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Why is the default swappiness 60? What would be the effect if I lower the swappiness value for my desktop PC?

rated 0 times [ 22] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 19393 / 3 Years ago, fri, may 14, 2021, 5:01:32

I was reading about swappiness in various forums and I saw some videos. Many stated that it's a good thing for desktop users to decrease the swappiness value below 60 (which is the default). Some stated that 60 is good for servers. Exactly why would it be better for me to lower it and why is 60 good for servers? I tried to search for an answer (I looked here for example) but couldn't understand. ...Please use easy terms :D

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aveerakfas

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1 Year ago

answered 3 Years ago rofity · Accepted Answer

Your premise is wrong. There is no 'good for servers' swapiness value.

Swapiness is the amount of swapping that is done, especially how aggressively you swap. For my servers the swappiness is close to zero, as I make damn sure they have memory enough for everything. There is no 'best for servers' value. there is 60, which is the default, and then there is "your value" which depends on usage and available memory.

If you have servers that sometimes use LOADS of memory, you could have them higher than default, but I would say that some servers (database servers?) might want to keep them way lower than a home computer would.