Re: installation problem - semaphores

On April 2, 2006 10:35, Tom Lane wrote:
> Yadu <yaduonline(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > selecting default max_connections ... 10
> > selecting default shared_buffers ... 50
> > creating configuration files ... ok
> > creating template1 database in /usr/local1/postgres/data/base/1 ...
> > FATAL: could not create semaphores: No space left on device
> > DETAIL: Failed system call was semget(1, 17, 03600).
> > HINT: This error does *not* mean that you have run out of disk space.
> > It occurs when either the system limit for the maximum number of
> > semaphore sets (SEMMNI), or the system wide maximum number of semaphores
> > (SEMMNS), would be exceeded. You need to raise the respective kernel
> > parameter. Alternatively, reduce PostgreSQL's consumption of semaphores
> > by reducing its max_connections parameter (currently 10).
> > The PostgreSQL documentation contains more information about
> > configuring your system for PostgreSQL.
> >
> > Since I am using Solaris OS, I may need to reboot the machine to change
> > the value of semmns. I don't want to do that. How can I reduce the
> > parameter max_connections and rerun the command?
>
> initdb has already reduced it as far as is sane, if not further. (The
> underlying implementation is such that values less than 16 don't
> actually reduce the number of semaphores we acquire.) You'll have to do
> whatever is needed to fix the kernel limit. Don't forget to look at the
> shared memory limit while you're at it; it's likely that that's
> unreasonably small, too.
>
> regards, tom lane

You might not need to reboot. You can change resource limits with the prctl
command. Check out the posts by t_altamimi on this thread
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=1077746

Luca