I thought I would summarise this as it's quite simple and there was no
disagreement in the replies.
Please excuse any 'oddness' in the format, I am stuck using Lotus Notes
.....
Those that responded were:-
Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Mark Hahn <hahn@coffee.psychology.mcmaster.ca>
Christian Stuke <christian@stuke.de>
Peter Waltenberg <peterw@surf.dascom.com>
-----
> Having just installed Redhat 6.1 on the machine I find that it has
> installed 2.2.12-20smp by default (yes, I know that's a redhat-ism).
Many SMP boxes report both CPU's when only one is present. It isnt a big
problem.
> My question is; Do you see a problem running the smp kernel with a single
> processor installed ?
On SMP capable CPU's - no. The single CPU kernel is more efficient however
(typically 5% faster)
-----
> I have a Dell PowerEdge 1300 which has a dual processor motherboard but
is
> only fitted with one processor and some sort of 'dummy' board in the 2nd
> processor slot.
it's a bus terminator. its improves the signal properties of the bus
when there's no processor there to load it properly.
> My question is; Do you see a problem running the smp kernel with a single
> processor installed ?
there is none. it'll be very slightly slower, possibly unmeasurable
outside of a benchmark.
-----
> I have a Dell PowerEdge 1300 which has a dual processor motherboard but
is
> only fitted with one processor and some sort of 'dummy' board in the 2nd
> processor slot.
Thatīs a bus-terminator, it belongs where it is! ;) It helps to keep the
second
slot from acting as an antenna ;)
> Having just installed Redhat 6.1 on the machine I find that it has
> installed 2.2.12-20smp by default (yes, I know that's a redhat-ism).
>
> My question is; Do you see a problem running the smp kernel with a single
> processor installed ?
no, itīs just a little slower i guess. the smp-kernel has a little more
overhead
but itīll work ok in my opinion.
> Excuse my ignorance, I have searched the archives and come up empty on
this
> subject.
sure. normally nobody would want to do this ...
> I just have no idea what implications might be in running the smp kernel
> and as this machine is going to be a rather well used production squid
> server, I don't want it falling in a heap because I 'assumed' everything
> would be fine. By the way, the machine won't have a 2nd processor
installed
> anytime soon.
In this case iīd recommend installing a single cpu kernel!
> Any pointers or comments would be most appreciated.
Welcome
> Regards,
> Brad.
Chris
-----
There have been buggy kernels where this won't work, but if it works, fine.
There's a small (<1%) speed penalty in the kernel. Since most programs
spend
very little time in the kernel, it's really not noticeable.
Peter
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