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Why 10GB SWAP space required

User_UP4EY

Hi,

Please can you tell why 10GB swap space is recommended? Our Unix team are saying they worry about adding more swap (we have 2GB and this is filling up when we run I think a large agent export). The unix team say adding more swap could cause problems where it will push more processes into Swap.

Mark

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Gianni Ceresa

What for?

You maybe want to provide some context about your question, because right now I don't really see what kind of "smart" reply could be given....

User_UP4EY

The oracle installation documentation recommends 10GB of swap space. Our unix team say that modern systems do not need swap and it is only used when memory is fully used. Why not just add more memory.

We are seeing 2gb of swap fully used when some large query is ran making large files like here:

https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?_afrLoop=204020002333379&parent=EXTERNAL_SEARCH&sourceId=PROBLEM&id=857571.1&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-state=1475ka64qn_143

I have requested the extra SWAP space but concern is that this will just fill up and so we want to know how it is used to help tune system.

Gianni Ceresa

You references a MOS document about 10.1.3.4, let's just say it doesn't apply anymore (please don't tell me you are trying to install that version or another no more supported version).

As your sys admins told you, swap isn't for tmp files like the ones mentioned by the MOS document you linked.

Swap is used when you run out of memory. When you do run out of memory? The answer is into monitoring your system and finding out if it ever happen. If you size your environment properly you will not run out of memory.

10Gb of swap was in the 11.1.1.9 doc, no idea if it's still in the OAS documentation, but 11.1.1.9 isn't supported anymore and you shouldn't be installing it anymore.

Listen to your sys admins, if you are using swap you anyway have an issue in your environment and performance will be rubbish.

[Deleted User]

Could you please specify precisely with full version numbers what you're actually running? Which product on which OS?

Asking precise questions with full context is the only way to get a meaningful idea of what you're facing. Always remember: No forum member except you is sitting in front of that screen and intimately knows what you're working on.

User_UP4EY

OK we are upgrading to OBIA 11.1.1.10.3 and also OBIEE 12c.

The hardware requirements in the OBIA installation guide (URL below) clearly state that the system requires 10GB of swap space but you say that it should not be needed? This is Oracle recommended.

We have sized the system based on this guide only.

Please see the Hardware Requirements section from this page in this URL.

https://docs.oracle.com/applications/biapps103/install/GUID-66B98B0E-11F9-4DAE-9C1F-947BBB805B39.htm#BIAIN-GUID-3D14B4BC-4C31-4E6B-A3EE-4D63E4645160

Kind Regards,

Mark

Gianni Ceresa

10-12 GB of free memory and 10 GB Swap Space for run-time requirements

What I say is that it isn't like 10+ years ago when RAM was expensive and Swap was a cheap alternative (because being on disk, a slow and cheap device) and so a server was configured with as little RAM as possible and following those specs.

Nowadays even a laptop can have 32Gb of RAM, it isn't a big deal anymore.

I would give more RAM to your servers than what that doc suggest, and for the Swap don't bother more than that.

In the end even if you give your server 10Gb of Swap, if you are using it it means you don't have enough memory for what you are asking your environment to do.

It's still written there in the doc, but Oracle usually copy/paste the previous version of the doc and tries to change when needed. Still the amount of leftovers is huge: things that aren't valid anymore but still there because nobody did notice.

You are upgrading, you already have OBIA and some experience with it, you already have an idea of the resources it takes on your server. Use common sense, the sys admins, this knowledge of your existing OBIA and make a guess of the sizing of your server.

Some installers (like OBIEE for example) do check for Swap space, but they generally check to see if it exists and is just larger than a very small number. And because some environments don't have any swap (compute instances in Google Cloud come without swap by default if I'm not wrong), there is a parameter to say to skip that check.

[Deleted User]

Hi Mark,

If OBIA states this, then it's an OBIA requirement. Not OBIEE / OAS, the analytical platform.