This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Swap is disk space the kernel uses when RAM is under pressure, and the space hibernation needs if you hibernate. The calculator uses the RAM number you type. It does not see your host. The command generator drafts a swap file. It does not create one.
A server that does not hibernate does not need a swap file the size of RAM just because a laptop guide said so. Write the reason. The file goes on a disk you named, not on a failing disk.
Do not create the file during the reading. The distribution how-to owns the later command. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Write the RAM and whether this host hibernates.
- Run the calculator.
- Write the size and the disk.
- Draft the command only as a note.
- Do not create the file.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
How Much Swap Do I Need? goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A forum size with no RAM number.
- Swap on a failing disk.
- The file created during the reading.
- Hibernation assumed on a server that does not hibernate.
Decisions to write down
One decision for How Much Swap Do I Need?: The RAM number is yours. Hibernation is yes or no. The disk is named. The file was not created yet. And the size has a sentence.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: RAM is written. Hibernate yes or no is written. The size is written. The disk is named. And no file was created. If one of those fails, stop.
# Size follows RAM and hibernation.
# Do not create the file during the reading.
# Not a forum number.Before you leave the host
How Much Swap Do I Need? ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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