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I believe you need to be running a 64 bit OS in order to access more than 4GB of memory.
You are not correct.
Quote:
I would check to make sure server A is not a 32 bit OS.
The OP already quoted info demonstrating both are 32 bit.
Normally I would guess that it can't see the extra memory because it is a non PAE kernel. But in this case (until the OP says otherwise) I will guess both systems have the same kernel. One of those must be PAE (because it can see 10GB) so if they are the same kernel, both are PAE.
Assuming the kernel is PAE, that test will confirm that the problem is in the BIOS and/or the motherboard. Even a BIOS that can see 6GB of ram doesn't necessarily configure the 6GB of ram to let the OS use it.
In many cases there is an option in the BIOS memu (maybe called something like "enable memory remapping") to tell the BIOS to let the OS use all the memory. There are unfortunately many other names that the BIOS might have for the option to allow use of all of the ram. So first verify (with dmesg | less) that the problem really is in BIOS or motherboard. Then search the whole BIOS menu for anything likely. If you have a URL for an online manual for the motherboard, I might take a look.
If that dmesg result says the BIOS/Motherboard are not the problem, see my discussion in that same other post I linked about looking for the HIGHMEM settings in the kernel config. But I can't tell you for Suse exactly where to find the kernel config or what exactly it is named. My example was for Centos.
My guess is that when the original install was done
since the server had 6 GB which we upgraded to 10 GB the SLES automatically installed the bigsmp kernel
and the server which had 2 GB which we now upgraded to 6 GB automatiacally installed the smp kernel
Now - how do I switch the kernel from smp to bigsmp kernel in SLES9 and what is the impact ?
how do I switch the kernel from smp to bigsmp kernel in SLES9 and what is the impact ?
Hopefully the only impact is that it will become able to use the 6GB of ram.
I don't know what the package manager is for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server.
In several other distributions, you can install a new kernel through the ordinary package management software (the same way you might install some new program).
Unlike most program installs, it won't take effect until you reboot.
In the distributions I've used, installing a kernel package adds to or edits the list of kernel choices at boot time so the default choice is the new one, while the previous one is available as an option (in case you discover that changing kernels was a bad idea).
If the repositories are still maintained - SLES9 is pretty old as can be seen by the kernel level. SLES11 is current, and SLES10 had a couple of service packs.
Novell are generally pretty good with service though.
a) How do I install the new kernel - do i rpm -ivh kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.244.i586.rpm
b) what is the impact of installing a new kernel -
will I have to rebuild any jar files or compile any applications ?
In principle, you can use the rpm commamnd (but probably have to adjust the grub menu manually afterwards, to boot the new kernel) or yast and probably something else (SuSE went through a few iterations before settling on zypper as the way forward and while I'm reasonably convinced that this version pre-dates the change to zypper, I'm not sure what it does use - yum, maybe).
What I would caution you about, however, is security updates. You have an old, old version, and the version numbers makes it look as if there have been no kernel updates since the disk was pressed. It seems implausible that there have been no updated kernels out of SuSE in this extended time period, so my guess is that your predecessor was not in the habit of doing updates, even when they were security updates.
This may not concern you, but it would concern me.
This presents a problem; if you just do a 'big bang' update, that pulls in several year's worth of changes (on both/all servers), you'll probably break stuff, and that might be a disaster. If you leave security issues, security issues known to the world of miscreants, that might be a disaster. (Depending on what the servers actually do; there might be an area in which security is not an issue, but I have to admit that it doesn't immediately come to mind. Or, maybe, you can assure yourself that the fixed issues do not affect anything that you use, if the servers have a very narrow set of things that they do. Possibly.)
You really need a test server that you can test out updates on, before rolling out updates to your production systems, with reduced risk of surprises. Err, and I'm betting that you don't have the test server at this point.
Sorry to be Mr Negative, but maybe a bit more background will make my concerns seem less significant in your particular case.
will I have to rebuild any jar files or compile any applications ?
No. All the application programs will see no difference other than more of them can fit in memory at once.
As for all the RPM questions, I think I know less than you do.
If there is a grub issue to be dealt with after the rpm, I barely know enough to blunder my way through if I were doing it myself. Not nearly enough to tell you what to expect. Salasi seems to be saying some grub menu change is likely to be needed. You might want to compare the /boot/grub/menu.lst files between the two servers after installing that package (unless you just know enough about grub to fix it without help).
I thought I said I know less about what rpm command to use or whether to use it or what it would do.
The helpful to others (I hope) fraction of 1937 posts at best imply there are a few narrow sub topics within the world of Linux on which I'm an expert. It certainly does not mean I'm a Linux expert.
In this thread, I was trying to be a PAE expert, certainly not a SuSE expert.
At the beginning of the thread (and again with your side question about applications effects) you seemed to need a PAE expert.
Personally I think you should use yast - that way you'll get grub updated properly.
As for applications, they won't know or care. They will be still limited to a 4 Gig virtual address space.
Sounds like you have your hands on a SuSE CD and haven't signed for support. I have a SLES11 system like that, but it does get frustrating not having updates. Works o.k. to test basic functionality in a test lab, but I wouldn't use it anywhere else.
Salasi seems to be saying some grub menu change is likely to be needed.
That is exactly what I was saying; if I was doing this, I would do it via yast, because I am pretty sure that doing it that way probably would cope with the grub change 'automagically'. I don't absolutely know, but I suspect that doing it via the rpm command won't do that. This should not be a big problem, but if you aren't aware of the possibility, you could get very confused. (And submit a rather confusing question in a new thread, and that's really what I am hoping to avoid.)
@johnsfine
Quote:
I thought I said I know less about what rpm command to use or whether to use it or what it would do.
It is important to note that when you ask a question with several aspects, people will often chime in with the part that they know, and expect other people to chime in with other parts. John's position is exactly what you would expect from someone who primarily uses a non-rpm distro, or an rpm distro which uses some other software to manage rpms.
In this way, the community builds an answer to the questions asked, even though few, or even none, of the people reading the question know the whole answer.
I am going to take the CD's home and I have a spare computer
I shall load SUSE 9 (4 CD's ) and also SP3 (3 CD's)
Once that is done - I shall then install the new BigSMP using YAST2
When I am successfull I shall again post a message in this thread
Please expect a post tomorrow morning before 10 am PST
I like to set deadlines for myself so that I am now sure to try my best to finish this before my deadline.
Thanks a lot for setting me on the YAST2 Path rather than the rpm and then the grub fix
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