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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!news.mira.net.au!news.vbc.net!vbcnet-west!knews.uk0.vbc.net!vbcnet-gb!azure.xara.net!xara.net!newsfeed.nacamar.de!europa.clark.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!howland.erols.net!newspump.sol.net!posts.execpc.com!earth.execpc.com!not-for-mail From: jgreco@ns.sol.net (Joe Greco) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: ifconfig limit reached? Date: 23 May 1997 12:11:37 -0500 Organization: sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI Lines: 52 Sender: jgreco@earth.execpc.com Message-ID: <5m4j49$o9e$1@earth.execpc.com> References: <michelle-2205971722230001@monalisa.primelogic.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: earth.execpc.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:41412 In comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc article <michelle-2205971722230001@monalisa.primelogic.com>, michelle@primelogic.com (Michelle Brownsworth) wrote: :Today I added the 57th ifconfig line to our server's rc.local file as part :of the routine adding of a virtual host. I HUP'ed named and was greeted :by a nameserver core dump and complaints of "too many files open." And :the nameserver was torched, naturally. I rebooted the entire server, to :no avail. Thinking I'd made an error in one of the DNS files, I checked :my work carefully and everything looked kosher; the forward, :reverse--everything--seemed to be USDA-grade fine. I recompiled the :kernel after increasing the number of users from 20 to 50 and rebooted :again. No dice. Mutter... Yes, you did torch the nameserver - but that's all you torched. The nameserver tries to bind a separate socket to each virtual IP address on your machine. This is bad if you have A Lot Of Interfaces, because eventually it runs out of interfaces. Some folks have recommended doing an "unlimit; named" but I don't think that this really wins in the long run. Real fixes include: running named on a different machine, and having your Web server use the other machine. Or: running BIND 8.1 with the new interface binding directive set to only use one interface. Or: dig up the bind-interfaces patch for BIND 4.9* that does the same thing. You can run thousands of virtual hosts on a FreeBSD box. Note that you'll eventually torch your Web server if it's not thoughtfully configured (particularly if you have separate log files for each virtual site). :Since this state of affairs was precipitated by adding the new virtual it :seemed logical to remove the additions that I'd made. On a hunch, I :commented out the ifconfig I'd added for the virtual, rebooted, and :everything was back to normal. Whew! : :So have I run up against some limit on the number of IP addresses that can :be assigned to the network card? Do I need to change some configuation :variable that will increase the number of IP assignments the card can :handle? I've looked in the online docs, but haven't found anything that :addressed this particular problem. (OTOH, panicky readers sometimes miss :things.) : :I'm running 2.1.5 on a P133 with 32 MB parity RAM. As belt and :suspenders, I've just ordered another 32 MB of parity RAM and a second :network card. I'm figuring if worse comes to worse, and it's not just a :matter of increasing a variable to allow more IP assignments on the first :card, the second network card will gain me another 50+ assignments. Nope, it won't. ... JG