I'm reposting a CFTalk thread that I just responded to regarding a comment that CFMX 6.1 Standard (Professional) will not use more than one processor on a multi-proc machine. From what I have observed CFMX Standard will utilize multiple processors, and from my reading of the license agreement it is legal to use one licensed copy on a server having up to 8 CPUs.
> 1) Cold Fusion MX Professional (not Enterprise) will only use one CPU.
> If you want to take advantage of both CPU's on that box then you will need to use
> ColdFusion Enterprise.
That's not quite accurate. CFMX Standard (Professional) will use more than one CPU if available.
Here I tested ColdFusion Standard with a smp dual proc machine running RH9 and an smp kernel. My test was simply holding down the F5 key for about 20 seconds while running top to monitor CPU. In the captured output, you see the cfusion process using 99.9% CPU and the CPU0 shows 97% for user processes, and CPU1 shows 98%.
uname -a Linux <hostname> 2.4.20-6smp #1 SMP Thu Feb 27 09:59:40 EST 2003 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
top 13:01:49 up 92 days, 22:42, 3 users, load average: 0.57, 0.14, 0.04
124 processes: 120 sleeping, 4 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 97.0% user 1.0% system 0.0% nice 0.0% iowait 0.1% id
CPU1 states: 98.0% user 0.0% system 0.0% nice 0.0% iowait 1.0% id
Mem: 1013368k av, 995316k used, 18052k free, 0k shrd, 141852k bu
685280k actv, 0k in_d, 15060k in_c
Swap: 2040244k av, 25236k used, 2015008k free 541276k ca
PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND
15595 nobody 25 0 74984 73M 5376 S 99.9 7.3 321:43 1 cfusion
As far as license use of CFMX Standard on multi processor machines, here is what I get out of the license agreement.
You know, those 15 screens that we all whip through when installing. ;-)
Section 1 Definitions, part (d) and (j) read as follows regarding CPU-based and Server-based software:
Definitions (d) "CPU-Based Software" means, if applicable, a Software (including, but not limited to, Macromedia Flash Remoting software, Macromedia JRun, and the Enterprise Edition of Macromedia ColdFusion software that is not CFMX 6.1 Enterprise Update) that is not a Server-Based Software.
(j) "Server-Based Software" means, if applicable, Macromedia Flash Communication Server software, CFMX 6.1 Enterprise Update, or the Standard Edition of Macromedia ColdFusion software.
Section 3 License Restrictions, part (o) reads as follows:
License Restrictions (o) If and only if the Software is a CFMX 6.1 Enterprise Update or a Standard Edition of the Macromedia ColdFusion software : You may not install the Software on a computer with more than eight (8) CPUs unless you purchase additional licenses to the Software such that the aggregate number of such licenses you have purchased for such installation is equal to, or greater than, the quotient (rounded up to the nearest whole number) obtained by dividing by eight (8) the number of CPUs for such server in which the Software is installed.
From these definitions and restrictions, it appears to me that you are legally permitted to use CFMX 6.1 Standard on machines having up to 8 CPUs, although I'm certainly not the final word on that matter. Regardless of the license, the server will take advantage of multi CPU's as demonstrated earlier.
This can be confusing when referring to the Macromedia ColdFusion Product Editions page where CFMX 6.1 Standard is priced per server whereas CFMX 6.1 Enterprise is priced per 2 CPUs. So while you would need 4 Enterprise licenses (4x$5,999) for an 8 proc machine, you would only need 1 Standard license ($1299) if you are satified with the limited feature set in Standard. Although Enterprise has a broader feature set, performance is the same in Standard and Enterprise.
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One additional thing that's worthy to mention is that you can split your CFMX Enterprise (and also JRun) license in two different mono-CPU machines (for example a cluster of two servers with a single CPU each).