[Mongrel] Mongrel error : EMFILE too many open files

[Luis Lavena]

On Dec 21, 2007 12:37 PM, Scott Derrick <lists at ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> Well, at 1 hour 15 minutes  webrick froze.  I had to kill it and it
> output two "deadlock" errors.
>
> I guess rails just can't handle running periodically_call_remote with an
> interval shorter than 1 second. eventually two calls are synced up and
> it deadlocks.  the faster I run periodically..  the sooner the deadlock.
>

You're trying to handle too many things in less than 1 second, and
just 1 instance of most of web frameworks in ruby will not handle it
properly.

I don't know if periodically_call_remote opens a new connection to the
server, but that could mean it's exhausting available file handlers
and thus, ending in the problem you're getting.

Maybe you need a different approach to this problem, why not push
server instead of pulling ones? Take a look at comet-like
functionality from javascript side to server side.

> If I run lighttpd as a load balancer with cluster would that alleviate
> the problem?  If that is the problem?

Alleviate: yes, solve: no-

As I said, you need a different strategy of this problem, and not
"drop more hardware to the problem" -- this will not solve it, just
delay the inevitable end: server crash.

-- 
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
A common mistake that people make when trying to design
something completely foolproof is to underestimate
the ingenuity of complete fools.
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