Apache error : “Too many open files (errno: 24)”

Issue :

When attempting to start Apache,if you get the following errors :-

[error] mod_ssl: Child could not open SSLMutex lockfile
/usr/local/apache/logs/ssl_mutex.16479 (System error follows)
[error] System: Too many open files (errno: 24)

Fix :

This is caused by Apache and RedHat setting their open file limits too low. To correct this you will need to do the
following:

Edit /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl and add the line on top

ulimit -n 16384
stop and start apache:
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl startssl