Home Nginx How to Fix NGINX “worker connections are not enough” Error

How to Fix NGINX “worker connections are not enough” Error

The error message “worker_connections are not enough” typically indicates that the Nginx server has reached its limit for handling concurrent connections due to the value set for the worker_connections directive being insufficient.

Basically, “worker_connections” is a configuration directive in Nginx that defines the maximum number of client connections each worker process can handle at a time.

So, when your site gets more popular and traffic starts pouring in, Nginx might get a little overwhelmed. That’s when it throws this error at you, basically saying, “Hey, I’ve got too many connections to handle here, I can’t keep up!”.

Nginx worker_connections are not enough Error
Nginx worker_connections are not enough Error

To resolve this “worker_connections are not enough” error and allow Nginx to handle more concurrent connections, you can take several approaches as shown.

Increase worker_connections in Nginx

The primary solution is to increase the value of the worker_connections directive in the Nginx configuration file.

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

In the configuration file, within the “event” section, you will find the “worker_connections” directive, which may look like this:

events {
	worker_connections  768; 
}
Check Nginx Worker Connections
Check Nginx Worker Connections
Note: You might have a different value for the “worker_connections” directive as it depends on the server’s configuration and system resources.

To fix this “worker_connections are not enough” error, you just need to increase the number of worker connections in front of the “worker_connections” directive, as shown below:

events {
	worker_connections  2048;
}

Increasing the value from 768 to 2048, 4096, or even more for the “worker_connections” directive should help your Nginx server to handle more connections and avoid the “worker_connections are not enough” error.

Remember to consider your system resources and adjust the value accordingly to ensure smooth server performance.

Increase Nginx Worker Connections
Increase Nginx Worker Connections

Save the configuration file and test the Nginx configuration for syntax errors.

$ sudo nginx -t
Check Nginx Configuration
Check Nginx Configuration

After successfully testing the Nginx configuration, you can restart the Nginx server by typing the following command in the terminal.

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

This command will gracefully restart the Nginx server, applying the changes you made to the “worker_connections” directive in the “nginx.conf” file.

To ensure whether the Nginx server is running or stopped, check its status by executing the following command:

$ sudo systemctl status nginx

As this command helps us in verifying that the server has restarted successfully after making the configuration changes.

Check Nginx Status
Check Nginx Status

Great! It looks like you’ve successfully fixed the Nginx “worker_connections are not enough” error.

Conclusion

The Nginx “worker_connections are not enough” error is critical for maintaining a smoothly running web server. By increasing the "worker_connections" value in the “nginx.conf” file and ensuring it aligns with your system resources, you can enhance the server’s capacity to handle incoming connections effectively.

I hope that by following these steps, your Nginx server can now handle more connections without any issues. Happy server management! Enjoy the smooth performance of your website!

If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out or check our Nginx-related articles:

Ravi Saive
I am an Experienced GNU/Linux expert and a full-stack software developer with over a decade in the field of Linux and Open Source technologies. Founder of TecMint.com, LinuxShellTips.com, and Fossmint.com. Over 150+ million people visited my websites.

Each tutorial at UbuntuMint is created by a team of experienced writers so that it meets our high-quality standards.

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