Linux Version 2.6.39-400.17.1.el6uek.x86_64 (6 U 4)
All documentation I have found suggests that I should add a line to /etc/security/limits.conf like:
* <space> soft <space> nofile <space> 20480
and reboot.
There is no hard nofile limit set in this file.
When I sign on as a non-root user and execute # ulimit -n
the response is 4096 (prior to adding this line the value was 1024)
As a test I editted the value to 3076 and rebooted. After reboot this value was reported for a non-root user executing # ulimit -n.
There must be a ceiling value somewhere. Where? I have an application to install on this server that has a requirement to set the soft nproc value to 20480 for all users.
By the way, # cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max shows 26145349
This is holding up an application installation. Any advice appreciated.