IBM Support

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 limited to 1 TB memory maximum - IBM System x

Troubleshooting


Problem

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) is strictly limited to 1 Terabyte (TB) or less of physical memory addressing and will not report or use any memory above 1 TB of physical addressing. Memory reported above 1 TB that cannot be used by RHEL5 can be in the following two (2) forms: 1. Physically installed memory array larger than 1 TB such as 1.5 TB. 2. Reclaimed/remapped memory appended to the end of the physical memory when 1 TB is installed (this is memory that is typically behind the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) MMIO hole below 4 gigabytes (GB) and is reclaimed/remapped up high).

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H197026

Symptom

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) is strictly limited to 1 Terabyte (TB) or less of physical memory addressing and will not report or use any memory above 1 TB of physical addressing.

Memory reported above 1 TB that cannot be used by RHEL5 can be in the following two (2) forms:

  1. Physically installed memory array larger than 1 TB such as 1.5 TB.

  2. Reclaimed/remapped memory appended to the end of the physical memory when 1 TB is installed (this is memory that is typically behind the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) MMIO hole below 4 gigabytes (GB) and is reclaimed/remapped up high).

Affected configurations

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, any update

This tip is not system specific.
This tip is not option specific.

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software. Please see the compatibility page for more information: http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/

Additional information

The Red Hat web site is a bit confusing as it states that RHEL5 supports both "unlimited" and "1 TB" under different sections of its comparison page. RHEL5 is internally limited to 1 TB and users and support should reference the "Maximum memory" subsection of the "Technology capabilities and limits" section of the comparison page, which states 1 TB as the theoretical limit. The theoretical limit listed of 1 TB is also the empirically proven physical limit the Operating System (OS) can address.

For more information, refer to the "Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Server Version comparison chart," available at the following URL:

  http://www.redhat.com/rhel/compare/

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

System x:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

System x:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x86-64

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Document Information

Modified date:
30 January 2019

UID

ibm1MIGR-5084203