From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Tue Jul 22 16:24:12 2014
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115])
 (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
 (No client certificate requested)
 by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6A1EDE5
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:24:12 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from icp-osb-irony-out4.external.iinet.net.au
 (icp-osb-irony-out4.external.iinet.net.au [203.59.1.220])
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E04C428D1
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:24:11 +0000 (UTC)
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AqwHAD2PzlM6Bv2h/2dsb2JhbABYgw6BKYInrEQBAQEBAQEGn2UBgREWdoQEAQQBOj8FCwsNARMUEQ8FGDETiDoHwAsXhXuJUAeDLoEYBZsmhwBBjHODWCsv
X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.01,710,1399996800"; d="scan'208";a="350381209"
Received: from unknown (HELO smtp.phoenix) ([58.6.253.161])
 by icp-osb-irony-out4.iinet.net.au with ESMTP; 23 Jul 2014 00:24:02 +0800
Received: by smtp.phoenix (Postfix, from userid 1001)
 id D4943BB9; Wed, 23 Jul 2014 02:24:01 +1000 (EST)
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 02:24:01 +1000
From: andrew clarke <mail@ozzmosis.com>
To: Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org>
Subject: Re: How much swap space for a 32 GB RAM system?
Message-ID: <20140722162401.GA91063@ozzmosis.com>
References: <53CE8BB8.7030303@qeng-ho.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <53CE8BB8.7030303@qeng-ho.org>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12)
Cc: FreeBSD-Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:24:12 -0000

On Tue 2014-07-22 17:05:12 UTC+0100, Arthur Chance (freebsd@qeng-ho.org) wrote:

> I'm getting a new machine with 32 GB of memory. The old "twice
> physical memory" sizing seems ridiculous, so how big should I make
> swap? Do I even need swap with this much memory?

Probably not. Of course it depends on your workload. 

You can always add swap later if you really need to, but running
without swap is no problem.

I run a FreeBSD 9.3 amd64 server with 4 GB physical and 2 GB swap.
top(1) tells me just 62 MB is used, presumably just for housekeeping.

Regards
Andrew