Re: How many file descriptors does postgres need?

On Mar 9, 2010, at 5:11 AM, Royce Ausburn wrote:

> G'day all,
>
> We recently had a bit of a catastrophe when one of our postgres databases opened too many files.  It was a reasonably
easyfix, but it did get me thinking.  Is there a rule of thumb in determining how many file descriptors should be
availableto a postgres database/cluster? 
>
> I'd be happy to set it to some large number, but I'd really like some confidence about how much the database can grow
witha new limit. 

Postgresql is supposed to cope with file descriptor limits quite happily, as long as the OS actually restricts the
numberof files a process can have open. If it doesn't restrict the number, just falls over if there's too many, there's
apostgresql configuration option to limit it (max_files_per_process, I think). 

What OS are you on, and what was the catastrophe?

Cheers,
  Steve