File table overflow

[hmorrison]

The DBA reported to me that he was getting this message, "File table overflow" does anyone know what this means. The OS is HPUX 11.11 and the Database is Oracle 8.1.7.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

You have excceded the maximum number of open files as limited by the kernel parameter 'nfile'. You will need to increase this value.

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60105/nfile.5.html

You can use 'sar -v' or 'glance' [see 't'able metrics] to monitor this level.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson]

It means that you have hit the kernel limit nfile. You will need to increase this tunable and build a new kernel.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

You could help track this down a bit further by checking the /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log file.

There may be a corresponding message that helps.

Also, since you are root, take a look at the oracle alert log for other issues.

I agree with the prior posts as to the possible cause, it might be nice to know for certain whats going on. When kernel parametrs are breached, there is almost always a syslog message.

Its somewhat easier to find a corrective action based on syslog, due to the fact that the message may be mentioned in documentation and patch notes if a patch can fix the porblem.

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Actually there is no need to dig further as "File table overflow" is the exact error message generated by the standard perror() or strerror() libc functions and corresponds to ENFILE (errno = 23). Open() can fail due to a similar cause when the per-process file limit is reached but that is EMFILE (errno = 24) and you will see "Too many open files". Man 2 open for details.