User max open files limit

This topic details how to change the user max open-files limit setting to meet Vertica requirements. The installer reports this issue with the identifier S0060.

The installer automatically configures the correct setting if the default value does not meet system requirements. If an issue occurs when setting this value, or you use the --no-system-configuration argument to the installer and the current setting is incorrect, then the installer reports this as an issue.

Vertica requires that the dbadmin user not be limited when opening files. The open file limit per user is calculated as follows:

user max open files = greater of { ≥ 65536 | ≤ RAM-MBs }

As a dbadmin user, you can determine the open file limit by running ulimit -n. For example:

$ ulimit -n
65536

To manually set the limit, edit /etc/security/limits.conf and edit/add the nofile setting for the user who is configured as the database administrator—by default, dbadmin. For example:

dbadmin -       nofile  65536

The setting must be no less than 65536 MB, but not greater than the system value of fs.nr_open. For example, the default value of fs.nr_open value on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 is 1048576 MB.