[ECE] Doc clarification - add swap description

[kunisen]

Summary

To address an internal ticket - https://github.com/elastic/support-tech-lead/issues/1834

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1. Did you use a generative AI (GenAI) tool to assist in creating this contribution?

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Claude

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🔍 Preview links for changed docs

• deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-manage-capacity.md

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Elastic Docs Style Checker (Vale)

Summary: 1 suggestion found

💡 Suggestions (1): Optional style improvements. Apply when helpful.

File	Line	Rule	Message
deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-manage-capacity.md	157	Elastic.WordChoice	Consider using 'deactivated, deselected, hidden, turned off, unavailable' instead of 'disabled', unless the term is in the UI.

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Docs review summary

Focus areas

• Style and clarity: Seven inline comments covering future tense ("will terminate"), directional language ("below"), and Vale-flagged word choices.
• Jargon: "OOM" used without expansion on first use; flagged with inline suggestion.
• Frontmatter and applies_to: No issues — existing frontmatter is complete and the new section doesn't change metadata.
• Content type fit: New section is a natural addition to the existing how-to/reference page; content type and structure are appropriate.
• Parent issue satisfaction: The PR addresses the internal ticket by adding a "Swap consideration" section with sizing guidance and links to OS-specific enablement steps. The documented ask appears satisfied.

Nits

• Vale flags disabled (line 157, link text "swap disabled") and prior to (lines 33 and 73, pre-existing). The disabled in link text is borderline since it describes a configuration state, but updating the URL to the relative path (see inline comment) already improves that line.
• Vale flags newer versions → later versions (line 114, pre-existing) and or lower → or earlier (line 61, pre-existing) — not introduced by this PR.

Notes

• All 7 inline comments target lines added in this diff.
• The mapped_pages Vale warning is pre-existing and expected; no action needed from this PR.

Generated by Docs review agent for issue #7196 · 64.1 AIC · ⌖ 11 AIC · ⊞ 10.7K

[eedugon]

@kunisen , why are we adding swap considerations in a doc about purely the allocators capacity?

Have you considered if the new content might fit better at https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-software-prereq? Because the ECE swap would be recommended not only to allocators but maybe to all ECE hosts, right? Also:

• The software-prereqs is part of the preparations, so it makes sense to describe it there.
• The manage allocators capacity doc is a doc for day-2 operations.

My recommendation would be:

• Move the main swap guidance to Software prerequisites.

• In Manage your allocators capacity, I would only add a short note under Memory, because swap is not allocator capacity and should not influence sizing decisions:

Do not include swap when calculating allocator capacity. Swap should be configured only as a last-resort safety net for host stability, not as memory available to ECE deployments. For swap requirements and sizing guidance, refer to LINK TO Software prerequisites.

• This keeps Manage allocators capacity focused on usable allocator resources: memory capacity, CPU quotas, processors, and storage ratios.

[eedugon]

New content looks good! But IMO the manage capacity doc is not the right place for it.

Let's consider adding a note in the ece-manage-capacity.md document about swap but putting the main content in the software prereqs document, as the nature of the information fits better there. I've expanded that in another comment.

On the other hand, the links to RHEL, SuSE and Ubuntu docs feel a bit misleading as we don't really have swap setup instructions there. I've expanded it in another comment.

[eedugon]

Suggested change

	* [Ubuntu](https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-ubuntu)
	* [RHEL](https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-rhel)
	* [SUSE](https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-suse)
	* [Ubuntu](/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-ubuntu.md)
	* [RHEL](/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-rhel.md)
	* [SUSE](/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/configure-host-suse.md)

Fixing the links. But one extra question:

Do we have specific swap configuration instructions on those documents? I believe we don't, and probably it's not our thing to tell users the exact steps to configure swap memory at OS level, just telling them what amount of swap we recommend.

We could tell them that by default all OS enable swap by default, but if they haven't enabled swap they should follow the applicable guide to their operating system.

In our Ubuntu / RHEL and SuSE docs we don't have steps to enable swap, our steps about swap are kernel and grub loader considerations about swap (which is what really matters to ECE).

[kunisen]

Thanks @eedugon you are right, I should mention that configuring swap is not in the scope of elastic support.
I added an additional wording to make it clear:

Furthermore, how you provision the swap space itself depends on your operating system and infrastructure provider — consult your OS or cloud provider's documentation for creating a swap file or partition. This is a topic out of Elastic support scope.

[kunisen]

Thanks @eedugon

Have you considered if the new content might fit better at https://www.elastic.co/docs/deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-enterprise/ece-software-prereq? Because the ECE swap would be recommended not only to allocators but maybe to all ECE hosts, right?

++ on your thoughts.

My personal feeling is it's very close to allocator memory settings, as well as it contains a part of sizing consideration (tho we don't say how to configure swap space size because that's not a pure ECE topic)

So I ended up putting things together in a pragmatically way instead of a more logically reasonable way.

=> But I am ok with moving this out to the place you suggested. Just want to mention the ideas on my side for deciding the location. ^ ^