Swap Space

The Solaris operating system uses some disk slices for temporary storage rather than for file systems. These slices are called swap slices, or swap space. Swap space is used as virtual memory storage areas when the system does not have enough physical memory to handle current processes.

Since many applications rely on swap space, you should know how to plan for, monitor, and add more swap space when needed. For an overview about swap space and instructions for adding swap space, see Chapter 19, Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks).