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Old 9th July 2008
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2008
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Configuring swap space is insurance, but ultimately it depends on the system & how it is used. Being familiar with standard performance metrics observable with tools like top(1) is imperative -- especially in situations where space which would/should be configured as swap is scrimped upon.

The old adage of configuring 2x the amount of RAM has to be tempered with usage & what resources are available. Like DrJ, I am more liberal with configuring swap on systems where disk space is not an issue. However, on smaller systems were extremely limited storage is available (firewalls...), I reduce swap significantly.

Paraphrasing BSDfan666, the lack of any configured swap space can really hurt if it isn't available. Thus, I like the insurance of configured swap space on servers which are exposed to the wiles of the Internet. Yet for desktop systems, I can be more experimental because I'm more in control of what loads they are subjected.

Ultimately, the decision is yours, & if you can justify your decisions & live with the consequences if your decisions are wrong, go for it.
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