Intel X5570 - not quad-core?

[GDillon]

We just installed a Dell M610 blade with 2 Intel X5570 (Gainestown/Nehalem) CPUs. We enabled hyperthreading and installed ESX 3.5 Update 4. I noticed that in the VI client summary view of the host it shows 2 sockets and only 2 cores per socket with HT enabled = 8 logical processors. Based on the peak performace with VMs running I have foudn that I only get 4 cores worth of performance out of the system - 4 * 2.925 GHz = 11700 MHz. What I don't understand is -- isn't a X5570 processor supposed to be quad-core? Shouldn't I see 16 logical processors? Does vSphere show more cores than 3.5 on this processor?

-GDillon

[weinstein5]

One ing to keep in mind with ESX 3.5 you can only assign 4 vCPUs to a virtual machines which means you will only get 4 logical CPUs worth of processing power - if you want more than 4 vCOUs you will need toupgrade to vSphere ENterprise Plus where you can assign 8 vCPUs to a VM providing 8 Logical CPUs worth of processing power -

Now about the processor only showing 2 cores - that is an issue with the physical processor - are you sure it is a 5570 with quad core? I do not know if Intel made a 5570 with only 2 cores but it is possible - if you have a dual quad core with HT enabled yes you should get 16 logical CPUs -

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[GDillon]

This Intel page says its quad core, no exceptions listed. ESX definitely detects it as Intel XEON X5570. It should have 4 cores and 8 threads per socket with HT enabled then. Could it be that ESX 3.5 just can't handle this CPU?








-GDillon

[glynnd1 · Accepted solution]

Dillon, check the BIOS, there is a setting in the for disabling two of the cores per CPU.

[AntonVZhbankov]

Looks like half of the cores are disabled.

Change CPU settings in BIOS, enable all cores.

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[GDillon]

Thanks. we though we had tried that but apparently it just didn't take the first time. It is reporting 4 cores per socket now.




-GDillon