max_nprocs

Description

Maximum number of processes that can be created on a system. Includes system and user processes. Any value entered in /etc/system is used in the computation of maxuprc.

This value is also used in determining the size of several other system data structures. Other data structures where this variable plays a role are:

• Determining the size of the directory name lookup cache (if ncsize is not specified)

• Allocating disk quota structures for UFS (if ndquot is not specified)

• Verifying that the amount of memory used by configured system V semaphores does not exceed system limits

• Configuring Hardware Address Translation resources for the sun4m and Intel platforms.

Data Type

Signed integer

Default

10 + (16 x maxusers)

Range

266 to value of maxpid

Dynamic?

No

Validation

Compared to maxpid and set to maxpid if larger. On Intel platforms an additional check is made against a platform-specific value. max_nprocs is set to the smallest value in the triplet (max_nprocs, maxpid, platform value). Both platforms use 65,534 as the platform value.

When to Change

Changing this parameter is one of the steps necessary to enable support for more than 30,000 processes on a system.

Commitment Level

Unstable

Change History

See max_nprocs (Pre-Solaris 8 Releases) for more information.