Making use of other processors on Mac?

[Mark Daniel]

Perhaps it's different on other platforms, but I've noticed that even on my quad-core Xeon-based Mac Pro, Zimbra OE only uses a single processor (the 180-thread java process will eat up to 100% of a single processor, while other zimbra-related processes will eat up 1-2% of the other processors).

Is there a means of getting the 180 or so threads of the java process to use the other processors/cores? Is there a means of spreading the load (pun intended!)?

[jholder]

Hi-
This may be because of Bug 7039 - System kernel panic when zimbra server is mac dual core intel

We've confirmed with Apple that this is a Mac/Java bug and not a Zimbra bug.

I wish I could provide more info, but we won't really know until we get more input from apple. We've filed a bug with them on it.

john

[jbareMACS]

Hi-
This may be because of Bug 7039 - System kernel panic when zimbra server is mac dual core intel

We've confirmed with Apple that this is a Mac/Java bug and not a Zimbra bug.

I wish I could provide more info, but we won't really know until we get more input from apple. We've filed a bug with them on it.

john

I've followed that bug with interest. Java on Mac OS X is multi-threaded, so it should show more than 100% processor usage in top / Activity Monitor. In fact, on our PowerPC G5 Xserve, we regularly crapped out the processors at 200% running ZCS.

Since we switched to Intel, we have never achieved that level of processor usage (thankfully). The highest peaks I see in Server Admin for the past 7 days are in the 60-70% range, but it doesn't have the resolution to show each individual processor for time range.

On a side note, we have experienced random kernel panics since migrating to the Intel Xserve, but they are infrequent and the server reboots automatically.

[Mark Daniel]

I've followed that bug with interest. Java on Mac OS X is multi-threaded, so it should show more than 100% processor usage in top / Activity Monitor. In fact, on our PowerPC G5 Xserve, we regularly crapped out the processors at 200% running ZCS.

Since we switched to Intel, we have never achieved that level of processor usage (thankfully). The highest peaks I see in Server Admin for the past 7 days are in the 60-70% range, but it doesn't have the resolution to show each individual processor for time range.

On a side note, we have experienced random kernel panics since migrating to the Intel Xserve, but they are infrequent and the server reboots automatically.

Really! I've set up a few Zimbra boxes, most on Intel Macs, and I haven't seen any that will allow the Java process to spill over to other processors. I'll have to check on the older PPC server I have at home. The intel Macs I've set up as Zimbra servers are Mac mini's and a few Mac Pro's (our current testing server is a Mac Pro, and it's running 4.5.7, just taken up to 4.5.8). The boxes have all been running 10.4.8-10 Server.

Do you actually see multiple "java" entries in your Activity Viewer, or does the single 180-threaded "java" process show >102% processor usage?

[jbareMACS]

I have not seen more than 100% usage on our current server. The jumps in the processor graph of Server Admin are probably around 1 AM when the backup runs. Under the normal user load, we see around 20% max.

There is only one java process on our server, which has around 200 threads.

Java should definitely utilize multiple processors under Mac OS X 10.4.

Also, we are running ZCS Network Edition 4.5.6.