Why does my system appear to disconnect from the network, and I see the errors "kernel: Out of socket memory" in the logs?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Intermittently, a system may experience a network hang, or an application may be unable to connect to a host or accept new connections.

  • These error messages may appear:

kernel: TCP: too many of orphaned sockets
kernel: Out of socket memory
  • The system is fully usable from direct access, via the console.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

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