Too many users for samba?

[Charlie Brady]

On Thu, 4 Dec 1997, Eloy A. Paris wrote:

> 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?

See /usr/src/linux/include/linux/tasks.h:

#ifndef _LINUX_TASKS_H
#define _LINUX_TASKS_H
 
/*
 * This is the maximum nr of tasks - change it if you need to
 */
 
#ifdef __SMP__
#define NR_CPUS 32              /* Max processors that can be running in
SMP */
#else
#define NR_CPUS 1
#endif
 
#define NR_TASKS        512
 
#define MAX_TASKS_PER_USER (NR_TASKS/2)
#define MIN_TASKS_LEFT_FOR_ROOT 4
 
#endif

There is some run-time tuning that you can do with Linux via the /proc
file system. You can tune the virtual memory system, and the maximum
number of open files, but not, at present, the size of the process table.
You'll have to recompile to change that.

Charlie Brady - Telstra  |internet: cbrady at ind.tansu.com.au
Network Products         |Snail    : Locked Bag 6581, GPO Sydney 2001 Australia
Platform Technologies    |Physical : Lvl 2, 175 Liverpool St, Sydney 2000
 IN-Sub Unit - Sydney    | Phone: +61 2 9206 3470 Fax: +61 2 9281 1301