The easiest way to prevent out of memory errors in your system is to add some SWAP space. SWAP is an area on the storage device where the system can temporarily store data that can’t be held in memory (RAM). Though this is working as the memory it is slower in performance than regular memory. However, when the system is out of memory it may kill processes to keep applications running or, the whole system can crush too. It is possible to keep the applications running without killing processes and stop system crushing by adding enough SWAP space.
Prerequisites
- CentOS 6.xx
- CentOS 7.xx
- sudo / root user
Step 1 – Create SWAP File
Use below command to create a 4GB SWAP File
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile count=4096 bs=1MiBchange count value to change SWAP file size.
Step 2 – Enable SWAP File
Change the SWAP file permission
chmod 600 /swapfileMake the SWAP file ready
mkswap /swapfileEnabling SWAP space for system
swapon /swapfileStep 3 – Verify SWAP Space
Verify total SWAP space using this command
swapon -sFilename Type Size Used Priority /swapfile file 4194300 0 -1
Such output confirms that you successfully added 4GB SWAP on the system.
Step 4 – Make SWAP Space Permanent
Though we already have added 4GB SWAP space in the system but when the system reboots it will not use this SWAP space automatically. We can change this by modifying fstab file which manages the file systems and partitions.
nano /etc/fstabPlace these in the bottom of the fstab file and save the file
/swapfile swap swap sw 0 0Please check if there are any lines for SWAP space already, if there is remove it first.
Once you have saved the file system will automatically use the SWAP space upon system reboots.
Don’t hesitate to comment regarding any issue you might face during the procedure.
Thanks for reading this article.
