[K12OSN] Quick Question about Swap partitions

[Les Mikesell]

Jim Kronebusch wrote:
> How big should they be?  I have read places that too large of a Swap partition is bad, I
> have also read that a good rule of thumb is to make your swap partition twice the size
> of your RAM.  In my case I have 16GB of RAM.  Does that mean I should have 32GB swap
> partitions?  Also most recommendations for swap partition sizes are for single user
> machines (Desktops).  In the case of LTSP we have many users on one machine (108 in my
> current case).  So is the swap size dependent also on how many concurrent users are
> accessing files?  
> 
> If anyone could point out a good way of determining swap size for LTSP servers I would
> appreciate it.

It depends on the use pattern, but on machines I've seen as you get 
close to 2 gigs into swap the machine will be so slow and unresponsive 
that you'll probably reboot it before it would recover - if it ever 
does.  The main point is that you need enough RAM. Swap will keep the 
machine from crashing if you run short momentarily but its not a real 
substitute.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com