Description of problem:
Page 375 of the "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Installation Guide" shows recommended swap space values that contradict what is described on page 96 and what is shown in Table 9.2.  Which one is supposed to be correct?

p.96: In years past, the recommended amount of swap space increased linearly with the amount of RAM in the system. But because the amount of memory in modern systems has increased into the hundreds of gigabytes, it is now recognized that the amount of swap space that a system needs is a function of the memory workload running on that system. However, given that swap space is usually designated at install time, and that it can be difficult to determine beforehand the memory workload of a system, we recommend determining system swap using the following table. 

Table 9.2. Recommended System Swap Space 
Amount of RAM in the System Recommended Amount of Swap Space 
4GB of RAM or less a minimum of 2GB of swap space 
4GB to 16GB of RAM a minimum of 4GB of swap space 
16GB to 64GB of RAM a minimum of 8GB of swap space 
64GB to 256GB of RAM a minimum of 16GB of swap space 
256GB to 512GB of RAM a minimum of 32GB of swap space 


p.375: To determine the size of the swap partition automatically, use the --recommended option: 
swap --recommended 
The recommended maximum swap size for machines with less than 2GB of RAM is twice the amount of RAM. For machines with 2GB or more, this recommendation changes to 2GB plus the amount of RAM. 

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
6.0