How to Add Swap Space on Ubuntu?

How to Add Swap Space on Ubuntu?

May 5, 2020 / Nirav S

What is Swap Memory ?

• Swap is a space on a hard disk that is utilized when the physical RAM memory is full. It is utilized at the point when a Linux framework comes up short on RAM, latent pages are moved from the RAM to the swap space.
• Swap space can appear as either a devoted swap segment or a swap record. For the most part when running Ubuntu on a virtual machine, a swap part is absent, and the main alternative is to make a swap record.

Before You Begin

• To verify that Swap is installed Open terminal and write the following command

$ sudo swapon --show

• Start by creating a file which will be used for swap:

$ sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile

• ( Optional Troubleshoot )If fallocate is not installed or you get an error message saying fallocate failed: Operation not supported then use the following command to create the swap file:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=1048576

• Only the root user should be able to write and read the swap file. Set the correct permissions by typing:

$ sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

• Use the mkswap utility to set up a Linux swap area on the file:

$ sudo mkswap /swapfile

• Activate the swap file using the following command:

$ sudo swapon /swapfile

• To make the change permanent open the /etc/fstab file:

$ sudo nano /etc/fstab

• and paste the following line:

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

• Verify that the swap is active by using either the swapon

$ sudo swapon --show