Is swap really needed when RAM's aplenty

[Bill Davidsen]

Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> I'll probably have a new server with 16 gigs of RAM on the way, soon.
> 
> With this amount of RAM being sufficient, do I really need a swap 
> partition set up? I do understand that a swap partition is needed for 
> hibernation, but this server does not need to hibernate.
> 
If by "really needed" you mean will the system run without, then no. if you mean 
can bad things happen other than running out of memory, maybe. I never found a 
good reason not to have swap, on a server at least a few GB larger than memory, 
on a desktop 2x the size of the largest single process you expect to run.

If you have that much memory I would hope you have enough disk that this isn't a 
means of saving disk space. :-(

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot