# Too many open files

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/too-many-open-files/14304>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 7, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/too-many-open-files/14304 "2013-11-07T14:36:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![onthefloorr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee7513/32.png) [@onthefloorr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/onthefloorr)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/too-many-open-files/14304/4 "2013-11-07T18:12:32Z")

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Yes, I using elasticsearch on a single node, and it looks like the number  
of file descriptors exceeded the maximum allowed limit on this machine ☹

The "\_nodes/process?pretty" writes that the maximum\_file\_descriptor is  
65535. It seems the jvm only can use 65535 files at once, or could I get it  
to use more ? If I can't then I have to add a new node ? or there is an  
another option ?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

On Thursday, November 7, 2013 4:12:43 PM UTC+1, Jörg Prante wrote:

> It looks like you run a single node? If so, you have too many shards for a  
> single node. 1040 shards is unusual high. Note that each shard can consume  
> around 100-200 file descriptors while being active in the background, so it  
> is quite possible you have exceeded 65510.
> 
> Check curl localhost:9200/\_nodes/process?pretty or OS utilities for the  
> number of used file descriptors of the JVM.
> 
> Jörg

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