samba - Dec 1997 - Too many users for samba?

Hi,
I've been running a Linux machine (RedHat 4.1 kernel 2.0.27)
with Samba 1.9.16p9 (built by RedHat) for about 1 year now.
Everything has been working just fine, but recently I increased
the number of users. When I get to about 75 users the whole
system goes down, with messages like:
  Unable to load interpreter
  No more processes
  File table overflow
If I manage to kill Samba, the system recovers and I can start
Samba over again, but when I reach about 75 users, the thing
goes down again. I've turned on heavy logging on Samba, but
it says nothing about any problem.
I've tried to increase the memory, and I now have a total of
128Mb, but with no difference. I've upgraded to 1.9.17p2
(RPM-version for RH 4.1), but this version crashes when I
reach about 60 users.
Can anyone please give me some clue on what could be causing 
this?

regards,
Steinar Kaaro
E-mail: Steinar.Kaaro@ub.ntnu.no

Uhhmmm... very interesting. I think you are pushing to the limits your
current kernel. Those messages (No more processes, File table
overflow, etc.) must mean that the kernel is out of resources and all
its predefined tables have been filled. I don't know exactly how to
re-compile the kernel to have bigger defaults but I am pretty sure
some include files in /usr/src/linux must be modified.

I am very interested in knowing how to tune Linux to make it able to
handle these high loads (in terms of users and processes). Anyone
knows what to do here? Any comments?

In some systems like Solaris, HP-UX and FreeBSD, among others, it is
very easy to fix this: just increase MAX_USERS and recompile. Under
Linux I don't know of anything like the MAX_USERS macro.

Regards,

E.-

Steinar Kaaro <Steinar.Kaaro@ub.ntnu.no> wrote:

: I've been running a Linux machine (RedHat 4.1 kernel 2.0.27)
: with Samba 1.9.16p9 (built by RedHat) for about 1 year now.
: Everything has been working just fine, but recently I increased
: the number of users. When I get to about 75 users the whole
: system goes down, with messages like:
:   Unable to load interpreter
:   No more processes
:   File table overflow
: If I manage to kill Samba, the system recovers and I can start
: Samba over again, but when I reach about 75 users, the thing
: goes down again. I've turned on heavy logging on Samba, but
: it says nothing about any problem.
: I've tried to increase the memory, and I now have a total of
: 128Mb, but with no difference. I've upgraded to 1.9.17p2
: (RPM-version for RH 4.1), but this version crashes when I
: reach about 60 users.
: Can anyone please give me some clue on what could be causing 
: this?

-- 

Eloy A. Paris
Information Technology Department
Rockwell Automation de Venezuela
Telephone: +58-2-9432311 Fax: +58-2-9431645