On 24 Jul 99, at 20:31, Uzi Paz wrote:

> While we talk about this, I would like to have some discussion about
> minimum and maximum swap file sizes.

  I recommend that the minimum and maximum be set to the same amount, giving
a fixed swap file that cannot become fragmented.  [Putting it on its own
partition assures that it does not get created already fragmented.]

> What would be the recommended swap file minimum and maximum
> sizes, for some RAM size? If I remember correctly, recommended
> maximum is a bit more than the size of the RAM, but I know that many
> use much more than that.

  How much virtual memory you need depends on your application mix/load, not
on your installed physical RAM.  [If you have more physical RAM than you need,
you may want to improve performance by disabling virtual memory.]

  The assumption that common "rules of thumb" make is that your installed RAM
is not enough to disable virtual memory, but enough to avoid "thrashing"
(where multi-tasking spends all its time swapping virtual memory and program
execution slows to a crawl).  So about 1.5x to 3x installed RAM is pretty
typical.

> Let's say, that I'm using a dedicated logical drive for the swap file, what
> would be the recommended minimum is such a case?

  I recommend such a partition for two basic reasons:

1.  Avoids fragmenting the swap file.

2.  AVoids the swap file interfering with defragmenting a normal file volume.

> and If I'm not using a dedicated partition?

  I recommend you start.


David G

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