No Login Prompt when certain number of users logged in.

[Andy Elston]

We have a 64 user license for HP-UX 10.20 but when the number of users logged in reaches the high 40's or low 50's no more login prompts are available. Sometime we reach 54 users logged in before we hit the problem, sometimes only 46 can login. Are there kernal parameters that need changing to resolve this, or am I looking in the wrong place?

Thanks in advance guys!

[Philip Chan_1]

Hi,

I don't think there is any software blocking from the OS even though your licenses are limited to 64. Instead, your system may have ran out of file table entries for additional logins, browse through /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log and look for "File table overflow". If that is the problem, then you can fix this by increasing the nfile kernel parameter.

Rgds,
Philip

[K.Vijayaragavan.]

hi,

set the "maxuser" parameter to desired value.
I hope this may help

regards
Vijay

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Andy:

The user license count represents non-LAN connection limits. THe console counts once as do an unlimited number of telnet sessions.

I suspect that you are bumping into the maxiumum number of processes allowed on your server. The kernel parameter 'nproc' controls this. 'nproc' is usually defined as '20 + (8 * maxusers) where 'maxusers' defaults to <32>.

'glance' is an excellent tool to measure 'nproc' utilization as is 'sar -v'. After examining these, you probably want to tune and generate your kernel via SAM.

For more information on tunable kernel parameters see this document:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/os/KCparam.MaxUsers.html

...JRF...

[Andy Elston]

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunatly, the system administrator cleared the sam log this morning so the syslog is kinda empty! I'll be looking at it this afternoon to see if any entries are in it then. I am sheduling in time to make the changes to the kernal today so I'll be able to send you your points very soon.

Thanks again.

[Wieslaw Krajewski]

Hi,

I share James' opinion. maxusers is a parameter used to compute values kernel parameters like nproc for example. His answer seems to be very close to the solution of the problem.

But in the question there is no info about these user logins, are they local (serial terminals) or remote (telnet sessions). In the second case there are other kernel parameters that could restrict the number of possible logins, for example:

nstrtel (default value = 60) - upper limit of the opened telnet sessions

npty max number of pseudoterminal (do not remember default value at the moment).

Hope this helps.

Rgds.

[Berlene Herren]

I agree with Wieslaw. Increase your number of nstrpty and npty (default for both is 60). This is not indicative of the number of actual people users you have. Many applications also require ptys. Check how many device files you have with
#cd /dev
#ll pt* | wc -l

It is probably more than 60.

Regards,
Berlene

[Paula J Frazer-Campbell]

Hi Andy
Have a word with your sysadmin and suggest that before syslog.log is cleared that it shoud be copied to something like syslog.

This small ammount of work by the sysadmin can sove many hours when things go wrong.

HTH

Paula

[Andy Elston]

Many, many thanks to you all!
The problem is solved and your points have been awarded.

Thanks