J
John Lockwood
Recently (immediately after upgrading our server to Mac OS X 10.4.4 Server)
we started getting the infamous "Too Many Files Open" from Word 2004 (on a
Mac in case that was not obvious).
First some background to our environment.
All our affected users are running Mac OS X 10.4.4 on G4 computers (a
mixture of Mac mini, PowerMac G4, and iMac G4 computers). All these affected
users have Network Logins and Network Home Directories (which are stored on
an Xserve G5 now running Mac OS X 10.4.4 Server). All users are running
Office 2004 (with Word 2004) and have ALL the Office 2004 updates applied
(which means the Office 11.2.0 and 11.2.1 updates have been applied).
I had upgraded ALL users to this level (Office 2004 11.2.1, and Mac OS X
10.4.4) BEFORE upgrading the Server from 10.3.9 to 10.4.4. With the users at
this level (and the server still on 10.3.9) we did NOT have this error
occurring.
I then re-built the server from scratch (not an upgrade) using 10.4 and
updating to 10.4.4. I then re-imported the user accounts and ended up with
all services and accounts running as before except under 10.4.4 rather than
10.3.8.
The next day users started reporting the "Too Many Files Open" error. No
software on the users machines was changed (only the server).
This problem is NOT happening on laptops (our laptops use local home
directories and not network home directories).
I have searched on the Internet and tried the following so far, but none of
these helped.
1. Made sure that a .TemporaryTrashes folder exists at the root of the
volume hosting the network home directories (there was already one there).
2. Turn on Auto Create Backup (on save) preference in Word.
3. Specifically configure the File Location option for Documents to be
~/Documents (i.e. In the users [network] home directory).
4. Make sure there is only once instance of the users home directory
mounted.
5. Made sure users running latest Word (11.2.0)
6. Made sure users running Mac OS X 10.4.4 (i.e. higher than 10.4.2)
The general consensus of what I have read on this subject seems to be as
follows
1. Mac OS X has a limit of 256 simultaneously open files per process (with
Word counting as a process).
2. This limit can be altered in the command line using ulimit but this does
not apply to running GUI programs like Word. Also I have not found any way
to set it globally (for all users).
3. The limit of 256 files is being hit by Word not because you have 256 Word
files open! But because each time Word does an Auto Save it creates (and
opens) a new temporary file AND DOES NOT CLOSE THE PREVIOUS ONES. Therefore
if you have a 'short' Auto Save interval (e.g. 10 minutes) you can soon hit
this limit.
4. This problem has re-emerged if you a) are running Mac OS X 10.4 client,
and b) use a Network Home Directory.
5. Other varieties of this problem have existed in Word for over TEN YEARS.
Microsoft ARE aware of this new reoccurrence of this problem and I am
quoting below a message I found from a Microsoft Business Unit employee
dated November 3rd 2005. Note: Network Home folder and Remote Home Folder
are the same thing.
Re: word 2004 "word cannot complete the operation because too many files are
open"
I'm going to post this same information for every separate report of this
same issue that there is on the newsgroups. Hopefully, it will help at least
some of you:
The Problem:
Word is having various problems saving to remote home folder (henceforth RH,
RHF) shares from 10.4.x clients.
The larger problem:
Not everybody is having this issue and, of those who are, the problem
doesn't exhibit the same symptoms.
This one has been around for a while now and here at Microsoft we are still
working on pinning down the exact cause. Word File I/O code is incredibly
complex and that, combined with the configuration differences of remote home
folders, combined with the unknown change to RHF client code in 10.4.x makes
this a very tricky problem to provide a general fix for. I have been
personally working with many of the affected customers to try to identify
the cause and workarounds for this problem and while the cause remains
elusive, one of the following workarounds may be the one for you...
So far I can share these known workarounds. DISCLAIMER: NONE OF THESE MAY
WORK.
Workaround 1:
Check to ensure you haven't got two instances of the remote home folder
server mounted. Often, admins will have a logon script to mount the server
on the desktop to provide users easy access to directories other than their
home folder. This is bad as it causes Word to trip over a file lock problem
as it is working with duplicate paths to the same file. The workaround: Do
not remount the server, just create an alias to the root directory.
Workaround 2:
Change the user preference in Word to specify the exact path to the
documents folder. Go to Word: Preferences: File Locations. In the location
for document saving, navigate the path to the RH Documents folder. This has
fixed the issue for many customers, but again not for all.
Workaround 3:
Upgrade to 10.4.3. A small proportion of afflicted customers have been
reporting the issue's disappearance with 10.4.3. The worst that can happen
is that it doesn't work
.
Workaround 4:
Turn off spotlight for OS partition. Read/Write operations may be getting
strangled by Spotlight especically when they are I/Oing over the wire to
disk space located on the RHF. This may help.
