Increase the maximum file descriptors for Squid

If Squid reports WARNING! Your cache is running out of filedescriptors in cache.log, your version of Squid was compiled with a maximum of 1024 file descriptors. This cannot be fixed directly with ulimit alone. Supported Squid builds include the max_filedesc option to address this issue. Supported Linux versions (so far, I only know about Red Hat) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: squid-2.5.STABLE3-6.3E.18 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: squid-2.5.STABLE14-1.4E Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Follow these steps to fix the problem.

1. Edit /etc/security/limits.conf and add the following lines.

* - nofile 4096

2. Log out and back in (you can press Ctrl-D) to load the changed configuration. Then type the following to check that the new value has been loaded.

# ulimit -a

open files (-n) 4096 3. Edit /etc/squid/squid.conf and add the following setting.

max_filedesc 4096

The value should be equal to the value set in /etc/security/limits.conf in step 1. 4. Restart the squid service:

# service squid restart

5. Run squidclient with the following command to check that Squid has loaded the configuration.

# squidclient mgr:info

File descriptor usage for squid: Maximum number of file descriptors: 4096