SQL Server Setup - processors assigned

• Rich Cowan

  Old Hand

  Points: 316

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  September 1, 2006 at 1:11 pm

  #367305

  Basic question:  How can I tell how many processors my instance of SQL Server is using?

  Scenario:  Our client has recently gone to per processor licensing for their EA Licensing.  We use SMS to handle software discovery.  We have implemented a custom script to return Edition information to WMI that can then be collected by SMS.  Parto f the needed output is the number of processors (physical) on the box.  While SMS returns the number of processors; it does not automatically account for Hyper Threading.  So, if the box has hyper threading enabled, then the number of processors reporting back is actually doubled. 

  With that said, my first inclination was to determine if hyper threading was enabled on a box and just simply divide the number or procs reporting back by two to get the number of physical procs for a given box.  However, it dawned on me that during the installation and configuration of SQL Server, I could set the number of processors (affinity) that SQL could make use of.  So, now I need to know if I can "discover" the number of procs that SQL Server expects to be using.

  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Please feel free to ask for additional info in case I have not done a good job of asking this question.

  Thanks in advance for your help.

  R.

• Balmukund

  SSCertifiable

  Points: 6648

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  September 3, 2006 at 6:44 am

  #658205

  1. You can look into error logs of SQL server and look for below row.

  2006-09-02 05:54:25.660 Server Detected 2 CPUs. This is an informational message; no user action is required.

  2. Open SQL Server Management Studio and right click on server, go to properties.

   

  

  From the same screen you can set affinity also.

  HTH

   

• Rich Cowan

  Old Hand

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  September 6, 2006 at 8:06 am

  #658744

  Just an update on this thread.  According to the licensing agreement from MS, per processor licensing for SQL Server is set up this way. 

  For the physical box, you must pay for each processor available to each OS. 

  for each VM instance, you must pay for each proc that the VM instance has access to.

  The big question now is to determine how to report back the number of procs that a VM instance has access to.

  Thanks for the reply.

  R.