Re: [PLUG] swappiness and ssd

["Keith C. Perry" <kperry@daotechnologies.com>]

I've found I rarely need swap- once in the last year and it was a false alarm.  If I've got a lot of VMs running (which I do oversubscribe on my desktop), I'll turn it on just to make sure I don't run out of memory if a major workload is running.  If I ever get to that point, I can free up memory if swap becomes a bear.  Generally, when that has happened it's not a lot and I can pull things back into main memory when I'm done (i.e. I actually didn't need it).  My system runs better without it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. 
Owner, DAO Technologies LLC 
(O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 
(M) +1.215.432.5167 
www.daotechnologies.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Litt" <slitt@troubleshooters.com>
To: plug@lists.phillylinux.org
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2015 6:34:53 PM
Subject: Re: [PLUG] swappiness and ssd

On Fri, 10 Jul 2015 18:16:40 -0400 (EDT)
"Keith C. Perry" <kperry@daotechnologies.com> wrote:

> I know how to get usage but I didn't realize "swappiness" was a thing
> you could look up in proc.  That's pretty cool...
> 
> Even though, I leave swap off  :D

I leave swap on, but don't put it on SSD, and I don't do anything to
optimize it. To me, swap is like putting a 100 watt lightbulb in series
with an amplifier you're repairing. If you draw too much current (or
too much memory), it drastically decreases the voltage (or speed),
rather than burning up (crashing or killing procs).

When I see the machine slow way down, I look at virtual memory, and if
it's high I either:

1) Exit non-essential programs
2) Buy more RAM
3) Replace the offending program with a less piggy one.

I actually used #3 with Nautilus and with Kmail.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
July 2015 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug