Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hc!beta!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!hydrovax
From: hydrovax@nmtsun.nmt.edu (M. Warner Losh)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Ram Disk for Vaxes ...
Message-ID: <1228@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 88 22:01:04 GMT
References: <8801130507.AA08793@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: NMT Hydrology program
Lines: 22
Summary: Must not beat on the machine much

Ram disks on VMS are a waste.  At lest the one that have been in the
distributions.  They are slower than disks are, they steal memory from
EVERYBODY and they are unsupported.  If you don't have very many
users and they all are running TINY codes, then maybe it might 
be kinda sorta worth it.  At the very least you should get the patches
that have been floating around on this newsgroup (or mailing
list or whatever your means of reading it is).  They help
preformance a lot.

   One thing that you SHOULD NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER
EVER do, is to use a RAM disk for swap space.  Think about what is
happening here, you are stealing memory from processes do you can
swap at about the same speed.  Wouldn't it be a little smarter to
put the swap space on the disk and use the memory for larger
working sets?


-- 
bitnet:	lush@nmt.csnet			M. Warner Losh
csnet:	warner%hydrovax@nmtsun
uucp:	...{cmcl2, ihnp4}!lanl!unmvax!nmtsun!warner%hydrovax
	...{cmcl2, ihnp4}!lanl!unmvax!nmtsun!hydrovax
Warning:  Hydrovax is both a machine, and an account, so be careful.