Changing ConversionPattern Created "too many open files" Error

I read a post on "Too many open files" but I don't think I'm having the same problem. Here's my problem.

I run several J2EE apps using WebSphere. I log using Log4j. I read that using a ConversionPattern that includes the class and method name (%C{1}.%M()) is very slow, so I removed them. Ever since I made the change, I am riddled with "java.net.SocketException: Too many open files" error messages in every one of my web apps. It gets to a point where WebSphere considers the app server to be unresponsive and shuts it down.

Can anyone explain why changing my ConversionPattern from:


to:


... would cause all these problems? This is the ONLY thing I changed. I was forced to roll back the change and the problem has went away (at least for today... this is the first day post-rollback).

AHHH!!!

Here's some of the error messages I received:

Exception Message is: Sending failed;
nested exception is:
javax.mail.MessagingException: Could not connect to SMTP host: localhost, port: 25;
nested exception is:
java.net.SocketException: Too many open files

Exception Message is: CORBA TRANSACTION_ROLLEDBACK 0x0 No; nested exception is:
org.omg.CORBA.TRANSACTION_ROLLEDBACK: javax.transaction.TransactionRolledbackException: ; nested exception is:
java.net.SocketException: Too many open files vmcid: 0x0 minor code: 0 completed: No

Exception: RemoteException occurred in server thread; nested exception is:
java.rmi.RemoteException:
Trace from server: 2133276799 at host elmer >>
java.rmi.RemoteException: ; nested exception is:
java.net.SocketException: Too many open files

WebServicesSe E com.ibm.ws.webservices.engine.transport.http.WebServicesServlet TRAS0014I: The following exception was log
ged WebServicesFault
faultCode: Server.generalException
faultString: java.rmi.ServerException: RemoteException occurred in server thread; nested exception is:
java.rmi.RemoteException: ; nested exception is:
java.net.SocketException: Too many open files
faultActor: null