Does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 support 8 Physical Processors / 8 Sockets ?

[Yaboto]

Hi,

Does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 support 8 Physical Processors / 8 Sockets ?

In case it doesn't, what would be the solution for it to support ?

Thanks.

Best regards,

Mawuena

[Modris Bremze]

32bit (x86) RHEL 5 supports 32 logical CPUs, 64bit (x86_64) supports up to 255 logical CPUs. So it depends on what kind of CPUs you have.

[Yaboto]

Thanks very much for your reply.

What about the Licensing, please ?

I have about 10 quantities of RHEL 2 sockets Licenses for about 10 individual servers that I haven't used yet. Right now, I have a very big servers of 8 physical processors.

Can I use or combine my existing licences for my new big server ?

Please HELP !

Mawuena

[Modris Bremze]

Yes, different licenses have different limits. You will probably have to confirm anything regarding licensing specifics with RedHat anyway, so maybe just go ahead and ask them. They should be the most competent source for this kind of information.

[Yaboto]

I have been downloading, installing and using Red Hat Linux freely, even in a production and LIVE environment.

If I don't buy and apply the required Licences, what would I be missing ?

Please educate me on the consequences !

Best regards,

Mawuena

[Alzhy]

You need to have Advanced Platform if you want to use RHEL on greater than 2 CPUs or SOCKETS regardless of how many CPU cores each CPU/socket have.

As far as limits -- well Linux technically can support OOTB up to 4096 CPUs so 8 Sockets is a rather small box comparatively.

We have been running RHEL 5.X on an IBM 3950 M2 16 Socket Machine.

[Alzhy]

If you do not have a license - and using it in production -- you are not technically violating any terms of use. You simply won't be able to have support or patch your system "properly".

How have you been patching your systems though? Do you download patches separately for your licensed instance and apply them on your unlicensed instances? If so -- I think that would be violative of your licensing an you should cease that practice.

You would be better off running CenTOS instead which is bit for bit -- the same as RHEL plus you have the ability to patch "properly".