Increase Swap Size in Linux

Hi,

Would you like to increase swap size in Linux. You may follow the below steps to do that.
 
Here I am increasing the swap size from 2GB to 4GB.
 
The free -m command shows that the swap memory is now 2GB,

root@server[~]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3954 3824 130 0 175 2091
-/+ buffers/cache: 1558 2396
Swap: 2047 0 2047

Now,
 
To create a swap file of 4GB you need to execute the following command.

root@server[~]#dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/new/swap bs=1M count=4096

This will create a new partition with 4GB space. To make it a swap partition you need to execute the following command.

root@server[~]# mkswap /path/to/new/swap

Now the swap file is created.

Next you need to properly edit fstab entry to replace the previous swap line. Previously it would be something like below entry.

LABEL=SWAP-sda6         swap                    swap    pri=0,defaults        0 0

You need to change it to the following

/path/to/new/swap         swap                    swap    pri=0,defaults        0 0

and now save the fstab file and exit.

now turn the swap to off and then on it using the below command.

root@server[~]# swapoff
root@server[~]# swapon

This will mount the new swap file. So you will the output as below.

root@server[~]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3954 3773 181 0 111 2048
-/+ buffers/cache: 1613 2341
Swap: 4096 0 4096 

Please reboot the server if you need to check if the changes in fstab is working onboot.

Thank you for viewing helpinlinux.com

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