[NTLUG:Discuss] possible processor problems

[MontyS@videopost.com]

Stuart,

I appreciate the help.  I had to actually power-cycle the server for the 2
physical and 2 logical processors to show up in cpuinfo as they should.  The
bios and FC4 did see 4 logical processors after the power cycle.

A simple reboot didn't solve the problem.  I have to guess that the
motherboard bios has a bug.  Either that, or flaky hardware...

While on site, I performed a gigabit transfer, which caused uptime to report
a 10.75 load.  A 100baseT transfer of the same file from the same location
caused a .45 load.  It would appear that the onboard nics are not high
quality.

Any thoughts on a robust linux-friendly gigabit nic that won't tax the
processors?  A 64 bit (PCI-X) nic would be preferable.  I have used the
Intel nics in the past.  Any to avoid?

Thanks again,

Monty

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Johnston [mailto:saj at thecommune.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 9:51 AM
To: NTLUG Discussion List
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] possible processor problems


The way to distinguish 2 processors from one with HT is to look at the 
"Physical Processor ID".  You can find this in the logs or in 
/proc/cpuinfo although /proc/cpuinfo makes it more obvious because you 
wont have duplicated lines from reboots like in your log files.

So if you: `grep "physical id" /proc/cpuinfo` on a single CPU HT system 
you would get:

physical id     : 0
physical id     : 0

Whereas, a dual CPU, no HT, you would get something like:

physical id     : 0
physical id     : 3

Now, it is possible that you have HT disabled in the BIOS.  It is also 
possible that FC4 might disable HT by default.  Check kernel line in 
your grub.conf for acpi=?

Keep in mind however, that HT will not necessarily improve performance.

<snip>