i think i have more server than i need. i want to know if there is a way to similulate lower ram so i can test what it would be like if i moved to a server with less ram. currently i have 1gb or ram. i am running red hat linux and use the webmin control panel.

any ideas?

It'd require either physical access, or ssh access, depending on which idea you use, but here are two thoughts of mine:

1.) I doubt it's a single 1 GB stick. I've got 4x256 MB in my desktop; other systems have 2x512 MB. Pull one or two of 'em out and see how it works. This, of course, requires that you shutdown. (I saw someone try to 'hot swap' memory once... Sparks ensued.)

2.) You can make part of it a ram disk. I haven't done this, but I know it's possible. Make, say, a 512 MB ramdisk, which will eat up 512 MB of your RAM.

I should note, though, that RAM is the one thing you really can't have too much of. I laugh at the people who spend $400 buying the newest video card, and wonder why anyone needs another 250 GB hard drive. But my system flies with a gig of RAM; for example, my web browser often ends up cached in RAM (Linux will store files in the 'excess' RAM until a program actually needs the RAM), so it comes up in a fraction of a second. If you could really stand to save the money, it's not criminal to decrease RAM, but you really can't have too much of it.

its a remote server, so only ssh would be possible. how would i pull off the ram disk option via ssh?

the cheap server plans all have low ram, so that is what i am trying to emulate... to see how my site would run on less ram.

You can specify the amount of RAM as part of the Linux boot parameters. I haven't messed with it in years, though, so I don't remember the syntax.

There's a reason all the cheap plans have low memory, so I would stick with what you have if you plan to grow at all.

You need to add the boot parameter "mem=xxxM" to either /etc/lilo.conf or /etc/grub.conf depending on which version of RH you are running

Rus

i am running red hat 9

I haven't done it before, so I couldn't tell you for sure.

jvds's idea sounds like it'd work, although I think (I'm far from an expert) it just tells Linux how much RAM it actaully has, as opposed to using RAM disk. (Which would be a lot more direct rather than my idea of using ramdisk just to waste memory.)