Removing CPUs from RHEL 5.10 server

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Hello:

I have a RHEL 5.10 server with 2 x 8-core processors. Due to Oracle licensing issues, we may need to remove the second proc to bring ourselves into license compliance. Is it as simple as shutting down the server and removing the processor? I'd like to clean up the OS if there are any remnants of the other processor/cores.

Oracle doesn't allow disablement of cores either at the OS or hardware level so that strategy is out.

Thank you!

Responses

Scott,

Have you asked your hardware vendor, whether removal of a CPU is supported?
Some vendors do not support it or demand that you put in a dummy CPU to keep the cooling airflow following the correct 'path'.
Second issue: AMD versus DIMM control. You might need to move DIMMs to different slots.

On the OS level I do not see any issue, just shutdown the server, do the hardware change and boot up again.
You will see the number of "logical" CPUs will have dropped.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

Add:

maxcpus=8

To your grub.conf. I've had to do this (against my will) to fall in line with external licensing requirements before (not Oracle specifically).

EDIT: Just noticed you can't do it at the software level, so that is out.

From my experience 'locking out' the processor in software will not satisfy the Oracle license requirement, the processor needs to be physically removed.

In answer to Scott,

There should be no issue stopping / removing the processor and then starting the server again. The only ill effects may be with specific system / Oracle tuning that has been targeted at the number of processors (ie. manual tuning my administrators).

Locking out a processor even in the BIOS does not seem to satisfy the requirement. Interesting also is that most of the conversations seem to be directed at another product sold by that company to allow you to utilize the resources in a way that is compliant.

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