Re: License / CPU utilization question

Hi Bob,

Just to confirm what has already been said, BizTalk Server Ent. Edition will
not impose any CPU utilization restriction. Also for the Hyperthreading
question, here is an extract of the BizTalk Performance blog that should give
you the answer you are looking for:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a Hyper-threaded server:

If you have a hyper-threaded server, then the number of processors perceived
by the BizTalk send host doubles the actual number of processors. So if you
had a dual processor BizTalk server and if we assume that the default value
for the maximum number of message instances processed at once is 200 (so,
”HighWatermark” value is equal to 200), then the BizTalk process hosting the
Send Host will load a maximum of:
[HighWatermark Value]*[NumberOfProcessors for a Hyper-threaded machine]
= 200 * [NumberOfProcessors * 2]
= 200 * [2 * 2]
= 200 * 4
= 800 messages in-memory

So, in a case where you have a dual processor hyper-threaded BizTalk server
with 2GigaBytes of RAM that’s under high stress, there is a possibility that
SendHost will get into an Out of Memory state. The process in this case will
be loading 800 messages (as calculated above) in memory. The following graph
shows an example of such a case where the memory usage of the send host
process grew very rapidly to 1.5 Giga Bytes in less than 15 minutes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can find the complete article on the BizTalk Performance Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalkperformance/

I hope this answer your question.

Patrick Chouinard
BPI Analyst
http://www.cactuscommerce.com


"Bob Bracey" wrote:

> Thanks for the helpful links... I will research this some more, and
> if anyone else cares to comment, please do so.
>
> -- Bob
>
> "Tomas Restrepo (MVP)" wrote:
>
> > Hi Bob,
> >
> > > We have BTS04 STD deployed to a dual cpu server w/ hyperthreading.
> > >
> > > If we purchase a 2 x CPU BTS04 ENT license, should we turn hyperthreading
> > > off, or leave it on (thereby using 4 virtual CPU's, each limited to 50%
> > > utilization by the code)?
> >
> > To be totally honest, I'm not sure. I think you can leave it on, although
> > there are some recomendations around on tuning BTS so it performs better
> > with hyperthreading (see
> > http://blogs.msdn.com/darrenj/archive/2005/04/17/409068.aspx and
> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/bts_2004wp/html/04d20926-20d2-4098-b701-52238a267eba.asp).
> >
> > I don't think for enterprise MS actually enforces the processor limit, and I
> > would think that BizTalk licensing follows the Windows Server 2003 licensing
> > practice of being based on physical processors and not logical ones, but I
> > can't say for sure. Anyone has any official word on this?
> >
> >
> > --
> > Tomas Restrepo
> > tomasr@xxxxxxxx
> > http://www.winterdom.com/
> >
> >
> >
.

Relevant Pages