dovecot - Aug 2013 - Error: file_dotlock_open() failed with file + Too many open files

Hi All,

We are getting these below error on our IMAP server. 

is this because of open file limits.??

We have set it to 4096.

[root at vish conf.d]# ulimit -n
4096



Aug 27 16:08:26 imap(kavish.karkera at example.com-24685): Error:
file_dotlock_open() failed with file
/data/quarantine/index//data/quarantine/mailstore/24685/.INBOX.kavish.karkera/dovecot.index.cache:
Too many open files

Aug 27 16:08:26 imap(kavish.karkera at example.com-24685): Error:
open(/data/quarantine/index//data/quarantine/mailstore/24685/.INBOX.kavish.karkera/dovecot.index.cache.lock)
failed: Too many open files

Below is our dovecot conf file.

=====================================================================# 2.2.5:
/usr/local/dovecot-2.2.5/etc/dovecot-imap/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 x86_64 CentOS release 5.5 (Final) 
auth_socket_path = /usr/local/var/run/dovecot2.2-imap/auth-userdb
base_dir = /usr/local/var/run/dovecot2.2-imap/
default_vsz_limit = 1 G
first_valid_gid = 99
first_valid_uid = 99
hostname = 
log_path = /var/log/dovecot2.2-imap.log
mail_location =
maildir:~:INDEX=/data/quarantine/index/%h:CONTROL=/data/quarantine/index/%h
mail_plugins = " virtual notify"
namespace {
? inbox = no
? location = 
? prefix = 
? separator = .
? type = private
}
namespace {
? hidden = yes
? inbox = yes
? list = yes
? location =
virtual:~/virtual:LAYOUT=maildir++:INDEX=~/virtual:CONTROL=~/virtual
? prefix = virtual.
? separator = .
? subscriptions = no
? type = private
}
namespace {
? hidden = yes
? inbox = no
? list = no
? location =
maildir:~:INDEX=/data/quarantine/index/%h:CONTROL=/data/quarantine/index/%h:LAYOUT=maildir++
? prefix = boxvirtual.
? separator = .
? subscriptions = no
? type = private
}
passdb {
? args = /usr/local/dovecot-2.2.5/etc/dovecot-imap/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
? driver = sql
}
protocols = imap
service auth {
? unix_listener auth-userdb {
??? group = nobody
??? mode = 0666
??? user = nobody
? }
}
service imap-login {
? inet_listener imap {
??? port = 20143
? }
? vsz_limit = 1 G
}
service imap-postlogin {
? executable = script-login -d /usr/local/bin/dovecot.virtual.sh
? unix_listener imap-postlogin {
??? mode = 0666
? }
}
service imap {
? executable = /usr/local/dovecot-2.2.5/libexec/dovecot/imap imap-postlogin
? vsz_limit = 1 G
}
ssl = no
userdb {
? args = /usr/local/dovecot-2.2.5/etc/dovecot-imap/dovecot-sql.conf.ext
? driver = sql
}
protocol imap {
? mail_max_userip_connections = 1000
? mail_plugins = " virtual notify"
}



Regards,
Kavish Karkera

On 27.8.2013, at 13.56, Kavish Karkera <kavish.karkera at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> We are getting these below error on our IMAP server. 
> 
> is this because of open file limits.??
I guess it's because you have a virtual mailbox that consists of a ton of
real mailboxes? Unfortunately the virtual mailboxes currently open all of the
real mailboxes' index files immediately and keep them all open. This will be
fixed some day in future, but for now you need enough file descriptors for them
all.
> We have set it to 4096.
> 
> [root at vish conf.d]# ulimit -n
> 4096
Dovecot's init script could have changed it. You need to look at the running
dovecot process's limits to be sure:

cat /proc/`pidof dovecot`/limits | grep 'Max open files'