CPU affinity, interrupts and old kernel bug

This is an old story and AFAIK were address ages ago in Linux kernel, but there are still plenty of CentOS/RHEL 5 running and you still might be hit by the problem with kernel not properly balancing interrupts from hardware, so the that below list of the links my be helpful. In bug report network card are mentioned, but it might affect other components (i.e. raid controllers from HP - cciss drivers).

If you would like to learn more there is a set of good links:

1. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=432451
2. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24290_01/coh.371/e22838/tune_perftune.htm
3. http://www.alexonlinux.com/smp-affinity-and-proper-interrupt-handling-in-linux
4. http://www.alexonlinux.com/msi-x-the-right-way-to-spread-interrupt-load
5. http://www.alexonlinux.com/why-interrupt-affinity-with-multiple-cores-is-not-such-a-good-thing