Please share your SMP on a 2 processor experience...
Hello SuSE'ers I am probably going to a two pentium system soon; so I would like to ask you to share your SMP experiences and advise. Does the main memory recomendations increase? Can one allocate work or apps to the individual processors. Can the processors share the NIC and audio sub-systems w/o problems? What other good questions haven't I asked? Are there any serious pitfalls or novice errors I should be aware of? I DO have a general knowledge of multi-processing going back to IBM MP Mainframes in the 80's Thanks! PeterB
Hello, Peter. I am currently running 7.3 on a 2x Pentium 233 and a 2x Pentium II 233, and have 8.0 (upgraded from 7.3) on an HP Netserver LH3 2x PII 450. On those, one is a firewall box with a pair of NICs. One has an added Promise ATA100 card in it, one has integrated hardware RAID. We also have an Nvidia card with the Nvidia drivers, albeit it old versions. Admittedly, these machines are not heavily stressed, but I have found no errors due to them being SMP machines. One is even happily running Unreal Tournament in server mode (shh, don't tell the boss). The Netserver even started life as a uniprocessor box. After adding the 2nd CPU, it took less time to upgrade to the SMP kernel than it took us to get things working on a Compaq server running NT when we did the same to that. And the SuSE kernel upgrade worked first time, which is something the NT box couldn't boast. As for setting processor affinities, I haven't found a need to deal with that yet. The division of system resources has always seemed to work out well enough that I haven't had to worry about it. Hope this helps, Stuart. -----Original Message----- From: Peter VanCampen [mailto:peterb924@ameritech.net] Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 00:41 To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: [SLE] Please share your SMP on a 2 processor experience... Hello SuSE'ers I am probably going to a two pentium system soon; so I would like to ask you to share your SMP experiences and advise. Does the main memory recomendations increase? Can one allocate work or apps to the individual processors. Can the processors share the NIC and audio sub-systems w/o problems? What other good questions haven't I asked? Are there any serious pitfalls or novice errors I should be aware of? I DO have a general knowledge of multi-processing going back to IBM MP Mainframes in the 80's Thanks! PeterB -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
On Sun, 2002-06-02 at 05:40, Peter VanCampen wrote:
Hello SuSE'ers I am probably going to a two pentium system soon; so I would like to ask you to share your SMP experiences and advise.
Does the main memory recomendations increase? Can one allocate work or apps to the individual processors. Can the processors share the NIC and audio sub-systems w/o problems? What other good questions haven't I asked?
Are there any serious pitfalls or novice errors I should be aware of? I DO have a general knowledge of multi-processing going back to IBM MP Mainframes in the 80's
I normally say to others, to try out SMP machines, especially now, with the affordablility of PIII/Athlons to experience the smoothness of Linux. Choices for me are simply: a) Memory, memory & memory Don't skimp here. With 1 Gig worth, you'll be full of reserves. b) Awareness of heat problems, and ventilation. Dont use smallish to midsize cases. Get the biggest , so to allow more air circulation and ease of IN/OUT of your busy hands. Push slightly more cold air into case with a 120mm fan. Pull out hot air with an extra 90mm fan or so. c) Try using 10K SCSI drives or the latest ATA100 7.2K IDE ones. Dont bother with 15k SCSI yet,(Too pricey) or ATA133 IDE (No great advantage yet) d) The most important, IMO.... Get a very heavyduty Power Supply to deal with those 3.3V and 5.0V rail dips. You wont regret the extra juices. e) Install any recent SuSE Professional version. Now, about the individual time-slicing on each CPU for your programs, I know ,it is said to be possible. I dont really have the know-how. And as far NIC and Audio concerns, I haven't come across any, bar the flakiness of some onboard audio card stuff. Go on !! Test drive a SMP machine. -- Kemdi IN_SuSE_d Since 5.2 123792 of counter.li.org ICQ:112290572
I run a ABIT BP6 board with two overclocked Celeron 433's on it. Linux 2.4.16-SMP / 2 Celeron (Mendocino) @ 533.032 MHz Mem: 386M BogoMIPS: 2126.64 hda: FUJITSU MPE3170AT, ATA DISK drive hdb: Pioneer CD-ROM ATAPI Model DR-A14S 0104, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdd: Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 8200, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive The only issues i really have is the Mainboard itself.. I get APIC errors nomartter what i do. But its fast, even with Celly's I havent found too many oddities compared to single cpu machines. As for RAM.. As always: As much as you can afford. The more , the merrier. Disks.. Depending on what you want the box for.. Server: I'd go for SCSI anyday, faster on multiple acesses then IDE Workstation: I'd settle for IDE due to price. NIC: Anything the runs i guess.. I run a Intel Ethernet Pro 100 Audio: I use a SB live! with the 2.4.18 kernel drivers.. Its not the best sollution, but i am to lazy to do anything about it. :) Graphichs: What ever tickles your fancy. I run a Matrox G400 Dual Head on two 19" monitors. But that's me :) I WOULD want to try a SMP Alpha system.. But the $$$'s work against me... So i settle for three UNI-CPU alphas instead... Anyone has a dual or quad board collecting dust somewhere :) - /Rikard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikard Johnels email : rjhn@linux.nu mob : +46 70 464 99 39 --------------------------Public PGP fingerprint------------------------------ < 15 28 DF 78 67 98 B2 16 1F D3 FD C5 59 D4 B6 78 46 1C EE 56 >
On Sunday 02 June 2002 23:19, Rikard "DustPuppy" Johnels wrote:
I run a ABIT BP6 board with two overclocked Celeron 433's on it.
