Paging Space or Swap space

Paging Space (also called Swap space)

The RAM and the paging space are divided into 4 KB sections called page frames. (A page is a unit of virtual memory that holds 4 KB of data.) When the system needs more RAM, page frames of information are moved out of RAM and onto the hard disk. This is called paging out. When those page frames of information are needed again, they are taken from the hard disk and moved back into the RAM. This is called paging in.

When AIX is installed, it automatically creates paging space on the installation disk, which is usually the hard disk hdisk0. The name of this paging space is always hd6. The file /etc/swapspaces contains a list of the paging space areas that will be activated at system startup.

Paging Space Commands

LIST

How to list out all the paging space details?     # lsps –a       

How to list out the consolidate paging space size?  # lsps –s

Equivalent smitty faspath command is "smitty lsps"

CREATE

How to create the paging space

#mkps –s -n –a rootvg    →  #  mkps –s 8 –n –a rootvg

To add paging space we need to use "mkps" command. Equivalent smitty faspath command is "smitty mkps".

INCREASE

How to Increase the Paging space?

#chps –s     #   chps –s 8 paging00

DECREASE

How to decrease the paging space?

#chps –d      # chps –d 4 pagin00

DELETE

How to delete the paging space?

#swapoff /dev/             #  swapoff /dev/paging00

#rmps                           #  rmps paging00

CONFIGURATION FILE

All the paging space is defined in /etc/swapspaces.      # cat /etc/swapspaces

ENABLE

How to enable the paging space?      # swapon /dev/pagin00

DISABLE

How to disable the paging space?     #swapoff /dev/paging00