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Creating Swap Space on a Linux System

Swap space is used by the system to store memory pages or blocks that are used less frequently to free up space in the physical RAM. In this hands-on lab, you will be tasked with creating and enabling a swap partition and a swap file and ensuring that they persist through a reboot.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 15m
Last updated
Clock icon Jul 19, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Create and enable a swap partition using /dev/xvdg1.

    1. Use the mkswap command to create swap space on /dev/xvdg1:

    mkswap /dev/xvdg1

    1. Use the swapon command to enable the swap partition:

    swapon /dev/xvdg1

  2. Challenge

    Add an entry to /etc/fstab to ensure that the swap partition persists though a reboot (use the UUID).

    Obtain the UUID for the partition using the blkid command:

    1. Use the editor of your choosing (i.e., vim, nano, etc.) to add an entry to /etc/fstab for the swap partition:

    vim /etc/fstab

    1. At the bottom of the file add the following entry:

    UUID=partition_UUID swap swap sw 0 0

  3. Challenge

    Create and enable a 1 GB swap file in the root directory called "extraswap".

    1. Use the dd command to create a 1 GB file called extraswap:

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/extraswap bs=1M count=1024

    1. Update the permissions on the swap file to be read right only for the root user:

    chmod 600 /extraswap

    1. Use the mkswap command to turn extraswap into a swap file:

    mkswap /extraswap

    1. Use the swapon command to enable the swap file:

    swapon /extraswap

  4. Challenge

    Add an entry to /etc/fstab to ensure that the swap file persists through a reboot (use the full path to the file name).

    1. Use the editor of your choosing (i.e., vim, nano, etc) to add an entry to /etc/fstab for the swap file:

    vim /etc/fstab

    1. At the bottom of the file add the following entry:

    /extraswap swap swap sw 0 0

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