*BSD News Article 96040


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From: michelle@primelogic.com (Michelle Brownsworth)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: ifconfig limit reached?
Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 17:22:23 -0700
Organization: PrimeLogic Communications Corp.
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <michelle-2205971722230001@monalisa.primelogic.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: monalisa.primelogic.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:41461

Today I added the 57th ifconfig line to our server's rc.local file as part
of the routine adding of a virtual host.  I HUP'ed named and was greeted
by a nameserver core dump and complaints of "too many files open."  And
the nameserver was torched, naturally.  I rebooted the entire server, to
no avail.  Thinking I'd made an error in one of the DNS files, I checked
my work carefully and everything looked kosher; the forward,
reverse--everything--seemed to be USDA-grade fine.  I recompiled the
kernel after increasing the number of users from 20 to 50 and rebooted
again.  No dice.  Mutter...

Since this state of affairs was precipitated by adding the new virtual it
seemed logical to remove the additions that I'd made.  On a hunch, I
commented out the ifconfig I'd added for the virtual, rebooted, and
everything was back to normal.  Whew!

So have I run up against some limit on the number of IP addresses that can
be assigned to the network card?  Do I need to change some configuation
variable that will increase the number of IP assignments the card can
handle?  I've looked in the online docs, but haven't found anything that
addressed this particular problem.  (OTOH, panicky readers sometimes miss
things.)

I'm running 2.1.5 on a P133 with 32 MB parity RAM.  As belt and
suspenders, I've just ordered another 32 MB of parity RAM and a second
network card.  I'm figuring if worse comes to worse, and it's not just a
matter of increasing a variable to allow more IP assignments on the first
card, the second network card will gain me another 50+ assignments.

.\\ichelle
--------------------
Michelle Brownsworth
System Administrator
IMS, Inc.