Managing swap files and partitions may be a necessary system administration task, if our system ever runs low on memory. In this activity, we will be creating a swap partition and a swap file. We will also be looking at activating and deactivating swap space, viewing swap usage, and making swap space available persistently. At the conclusion, we will understand how to work with swap files and partitions when needed to augment system memory.
Learning Objectives
Successfully complete this lab by achieving the following learning objectives:
- Create a Persistent 1 GB Swap Partition
Using
fdisk, create the swap partition:sudo -i fdisk /dev/xvdgPress the following to create the partition:
- n for new partition
- Enter to select the default (primary) type
- Enter for the default first sector
- +1G for the size of the partition
- t to change the type
- L to list the types
- 82 for Linux Swap
- w to write changes and quit
Execute
mkswapto format the partition:mkswap /dev/xvdg1Add an entry to
/etc/fstab:/dev/xvdg1 none swap defaults 0 0Verify swap partition is activated:
swapon -s swapon -a swapon -s- Create a Persistent 512 MB Swap File
Use the
ddcommand to create a 512 MB/root/extra.swpfile:dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/extra.swp bs=1M count=512Format and activate the
/root/extra.swapby executingmkswap:mkswap /root/extra.swp swapon /root/extra.swpSet more secure 0600 permissions using the
chmodcommand:chmod 0600 /root/extra.swp ls -l /root/extra.swpAdd an entry to
/etc/fstabto activate the swap file:/root/extra.swp none swap defaults 0 0Activate the swap file entry:
swapoff /root/extra.swp swapon -a swapon -s
