Kubernetes Sysctl Watches

17 May 2026 • linux, kubernetes

When running a Kubernetes cluster, you may run into issues with the default sysctl settings for inotify watches.

By default, fs.inotify.max_user_instances is set to 128, which can lead to error messages like “too many open files” when viewing logs or other commands.

The solution is to create a file called /etc/sysctl.d/99-inotify.conf with the following content:

fs.inotify.max_user_instances=8192
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288

Then, run sudo sysctl --system to apply the changes.