How To Create Swap On Debian | Ubuntu

Linux Nov 22, 2021

Sometimes there isn't much RAM on the server and we have no choice but to add swapfile.

Execute following commands:

sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

Make swap persistent after reboot. It's a good practice to save fstab in case we need original later or if we mess it up :)

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.save
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

We can further tweak swap:

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
sudo sysctl vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Add two more lines at the end of the file /etc/sysctl.conf

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
vm.swappiness=10
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Check swap with:

sudo swapon --show

Remove swap:

swapoff /swapfile
sudo rm -rf /swapfile

And remove it from /etc/fstab.

Tags

Great! You've successfully subscribed.
Great! Next, complete checkout for full access.
Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.
Success! Your account is fully activated, you now have access to all content.