Is swap really needed when RAM's aplenty

[JB]

Sam Varshavchik <mrsam <at> courier-mta.com> writes:

> 
> 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.
> 

It is a matter of having it ready when you need it.
Even if you may think you do not need it, a software installation may check for
it.

Example:
2.1.2 Server Component Swap Space Requirements
Table 2 Swap Space Requirements for Oracle Database XE Server 10g
Your Computer's RAM         	Swap Space Needed
Between 0 and 256 megabytes     3 times the size of RAM
Between 256 and 512 megabytes   2 times the size of RAM
512 megabytes and greater       1024 megabytes

JB