The Linux kernel is a rather complex piece of software with a long list of components such as modules, interfaces and configuration files [1]. These components can be configured with specific values in order to achieve a desired behaviour or mode of operation of the component [2,3,4]. Subsequently, this setup directly influences both the behaviour and the performance of your Linux system as a whole.

The current values of the Linux kernel and its components are made accessible using a special interface — the /proc directory [5]. This is a virtual file system in which the single files are filled with values in real time. The values represent the actual state the Linux kernel is in. You can access the individual files in the /proc directory using the cat command as follows:

One of these kernel parameters is called vm.swappiness. It “controls the relative weight given to swapping out of runtime memory, as opposed to dropping memory pages from the system page cache” [6]. Starting with Linux kernel releases 2.6 this value was introduced. It is stored in the file /proc/sys/vm/swappiness .

Using Swap

The use of swap [6] was an essential part of using smaller UNIX machines in the early 1990s. It is still useful (like having a spare tire in your vehicle) when nasty memory leaks interfere with your work. The machine will slow down but in most cases will still be usable to finish its assigned task. Free software developers have been making great strides to reduce and eliminate program errors so before changing kernel parameters consider updating to a newer version of your application and related libraries first.

If you run numerous tasks, then the inactive tasks will be swapped out to disk, making better use of memory with your active tasks. Video editing and other large memory consuming applications often have recommended amounts of memory and disk space. If you have an older machine which cannot have a memory upgrade, then making more swap available might be a good temporary solution for you (see [6] on how to learn more about that).

The swapping can happen on a separate partition or on a swap file. The partition is faster and favored by many database applications. The file approach is more flexible (see the dphys-swapfile package in Debian GNU/Linux [7]). Having more than one physical device for swapping allows the Linux kernel to choose the device that is most rapidly available (lower latency).

vm.swappiness

The default value of vm.swappiness is 60 and represents the percentage of the free memory before activating swap. The lower the value, the less swapping is used and the more memory pages are kept in physical memory.

The value of 60 is a compromise that works well for modern desktop systems. A smaller value is a recommended option for a server system, instead. As the Red Hat Performance Tuning manual points out [8], a smaller swappiness value is recommended for database workloads. For example, for Oracle databases, Red Hat recommends a swappiness value of 10. In contrast, for MariaDB databases, it is recommended to set swappiness to a value of 1 [9].

Changing the value directly influences the performance of the Linux system. These values are defined:

* 0: swap is disable
* 1: minimum amount of swapping without disabling it entirely
* 10: recommended value to improve performance when sufficient memory exists in a system
* 100: aggressive swapping

As shown above the cat command helps to read the value. Also, the sysctl command gives you the same result:

Keep in mind that the sysctl command is only available to an administrative user. To set the value temporarily set the value in the /proc file system as follows:

As an alternative you may use the sysctl command as follows:

To set the value permanently, open the file /etc/sysctl.conf as an administrative user and add the following line:

Conclusion

More and more linux users are running virtual machines. Each one has its own kernel in addition to the hypervisor that actually controls the hardware. Virtual machines have virtual disks created for them, so changing the setting inside the virtual machine will have indeterminate results. Experiment first with changing the values of the hypervisor kernel, as it actually controls the hardware in your machine.

For older machines which can no longer be upgraded (already have maximum supported memory) you can consider placing a small solid state disk in the machine to use it as an additional swap device. This will obviously become a consumable as memory cells fail from lots of writes, but can extend the life of a machine for a year or more for very low cost. The lower latency and quick reads will give much better performance than swapping to an ordinary disk, giving intermediate results to RAM. This should allow you to use somewhat lower vm.swappiness values for optimal performance. You will have to experiment. SSD devices are changing rapidly.

If you have more than one swap device, consider making it a RAID device to stripe data across the available devices.

You can make changes in swappiness without rebooting the machine, a major advantage over other operating systems.

Try to include only the services you need for your business. This will reduce memory requirements, improve performance and keep everything simpler.

A final note: You will be adding load to your swap devices. You will want to monitor the temperatures of them. An overheated system will lower its CPU frequency and slow down.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to say a special thanks to Gerold Rupprecht and Zoleka Hatitongwe for their critical remarks and comments while preparing this article.

Links and References

* [1] Linux Kernel Tutorial for Beginners, https://linuxhint.com/linux-kernel-tutorial-beginners/

* [2] Derek Molloy: Writing a Linux Kernel Module — Part 1: Introduction, http://derekmolloy.ie/writing-a-linux-kernel-module-part-1-introduction/

* [3] Derek Molloy: Writing a Linux Kernel Module — Part 2: A Character Device, http://derekmolloy.ie/writing-a-linux-kernel-module-part-2-a-character-device/

* [4] Derek Molloy: Writing a Linux Kernel Module — Part 3: Buttons and LEDs, http://derekmolloy.ie/kernel-gpio-programming-buttons-and-leds/

* [5] Frank Hofmann: Commands to Manage Linux Memory, https://linuxhint.com/commands-to-manage-linux-memory/

* [6] Frank Hofmann: Linux Kernel Memory Management: Swap Space, https://linuxhint.com/linux-memory-management-swap-space/

* [7] dphys-swapfile package for Debian GNU/Linux, https://packages.debian.org/stretch/dphys-swapfile

* [8] Red Hat Performance Tuning Guide, https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/performance_tuning_guide/s-memory-tunables

* [9] Configuring MariaDB, https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/configuring-swappiness/