Vera 2 Create Swap file, add to startup?

Community Playground General Discussions
1

From the post (http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8883.msg57979.html#msg57979) I found how to create a swap file on the USB drive.

The steps are as follows:

  1. Data description for 64Mb swapfile for the filesystem:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/log/cmh/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536

  2. Creating the actual swapfile:
    mkswap /tmp/log/cmh/swapfile

  3. Start using the newly created swapfile:
    swapon /tmp/log/cmh/swapfile

It appears the swap file does not persist between reboots.

My questions are:

1)-> Can the “swapon /tmp/log/cmh/swapfile” statement be added to the Vera Startup? How?

2)-> Is there any reason or danger in using the swap file. I pursued this as I have 70 some devices, 15 cameras on the system. It is very slow and the FREE cmd shows very little memory.

Memory currently is:
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 30540 30228 312 0 384
Swap: 0 0 0
Total: 30540 30228 312

3)-> Am I approaching/exceeding the practical limitation of devices on Vera2?

I am at UI5 with most recent updates applied.

Thanks.

2

I have a swap partition running and I recently opened a thread concerning this topic:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8883.msg57810.html#msg57810

Maybe that gives you some answers.

3

I read the thread. Still looking for answer to:

How do I add to startup?

Is there an argument against using a swap file?

Does +70 decides exceed Vera2 capabilities and as such a swap file is pointless?

Thanks.

4

Sorry, I didn’t read your post closely enough.

I added the following lines to my /etc/init.d/custom-user-setup file to make the swap partition appear after reboot:

# activate swap swapon /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2

So basically you just have to add your swapon command to this file.

If I got that right one of the biggest concern is the limited read/write cycles for an usb stick. Using SWAP on usb will eventually kill the stick, but up to now I had no problems.

5

Thx much for the info.

Given the low cost of thumb drives I don’t have concerns about chewing up thumb drives.

If it even marginally improves performance, it will be worth it.

Thx

6

[quote=“PhilTMan, post:1, topic:170059”]From the post (http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8883.msg57979.html#msg57979)

3)-> Am I approaching/exceeding the practical limitation of devices on Vera2?

I am at UI5 with most recent updates applied.

Thanks.[/quote]

By what I read Vera 3 for more than 50 devices. So you maybe exceeding the practical limitation of your Vera 2.

7

It is more or less the plugins that will cause Vera 2 to use memory. You should be OK with 70 or so devices. Once you start adding many cameras and other plugins, that is when Vera 2 can become slow.

  • Garrett
8

Is the use of a single plugin for the camera the memory penalty or the number of cameras. All are of the same type, using the built in generic camera support of UI5.

I removed 4 cameras without measurable impact on available memory. Or would I need to remove all cameras?

Would upgrading to vera3 resolve the low memory, slow performance issues?

Thanks for your replies.

9

Just to let you know, the absolutely biggest performance improvement for me was uninstalling the ergy energy plugin.

10

Chixxi,

I’ve little Linux experience, soooo…

There was no pre-existing custom-user-setup file. So I created the file you listed in the folder “/etc/init.d”

I saved and rebooted but the swap file was not present after reboot.

Is the literal file name spelled as: “custom-user-setup” with no extension?

Thanks

11

Oh, my bad: ::slight_smile:

The file is called “custom-user-startup”! (not custom-user-setup)

You can also read this to see how to activate the file:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,7750.msg55089.html#msg55089
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,7750.msg55123.html#msg55123

12

Hi,

Another way is:

connect to Vera2 by ssh.

if your swapfile isn’t created do:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/log/cmh/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536

then

mkswap /tmp/log/cmh/swapfile

create a file named “swap_on” in /etc/init.d and copy the code below:

[code]#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

Copyright (C) 2006 OpenWrt.org

START=99
start() {
/sbin/swapon /tmp/log/cmh/swapfile
}
[/code]

give rights for launch:

chmod a+x swap_on

then do:

ln -s  /etc/init.d/swap_on /etc/rc.d/S99swap_on

reboot and check if your swap is on by this command in ssh: free

if you see that (or someting like that) :

Swap: 8940 56 8884

it’s ok.

Gilles.

13

Thanks much, you instructions worked nicely.