<p>Add some swap space and your problems will disappear.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-12T12:24:13.057Z
2014-02-12T12:24:13.057Z
Hugh M Halford-Thompson
<p>I think you choose the micro instance because that is for free for one year :)</p>

<p>You need definitely more RAM on the ec2 instance, here's how:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-add-a-swap-file-howto/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-add-a-swap-file-howto/</a> </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-12T12:36:15.160Z
2014-02-20T03:33:06.967Z
2014-02-20T03:33:06.967Z
xmux
<p>bitcoind uses a ton of memory while it's downloading the blockchain. Check out these steps on how to set up your swap space correctly on Ubuntu:</p>

<p><a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-add-swap-on-ubuntu-14-04" rel="nofollow">https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-add-swap-on-ubuntu-14-04</a></p>

<p>Additionally, you can check out the torrent download of the blockchain. As long as you trust the file, this can help speed up the time to download the blockchain.</p>

<p><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent/download" rel="nofollow">http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent/download</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-15T22:19:42.900Z
2014-07-15T22:19:42.900Z
Cody Moniz
<p>Indeed, adding more swap will keep your coin from having a panic shutdown. Here's how to add swap on Ubuntu 12.04.4 (tested) and likely other versions:</p>

<pre><code>sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=64M count=16; sudo mkswap /swapfile; sudo swapon /swapfile;
</code></pre>

<p>This command will create 16 64MB blocks of swap, totalling 1GB of extra swap, which should be plenty if you're just running bitcoind. If you are running multiple coins I would have at least 2GB.</p>

<pre><code>sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=64M count=32; sudo mkswap /swapfile; sudo swapon /swapfile;
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-22T06:26:21.883Z
2014-03-22T06:26:21.883Z
Mark
<p>I'm running the latest version of the headless bitcoind server on an Ubuntu micro instance on AWS and every hour or so it spontaneously shuts down. It's hard to get any meaningful data from the debug log because it seems to happen completely randomly. This is a brand new install on a brand new AWS box. I'm also running the testnet, by the way.</p>

<p>If you can think of meaningful data I can provide, please tell me, but I'm at a loss here! Does anybody know what could be going on?</p>

<p>Edit:</p>

<p>After some more research, I think it's because of the limited memory in a micro EC2 instance:</p>

<p><a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=21451.0" rel="nofollow">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=21451.0</a></p>

<bitcoind><amazon-web-services>
Bitcoind server spontaneously shutting down
Alain Meier
# Bitcoind server spontaneously shutting down

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-02-28)

I'm running the latest version of the headless bitcoind server on an Ubuntu micro instance on AWS and every hour or so it spontaneously shuts down. It's hard to get any meaningful data from the debug log because it seems to happen completely randomly. This is a brand new install on a brand new AWS box. I'm also running the testnet, by the way.

If you can think of meaningful data I can provide, please tell me, but I'm at a loss here! Does anybody know what could be going on?

Edit:

After some more research, I think it's because of the limited memory in a micro EC2 instance:

<https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=21451.0>

**Tags:** bitcoind, amazon-web-services


---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-02-12. Score: 2

Add some swap space and your problems will disappear.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-02-12. Score: 1

I think you choose the micro instance because that is for free for one year :)

You need definitely more RAM on the ec2 instance, here's how:

<http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-add-a-swap-file-howto/>


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-07-15. Score: 0

bitcoind uses a ton of memory while it's downloading the blockchain. Check out these steps on how to set up your swap space correctly on Ubuntu:

<https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-add-swap-on-ubuntu-14-04>

Additionally, you can check out the torrent download of the blockchain. As long as you trust the file, this can help speed up the time to download the blockchain.

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent/download>


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-03-22. Score: 0

Indeed, adding more swap will keep your coin from having a panic shutdown. Here's how to add swap on Ubuntu 12.04.4 (tested) and likely other versions:

```
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=64M count=16; sudo mkswap /swapfile; sudo swapon /swapfile;

```

This command will create 16 64MB blocks of swap, totalling 1GB of extra swap, which should be plenty if you're just running bitcoind. If you are running multiple coins I would have at least 2GB.

```
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=64M count=32; sudo mkswap /swapfile; sudo swapon /swapfile;

```


---

