Recommended sizes for file systems

[Ed Wilts, RHCE]

On 11/22/2004 06:26 AM, John Summerfield wrote:

> Then there's the management issue. The ROT says size should be twice the size 
> of available RAM.
> 
> My Athlon has 512 Mbytes of RAM. Pretend it has 1 Gb swap.
> 
> If I decide RAM is cheap, I'll add 1 Gbyte of RAM. What should I do with swap:
> 1. Extend it to 3 Gbytes?
> 2. Remove it?
> 3. Leave it be?
> 4. I'm confused.
> 
> If it's been working fairly well before, I'd like to reclaim the disk space. 
> Option 1 just seem too silly for words:-)
> 
> Now, if it's a swap file then options 1 and 2 are dead simple.

Nobody said that you couldn't have a combination of a swap partition and 
a swap file.  In fact, I ended up having to do this not that long ago 
for reasons that I can't get into but the system ran fine with one of each.

If it was me in your situation, I'd leave it be with 1GB swap and 1.5GB 
ram.  If you run into problems down the road, you can always add a 2GB 
swap file but unless you really, really beat on it, you're going to have 
a tough time filling all the memory and swap.  Having a 1GB swap file or 
partition hanging around doesn't seem like much of a waste of disk space 
when you're talking about today's prices.

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program