Disable CPU Processor socket on BL460c Gen8

[chuckk281]

Peter had a customer question:

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My customer wants to disable a CPU socket on a BL460c Gen8 blade running RHEL6.2 due to the licensing of the Database he wants to use. Is this possible?

The blade is equipped with two 8-core CPUs.

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Input from some people:

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Reply from Keith:

Hi Peter, it is technically do-able to deactivate 1 or more cores per BL460c Gen8 processor through the BIOS - for details see bottom of page 17 of this document - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01804533/c01804533.pdf

I am not sure a complete processor/socket can be deactivated - any-one know?

Note that if the DB is Oracle, Oracle still require licenses for any physically installed but deactivated AMD or Intel x86 cores on the Proliant (or any x86) server - unless Solaris x86 Containers or Oracle VM is run.   

Might want to have an HP CE unplug the second processor? Note they will lose access to the RAM off that processor, as well as the 2nd Mezz slot.

From Veerabose:

You could also limit the number of CPUs activated in SMP mode on redhat Linux, please check below redhat article.

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/1201

And from Vincent:

The RBSU help text says that the minimum number of enabled cores per processor socket is 1, so no, it looks like you can't disable a CPU socket entirely via RBSU.

And double check your DB vendor licensing requirements like Keith said.

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Any other comments or suggestions?