Planning for Swap Space
The most important factors in determining swap space size are the requirements of
the system's software applications. For example, large applications such as computer-aided design simulators,
database management products, transaction monitors, and geologic analysis systems can consume as much
as 200–1000 Mbytes of swap space.
Consult your application vendors for swap space requirements for their applications.
If you are unable to determine swap space requirements from your application vendors,
use the following general guidelines based on your system type to allocate swap
space.
System Type |
Swap Space Size |
Dedicated Dump Device Size |
|---|
Workstation with about 4 Gbytes of
physical memory |
1 Gbyte |
1 Gbyte |
Mid-range server with about 8 Gbytes of physical memory |
2
Gbytes |
2 Gbytes |
High-end server with about 16 to 128 Gbytes of physical memory |
4
Gbytes |
4 Gbytes |
In addition to these general guidelines, consider allocating swap space or disk space
for the following:
A dedicated dump device.
Determine whether large applications (such as compilers) will be using the /tmp directory. Then, allocate additional swap space to be used by TMPFS. For information about TMPFS, see Swap Space and the TMPFS File System.
