Prerequisites

• Root or sudo access
• Available system memory
• Basic familiarity with Linux command line

1. (Optional) Install Monitoring Tools

Install htop to monitor memory usage:

dnf install htop -y

2. Create a Mount Point

Create a directory for the RAM disk:

sudo mkdir /mnt/ramdisk

Set permissions (optional, depending on use case):

sudo chmod 777 /mnt/ramdisk

3. Mount the RAM Disk

Mount a tmpfs filesystem with a defined size:

sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=4G ramdisk /mnt/ramdisk

This creates a temporary RAM-backed filesystem limited to 4GB.

4. Configure Auto-Mount at Boot

Edit /etc/fstab

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add Entry

tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=4096M 0 0

Alternative example:

plextmp /tmp/ramdisk tmpfs defaults,size=12G,x-gvfs-show 0 0

Key options:

• size – Maximum RAM usage
• nodev – Disable device files
• nosuid – Ignore SUID bits
• noexec – Prevent execution of binaries

5. Apply Mount Without Reboot

systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a

This applies the fstab configuration immediately.

6. Test RAM Disk Performance

Write Test

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/ramdisk/testfile bs=4k count=1000000
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/testfile bs=4k count=1000000

Read Test

sudo dd if=/mnt/ramdisk/testfile of=/dev/null bs=4k count=1000000
sudo dd if=/tmp/testfile of=/dev/null bs=4k count=1000000

These tests compare RAM disk performance with standard disk storage.

7. Clean Up Test Files

rm -f /mnt/ramdisk/testfile
rm -f /tmp/testfile

Best Practices

• Do not allocate more RAM than the system can safely provide
• Use RAM disks for temporary or high-speed workloads only
• Remember that data in tmpfs is lost on reboot
• Monitor memory usage to prevent system instability

Use Cases

• Temporary file storage
• High-speed caching
• Build environments
• Application scratch space

Summary

A tmpfs RAM disk provides extremely fast storage by using system memory. It is ideal for temporary workloads and performance-sensitive applications, but should be used carefully due to its volatile nature.