The VPS we just bought came with 3G RAM + 1G partition swap - should I also set a swap file, or should this be enough? [image]

That’s enough for a small Discourse instance.

I mean, not in terms of whether it will run fast etc, but in terms of whether it will/will not generate any errors like e.g. not being able to allocate extra memory etc. Does my question make sense? Also, will adding a file swap with an even lower priority help? Just to be sure.

[image] Anton: The VPS we just bought came with 3G RAM + 1G partition swap - should I also set a swap file, or should this be enough? Just pay for a more powerful VPS with at least 8gb of ram. You’ll be wasting time otherwise.

[image] james.network: You’ll be wasting time otherwise. This is not answering my question.

I cannot imagine running Discourse on less than 8gb of ram. [image] Falco: That’s enough for a small Discourse instance. Discourse team member saying it is fine, I’m sure if it is fine. Good luck.

Discourse-setup will flag any memory issues.

This does not answer my question either. Maybe I formulated my question in a bad way?

I have a relatively quiet forum on a Digital Ocean 2GB memory/50GB disk droplet and it works fine. At the time the Discourse installation guide was recommending 1GB minimum but I upgraded at some point. If you provide more information about how big/busy your forum is I’m sure you’ll get a more detailed answer. I think the Discourse installer automatically sets up a swap file (I didn’t do anything manually) - so that answers part of your question, I think.

[image] Jonathan5: I think the Discourse installer automatically sets up a swap file (I didn’t do anything manually) - so that answers part of your question, I think. I think it creates a 2GB one at install if it detects you don’t have one already. Edit: I think this is more accurate: [image]Create a swapfile for your Linux server :bulb: For servers with <= 2GB of RAM, running ./discourse-setup will prompt for and automatically create a 2GB swapfile.

The official minimum supported is 1G RAM + 2G swap - and that is enough, if you have a pretty small forum. Although, every update gets just a little bigger so I expect there will come a time when it’s not enough. For having the forum work correctly and not crash, the sum total of RAM and swap is the important figure. For having the forum responsive and not be too slow, more RAM is preferred. So, if 1G RAM + 2G swap is enough, then 3G RAM + 1G swap will be enough, and might have better performance. I have two forums, both quite small, one runs on 1+2 and the other on 2+2. Last year I wrote this: [image]Minimum requirements to use Discourse? By way of calibration, I have two small forums: Smaller forum runs with 10G used of a 19G disk, backups are 200M each, 2000 posts in 200 topics, 30 users. That’s a little under 2 years of activity. Larger forum runs with 16G used of a 25G disk, backups are 700M each, 8000 posts in 1000 topics, 300 users. That’s a little over 2 years of activity. Edit: if you have the disk space to add swap, do it - there’s no good reason not to, and it might be needed. The free command will tell you how much is in use, the vmstat command can give you a running commentary. But average use is not interesting - it’s peak use that’s interesting.

3G RAM + 1G Partition Swap - is it enough?

Product Support Self-hosting

sunjam (james.network) June 4, 2022, 1:42am 4

Just pay for a more powerful VPS with at least 8gb of ram. You’ll be wasting time otherwise.

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3G RAM + 1G Partition Swap - is it enough?

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