servers - dual proc work with single?

[trading_jacks]

I am curious if most dual processor motherboards will work with just a single processor?
We are looking at purchasing a server that doesn't really need huge processing power, but I thought if dual would provide redundancy (assuming one fails and somehow nothing else does) then that would definately be the way to go.

 

[Sevren]

You can use only 1 CPU in a dual socket motherboard, yes.

But CPUs don't fail just like that. Hard drives do, power supplies do. Have redudant hard drives in RAID 1 or 5, and have redudant power supplies. Use ECC memory.

 

[trading_jacks]

Yeah I know the odds are against it, but the server is to have maximum availability. Just wanted to verify that IF one did die, it could resume with only one CPU.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Sevren]

Just to make things clear, the motherboard will function with only 1 CPU, but it doesn't mean that your server will not crash if 1 CPU dies when using dual processors.

By that I mean that a dual socket motherboard will boot with 1 or 2 CPUs. But if your server is actively running with 2 CPUs and 1 dies, chances are your server will crash and you will have to reboot. To be honest this is something that rarely occurs so it's hard to predict what will happen. Is the CPU just unstable, or did it completely die? If it died completely, the system should notice the dead CPU and reboot cleanly with only 1 CPU. If the CPU is just unstable, the system may reboot with both CPUs and eventually your system will crash again. Not an easy problem to diagnose, when it happens.

But I wouldn't worry about it unless you plan to overclock the CPUs.

You will have maximum availability by using multiple hard drives, using redundant power supplies (that plugs into different power circuits if possible), using redundant network connections, and having an efficient disaster recovery plan in case of data loss.

Good luck!