Topic: New server, 8GB of RAM, SME only sees 3.6GB

[Franco]

Hi,
Beating my head searching on centos forums as well. Topic says it all:

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Handle 0x0038
        DMI type 20, 19 bytes.
        Memory Device Mapped Address
                Starting Address: 0x00000000000
                Ending Address: 0x0007FFFFFFF
                Range Size: 2 GB
                Physical Device Handle: 0x0037
                Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003F
                Partition Row Position: 1
                Interleave Position: 1
                Interleaved Data Depth: 1


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[root@quattor ~]# dmesg | less
Linux version 2.6.9-78.0.8.EL (mockbuild@builder16.centos.org) (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3
.4.6-10)) #1 Wed Nov 19 19:43:32 EST 2008
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000dfcee000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfcee000 - 00000000dfd96000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfd96000 - 00000000dfdfa000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfdfa000 - 00000000dfe5f000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfe5f000 - 00000000dfe68000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfe68000 - 00000000dfedf000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfedf000 - 00000000dfee6000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfee6000 - 00000000dfeff000 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfeff000 - 00000000dff00000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dff00000 - 00000000e0000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000f0000000 - 00000000f4000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fff80000 - 00000000fff8c000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000220000000 (usable)
Warning only 4GB will be used.
[b]Use a PAE enabled kernel[/b].
3200MB HIGHMEM available.
896MB LOWMEM available.

then:

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[root@quattor ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 23
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X3370  @ 3.00GHz
stepping        : 10
cpu MHz         : 2992.560
cache size      : 6144 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr [b]pae[/b] mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pni tm2
bogomips        : 5988.11

Thanks for any advice!

[jokiin]

I thought the kernel was only a 32 bit version

[Franco]

I thought the kernel was only a 32 bit version

I'm sure it's 32bit, wiki states 16GB RAM and possibly 64GB with hugemem http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ#Memory_usage_and_limits

Thanks,

[jokiin]

ok, I would have expected it to be similar to other 32 bit O/S in regard to memory

[vpurger]

Using the wrong kernel, try the SMP kernel.

[cactus]

Using the wrong kernel, try the SMP kernel.

No in this case I think OP should use the hugemem kernel as the SMP kernel is meant for multicore machines.

[vpurger]

... and CPU is Intel Xeon Quad-Core X3370 3.0 GHz CPU !!

Linux version 2.6.9-78.0.22.ELsmp (mockbuild@builder10.centos.org) (gcc version
3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-10)) #1 SMP Thu Apr 30 19:14:39 EDT 2009
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009ec00 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009ec00 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000dfcf0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfcf0000 - 00000000dfd96000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfd96000 - 00000000dfdfd000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfdfd000 - 00000000dfe5f000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfe5f000 - 00000000dfe6a000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfe6a000 - 00000000dfedf000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfedf000 - 00000000dfee7000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfee7000 - 00000000dfeff000 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dfeff000 - 00000000dff00000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000dff00000 - 00000000e0000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000f0000000 - 00000000f4000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fff80000 - 00000000fff8c000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000220000000 (usable)
7808MB HIGHMEM available.
896MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000fd1f0
NX (Execute Disable) protection: active
On node 0 totalpages: 2228224

[Franco]

Using the wrong kernel, try the SMP kernel.

That did it!

No in this case I think OP should use the hugemem kernel as the SMP kernel is meant for multicore machines.

According to the wiki, hugemem should be for over 16GB.

Thanks a lot!

[Stefano]

No in this case I think OP should use the hugemem kernel as the SMP kernel is meant for multicore machines.

any cpu from P IV is multicore and so, AFAIK, the proper kernel is the smp one..

my 2c
Stefano

[slords]

Even if you aren't using multi-core/multi-proc but want to use > 4GB mem you need to use the smp kernel.  The standard kernel will only see ~4GB.