We are working on a better solution to this problem as a matter of highest
priority. As soon as I have any more information I will post it to this
newsgroup. MVPs or others, please feel free to cross-post this to wherever
it's needed or wherever I have missed.
we started getting the infamous "Too Many Files Open" from Word 2004 (on a
Mac in case that was not obvious).
First some background to our environment.
All our affected users are running Mac OS X 10.4.4 on G4 computers (a
mixture of Mac mini, PowerMac G4, and iMac G4 computers). All these affected
users have Network Logins and Network Home Directories (which are stored on
an Xserve G5 now running Mac OS X 10.4.4 Server). All users are running
Office 2004 (with Word 2004) and have ALL the Office 2004 updates applied
(which means the Office 11.2.0 and 11.2.1 updates have been applied).
I had upgraded ALL users to this level (Office 2004 11.2.1, and Mac OS X
10.4.4) BEFORE upgrading the Server from 10.3.9 to 10.4.4. With the users at
this level (and the server still on 10.3.9) we did NOT have this error
occurring.
I then re-built the server from scratch (not an upgrade) using 10.4 and
updating to 10.4.4. I then re-imported the user accounts and ended up with
all services and accounts running as before except under 10.4.4 rather than
10.3.8.
The next day users started reporting the "Too Many Files Open" error. No
software on the users machines was changed (only the server).
This problem is NOT happening on laptops (our laptops use local home
directories and not network home directories).
I have searched on the Internet and tried the following so far, but none of
these helped.
1. Made sure that a .TemporaryTrashes folder exists at the root of the
volume hosting the network home directories (there was already one there).
2. Turn on Auto Create Backup (on save) preference in Word.
3. Specifically configure the File Location option for Documents to be
~/Documents (i.e. In the users [network] home directory).
4. Make sure there is only once instance of the users home directory
mounted.
5. Made sure users running latest Word (11.2.0)
6. Made sure users running Mac OS X 10.4.4 (i.e. higher than 10.4.2)
The general consensus of what I have read on this subject seems to be as
follows
1. Mac OS X has a limit of 256 simultaneously open files per process (with
Word counting as a process).
2. This limit can be altered in the command line using ulimit but this does
not apply to running GUI programs like Word. Also I have not found any way
to set it globally (for all users).
3. The limit of 256 files is being hit by Word not because you have 256 Word
files open! But because each time Word does an Auto Save it creates (and
opens) a new temporary file AND DOES NOT CLOSE THE PREVIOUS ONES. Therefore
if you have a 'short' Auto Save interval (e.g. 10 minutes) you can soon hit
this limit.
4. This problem has re-emerged if you a) are running Mac OS X 10.4 client,
and b) use a Network Home Directory.
5. Other varieties of this problem have existed in Word for over TEN YEARS.
Microsoft ARE aware of this new reoccurrence of this problem and I am
quoting below a message I found from a Microsoft Business Unit employee
dated November 3rd 2005. Note: Network Home folder and Remote Home Folder
are the same thing.
Re: word 2004 "word cannot complete the operation because too many files are
open"
I'm going to post this same information for every separate report of this
same issue that there is on the newsgroups. Hopefully, it will help at least
some of you:
The Problem:
Word is having various problems saving to remote home folder (henceforth RH,
RHF) shares from 10.4.x clients.
The larger problem:
Not everybody is having this issue and, of those who are, the problem
doesn't exhibit the same symptoms.
This one has been around for a while now and here at Microsoft we are still
working on pinning down the exact cause. Word File I/O code is incredibly
complex and that, combined with the configuration differences of remote home
folders, combined with the unknown change to RHF client code in 10.4.x makes
this a very tricky problem to provide a general fix for. I have been
personally working with many of the affected customers to try to identify
the cause and workarounds for this problem and while the cause remains
elusive, one of the following workarounds may be the one for you...
So far I can share these known workarounds. DISCLAIMER: NONE OF THESE MAY
WORK.
Workaround 1:
Check to ensure you haven't got two instances of the remote home folder
server mounted. Often, admins will have a logon script to mount the server
on the desktop to provide users easy access to directories other than their
home folder. This is bad as it causes Word to trip over a file lock problem
as it is working with duplicate paths to the same file. The workaround: Do
not remount the server, just create an alias to the root directory.
Workaround 2:
Change the user preference in Word to specify the exact path to the
documents folder. Go to Word: Preferences: File Locations. In the location
for document saving, navigate the path to the RH Documents folder. This has
fixed the issue for many customers, but again not for all.
Workaround 3:
Upgrade to 10.4.3. A small proportion of afflicted customers have been
reporting the issue's disappearance with 10.4.3. The worst that can happen
is that it doesn't work
.Workaround 4:
Turn off spotlight for OS partition. Read/Write operations may be getting
strangled by Spotlight especically when they are I/Oing over the wire to
disk space located on the RHF. This may help.
We are working on a better solution to this problem as a matter of highest
priority. As soon as I have any more information I will post it to this
newsgroup. MVPs or others, please feel free to cross-post this to wherever
it's needed or wherever I have missed.