FW: [techtalk] Installing Linux on a second hard drive.

[Andy Davidoff]

Under Linux, multiple swap partitions are automagically striped, so
the ideal scenario is in fact to spread your swap partitions over many
channels and many spindles (disks) for maximal I/O performance.  In
most desktop Linux boxen, swap I/O eclipses all other disk activity.

How much swap you need is dependent on the use of the machine.  Most
Linux jockeys agree that systems with less than ~128meg (I think the
emperical evidence pointed to 124meg ;-) suffer a minor speed penalty.

I'm still waiting for a solid implementation of Solaris' tmpfs. :-/


#if Kelly Lynn Martin /* Apr 17, 15:22 */
> Ideally, you'd have your swap partition on a drive all by itself
> (which is impractical because nobody needs that much swap) or on a
> drive with infrequently accessed data; then the head on the swap
> drive will be always be near the swap data.  It's also a good idea
> to put your swap partitions near the center of the disk.
#endif /* kelly */

-- 
Andy Davidoff
Sen. Unix SA, EECS
Tufts University