Step by Step Virtualization
ESX Swap File Size Best Practice
Revised on 5-18-12:
Due to the changes with EXSi 5.0, please see the following links at VMware for current specifications on partitioning new installations of ESXi 5.0, or when upgrading to ESXi 5.0 from another version of ESXi.
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Do a custom installation of ESX and make your swap partition 1024 MB instead of the default 542 MB. Later you will need the room when you have to increase your service console memory from 272 MB to 512 (800 MB Max) to keep your systems from crashing when you access them from within a service console window.
If you have a VMware best practice that will help someone, please post it in our best practice forum! Thanks!
Revised on 1-3-09:
The above is only for ESX 3.0.x. VMware has redesigned the volume structure for ESX 3.5.x to include the larger volumes. The large SWAP volume is only standard on clean installs of 3.5.x, upgrades of previous versions will have the smaller volumes. Best practice for upgrading ESX is to do a clean install to remove old version limitations.
Then when running the installation make the following changes and additons to the default volumes:
- /boot | ext3 | 250 MB
- /swap | swap | 2000 MB (largest accessible size) Once this is changed you must increase service console memory in VirtualCenter 2:1 (swap:ram)
- / | ext3 | 5120 MB
- /var | ext3 | 1024 MB (core files)
- /var/log | ext 3 | 1024 MB (logfiles)
- /tmp | ext3 | 1024 MB (where updates get downloaded to)
- /opt | ext3 | 2048 MB (where HA log go)
- / home | ext3 | 1024 MB (user files)
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5 Responses to ESX Swap File Size Best Practice
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Can the swap file on an ESX host be changed after the install? I made the mistake of leaving it as default and now need to expand it.
Hello Eugene,
My experience trying to change the swap volume after ESX is installed has not been good. I’ve heard it can be done but I’ve found reinstalling ESX easier because you can vMotion the VMs to another host and then do a clean install. There’s a free appliance called Altimate Deployment Appliance that makes loading ESX a breeze and allows for custom installs and scripting. Here’s the link http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/ Hope this helps.
JS