If you’re running a $6 DigitalOcean Droplet with just 1GB of RAM, you might experience performance issues—especially when hosting multiple WordPress websites. One effective way to enhance performance and prevent crashes due to low memory (OOM errors) is by setting up swap space.
What is Swap?
Swap acts as virtual memory, allowing your server to temporarily store inactive processes on the disk when RAM is fully utilized. While swap is slower than RAM, it helps keep your system stable under heavy workloads.
Why Set Up Swap?
✅ Prevents server crashes due to insufficient RAM
✅ Improves WordPress and MySQL stability
✅ Helps with multi-tasking and background processes
How to Set Up Swap (Automated Script)
Instead of manually configuring swap, you can use the following Bash script to automatically set up a 2GB swap file on your DigitalOcean Droplet:
#!/bin/bash
# Set up a 2GB swap file on DigitalOcean Droplet
# Check if swap already exists
if swapon --show | grep -q swapfile; then
echo "Swap already exists. Exiting."
exit 0
fi
# Allocate 2GB swap space
fallocate -l 2G /swapfile || dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048
# Set correct permissions
chmod 600 /swapfile
# Format swap file
mkswap /swapfile
# Enable swap
swapon /swapfile
# Make swap permanent
if ! grep -q "/swapfile" /etc/fstab; then
echo "/swapfile none swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
fi
# Optimize swap settings
sysctl vm.swappiness=10
sysctl vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
echo "vm.swappiness=10" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
# Verify swap is active
swapon --show
free -h
echo "Swap setup complete!"