At 05:27 AM 2/10/99 +0200, Raider wrote [excerpts only]:
>On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, Ray Olszewski wrote:
>> make your swap partition twice the size of your physical RAM ... so, for
example
>>
>> 32 Mb RAM --> 64 Mb swap
>> 64 Mb RAM --> 128 Mb swap
>
> Don't you think this is too big? To run without swap can be a
>hazard. But to double the ram? The swap is extra ram, not the image of
>ram and extra ram.
As I said, it depends on the situation. With 8 Gb IDE drives under $200 (and
SCSIs not all that expensive either), wasting a bit of disk space seems
relatively low in cost, especially when weighed against the risk of process
failure due to lack of memory. I think the 2-to-1 rule of thumb comes from a
time when systems had relatively little RAM -- the first Linux server I
supported, about 5-6 years ago, was a '486/40 with 16 Mb -- and were trying
to do a lot with it -- that system, for example, was the primary server
(e-mail, ftp, gopher, DNS, a little http) for a small Internet domain.
These days, I think you have two real choices:
1. Do a careful analysis of what your server will be doing, then size both
RAM and swap accordingly. This may let you save money on RAM and disks, but
at considerable cost in time.
2. Put in plenty of RAM, then add in even more swap space. The space may sit
idle, but it's cheap, and you save a lot of time.
The appropriate decision will depend on the circumstances of the person
makeing it, or of his or her employer.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
762 Garland Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603
650.321.3561 voice 650.322.1209 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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