CPU Compatibility

[jedcrossley]

We have two Dell R710 Servers with the Intel Xeon X5650 CPUs in a cluster. We have another Dell R710 Server we would like to add to the cluster, but it a Intel Xeon X550 CPU.

Are these CPU's in the same family? Can we run them in the same cluster without using EVC Compatibility Mode?

I am hoping that is the case. Thanks in advance!

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

According to the HCL, the Intel Xeon 56xx Series CPU's EVC Modes are Intel® Merom Generation, Intel® Penryn Generation, Intel® Nehalem Generation and Intel® Westmere Generation, where the latter is the one used without EVC enabled. Intel Xeon 55xx Series CPU's only support the first 3 Modes, which means you will have to run the hosts in an EVC enabled cluster. Since the VM's on the X56xx hosts use newer CPU features you may not be able to change the EVC mode without downtime.

André

[jedcrossley]

Will we lose much by running in EVC mode? My assumption is, EVC mode just runs at the lower CPU architecture, or is there more to it than that?

Thanks for the quick answer!

[a_p_]

There may be some new instructions which will not be used with EVC enabled, but unless your guests/applications are built to explicitly use these instructions, you may not notice a performance difference. If you want to know the exact differences, you'll need to check out Intel's specifications for the different CPUs you are using.

André