Andrew Hume <[email protected]> writes:

> i know, i know. this is an old chestnut.
> we used to have swap 2-3x main memory,
> but nowadays the wisdom is that that old rule
> is no longer applicable. (this is on RHE5.)
> so here i am, with a 128GB memory system with 16GB of swap.
> and here i am, killing the system by running it out of swap.
> 
> my observation is that if i have large memory, i will use it.
> (to say nothing of memory leaks etc.)
> and if i have a few multiple large memory processes,
> why wouldn't i want swap sized at 2-3x memory?


So, here's a question.  Have any of you tried turning off memory overcommit?
or turning it way down?  it seems that would remove the worst problems
with the oom killer (of course, many things still don't properly
check the return of malloc, so it might not help as much as I think,
which is why I'm asking)  


Personally, I still use the 2x-3x rule, but that's mostly because the
things I care about (Xen Dom0s)  only have a gig of ram, and taking a
performance hit in the dom0 is not a big deal compared to the dom0
becoming unreachable.  (A dom0 swapping would slow down guests as much
as any other guest swapping;  e.g. it wouldn't be all that bad.  
oom-killer, otoh, is kinda terrifying.

I haven't personally tried removing memory overcommit, but I've considered it
(along with, of course, a bunch of swap)  
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