Skip to main content

k3s increase inotify

When you encounter the following error on k3s/k8s:

{"component":"virt-handler","level":"fatal","msg":"Failed to create an inotify watcher","pos":"cert-manager.go:105","reason":"too many open files","timestamp":"2025-08-19T21:31:37.405064Z"}

You may increase the following value fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 8192. It defaults to 128 on Debian 13. You may check fs.inotify.max_user_watches as well. However its handled dynamically in most cases.

 sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=8192
Back to top