Seems a bit weird that NSRD is single threaded.  I am not at my server but,
it seems to me that I have seen multiple threads on a W2K box.  At any rate
it loads up my 2 processor W2K machine just fine.
 
Brian
 
-----Original Message----- 
From: Reed, Ted G II [ITS] [mailto:ted.reed AT MAIL.SPRINT DOT COM] 
Sent: Fri 6/13/2003 1:24 PM 
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU 
Cc: 
Subject: [Networker] Random technical question - Single threaded process on
multi-processor server



        Legato 6.1.3 on Solaris 8 (master + 2 SN):
                I've been working on various and sundry means to make our
        hardware architecture stretch to meet our backup and recovery needs.
        One of the primary issues we have is a weak brain.  In other words,
we
        do enough work at any given time slice that the master NSRD process
is
        maxing out an entire single 400MHz processor on a 4x400 SUN e450.
        Meanwhile, the other 3 cpus are doing practically nothing.  Our
storage
        nodes still seem to have room to grow as I/O-data movers, but each
extra
        bit sent to a node increases the overhead on the master and results
in
        further queuing of jobs waiting to be processed by the maxed out NSRD
        job. 
                We are investigating moving to a new Sun server master
        (v280/480) with 2x950MHz, but if I can take advantage of the 3
        underutilized cpus, then we may not need to spend the dollars.  So in
        that vein, does anyone know of any wrappers/kernel mods/etc that
allow
        you to present a single "virtual" cpu to the process that is
back-ended
        by multi thread cpu process? 
        
                My thought are:  if I have a wrapper (MyWrap) that accepts
cpu
        calls and translates them into a multi-threaded call to all 4 CPUs,
then
        I could up my overall cpu load towards the 100% mark.  Even if I lost
        50% to overhead, I'd still have an effective doubling of process
        capabilities for the single process.  FYI, I'm thinking the
preference
        would be towards a "nohup" style of wrapper.  I.E. execution would be
        "MyWrap -$switches -PID $PID" or "MyWrap -$switches nsrd &" 
                There's no reason I could think of that you couldn't make it
        into some form of kernel mod or something (to build that 'single' cpu
        box on multiple cpus to provide single-function server).  It's not
        something that everybody would want (why waste a perfectly good
        multi-proc box like that?) but I'd take sharing 4-as-1 CPU with the
        whole system versus where I am today maxing out 1 and leaving the
other
        3 out in the cold.
        
                Thank you all for your time and attention to my flight of
fancy.
        If anyone has any information concerning an actual product that meets
        these basic requirements, I would LOVE to hear about it.  Thank you
        again.
        
                          --Ted G. Reed II, Engineering Storage Services  
                             Pager: (888)510-4934   Phone: (913)794-7826
        
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