On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 06:47:37PM -0500, Tim Oudin wrote: > I've just got the opportunity to install a second processor in a > Debian Sarge box. I have absolutely no experience with dual > processor machines. Research suggests that I need a kernel compiled > with smp support thought the more detailed howto's I've seen are > referring to the 2.2 kernels. The bf kernel is for boot floppies. You'll likely get better performance out of the -k7-smp kernels. For example: kernel-image-2.4-k7-smp - Linux kernel image for version 2.4 on AMD K7 SMP This package will install the latest 2.4 kernel that is optimized for multiple AMD K7 processors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Package: kernel-image-2.4-k7-smp Priority: optional Section: base Installed-Size: 8 Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel at lists.debian.org> Architecture: i386 Source: kernel-latest-2.4-i386 Version: 101 Depends: kernel-image-2.4.27-2-k7-smp Filename: pool/main/k/kernel-latest-2.4-i386/kernel-image-2.4-k7-smp_101_i386.deb Size: 2154 MD5sum: 4de6fe159a8a614ef33e9b1a5ed08615 Description: Linux kernel image for version 2.4 on AMD K7 SMP This package will always depend on the latest 2.4 kernel image available for AMD Duron/Athlon with SMP support. SMP (symmetric multi-processing) is needed if you have multiple processors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice that this package depends upon kernel-image-2.4.27-2-k7-smp. This is what is known as a virtual package. If you want to follow the 2.6 kernel, install kernel-image-2.6-k7-smp. > beaker:/home/vpopmail/bin# uname -a > Linux beaker 2.4.28-bf2.4 #1 SMP Fri Nov 19 13:51:55 AKST 2004 i686 GNU/Linux > > Any insight would be much appreciated. I'm in a bit of a hurry to > get this done, I've just installed spamassassin/clamav/qmail-scanner > on a server and it's getting it's butt kicked. I'm adding some > memory, faster drives and hopefully a second processsor. Load > averages are almost comical...or would be it I wasn't the admin. I'd definitely install the optimized kernel. Part of your problem is qmail (memory hog), so consider postfix (many small, secure, well crafted applications) or exim4 (embedded Perl interpretor) as an alternative. Also consider the following package: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Package: irqbalance Priority: extra Section: utils Installed-Size: 112 Maintainer: Eric Dorland <eric at debian.org> Architecture: i386 Version: 0.12-1 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), debconf (>> 1.3) Filename: pool/main/i/irqbalance/irqbalance_0.12-1_i386.deb Size: 13888 MD5sum: bb1a52a762fe2358076149be2d31dbe6 Description: Balances irq's for SMP systems Daemon to balance irq's across multiple CPUs on systems with the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel. Only useful on SMP systems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net> http://www.wookimus.net/ assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: Digital signature Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20050411/e61cf33f/attachment.pgp