Question on max_connections

[abilash vs]

Hi,

Is there a possibility that MySQL server dies totally and stops responding when the connection limit exceeds max_connections without giving any sort of error like "too many connections".

Our production database servers are maintained by a third party and all of sudden one day the servers went down and we have been given an RCA saying many connections were that at a point of time and hence server died down.The DB server has about 16GB RAM and we have set max_connections to a value of 4300.We had set this value very carefully by analysing the max pooling values set in our jboss managed connection poool..Our application logs shows no trace of any error from db end especially "too many connections" .

I am sure MySQL says 'too many connections' when the connections exceed max_connections value and have seen it in past..

It would be helpful if I get some solid inputs on this..

Thanks in advance,
Abilash