I have one box with BP6 and dual celery 466 too. It's running SuSE 8.0 ;)) I bought this because Abit really have some nerve to ignore intel. The only problem were the HEAT. This board gets hot sometimes (when the room temperature is 32 celcius) & if the case were close. And I need to put extra chipset fan. (the problem went away after I put the chipset fan... it is ok to be closed at 32 celcius room temperature) So, if you want SMP, get a big box. The bigger the better. Also.... FAN.. I believe my airflow is not maximum.
The only issues i really have is the Mainboard itself.. I get APIC errors nomartter what i do. But its fast, even with Celly's I havent found too many oddities compared to single cpu machines.
yep... I hate when I still must press the power button after shut down.
On Tuesday 04 June 2002 11:32, Mojojojo wrote:
So, if you want SMP, get a big box. The bigger the better. Also.... FAN.. I believe my airflow is not maximum.
Putting the system into a bigger case often decreases the amount of airflow around the heat-producing parts. It's not just about making a "whirl" of air around the heat-producing parts that counts, but also exchanging the whole air-volume inside the case in a small amount of time. That is harder, the bigger the case is. Best regards, David List
On Tue, 2002-06-04 at 17:37, David List wrote:
On Tuesday 04 June 2002 11:32, Mojojojo wrote:
So, if you want SMP, get a big box. The bigger the better. Also.... FAN.. I believe my airflow is not maximum.
Putting the system into a bigger case often decreases the amount of airflow around the heat-producing parts. It's not just about making a "whirl" of air around the heat-producing parts that counts, but also exchanging the whole air-volume inside the case in a small amount of time. That is harder, the bigger the case is.
I have a Dual PIII 450 system using a Gigabyte board. This works very well with SuSE 8.0 other than for USB, which I'm told is often a power issue and can be fixed by using an external powered hub. I have been running this box as a Samba server since installing SuSE 8.0, it also runs the Setiathome client. The system is built into a large tower case, that had sufficient space to add an extra power supply. This necessitated a bit of metalwork to achieve and the addition of a relay to power-up the additional AT power supply. I use the ATX power supply to power the motherboard and the secondary power supply to power the drives 2 x hard disks, DVD and DAT drive. The fan in the second power supply also provides additional cooling to the box, it seams to run reasonably cool, although I have not configured sensors to monitor my CPUs. The server is also installed in my cellar, which is also quite cool. I have also installed Webmin www.webmin.com which is an excellent tool from remotely managing the box. David Bottrill
On Tuesday 04 June 2002 11:32, Mojojojo wrote:
yep... I hate when I still must press the power button after shut down.
There is a setting in the shutdown routine somewhere thats disabled in SMP. I once eanabled it just for testing, it shut down just as nice as a uni cpu board. And i didnt discover anything uncany afterwards either.... Go figure.. What i CANT figure out is how to get rid of the : APIC error on CPU0: 04(04) APIC error on CPU1: 02(02) APIC error on CPU1: 02(04) APIC error on CPU0: 04(02) I tried both noapic and disableapic in Lilo... Any hints?? -- /Rikard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikard Johnels email : rjhn@linux.nu mob : +46 70 464 99 39 --------------------------Public PGP fingerprint------------------------------ < 15 28 DF 78 67 98 B2 16 1F D3 FD C5 59 D4 B6 78 46 1C EE 56 >
I noticed a msg in the startup stream of msgs to the effect that "Non-standard APM APM disabled" but I am not seeing any APIC msgs; perhaps I looked in wrong place? These are PIII "Tualatin" cpu's that are supposed to be made for SMP PeterB On Saturday 08 June 2002 04:03, Rikard "DustPuppy" Johnels wrote:
On Tuesday 04 June 2002 11:32, Mojojojo wrote:
yep... I hate when I still must press the power button after shut down.
There is a setting in the shutdown routine somewhere thats disabled in SMP. I once eanabled it just for testing, it shut down just as nice as a uni cpu board. And i didnt discover anything uncany afterwards either.... Go figure..
What i CANT figure out is how to get rid of the : APIC error on CPU0: 04(04) APIC error on CPU1: 02(02) APIC error on CPU1: 02(04) APIC error on CPU0: 04(02)
I tried both noapic and disableapic in Lilo...
Any hints??
I have been running SuSE Linux on my dual PIII/450 for some time now. I have 256 MB of memory, which for me is plenty. Its a full SCSI system (no IDE) with tape backup, DVD, CDRW, 3 hard disks, 10/100, and built in sound (Tyan Thunderbolt S1837 motherboard). I built this system with the idea of having some horsepower for Linux demos which I conduct from time to time (although lugging around a laptop would be easier than a loaded full tower!). For demos, I like to run several copies of X simultaneously to show off different window managers and environments, while simultaneously keeping a copy of StarOffice available. I'll run as many apps as is practicable for demo purposes to attempt to meet the varied interests of the audience. Having an SMP is great when ripping CDs using a program like grip (which takes advantage of the "extra" CPU). Nowadays, people are more amazed that Linux runs so well on "an old 450 MHz processor". :-) I have had few problems with this machine and SuSE Linux, and I built this machine a couple of years ago. Recent Konqueror crashes and loss of YaST2 functionality with KDE 3.0.1 are my only current issues. Otherwise, the machine purrs like a kitten. In its "spare time", it runs Seti@Home and has logged over 100 continuous days of uptime on two occasions. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org
participants (9)
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Andy Stewart -
David Bottrill -
David List -
Mojojojo -
Peter B VanCampen -
Peter VanCampen
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Rikard DustPuppy Johnels -
Stuart Powell -
Uzo Kemdi Anyamele