[Asterisk-Users] Brainstorming dual-core and Asterisk

[Matt Roth]

Jim Van Meggelen wrote:

>Let me run something that's been floating about in my noggin by
>everyone:
>
>Given that Asterisk does not make use of dual core CPUs or dual
>processors...
>
Jim,

That statement bothered me, because we are running Asterisk on a 
multi-processor system to help accomplish our scalability goals.  I did 
some double-checking on it by talking to Matt O'Gorman of Digium.  Here 
is what he had to say:

"Asterisk makes use of both processors for 99% of things.  There are 
some things like IAX parser or SIP parser that only run on one thread 
(although Mark [Spencer] recently did multi-threaded IAX), but the heavy 
stuff like each call spawns a new thread and Linux being awesome like it 
is will share the load across processors.  I mean just run top, you will 
see load should be fairly balanced."

On our production server we are currently handling ~90 concurrent calls 
with digital recording via Monitor as well as ~200 dynamic agents logged 
in.  top shows us running around 80% idle with processor 0 hovering 
around 70% idle, and processors 1, 2, and 3 around 85%.

Your VMWare idea is very interesting, but I think it's unnecessary.  I 
believe that Asterisk *does* perform better with HyperThreading/logical 
processors disabled.

Matthew Roth
InterMedia Marketing Solutions
Software Engineer and Systems Developer