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.
Andy Cravens <acravens@uen.org>:> 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. > >I'm not in front of a Solaris box right now, but if you don't want to reboot, look at adb(1). Here is a Sun doc: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-0607/6m735r5f2?a=view Hope this helps, Channing
Andy,
This sounds like a kernel parameter issue, not a dovecot.conf
twiddle. My system supports 3000 users, and "ulimit -a" has no
mention of "open files" at all. With maildir format, you would
have a lot of open files (I use mbox).
My /etc/system has the following additions, which I put in when
I first started using alpha3:
* double file descriptor limits for dovecot
set rlim_fd_cur = 65536
set rlim_fd_max = 131072
I don't have any ulimit or plimit twiddles in my startup script, as
others have suggested. Per their advice, use plimit or adb to
adjust things until you can change /etc/system and reboot.
Jeff Earickson
Colby College
On Tue, 20 Dec 2005, Andy Cravens wrote:
> Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:59:08 -0700
> From: Andy Cravens <acravens@uen.org>
> To: dovecot@dovecot.org
> Subject: [Dovecot] Another "Too many files open" post
>
> 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.
>
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