How to resolve error "-bash: fork: retry: Resource temporarily unavailable" launching wsadmin scripts

Increasing the value of the ulimit -u (NPROC - max user processes) setting will prevent and eliminate the problem.

Check the current values of ulimit settings by issuing the following command as root (superuser) user:

ulimit -a

Red Hat Enterprise Linux v6 has default values of 1024 for both ulimit -u (nproc : maximum user processes) and ulimit -n (nofiles : open files : file descriptors) which are grossly inadequate for WebSphere environments.

WebSphere Support recommends a value of '131072' for NPROC. Engage the Unix / Linux System Administrator, to login to the affected Linux system or server as root (superuser) user, and issue the following command:

ulimit -u 131072

The value of the ulimit -n (NOFILES) setting should also be increased to the recommended value of '65536' at the same time, if it is at the default value of 1024, or a lower value than 65536, in order to prevent a variety of failures in WebSphere environments that can occur during install, update, jvm startup, application startup, administration, and application deployment operations, by issuing the following command as root user:

ulimit -n 65536

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/aimsupport/entry/resolve_too_many_open_files_error_and_native_outofmemory_due_to_failed_to_create_thread_issues_in_websphere_application_server_running_on_linux?lang=en

https://access.redhat.com/solutions/543503