maxusers

Description

Originally, maxusers defined the number of logged in users the system could support. When a kernel was generated, various tables were sized based on this setting. Current Solaris releases do much of its sizing based on the amount of memory on the system. Thus, much of the past use of maxusers has changed. A number of subsystems that are still derived from maxusers:

• The maximum number of processes on the system

• The number of quota structures held in the system

• The size of the directory name look-up cache (DNLC)

Data Type

Signed integer

Default

Lesser of the amount of memory in Mbytes or 2048

Range

1 to 2048, based on physical memory if not set in the /etc/system file

1 to 4096, if set in the /etc/system file

Units

Users

Dynamic?

No. After computation of dependent parameters is done, maxusers is never referenced again.

Validation

None

When to Change

When the default number of user processes derived by the system is too low. This situation is evident when the following message displays on the system console:

out of processes

You might also change this parameter when the default number of processes is too high, as in these situations:

• Database servers that have a lot of memory and relatively few running processes can save system memory when the default value of maxusers is reduced.

• If file servers have a lot of memory and few running processes, you might reduce this value. However, you should explicitly set the size of the DNLC. See ncsize.

• If compute servers have a lot of memory and few running processes, you might reduce this value.

Commitment Level

Unstable