limit to how high NFILE kernel parameters can be set ? drawbacks ?

[Sammy_2]

My hp-ux 9000-N class which has (6gb mem) 4 cpu (550 mgz) reached a NFILE limit (no user could connect). I bumped it from 10000 to 20000. ? I wanna prevent this from happening ?
Is there a limit to how high I can go ? like 100000.
Any adverse affects on the system if I bump it too high. ? Don't want it too high and then have problems with something else on the system.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Sam,

Take a look at this thread,

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=14847

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

The maximum is actually memory limited but 20000 is not considered large; 100000 might be reasonable. Each nfile entry requires a small bit of kernel memory so there is a small downside to setting nfile to a huge value.

The correct answer to your question is to monitor file usage with sar -v and then adjust nfile to a "reasonable" value allowing for quite a bit of headroom.

[Todd McDaniel_1]

On my superdome I have 72GB memory and 48way CPU.

My nfile was originally set to 57810, but because of additions of DBs and application users I had moved it to 80k and then to 100k at present.

nfile like so many kernel parms are limited only by memory. So, you can theoretically go on for quite a bit before you run into any problems.

Here is a link to docs.hp.com regarding max limits.

http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/fsearch/framedisplay?top=/hpux/onlinedocs/J2716-90017/J2716-90017_top.html&con=/hpux/onlinedocs/J2716-90017/00/00/33-con.html&toc=/hpux/onlinedocs/J2716-90017/00/00/33-toc.html&searchterms=max%7climit%7cnfile&queryid=20031231-085805