centos/redhat: change open files ulimit without reboot?

You can just change it as root. For example:

$ ulimit -n  
4096
$ ulimit -n 8192
bash: ulimit: open files: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
$ sudo bash                    
# ulimit -n                    
4096
# ulimit -n 8192                  
# su - normaluser                 
$ ulimit -n                       
8192