Set Up a Swap File (Optional)

If your server doesn’t have enough RAM, you might encounter issues, especially when building Docker images. Instead of purchasing more RAM, you can create a swap file, which acts as virtual memory. Here’s how you can add 1GB of swap to your server (you can adjust the size by replacing 1G with 2G for 2GB, etc.):

Video Guide

In your server SSH Terminal, paste the following commands to create SWAP.

Steps to Add 1GB Swap File:

1. Create the Swap File:

sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile

If you get an error with fallocate, use this alternative command:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=1048576

2. Set the Correct Permissions (only root should access it):

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

3. Set Up the Swap Area:

sudo mkswap /swapfile

4. Enable the Swap:

sudo swapon /swapfile

To make the change permanent open the /etc/fstab file and append the following line:

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

5. Verify Swap Activation:

sudo swapon --show

Example output:

NAME      TYPE  SIZE   USED PRIO
/swapfile file 1024M  507M   -1

You can also use:

sudo free -h

Example output:

total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           488M        158M         83M        2.3M        246M        217M
Swap:          1.0G        506M        517M

This step is optional, but it helps avoid memory-related issues, especially on servers with limited RAM.