Installing SQL2008 Standard on a 8 CPU machine

I would like to install a Standard SQL2008 instance on a IBM Win2003 box that has 8 CPUs. Knowing Standard supports only 4 CPUs, has anybody had any issues installing 2008 Standard on a 8CPU box? Will it just use 4 CPUs? Also what degree of parallelism is the server set to?

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Hi,

We have the same setup as you described and have had no issues so far (standard on a dual quad core ibm server). The default 5 seconds is set for the parallelism. SQL Server will use up to 4 processors, and you can set the affinity.

No complaints from the users and the baseline seems very high!

Hi Bluesky,

Thanks h. I assume there should be no difference in behavior with your system which is a dual quad core ibm vs what I have which are 8 physical processors in the ibm box (it's 4 years old)?

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Hi rajesh,

The main difference is that a 1 processor license covers all 4 cores's since the licensing scheme MS uses for SQL Server is based by socket and not cores. You may want to double check your licensing. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

From a configuration standpoint though, it will look the same (CPU 0-7).

Hi Bluesky,

You are definitely correct about the licensing - it would be a 2 proc license for you. Have you considered setting max degree of parallelism to 1 to suppress it?

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Hi Rajesh,

Since we have 2 physical sockets with 4 cores per socket, it's only a single license for standard (4 cpus/physical socket).

Hi Bluesky,


Thanks for the information. Have a good day.

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A.Rajesh Khanna