Maximum capacities
If you exceed system limitations, you might experience an application outage or a system outage. Avoid these types of outages by being aware of the maximum capacities and system limitations in advance.
System limitations can be difficult to predict. This topic collection can help
you understand your system's maximum capacity. The tables in this topic collection itemize some of
the capacity limitations and restrictions that can affect the availability of large systems and
their applications. For example, an online application halts when the size of a file or the number
of its members reaches the size limitation. These tables list the limits or maximum values for the
current release. Some of these maximum values are different (lower) on previous releases. There are
environments or configurations where the actual limit can be less than the stated maximum. For
example, certain high-level languages can have more restrictive limits. These limits can range from
a certain number of objects to memory limitations. Memory limitations are measured in megabytes
(MB), gigabytes (GB), terabytes (TB), and petabytes (PB) where 1 MB equals 1 048 576 bytes, 1 GB
equals 1 073 741 824 bytes, 1 TB equals 1 099 511 627 776 bytes, and 1 PB equals 1 125 899 906 842
624 bytes.
Note: The values listed in this topic collection represent theoretical limits, not
thresholds, or recommendations. Approaching some of these limits might degrade system performance.
Therefore, practical limits might be lower, depending on system size, configuration, and application
environment.
You can use IBM® i System Health Services to
track important system limits. For example, you can check to see if you are approaching the limit on
the maximum number of objects that can be in a library. For more information, see System Health
Services
.