With CentOS 7 you need to increase file limits and file descriptors for max connections to work.
Increase Max File Limit
#Modify Following File /etc/sysctl.conf #Add following to file fs.file-max = 100000
Increase Soft / Hard Limits
#Modify Following File /etc/security/limits.conf #Add following to file soft nproc 65535 hard nproc 65535 soft nofile 65535 hard nofile 65535 mysql hard nofile 65535 mysql soft nofile 65535 #Commit the above settings sysctl -p
Edit MySQL SystemD Service Limits
#Modify Following File /usr/lib/systemd/system/mysqld.service #Add following to file below [service LimitNOFILE=65535 LimitNPROC=65535 #Reload the daemon with above settings systemctl daemon-reload
Edit MySQL Configuration file with settings required:
#Modify following file: /etc/my.cnf #Add following information (change if required) open_files_limit = 1024 max_connections = 1000 #Restart MySQL to commit systemctl restart mysqld #Log into MySQL and run show variables like "max_connections"; to check max connections is correct
excellent info.