How to increase maximum number of open files

| May 2, 2011 | 0 Comments

Command to list number of open file descriptors.

Use the following command command to display maximum number of open file descriptors:

#cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max

The number of maximum files was reached, how do I fix this problem?

Many application such as Oracle database server needs this range quite higher. So you can increase the maximum number of open files by setting new value in kernel variable /proc/sys/fs/file-max as follows (login as the root

# sysctl -w fs.file-max=100000

Above command forces the limit to 100000 files. You need to edit /etc/sysctl.conf file and put following line so that after reboot the setting will remain as it is:

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Append a config directive as follows:

fs.file-max = 100000

Save and close the file. Users need to log out and log back in again to changes take effect or just type command:

# sysctl -p

Verify your settings with command:

# cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max

OR

# sysctl fs.file-max

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Category: Linux Administration

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