On 2007-05-16, 23:58 GMT, Phil Meyer wrote: > Many automated tools used to assume swap == 2xRAM > > This is not true of any modern UNIX system, including Linux. > > So a system with 8GB RAM does NOT, in all likelihood, need 16GB swap. > > In fact, a 32bit UNIX/Linux kernel may be limited to 2GB swap MAX. If > you need more, you should lay it out in 2GB chunks. > > And further, a Linux system running 32bit kernels will waste anything > above 3GB RAM. It takes a special kernel mod to use more, and even then > its not quite 'native'. > > Therefore: > > Are you running a 64bit kernel on a system with 8GB or more RAM? > If so, a 16GB swap may indeed be useful in some very marginal > circumstances, such as many instances of Oracle on the same system. IIRC, the official Red Hat suggestion is still to use swap = 2xRAM. The reason I was told on RHCE training was that there are applications (ehm, ehm, Oracle) which are running significantly faster when there is plenty of swap space available EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T USE IT Of course, on the other hand, when you are installing Oracle you should probably go to the official documentation and install accordingly (and of course, you will be doing clean install anyway). And concerning more than 2GB RAM -- I think that it doesn't make any sense these days to use 32bit computers for such big computers anyway. Best, Matej
