OS Hard File Descriptor Limit

[vtmckoy]

How do I increase the OS hard file descriptor limit in Linux?

Currently, I am running Red Hat Linux 9 (kernel version 2.4.20-9). I installed iPlanet webserver version 6.0sp4. The webserver is coming up successfully on port 2517; however, I am encountering problems with the admin server for iPlanet.

When I go into a browser and try to bring up the url, i received an INTERNAL ERROR on the page. The log has the following message(s):

[20/Jan/2004:15:56:50] warning (13561): The server configuration may require more file descriptors than the operating system provides. If you encounter PR_PROC_DESC_TABLE_FULL_ERROR errors, you may wish to increase the operating system hard file descriptor limit from 1024 to 6531 (see your operating system documentation) or decrease one or more of the following settings: MaxFiles in nsfc.conf and ConnQueueSize, RqThrottle, and MaxKeepAliveConnections in magnus.conf.
[20/Jan/2004:15:57:21] failure (13584): for host 20.6.79.154 trying to GET /, cgi_scan_headers reports: the CGI program /export/apps/ptltest01/sun-ws/bin/https/admin/bin/index did not produce a valid header (program terminated without a valid CGI header. Check for core dump or other abnormal termination)

Has anyone encountered the above problem? But, most of all, how do I increase the OS hard file descriptor limit in Red Hat Linux 9 (2.4.20-9)?

Thank you,

 

[blackhowk]

Each user has per-process file descriptor limits. It defaults to 1024. So to increase it first su as root user and execute:
ulimit -n 16384
if you want to increase limit to 16384, or whatever...
you can check the limit by:
ulimit -n
Hope this helps,

 

[predamarcel]

ulimit is aavilabe for shell(logged users).

You have to choices:

#1 edit /etc/sysctl.conf
and add a line like
fs.file-max = 6531

#2 do s script in /etc/init.d
(have to be run at startup)
which do:
echo 6531 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max

I suppose that you have support for proc filesystem in your kernel.

Hope this help.

Marcel

 

[Madstu]

Same problem here. I fixed the PR_PROC_DESC_TABLE_FULL_ERROR warnings very easily but I cannot seem to find a work around for the cgi_scan_headers errors. I'm running RH Enterprise v3 with SunONE 6 sp7.

It seems like it is something really simple that I am over looking.

There is also another forum here where some people mentioned it;

http://isavix.net/forums/viewThread.jsp?forum=36&thread=475

Did anyone find a solution?
TIA