kernel(0): file: table is full

[FilSalustri]

I'm running 10.4.4 on a dual G5. The machine has been happy since October. About 6 days ago, I started getting hundreds of error messages per the subject above. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to diagnose this.
The only 'professional' advice I've received so far is "the OS is corrupted; reinstall it."
The problem is that the machine is a web server that hundreds of my students and dozens of colleagues use. I just can't take it offline.
Please someone tell me there's another solution.
I can provide further details as required, but I didn't want to drown you all in diagnostic output.

Thanks in advance

 

[UpQuark77]

I found this.. pretty interesting reading:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/configtuning-kernel-limits.html

But it looks like it boils down to memory managment.

 

[UpQuark77]

It looks like a memory issue and the number of users hitting your server with file count.

http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200006/answerman.html

Scroll down to the entry for your subject.

 

[FilSalustri]

Wow. http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200006/answerman.html is very interesting.

So, how reliable is using sysctl to set kern.maxfiles?

I mean, in the old days when I was a sysadmin, changing a running kernel like that was a wet dream.

Thanks again.