O seu sistema operacional define limites para quantos arquivos podem ser abertos por qualquer aplicativo em execução no seu host. Você pode estender os valores básicos normalmente 1024 facilmente, modificando 2 arquivos de configuração:
# vi /etc/sysctl.conf
fs.file-max = 32000
# vi /etc/security/limits.conf
youruser soft nofile 10000
youruser hard nofile 30000
Os limites hard e soft:
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