ran out of tcp udp ports [closed]

How to resolve a Windows or Linux system that runs out of the tcp/udp ports on a single server? I have over around 65000 tcp/udp ports being used on a single server as a result of SQL connections, user connections for users to connect to the internet, and acting also as a gateway.

Solution 1:

I recommend to plan separation of roles (unless the gateway requires the SQL to be on the same host) - not due the fact that you're running out of ports. If the SQL is not required by the gateway and/or it's holding company data, it's quite risky to be on a gateway node.

Speaking of TCP, there are plenty of available ports. You may (while ignoring things like port sharing) only bind 2¹⁶ ports per address, you may have far more active connections per address.

You can handle thousands of connections with even a single TCP port - the connection is defined due multiple parameters:

sourceIP:sourcePort:destinationIP:destionationPort.

See more here.

An important parameter may be half-open connections - if one of your services has some trouble, it may affect other services running on the system. You may get some more information here.

Solution 2:

Sounds like a heavy load server in an important role.

• You can use more than one Ethernet interface - that would gain also physical expansion.

• You can use more than one IP address on any interface - easy software solution.

I would also suggest to use a proxy / NAT eventually