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I've read a little bit about swap memory, but I don't understand it enough to make a decision on trying to look into this more on my system.

Here's what I have available right now:

user@ubuntu:$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         15932      11505       4427        104       1315       6719
-/+ buffers/cache:       3470      12462
Swap:            0          0          0

Should I be concerned that I have no swap memory available?

user3447014
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  • Can you add what version of Ubuntu, 32 or 64bit, and what you are using platform for. – david6 Apr 30 '14 at 07:12
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    Will you use suspend to disc and what is the main usage of the system? – frlan Apr 30 '14 at 07:17
  • Using Ubuntu 14.04 x64.

    Most of my usage is pretty basic -- browsing, chatting, etc. However, every now and again, I spin up 2-3 VMs (each get about 2GB each) for practicing in labs.

     – user3447014 Apr 30 '14 at 07:45

2 Answers2

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Swap space is a portion of a hard disk drive (HDD) that is used for virtual memory. See definition here: Swap Definition. I have 8 Gb for the swap partition, but i never had to use it,

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          7854       7717        136         15       2559       2520
-/+ buffers/cache:       2637       5216
Swap:         8058          0       8058

If i was you, i'm not did a new partition, but if you anyway wants, looks at this: How do I add a swap partition after system installation?

For a new partition i prefer the use a Live Ubuntu disc and GParted Partition Editor. If need help for this, tell me.

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Aby
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  • Very interesting feedback. Thanks so much. Going to look into this first thing tomorrow morning :) – user3447014 Apr 30 '14 at 07:46
  • Hey, for your question, (and i thanks to you) decide to check my swap memory, i opened my Browser (with more than 36 tabs) several times to finish my Ram memory (you can saw i have 7854 MB) like 8 gb ram. Only after kill my ram with 6808 mb used, The management memory use 821 mb of 8058 mb only 10% of all the swap, i decide to give only 1 gb to swap. think that you have 15 gb ... – Aby May 01 '14 at 07:18
  • do you did something with this? – Aby May 28 '14 at 07:23
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you didn't provide vital informations for us to support you!

At a very minimum, you should provide your Ubuntu version, hardware description (eg. cpu and ram details), computer's role description (eg. server or workstation, gui needed/installed).

Anyway, i can suggest you that there are a very few cases in which no swap partition is a good practice.

Take a look at this post where Oli explains why you should always have a swap partition in your systems. I totally agree with this post. https://askubuntu.com/a/15338/265813 In the same thread you can find a script that i use to monitor my server's swap space usage.

Last but not least, search for your case. Everything about common Swap usage and partitioning has already been said! :-)

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Marco
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  • Sorry for the lack of information. I think I have what I need now based on your comment as well as others. Much appreciated. :) – user3447014 Apr 30 '14 at 15:03