Configuring file descriptor resources for IBM WebSphere Application Server (Linux)

On Linux®, the default setting for the maximum number of file descriptors allowed is not sufficient to run WebSphere® Application Server. You must configure the file descriptor resources for WebSphere Application Server to run correctly.

About this task

If your installation includes a stand-alone instance of WebSphere Application Server, configure the file descriptor resources on the computer on which WebSphere Application Server is installed. For cluster environments, you must configure the file descriptor resources on each computer where WebSphere Application Server is installed (Deployment Manager and managed nodes). The resources can be permanently configured if appropriate for your environment.

Procedure

  1. Make sure all WebSphere Application Server processes are stopped.
  2. Configure the computer to support a large number of file descriptors.
    Refer to your system administrator if you are unsure about this process.

    The following example shows how to set the number of file descriptors to 10240 if your login shell is /bin/bash. WebSphere Application Server requires a value over 10000 to run properly.

    • To apply the settings to the entire system, add the following to the /etc/profile file:
      ulimit -n 10240
    • To set the soft and hard limits for all users, add the following to the /etc/security/limits.conf file:
      * soft nofile 10240
      * hard nofile 10240
    If you do not want to permanently configure these values as shown in the example, you can instead run the ulimit -n command just before you start a WebSphere Application Server process. All WebSphere Application Server processes must be stopped before you run these commands.
  3. Start all WebSphere Application Server processes.
  4. In a cluster environment, repeat this procedure on all systems where WebSphere Application Server is installed.