Questions on licensing a second processor in SQL Anywhere 16

[former_SQLA_member1694871]

I'm working with a group that has a large system running in SQL Anywhere 16.

We're working on trying to get some speed improvements out of the system.

One of the things we recommended was adding an additional processor license to their server.

When I ran the dblic on the server, it showed up that it was the workgroup edition. It currently was assigned to one processor. Had their user name and company name. But it did not have a registration key applied.

I had them to go the SAP Portal and check their licenses. They found their key that should be applied. But for some reason, it never was.

My question is this. If a valid registration key is not applied to the license file, will it physically go and use the 2nd processor license that we added when we changed the number of processor licenses to 2? And if so, beyond looking at the license file, is there any place for us to look at the server (through SQL Central, or another utility), and confirm that 2 processors are in use?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Jeff Gibson
Intercept Solutions
Nashville, TN

[johnsmirnios]

The license file governs what processors will be used.

At startup, the server displays license information and the CPUs that will be used. You will see messages like the following:

I. 06/12 12:14:09. This server is licensed to use: all logical processors in the system

I. 06/12 12:14:09. Processors in use by server: 48 logical processor(s) on 24 core(s) on 2 physical processor(s)

You can also "call sa_cpu_topology()" to see which processors are in use.

[former_SQLA_member1694871]

Thanks for the info on that John. Only question is, because the registration key is (for whatever reason), missing from the license information, will that render the processor setting of 2 unable to work?

[johnsmirnios]

The license key is used to set processor restriction information in the .lic file. If you haven't applied the license key, you will have whatever restrictions you had from the outset (and I'm not clear on how those initial values get set -- probably by the installer based on the key used at install time). I don't know if we store the license key in the .lic file. All that really matters is the CPU limitations that are encoded in there and the startup messages will tell you what they are.