CPU package (+DRAM), not whole-wall draw (~60-75% of wall on desktops).

RAPL coverage by CPU generation

• RAPL introduced Sandy Bridge (2011); Westmere (E5620) and Nehalem (E5530) have none — tsys5 and tsys6 hosts cannot RAPL.
• Haswell adds DRAM domain: tsys1 (i7-4770) and tsys4 (E3-1246 v3) get PKG+PP0+DRAM.
• Skylake-H (tsys3): PKG yes, DRAM typically absent on mobile.
• Ivy Bridge-EP (tsys7): PKG+DRAM.

Recommendations

1. Don't chase watts via AMT anywhere — the capability does not exist. Use AMT (tsys1, tsys3) only for remote KVM/power control; patch tsys3's AMT 11 firmware for CVE-2017-5689 before enabling.
2. Uniform host-side telemetry = RAPL exporter on tsys1, tsys3, tsys4, tsys7.
3. Servers (tsys6, tsys7): pull BMC watts out-of-band (racadm/ipmitool DCMI); update iDRAC6 firmware on tsys6 if DCMI commands fail.
4. tsys5 (T7500): budget a metered PDU or smart plug — no software path exists (fits the planned UPS re-cabling: put tsys5 on the metered leg).
5. tsys9 RESOLVED (2026-09-06): OptiPlex 7080, i5-10500, live PVE 9.2.5 node (100.101.158.76 — runs pfv-netinfra-02 + k8s wnode-tsys9); RAPL present — include it in the RAPL exporter wave.
6. UPS plan alignment: since only tsys6/7 (BMC) + RAPL hosts give per-node watts, keep the metered UPS leg feeding the gear you most need wall-watts for; per-node software telemetry covers the rest.

Sources

• Intel Community — AMT and power usage monitoring: https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-Business-Client-Software/AMT-and-power-usage-monitoring/td-p/853085
• Intel Community — AMT Support Identification: https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-vPro-Platform/Intel-AMT-Support-Identification/td-p/1275668
• DMTF Redfish Telemetry DSP2051: https://www.dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP2051_1.1.0.pdf
• OptiPlex 9020 spec (AMT 9.x): https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/optiplex-9020-desktop/opt9020sffom-v2/specifications
• Precision 7510 spec sheet: https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/Dell-Precision-15-7000-Series-7510-Spec-Sheet.pdf
• ARK E3-1246 v3: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/80916/intel-xeon-processor-e31246-v3-8m-cache-3-50-ghz/specifications.html
• ServerFault Dell power CLI: https://serverfault.com/questions/736068/how-do-i-get-the-power-consumption-of-a-dell-poweredge-server-on-the-cli
• jonamiki racadm power capping: https://jonamiki.com/2014/10/18/power-control-and-capping-on-dell-servers-using-racadm/
• Dell InfoHub power reporting: https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/en-us/p/server-power-consumption-reporting-and-management/
• Launchpad RAPL domains: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1467014
• Hackenberg et al. Haswell RAPL survey: https://tu-dresden.de/zih/forschung/ressourcen/dateien/projekte/firestarter/2015_hackenberg_hppac.pdf
• kernel mei/iamt docs: https://docs.kernel.org/driver-api/mei/iamt.html

Docs live on Discourse — this repo is the executable source of truth. Perf topic: https://community.turnsys.com/t/328