Setting the Linux kernel swappiness to low

The swappiness level of the Linux kernel determines how likely it is to swap memory pages out. Setting a low value can improve the performance of Oracle SOA Suite.

Getting ready

You will need to be running Oracle SOA Suite 11g on a Linux box, and have root or sudo access in order to change the kernel settings.

How to do it…

To set the Linux kernel swappiness to low, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to the box as root.

2. Check the current swappiness setting as follows:

   $ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
   60

3. Edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf, and set the property vm.swappiness to a lower value. We suggest starting with 0 if you have plenty of physical memory on the machine.

   

4. Save the file.

5. Restart your Linux server for the change to take effect.

6. Check if the swappiness setting has been applied, like this:

   $ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
   0

How it works…

The vm.swappiness property of the Linux kernel determines how likely the kernel is to swap a page out of memory. Swappiness...