Xeon, hyper thread

[sudo]

hi, how does linux use the xeon hyper threading processors?? as one physical or 2 logical processors??
the point is should it be installed as uni or multi processor??

does RH 7.3 and RH 8 handle it the same way??

thnx

[furrycat]

I don't know the answer to your quetsion.

I DO know that an SMP-aware kernel will run on a uniprocessor machine.

So ... suck it and see.

[sudo]

anyone else?? this is not a machine i can afford to have downtime on so trial and error is out of the question..
plz help me out...

[bwkaz]

There shouldn't be any error, though. Compile the kernel with SMP support enabled, and see if the box comes up in SMP mode. If not, oh well, but run it that way anyway; it should work just wonderfully. If it does, so much the better.

Oh, I see, you're not compiling the kernel. Umm... install RedHat in SMP mode or whatever, and see if it recognizes two processors. If not, keep it that way anyway.

The way I see it, if you use the RedHat UP kernel, there's no way you can ever find out if it's one or the other. All you'll see is the one processor (I think...). Even if you do see both as separate logical processors, you won't be able to use the second one. So either way, you'll be using one processor.

Now, if you go with the SMP kernel, there's a 50/50 chance that it'll see two processors. If it does, so much the better; you'll be using both of them right away. If not, it will work just as well. Nothing to lose...