Hello, I''m relatively new to Xen and am facing a problem that is bugging me greatly. I have a server that has 2xquad core xeons. Among other things, there is a windows based statistical app that we need to be able to run. This app is smp enabled, and I would like to allocate either one or both physical cpus to it. As I understand it, is that xen treats each core as a vpu, and the concept of a ''quad-core cpu'' is lost. The problem I am facing is that, because the app is windows based, I obviously need to use a windows guest. Windows XP will only recognise up to 2 cpus. According to other sources I''ve read, it bases this restriction on the number of sockets used, rather than cores. So if I installed XP on the bare metal server, I would have full access to all the CPUs. Naturally, I would really prefer to avoid using Windows XP as a host OS. Is there some way to group the vpus into virtual sockets, so that Windows XP will make use of more than just two vpus? The only other option would be to purchase Windows Enterprise Server, which is prohibitively expensive. Ilsa _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>The problem I am facing is that, because the app is windows based, I >obviously need to use a windows guest. Windows XP will only recognise >up to 2 cpus.Do you actually know that you need that much horsepower, my guess is that it runs like greased lightening off one or two vcpu''s. Why don''t you try it? My guess is that this app existed *long* before quad cores, and I also bet it worked just fine to... _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Are you running 3.2.x? I don''t think it was that long ago when Xen only supported 1-2 CPUs in HVM by virtue of some QEMU limitation, at least that''s what I remember. -Ray On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Ilsa Loving <ilsa@ilsadee.com> wrote:> Hello, I''m relatively new to Xen and am facing a problem that is bugging me > greatly. > > I have a server that has 2xquad core xeons. Among other things, there is a > windows based statistical app that we need to be able to run. This app is > smp enabled, and I would like to allocate either one or both physical cpus > to it. > > As I understand it, is that xen treats each core as a vpu, and the concept > of a ''quad-core cpu'' is lost. > > The problem I am facing is that, because the app is windows based, I > obviously need to use a windows guest. Windows XP will only recognise up to > 2 cpus. According to other sources I''ve read, it bases this restriction on > the number of sockets used, rather than cores. So if I installed XP on the > bare metal server, I would have full access to all the CPUs. Naturally, I > would really prefer to avoid using Windows XP as a host OS. > > Is there some way to group the vpus into virtual sockets, so that Windows > XP will make use of more than just two vpus? The only other option would be > to purchase Windows Enterprise Server, which is prohibitively expensive. > > Ilsa > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I''m running 3.1 I believe. Whatever came with Centos 5.1. I am eagerly awaiting 5.2 to see if that helps any. I verified that I was able to add more than 2 processors to a fully virtualized linux session, so it seems to definitely be a windows licensing thing. As to the other person who responded, the last machine we ran the software on took over 24 hours to process one simulation. Granted, it was a desktop and I don''t know what the actual specs were, but from what I was told it wasn''t a slouch of a machine. We would like to be able to produce simulation results within an hour or two if we can. Ilsa On 29-May-08, at 7:32 PM, Ray Barnes wrote:> Are you running 3.2.x? I don''t think it was that long ago when Xen > only supported 1-2 CPUs in HVM by virtue of some QEMU limitation, at > least that''s what I remember. > > -Ray > > > On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Ilsa Loving <ilsa@ilsadee.com> wrote: > Hello, I''m relatively new to Xen and am facing a problem that is > bugging me greatly. > > I have a server that has 2xquad core xeons. Among other things, > there is a windows based statistical app that we need to be able to > run. This app is smp enabled, and I would like to allocate either > one or both physical cpus to it. > > As I understand it, is that xen treats each core as a vpu, and the > concept of a ''quad-core cpu'' is lost. > > The problem I am facing is that, because the app is windows based, I > obviously need to use a windows guest. Windows XP will only > recognise up to 2 cpus. According to other sources I''ve read, it > bases this restriction on the number of sockets used, rather than > cores. So if I installed XP on the bare metal server, I would have > full access to all the CPUs. Naturally, I would really prefer to > avoid using Windows XP as a host OS. > > Is there some way to group the vpus into virtual sockets, so that > Windows XP will make use of more than just two vpus? The only other > option would be to purchase Windows Enterprise Server, which is > prohibitively expensive. > > Ilsa > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On May 29, 2008 06:08 pm Ilsa Loving wrote:> I''m running 3.1 I believe. Whatever came with Centos 5.1. I am > eagerly awaiting 5.2 to see if that helps any. > > I verified that I was able to add more than 2 processors to a fully > virtualized linux session, so it seems to definitely be a windows > licensing thing. > > As to the other person who responded, the last machine we ran the > software on took over 24 hours to process one simulation. Granted, it > was a desktop and I don''t know what the actual specs were, but from > what I was told it wasn''t a slouch of a machine. We would like to be > able to produce simulation results within an hour or two if we can.Wouldn''t you get better results simply installing Windows XP on the bare hardware, without all the virtualisation overhead? CPU-intensive and I/O-intensive workloads don''t benefit any from virtualisation. -- Freddie Cash fjwcash@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users