CIFS Server Administrator's Guide Version A.03.02.00 (5900-2578, January 2013)

Overview of Kernel configuration parameters
The kernel configuration parameters, maxuser, nproc, ninode, nflocks and nfile are described
below. These are the kernel parameters that you must adjust to support a large number of clients
on HP CIFS.
• maxusers: the name of this kernel parameter is a misnomer as it does not directly control the
number of UNIX users that can logon to HP-UX. However, this kernel parameter is used in
various formulae throughout the kernel. In fact, the default values for nproc, nfiles and ninodes
are expressed in terms of maxusers.
• nproc: this kernel parameter controls the size of the process table. Its default formula is
(20+8*maxusers). On most systems the default value for this parameter is 21, which yields
a default value of 20+8*32 or 276 maximum processes supported. When this table fills up
prior to launching a process, the error message "proc: table is full" will appear on the console.
It will be viewable via the dmesg command.
• nfiles: this kernel parameter controls the size of the system file table and limits the total number
of open files in the system. Note that this affects each instance of an open file since the same
file opened twice would take up 2 entries in the system file table. This default formula is
(16*(nproc+16+maxusers)/10+32+2*(npty+nstrpty+nstrtel)). When this tables becomes full,
the console message “file: table is full” will appear on the console.
• ninode: this kernel parameters controls the size of the in-core inode table or the inode cache.
To improve performance, the most recently accessed inodes are kept in memory. The default
formula for this parameter is ((nproc+16+maxusers)+32+(2*npty)). Attempts to open a file
beyond the capacity of this table will result in the message “inode table full” being displayed
on the console.
• nflocks: defines the maximum combined total number of file locks that are available system-wide
to all processes at any given time. The default value of 200 will need to be increased for HP
CIFS Servers.
Configuring Kernel parameters for HP CIFS
The first step in configuring HPUX to be able to support a large number of clients on a HP CIFS
server is to adjust the maxusers kernel parameter.
The second step involves adjusting nproc, nfile, nflocks and ninode individually so as to allow a
large number of users to be connected simultaneously.
1. Configuring maxusers
Determine the maximum number of simultaneous clients that will be connected and add this
number to the current value of maxusers. For example, if 2048 clients are to be supported,
simply add 2048 to the current value of maxusers. Note that, unless the parameters have
been manually changed, adjusting maxusers automatically adjusts the corresponding values
for nproc, nfile and ninodes.
For example, if the default maxusers value of 32 is adjusted to 32+2048 or 2080 to support
the maximum allowable clients of 2048, the other parameters will be adjusted as follows on
a typical system:
nproc will be increased to 8,468
nfile will be increased to 15,656
ninode will be increased to 9,692
If these values are found to be too large or too small for that matter, then the individual kernel
parameters can be adjusted as described below.
2. Configuring nproc, nfile and ninode.
• nproc: since each client will be handled by one unique smbd process, and each process
will take up one entry in the process table, this parameter has to be at least equal to the
160 HP-UX configuration for HP CIFS