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System Management Concepts: Operating System and Devices

Paging Space Overview

A paging space is fixed disk storage for information that is resident in virtual memory, but is not currently being accessed. A paging space, also called a swap space, is a logical volume with the attribute type equal to paging. This type of logical volume is referred to as a paging-space logical volume, or simply paging space. When the amount of free real memory in the system is low, programs or data that have not been used recently are moved from real memory to paging space to release real memory for other activities.

The following articles provide more information about paging spaces:

The following procedures explain various ways of managing paging spaces:

The "Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) Overview" explains how virtual memory is related to paging space.

The default paging space size is determined during the system customization phase of AIX installation according to the following standards:

There is another type of paging space available that can be accessed through a device that uses an NFS server for paging-space storage. For an NFS client to access this paging space, the NFS server must have a file created and exported to that client. The file size represents the paging space size for the client.

The logical volume paging space is defined by making a new paging-space logical volume or by increasing the size of existing paging-space logical volumes. To increase the size of an NFS paging space, the file that resides on the server must be increased by the correct actions on the server.

The total space available to the system for paging is the sum of the sizes of all active paging-space logical volumes.


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