# Open file handler limit problem on CentOS 6.9

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/open-file-handler-limit-problem-on-centos-6-9/90339>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 21, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/open-file-handler-limit-problem-on-centos-6-9/90339 "2017-06-21T17:55:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MikeThomsen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mikethomsen/32/19378_2.png) [@MikeThomsen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/MikeThomsen)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/open-file-handler-limit-problem-on-centos-6-9/90339/1 "2017-06-21T17:55:16Z")

</div>

Versions:

- Elasticsearch 5.4.2
- CentOS 6.9
- JDK 1.8u131

On starting Elasticsearch, I ran into the following error message:

> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,517][INFO][o.e.t.TransportService] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] publish\_address {192.168.1.30:9300}, bound\_addresses {[::]:9300}  
> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,525][INFO][o.e.b.BootstrapChecks] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] bound or publishing to a non-loopback or non-link-local address, enforcing bootstrap checks  
> ERROR: [1] bootstrap checks failed  
> [1]: max file descriptors [65535] for elasticsearch process is too low, increase to at least [65536]  
> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,533][INFO][o.e.n.Node] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] stopping ...  
> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,652][INFO][o.e.n.Node] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] stopped  
> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,652][INFO][o.e.n.Node] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] closing ...  
> [2017-06-21T13:06:39,668][INFO][o.e.n.Node] [HOSTNAME\_HERE] closed

I tried following [the instructions in the documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setting-system-settings.html#limits.conf) for setting the max file descriptor. On restart, still didn't work.

I'm using the command `sudo -u elasticsearch /opt/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch` to start Elasticsearch as the appropriate user. It seems to be an OS issue, but I'm wondering if anyone ran into this with CentOS 6 and knows a work around that will get Elasticsearch running (like making it ignore that error?)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dakrone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dakrone/32/23351_2.png) [@dakrone](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dakrone)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/open-file-handler-limit-problem-on-centos-6-9/90339/2 "2017-06-23T14:37:25Z")

</div>

> [@MikeThomsen](#):
>
> I tried following the instructions in the documentation for setting the max file descriptor. On restart, still didn't work.

There was a typo in the docs (that has been fixed) where we accidentally said to set the value to 65535 instead of 65536. It looks like you need to increase the value in your limits.conf by 1 (we had an off-by-one error in the docs!)

See:

> max file descriptors [**65535**] for elasticsearch process is too low, increase to at least [**65536**]

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/open-file-handler-limit-problem-on-centos-6-9/90339/3 "2017-07-21T14:37:31Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.