this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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I don't understand how this is an advantage. Yes, you can swap RAM with the system powered up, but what happens to the information in the module that was removed? Is the OS doing some kind of RAID-like memory allocation? The article wasn't clear on how this would actually work.
Servers have had memory mirroring as a feature for years. This seems like a cool extension of that technology. It would be an advantage in some systems where scaling out isn't an option and single node availability needs to be as high as possible.
Apparently, there's some coordination mechanism, where you tell the OS that you want to remove a certain memory stick, so it moves all the memory onto other RAM sticks (or uses paging to move it to your hard drive). Only then would you actually physically unplug the memory stick.
See, for example: https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/mm/memory-hotplug.html
(Mind that this is kernel documentation. If you actually want to do this, there's probably some CLI program to make it easier.)
Then it's not Hot Swap, just Lukewarm Swap?
I guess, you could see it that way...? The important part is that you don't have to turn off the whole system. It can continue running without interruption. So, the RAM will be lukewarm when you swap it, but the system will still be hot.
If you really want to be pedantic you could setup raid 1+0 or 5 and live the true RAM hot swapping life
So "warm plugging" is a thing - it means a piece of hardware is detachable while the machine is asleep.