Arch Linux

RevertTS

Member

Registered: 2006-02-25

Posts: 85

Swap Space on a (very) Small Server

I'm setting up a small fileserver/remote login box at my house.  Mostly it'll just be used for running torrents and the like (I wanted a low-power system I could leave on 24/7); later it might be turned into a firewall.  It's a mini-itx board, so it's got a built-in 800mhz processor, 512mb of ram, and an 814mb harddrive.

Since the harddrive's so small, I'm concerned about how much space I should devote, if any, to the swap partition.  Obviously 2x ram isn't even a possibility.  I'm not expecting to have a very large install; it'll mostly just be a base install + rtorrent, ssh, w3m, and the like (no X Windows).  Would there really be any reason at all to have a swap partition on a machine such as this?

Thanks for any help.

Edit: I forgot to mention data storage'll be on an external drive.

Last edited by RevertTS (2007-02-01 21:16:29)

slux

Member

From: Rome

Registered: 2007-01-23

Posts: 23

Website

Re: Swap Space on a (very) Small Server

umh.. put the swap partition on a pen driver (for instance 256mb)? if the swapper is rarely invoked, the life of the pen is safe!
u can set the swappiness percents:

echo "20" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

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iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Swap Space on a (very) Small Server

put the swap on the external drive, or even, install the system to an external source, and use the internal for swap. 512mb swap should be fine.

James

RevertTS

Member

Registered: 2006-02-25

Posts: 85

Re: Swap Space on a (very) Small Server

install the system to an external source, and use the internal for swap.

I had thought of swapping to external, but that hadn't occured to me.  I think I'm going to try to install in <300mb, and if that doesn't work out, I'll take the external install/internal swap route. 
Thanks.

lanrat

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2003-10-28

Posts: 1,274

Re: Swap Space on a (very) Small Server

Or use a swapfile. It'll be easier to change it's size if you need it.