file descriptors on FreeBSD

[ISP List]

>So I'm assuming that the file descriptors problem is related to MailScanner
>dying every now and then.  I have recently installed two new FreeBSD4.7
>servers and installed MailScanner on both and both have this problem, so it
>is not hardware.
>
>Sendmail does not give this error on every message, only a few per day.  Are
>there any FreeBSD experts out there?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Craig

Craig,

Put the following in /etc/sysctl.conf:

kern.maxfiles=65536             # System-wide limit
kern.maxfilesperproc=32768      # Per-process limit

and add the following to your mailscanner/mta startup scripts:

ulimit -n 32768

That should take care of any file descriptor issues on FreeBSD.