Windows Server 2008 R2 Maximum Processor Limit Confusion

hardwarewindows-server-2008-r2

As I was looking through the Windows Server 2008 R2 specifications, I saw that the maximum supported processors is 64 sockets for Datacenter addition. This puts the maximum number or cores at 256 (if all sockets are quad cores), which I think it's just silly, but whatever.

And now the questions:

  1. How does one set something like that up? (Obviously not for me, but humor me)
  2. Are there multiple dual socket motherboards running in a giant case with a ton of memory?
  3. How does the OS see all of the CPUs if they're on different boards?
  4. What would be a real world example of a need to have 64 sockets attached to one operating system vs 32 2 socket servers?

Best Answer

  1. HP Superdome. IBM has some hardware which will scale that large as well, don't remember the hardware model though.
  2. Nope.
  3. N/A
  4. SQL Server, Oracle, DB2. That's pretty much it.

The SQLCat team has documented some customers using systems this large. Here is one example and here is another.

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