Re: [Nolug] Redhat 9 server eating ram like candy...

From: -ray <ray_at_ops.selu.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 17:58:10 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0403251744220.6707-100000@romulus.csd.selu.edu>

> I know the old 2x RAM rule, but I've found that as your ram increases,
> your need for swap decreases. I've done various tests with 64-768MB RAM
> and it seems like 256-512 swap is always more than you need. This is with
> both production servers and desktop systems, and also with laptops.

What about the new IBM p690 that supports 1 terabyte of memory. Do you
then need 2 terabytes of swap!!! In my experience most of the rules for
configuring swap have gone out the window as systems now have 1gb memory
or more. I never put more than 2gb of swap on a system, even on machines
that have 4-8 gb memory. If your system digs into more than 2gb of swap,
you have serious problems and chances are the system isn't usable by then
anyway. Don't waste time tuning your paging space... you should buy more
memory.

AIX used to require at least 1X real memory because page space was
pre-allocated when a program started, whether the program used it or not.
That has been gone for a while though. AIX 4.3.2 and higher uses deferred
paging, so paging space isn't used until needed.

ray

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Received on 03/25/04

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