Linux kernel tuning settings for large number of concurrent clients

sysctl.conf

# Kernel sysctl configuration file for Red Hat Linux
#
# For binary values, 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled.  See sysctl(8) and
# sysctl.conf(5) for more details.

# Controls source route verification
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

# Do not accept source routing
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0

# Controls the System Request debugging functionality of the kernel
kernel.sysrq = 0

# Controls whether core dumps will append the PID to the core filename.
# Useful for debugging multi-threaded applications.
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1

# Disable netfilter on bridges.
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables = 0
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 0
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-arptables = 0

# cf. http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/tcptune/#Linux

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1 = 4096
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2 = 8192
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3 = 16384
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_interval = 5

net.ipv4.neigh.default.base_reachable_time = 120
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_stale_time = 120
net.ipv4.neigh.default.base_reachable_time = 120
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_stale_time = 120

net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 262144
#net.core.rmem_default = 16777216
net.core.rmem_max = 108544
net.core.somaxconn = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 108544

net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max = 10000000
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established = 40

net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close_wait = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_fin_wait = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_last_ack = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_syn_recv = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_syn_sent = 10
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_time_wait = 10

net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_max_orphans = 262144
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 16384
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 262144
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 16777216
net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_syn_retries = 2
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 2
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_recycle = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 16384 16777216

You repeat net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog twice.
And you cannot use a value over 65535 for that setting anyway, it's in the kernel.

Watch this for more insight: http://vimeo.com/70369211
Slides http://cdn.oreillystatic.com/en/assets/1/event/94/Tuning%20TCP%20For%20The%20Web%20Presentation.pdf

thank you @ck-on @kfox.

net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog twice

Be careful, do not blindly copy/paste this configurations.
For example, you should carefully consider net.ipv4.tcp_tw_recycle = 1
check: https://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2014-tcp-time-wait-state-linux

Also net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 0 means just hiding problems.

I can confirm tcp_tw_recycle=1 can cause problems when server being behind NAT

the option tcp_tw_recycle casuse problems with multiples connections behind a IP address.
you can use tcp_tw_reuse without problems.

hello, "net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_fin_wait" means what ? What's the different between "net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_fin_wait" and net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout?