# Win8.1 memory paging problem



## SorcererStone (Oct 17, 2010)

I am trying to install an opensource project. This project requires other 3rd party SW. The first instruction for this project is to disable swapping. It is due to the utilization of a 3rd party SW named ElasticSearch. The rationale for turning off VM paging is described here:

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/master/setup-configuration-memory.html

I am using Win8.1 in my main laptop (8GB RAM). I want to install this opensource project. Once that is successful, I am going to repeat the same process on my Win10 laptop (8GB RAM).
I googled the ill effects of turning of memory paging. It is not good.

On a subsequent page, this app recommends setting up virtual memory size, but with instruction given in Linux only

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/vm-max-map-count.html

I am a bit confuse. In Windows, modifying, disabling virtual memory, paging are all in same UI under System Properties->Advanced. So I either modify manually the VM amount or disable paging (or by default, auto). I can't turn off swapping and allocate VM at the same time. Maybe Linux world can.

I am setting this opensource app in docker. This app is setting up a stack in compose. So a number of apps are running together - all demanding memory and data persistence.

Please advise how to tackle this problem? Should I ignore turning off swapping? I want data persistence for this app running in docker however.
Thanks in advance.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> I am trying to install an opensource project. This project requires other 3rd party SW.The first instruction for this project is to disable swapping.


 What is the name of the Project? What are the 3rd party software? Where are the instructions for Disabling Swapping? 
Docker is a VM for Linux, How were you planning to run this in Windows? 
I think this opensource project is supposed to be run from Linux, and not Windows.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Spunk, Docker is a Container not a VM..

You need to install Docker for Windows on the laptop first and set it up, once that is installed, then you need to use the docker commands to run an image over docker, so do you have a pre-built docker image ? or are you downloading any of the standard available images.


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## SorcererStone (Oct 17, 2010)

@tristar, I have Docker Toolbox installed in Win8.1, Docker for Windows installed in Win10. I am using standard images from Open Source. But the first instruction from the project source is to turn off swapping. It has something to do another open source named ElasticSearch. 
Most people do build this project in Linux but there is a docker implementation set of instructions (seems to gear towards Linux people).
So, if I do turn off page memory in Windows, I have a lot of undesirable OS effects I don't want to have. I wonder from your perspective, if I ignore the instruction & keep the default Windows memory paging on (as default), i.e. ignoring the plead form ElasticSearch, but relocate lots of RAM to Java engine (I have 8GB on both & in Win10, I can increase it to 16GB), do you think I may still have data persistence in all the IT stack for this project? Just a generic question for general opinion.
@tristar, First, my fault, I abbreviated virtual memory, after stating it once, to refer virtual memory as VM. I misled everyone. Sorry.

Second, Spunk is correct because the Docker Toolbox for Win8 & 7 are fake! Docker engine in the Toolbox actually rides on Oracle's Virtual Machine engine (oxymoron!!). When Docker Toolbox is installed, Oracles' VM is automatically pull and install. That is why after Docker for Windows was release (sitting on top of HyperV), Microsoft immediately dropped support for Docker Toolbox. But you can still download it for Win8 folks.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Swap has to be done within Docker image, not on the Host OS. So if you're referring to Swap Off, run that within Docker image, I've worked with ESearch, I'm guessing you're using it for log searching and analytics, try Splunk if you're looking for a Windows alternative...It's free, but a bloody resource hog... Play around with the filters and you should find some interesting results..

Anyways, the reason it is turned off is so that searches can avoid using the Swap and run directly from within the Memory and not stress the Drive. For small/mini scale, this is not mandatory, you should be able to get by.

I have 8 GB Memory, I set my page file size to about 200-500MB so the Memory is fully utilized and only goes to page file if required.

_"do you think I may still have data persistence in all the IT stack for this project"_ Sorry, didn't understand this..

I'm guessing, Docker didn't want to reinvent the wheel so went ahead with an existing solution which they can scale over Windows without having to start from scratch, so I don't blame them for using Vbox, I think it's one of the best workstation Virtual solutions, I personally prefer it.....

Most of the DevOps/Analytic solutions in the market right now are more Linux centric so do keep a Linux image and start playing around to be future proof.. Install CentOs and a Display Manager to start with GUi so you can farm out into CLI..


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## SorcererStone (Oct 17, 2010)

@tristar. Thank you for the respond. I have a better picture now. The app I am installing requires ESearch, so my original questions. I am going to pick up where I left off installing the app and see what will happen. I shall leave page swapping on in Win and google how to turn off memory swapping in Docker.
Thanks for tips on CentOs & Display Manager. I will give it a go.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Cheers, if this is a Production environment, be cautious, if it's your own home lab/testing, you should be ok, just keep a resource monitor for Memory/hard faults or alerts for page writes, because if there is increased writing to the page file, then you're running a resource crunch wrt Memory and good to upgrade..

Don't disturb Windows for now, let it stay as is.. As long as you don't see too many writes to the page file, you should be ok.. When you download a docker image, you should be able to run standard linux commands and then you can turn off swap.. again it's not required for a small scale environment.. only when working with large volumes of log files should you be concerned.. In which case, switch to splunk or hadoop...


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