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Clodo
Beginner5 minUpdated: 2026-09-13

Configuring Swap Space and Preventing OOM Killer on Linux VPS

Protect Linux systems from Out-Of-Memory (OOM) process termination by provisioning dedicated swapfiles.

Verified against

Kernel
Linux 5.x+
Filesystem
ext4 / xfs
Last checked
2026-09-13

Before you start

  • Root or sudo access
  • Enough free disk space for the swapfile
  • Knowledge of your current memory usage (free -h)
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When physical RAM is fully saturated, the Linux kernel invokes OOM Killer to terminate heavy processes (MySQL, Java, Node.js). A swapfile buffers volatile spikes and guarantees crash-resilient uptime.

1. Allocating a 4GB Swapfile#

SSH Terminal
# 4GB boyutunda swap dosyasi tahsis edin:
sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# Kalici hale getirmek icin fstab dosyasina ekleyin:
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

2. Optimizing Swappiness Tendency#

On high-speed NVMe storage, configure `vm.swappiness = 10` so Linux utilizes physical RAM first before flushing to disk.

SSH Terminal
sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10
echo 'vm.swappiness=10' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
Method Comparison

How to Implement This?

How this maps to a Clodo service

Hard memory limit

You cannot create swap on a Clodo service; memory is a hard limit set by your plan, and when it is exceeded the kernel kills the process. The job here is not adding swap but finding what exceeds the limit.

Where in Panel? Panel > Service detail shows live RAM usage; an 'exit code 137' line in the console means the memory limit was hit.
Step-by-step Execution:
  1. 1An 'exit code 137' in the console does not mean a crash: the process was killed for exceeding the memory limit.
  2. 2In Minecraft, cap -Xmx at roughly 75% of the plan's RAM; the rest is JVM overhead. Giving the whole plan to -Xmx is the single most common cause of these kills.
  3. 3Find what is inflating memory: too many plugins, an oversized view distance, or a leaking mod. The Spark profiler will show you.
  4. 4If it genuinely is not enough, move to a plan with more RAM from the panel; swap is not a substitute and only makes things slower.

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