Hi all,

Just wanted your opinion on this...

I have a dual-boot setup (boots Windows and Linux) and the Linux partition only serves one function: to backup / restore the windows partition. The Linux partition is a very minimal setup- minimal packages,no X, just runs ntfsclone via command line (also uses ntfs-3g to copy some windows files).

This setup is used on all our client systems, so they can backup restore snapshots of Windows.

My question is, having such minimal requirements and all systems having a minimum of 512MB RAM, is a swap really necessary?

Thanks,
Adam

Swap is required if you are short of physical RAM.
512MB is good enough for most programs.

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

I understand that a swap is only required if you are short of physical RAM, but I am still undecided about whether I should keep a swap just for a precaution.

I ran the 'top' command after doing a full ntfsclone backup(the most memory intensive operation the system will perform) and top showed:

My concern is with the cached value. Does this indicate that the swap file has been used?

Thanks.

What about just using a swap file rather than a dedicated swap partition? I think that would suffice...

Cached data is not swappable, but Linux can still elect to swap out valid memory in favor of more cache space. There is no difference from using a file or partition. If you already have a partition, then why create a file? Given your requirements, i don't think you need any swap space.

Thanks for the advice.

I am creating a new master drive (for all the others to be cloned off), so I thought that now is the time to get rid of the swap partition. I think I'll just use a swap file instead of a dedicated partition.

My feeling is that it's probably smart to give the operating-system the option...