/etc/security/limits.conf not applied

Question

I have /etc/security/limits.conf, that seems not been applied:

a soft nofile 1048576 # default: 1024
a hard nofile 2097152
a soft noproc 262144  # default 128039
a hard noproc 524288

Where a is my username, when I run ulimit -Hn and ulimit -Sn, it shows:

4096
1024

There's only one other file in the /etc/security/limits.d that the content is:

scylla  -  core     unlimited
scylla  -  memlock  unlimited
scylla  -  nofile   200000
scylla  -  as       unlimited
scylla  -  nproc    8096

I tried also append those values to /etc/security/limits.conf then restarting, and do this:

echo '
session required pam_limits.so
' | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/common-session

but it didn't work. My OS is Ubuntu 17.04.

See also https://serverfault.com/questions/569288/ulimit-n-not-changing-values-limits-conf-has-no-effect#853278 — Randall Whitman, Oct 02 '17 at 18:42

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '17 at 12:48

19

There's a bug since Ubuntu 16 apparently.

Basically:

Edit /etc/systemd/user.conf for the soft limit, and add DefaultLimitNOFILE=1048576.
Edit /etc/systemd/system.conf for the soft limit, and add DefaultLimitNOFILE=2097152.

Credit goes to @mkasberg.

edited Jun 12 '17 at 12:48

Jeff Schaller

answered Jun 12 '17 at 12:38

daniel.gindi

After these settings, do we need restart? – Mahesh Jan 23 '18 at 17:22
1

Yes, a restart was required when I tried it. – daniel.gindi Jan 24 '18 at 13:05

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered May 12 '18 at 21:51

An alternative for those who prefer not to edit the default /etc/systemd/system.conf and /etc/systemd/user/conf files:

create a new file /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/limits.conf with these contents:

[Manager]
DefaultLimitNOFILE=1048576:2097152
DefaultLimitNPROC=262144:524288

run systemctl daemon-reexec as root
logout and login again
check your new limits with either ulimit -a or ulimit -n and ulimit -u for max open files and max processes, respectively.

2 Answers2