Linux – how do i set hard and soft file limits for a non-root user at boot

file-max is the maximum File Descriptors (FD) enforced on a kernel level, which cannot be surpassed by all processes without increasing. The ulimit is enforced on a process level, which can be less than the file-max.

There is no performance impact risk by increasing file-max. Modern distributions have the maximum FD set pretty high, whereas in the past it required kernel recompilation and modification to increase past 1024. I wouldn't increase system-wide unless you have a technical need.

The per-process configuration often needs tuned for serving a particular daemon be it either a database or a Web server. If you remove the limit entirely, that daemon could potentially exhaust all available system resources; meaning you would be unable to fix the problem except by pressing the reset button or power cycling. Of course, either of those is likely to result in corruption of any open files.

Your operating system set limits on how many files can be opened by any running application on your host. You can extend the basic values usually 1024 easily by modifying 2 configuration files:

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf

fs.file-max = 32000

# vi /etc/security/limits.conf

youruser       soft    nofile   10000
youruser       hard    nofile   30000

The hard and soft limits:

man 5 limits.conf

hard
for enforcing hard resource limits. These limits are set by the superuser and 
enforced by the Kernel. The user cannot raise his requirement of system resources
above such values.

soft
for enforcing soft resource limits. These limits are ones that the user
can move up or down within the permitted range by any pre-exisiting hard 
limits. The values specified with this token can be thought of as default values,
for normal system usage.

HTH