Search & Indexing engine fails due to "java.io.IOException: Too many open files"

The Search & Indexing engine is failing because it is opening too many files on the files system. See the full stack trace below. This is not an issue with Confluence directly the issue is documented on the following pages:

• http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-lucene/LuceneFAQ
• http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/03/05/lucene.html

Suggested actions:

• It would be better if Confluence detected this exception and reported it gracefully - at present the exception is thrown all the way to the web container (ie we see Tomcat's 500 page).

Cheers.

Error page follows:

HTTP Status 500 -

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

com.atlassian.bonnie.LuceneException: java.io.IOException: Too many open files
com.atlassian.bonnie.LuceneConnection.getReader(LuceneConnection.java:400)
com.atlassian.bonnie.LuceneConnection.withReader(LuceneConnection.java:200)
bucket.search.lucene.LuceneSearcher.getAllFieldValues(LuceneSearcher.java:222)
com.atlassian.confluence.search.actions.SearchQueryBean.getAvailableGroups(SearchQueryBean.java:216)
com.atlassian.confluence.search.actions.SearchQueryBean.addPagePermissionSearchFields(SearchQueryBean.java:211)
com.atlassian.confluence.search.actions.SearchQueryBean.buildQueryNoSpaceLimit(SearchQueryBean.java:169)
com.atlassian.confluence.search.actions.SearchQueryBean.buildQuery(SearchQueryBean.java:126)
com.atlassian.confluence.search.actions.SearchSiteAction.execute(SearchSiteAction.java:121)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:168)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.DefaultWorkflowInterceptor.intercept(DefaultWorkflowInterceptor.java:55)
com.atlassian.confluence.core.ConfluenceWorkflowInterceptor.intercept(ConfluenceWorkflowInterceptor.java:39)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.atlassian.confluence.core.ConfluenceValidationInterceptor.intercept(ConfluenceValidationInterceptor.java:16)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.security.actions.PermissionCheckInterceptor.intercept(PermissionCheckInterceptor.java:39)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.pages.actions.PageAwareInterceptor.intercept(PageAwareInterceptor.java:114)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.spaces.actions.SpaceAwareInterceptor.intercept(SpaceAwareInterceptor.java:82)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.core.actions.LastModifiedInterceptor.intercept(LastModifiedInterceptor.java:39)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.core.ConfluenceAutowireInterceptor.intercept(ConfluenceAutowireInterceptor.java:25)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.atlassian.confluence.util.XWorkTransactionInterceptor.intercept(XWorkTransactionInterceptor.java:133)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.interceptor.AroundInterceptor.intercept(AroundInterceptor.java:35)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:165)
com.opensymphony.xwork.DefaultActionProxy.execute(DefaultActionProxy.java:115)
com.opensymphony.webwork.dispatcher.ServletDispatcher.serviceAction(ServletDispatcher.java:229)
com.opensymphony.webwork.dispatcher.ServletDispatcher.service(ServletDispatcher.java:199)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.parsePage(PageFilter.java:118)
com.atlassian.confluence.util.profiling.ProfilingPageFilter.parsePage(ProfilingPageFilter.java:143)
com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.doFilter(PageFilter.java:52)
com.atlassian.confluence.util.ServletContextThreadLocalFilter.doFilter(ServletContextThreadLocalFilter.java:30)
com.atlassian.confluence.util.UserThreadLocalFilter.doFilter(UserThreadLocalFilter.java:45)
com.atlassian.seraph.filter.SecurityFilter.doFilter(SecurityFilter.java:182)
com.atlassian.seraph.filter.LoginFilter.doFilter(LoginFilter.java:177)
com.atlassian.johnson.filters.JohnsonFilter.doFilter(JohnsonFilter.java:96)
org.springframework.orm.hibernate.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter.doFilterInternal(OpenSessionInViewFilter.java:170)
bucket.custom.FlushingSpringSessionInViewFilter.doFilterInternal(FlushingSpringSessionInViewFilter.java:31)
org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:73)
com.atlassian.util.profiling.filters.ProfilingFilter.doFilter(ProfilingFilter.java:122)
com.atlassian.confluence.util.error.ProfilingAndErrorFilter.doFilter(ProfilingAndErrorFilter.java:27)
com.atlassian.core.filters.gzip.GzipFilter.doFilter(GzipFilter.java:61)
com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:37)