Number of cores per forest in Marklogic
As per the documentation: If the content is updated on a regular basis, each forest should ideally have two processors (or cores) for each forest. For example, a dual-processor / dual-core machine must have two 256GB forests, and a quad-processor / dual-core system must have four 256GB forests.
Does this mean that a forest can run with 1 core, but should ideally have two cores? Statement and example tend to contradict each other.
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As far as I know, this is more about competition for resources than strict requirements. You could probably host 10 forests with even one core, but that would not help performance. More cores simply means more work can be done in parallel. 1 or 2 cores in a forest is a good rule of thumb. If you have 2, you can work with queries and the second is busy updating. Again, if you are only asking, this may be enough.
It is always good to monitor the CPU load at peak load. You don't want the system to idle a lot (excess capacity) unless you expect an increase, but you don't want to overload either (100% maximum). CPU load between 50% and 75% sounds right.
NTN!
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The first line is a bit ambiguous. The first sentence does seem to actually refer to streams, as this is how the examples are measured. Since MarkLogic assumes Intel chips, each core has 2 threads. Thus, the recommendation is really 2 streams per forest.
So in the first example, you have 2 cores of 2 threads each for 4 threads to support 2 forests. The second has 4 cores with 2 threads each for 8 threads, to support 4 forests.
But as Gert mentioned, you need to look at performance. These guidelines do not take into account things like Antivirus on the host system, a heavyweight application, or other things that can also consume cycles.
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