Re: Adding CPU

"Bob Lebo" <digitalsurfer39_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:%uMe6.3507$5H.554515_at_typhoon2.ba-dsg.net...
> I have a Micron Netframe 3101 server. It is currently a single processor P
> II 400 with 512 MB of RAM. I am running Oracle 8.0.5 on it to serve a
> Records management System. The NetFrame motherboard supports dual P III
 550
> processors. I plan to take on the task of upgrading the server hardware
 and
> moving the Windows NT 4.0 Server kernel from Uni-Processor to
> Multi-Processor in the very near future.
>
> My question is, will this affect the Oracle Database application in any
 way?
> I know there were some entries in the .ORA files in 7.X.X releases
 referring
> to the number of CPUs that could not be set manually. I want to do the
> upgrade as seamlessly as possible, but really don't want to go through the
> process of exporting the full database, removing the Oracle installation,
> upgrading the OS and hardware, then re-installing Oracle and importing the
> database again. It could take quite some time....
>
> Thank you in advance for your support.
>

I don't know about it affecting Oracle so much as that you stand a reasonable chance of completely stuffing up the NT box! The thing about "SMP" is that it is supposed to be "symmetrical" -if the processor that you add is operating at slightly different rates than the original, prepare for (metaphorical) sparks to fly. I can testify to four months of mysterious reboots and system hangs...

The general advice, as far as I could ever make out, from the techie bods that we pay for this sort of thing is that an SMP box should use processors purchased at the same time, and preferably from the same manufacturing lot or batch.

My mysterious reboots sorted themselves out when I dumped the two separate processors, and purchased two from the same vendor on the same day -and checked the packaging lot numbers. It's only anecdotal, I agree -but just beware.

On the other hand, if you can even get your hands on two Pentium 3 550's these days, I'd be impressed!

From the Oracle perspective, you can expect to see an increase in contention for memory resources. In a uniprocessor box, such contention is well-nigh impossible to see, since there can only ever be one thing running live on the processor at one time. I'd say as a general rule of thumb that multi-processor boxes need to be tuned rather more carefully as a result.

Regards
HJR
>
Received on Sat Feb 03 2001 - 23:01:35 CST