OK, I just found this http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=13144 Which says that you cannot use "unlimited" for nofile It says to do this * soft nofile 63536 * hard nofile 63536 or "more realistically" to do this : * soft nofile 8192 * hard nofile 63536 But I still cannot find what is the difference between the hard and soft limit Also, once this file has been changed, does the system need to be rebooted for it to take affect? Or does it automatically take affect for any new processes? So just restart any service I want to take advantage of it? thanks, -Alan -- “Don't eat anything you've ever seen advertised on TV” - Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food"