It's worth pointing out that /any/ system worth its salt has user limits...for # files, memory, stack size, etc, etc.....so this is a generic situation that could bite the sys admin on any system when users start using resources heavily. In IBM's AIX, the file that sets this is /etc/security/limits....and I believe it takes effect immediately when changed there or at least at the next user's login....there is a default stanza and then stanzas (optional) for each userid.....
Andy Cravens wrote:
I'm running Solaris 9 Sparc with Dovecot alpha 5 and using maildir format.. I noticed in the log file the following error:
dovecot: Dec 20 15:54:18 Error: imap(xxxxxxxx): open(/export/home/xxxxxxxx/mail/.Sent Messages/cur/1135013649.002916.mbox:2,Sab) failed: Too many open files
I called the guy and asked him what he was doing... synching his folders. It hung for a while but finally finished.
I searched the archives and found some related info from Jeff Ballard:
Actually on Solaris 9 you want to put something like this in /etc/system:
set rlim_fd_cur = 32768 set rlim_fd_max = 65536
That sets the current fd's to 32k and max to 64k. Unfortunately, to take effect you'll need to reboot. After the reboot, ulimit -a should >show that nofiles(descriptors) is 32768.
-Jeff
And I found this from Jeff Earickson:
I ran into this problem with alpha4 on Solaris 9. I doubled the following dovecot settings:
login_max_processes_count = 256 (was 128) login_max_logging_users = 512 (was 256)
and the problem went away. I carried these numbers forward intoalpha5, and it has been working fine.
I changed my /etc/system file but have not rebooted yet. Also, on Jeff Earickson's post, I looked at my dovecot.conf settings and they're basically default which means everything in the "Login processes" section is commented out.
I have 10 users on this system and will hold off migrating any more until I can resolve this problem. By the way, my "ulimit -a" shows "open files" at 256 which seems low.
# ulimit -a core file size (blocks) 0 data seg size (kbytes) unlimited file size (blocks) unlimited open files 256 pipe size (512 bytes) 10 stack size (kbytes) 8192 cpu time (seconds) unlimited max user processes 29995 virtual memory (kbytes) unlimited
Any advice would be appreciated. I can't reboot for a few more days.
--
Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, Henderson Computer Resources
Center of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504
sdean@bard.edu voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 845-758-7035