Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!geac!alias!ktureski
From: ktureski@alias.uucp (Kevin Tureski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Swap space disk striping under 3.3 wanted
Summary: swapping across machines?
Message-ID: <1990Jun30.203902.4477@alias.uucp>
Date: 30 Jun 90 20:39:02 GMT
References: <1990Jun29.083658.807@urz.unibas.ch> <9737@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Organization: Alias Research, Inc. Toronto ON Canada
Lines: 34


In article <9737@odin.corp.sgi.com> archer@elysium.esd.sgi.com (Archer Sully) writes:
>
>striping the swap space is unnecessary, as the system already handles
>multiple swap devices that can even live on different controllers.
>See swap(1m).

A request from ages ago is whether you can (or will be able to in some future
release) swap on devices on *another machine's* controller ...

I personally don't care if it's as slow as molasses, since it may be the
ONLY way I can run a mega-process. Consider the following situation:

I've got a machine with a 2-drive controller with, say, a pair of 780's.
One has root, just enough for /usr to be comfortable, and the rest (500Mb)
dedicated to swap.

The other disk is configured as one large filesystem full of user files.
It's chock full of everything that's required to run this large process.

The process requires 600Mb swap. I've only got 500. And can't get any more,
no way, no how on that machine without getting a 4-drive controller and
stealing a disk off of another machine.

But if I could just umount that other "extra" disk for a while and dedicate
it's swap space to that other machine, I'd get the job done without the pain
and anguish that I've personally gone through in the past.


Kevin Tureski
Director, Systems Integration
Alias Research Inc.

ktureski%alias@csri.utoronto.ca		ktureski@alias.uucp