Free swap is zero
I am running 2 identical 64 bit linux ES4 20gb RAM servers, kernel setup is to Oracle 10.2 install standards from the installation guide, ulimits etc...I am getting an intermitent lock on one of the servers when I am running a standard RMAN backup - no compression. This same server is running with zero free swap, and the memory is not even being touched- however the CPU spikes whenever I run a backup as well.
Is there any reason why I would have at least 10 GB of free memory at all times, but I am consistently sitting at zero free swap with no swap paging happening on one server- that locks up, and the other identical server has no issues at all.
What would I look at to see why swap is always running high when memory is not being hit?
Our sys admin said that the linux up2date was run on the server going from RH4 update 7 to update 8 via up2date, that was the only OS change on both servers.