On Tue, May 09, 2006 at 11:41:06AM -0400, Dane Miller wrote: > I have a production file server (P4 2.8ghz w/HT), that is approaching > its quarterly scheduled maintenance downtime. I'm wondering if it's > worth switching to an SMP kernel to take advantage of hyperthreading. > > The box runs very happily on its current 2.6.8-3 Debian Sarge kernel. > > Are there any risks to SMP on a single CPU w/HT?
There is some debate as to whether I/O takes a hit. I'm sure others in here could provide many technical studies one way or the other, but in my unmeasured experience you get slower I/O with HT on. If you do have HT turned on in the BIOS, you ought to be running an SMP kernel. > Any Debian-specific problems? Nope. > Should I use irqbalance? If you are going to use an SMP kernel, yes. Debian will prompt you that if you are using it with HT, you should put it in "one-shot" mode. It will balance the IRQs once at startup instead of on a continuous basis. -- Kevin Otte, N8VNR [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.nivex.net/ -=- "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana "It seems no one reads Santayana anymore." -- Cdr. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5 -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
