diff --git a/src/config.c b/src/config.c
index 0d168c03..15ea1c5c 100644
--- a/src/config.c
+++ b/src/config.c
@@ -600,7 +600,7 @@ void configSetCommand(redisClient *c) {
     } else if (!strcasecmp(c->argv[2]->ptr,"maxclients")) {
         int orig_value = server.maxclients;
 
-        if (getLongLongFromObject(o,&ll) == REDIS_ERR || ll < 0) goto badfmt;
+        if (getLongLongFromObject(o,&ll) == REDIS_ERR || ll < 1) goto badfmt;
 
         /* Try to check if the OS is capable of supporting so many FDs. */
         server.maxclients = ll;
diff --git a/src/redis.c b/src/redis.c
index d2dece76..9f8868bb 100644
--- a/src/redis.c
+++ b/src/redis.c
@@ -1490,21 +1490,21 @@ void initServerConfig() {
 }
 
 /* This function will try to raise the max number of open files accordingly to
- * the configured max number of clients. It will also account for 32 additional
- * file descriptors as we need a few more for persistence, listening
- * sockets, log files and so forth.
+ * the configured max number of clients. It also reserves a number of file
+ * descriptors (REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS) for extra operations of
+ * persistence, listening sockets, log files and so forth.
  *
  * If it will not be possible to set the limit accordingly to the configured
  * max number of clients, the function will do the reverse setting
  * server.maxclients to the value that we can actually handle. */
 void adjustOpenFilesLimit(void) {
-    rlim_t maxfiles = server.maxclients+32;
+    rlim_t maxfiles = server.maxclients+REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS;
     struct rlimit limit;
 
     if (getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE,&limit) == -1) {
         redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Unable to obtain the current NOFILE limit (%s), assuming 1024 and setting the max clients configuration accordingly.",
             strerror(errno));
-        server.maxclients = 1024-32;
+        server.maxclients = 1024-REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS;
     } else {
         rlim_t oldlimit = limit.rlim_cur;
 
@@ -1518,16 +1518,46 @@ void adjustOpenFilesLimit(void) {
                 limit.rlim_cur = f;
                 limit.rlim_max = f;
                 if (setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE,&limit) != -1) break;
-                f -= 128;
+                f -= REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS;
+                if (f > limit.rlim_cur) {
+                    /* Instead of getting smaller, f just got bigger.
+                     * That means it wrapped around its unsigned floor
+                     * and is now closer to 2^64.  We can't help anymore. */
+                    redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Failed to set max file limit. "
+                        "You requested maxclients of %d "
+                        "but your 'ulimit -n' is set to %llu. "
+                        "Please increase your 'ulimit -n' to at least %llu.",
+                        server.maxclients, oldlimit, maxfiles);
+                    exit(1);
+                }
             }
             if (f < oldlimit) f = oldlimit;
             if (f != maxfiles) {
-                server.maxclients = f-32;
-                redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Unable to set the max number of files limit to %d (%s), setting the max clients configuration to %d.",
-                    (int) maxfiles, strerror(errno), (int) server.maxclients);
+                int old_maxclients = server.maxclients;
+                int original_errno = errno;
+                server.maxclients = f-REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS;
+                if (server.maxclients < 1) {
+                    redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Your current 'ulimit -n' "
+                        "of %llu is not enough for Redis to start. "
+                        "Please increase your open file limit to at least "
+                        "%llu. Exiting.", oldlimit, maxfiles);
+                    exit(1);
+                }
+                redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"You requested maxclients of %d "
+                    "requiring at least %llu max file descriptors.",
+                    old_maxclients, maxfiles);
+                redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Redis can't set maximum open files "
+                    "to %llu because of OS error: %s.",
+                    maxfiles, strerror(original_errno));
+                redisLog(REDIS_WARNING,"Current maximum open files is %llu. "
+                    "maxclients has been reduced to %d to compensate for "
+                    "low ulimit. "
+                    "If you need higher maxclients increase 'ulimit -n'.",
+                    oldlimit, server.maxclients);
             } else {
-                redisLog(REDIS_NOTICE,"Max number of open files set to %d",
-                    (int) maxfiles);
+                redisLog(REDIS_NOTICE,"Increased maximum number of open files "
+                    "to %llu (it was originally set to %llu).",
+                    maxfiles, oldlimit);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/redis.h b/src/redis.h
index fd5dac19..14a656b3 100644
--- a/src/redis.h
+++ b/src/redis.h
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@
 #define REDIS_IP_STR_LEN INET6_ADDRSTRLEN
 #define REDIS_PEER_ID_LEN (REDIS_IP_STR_LEN+32) /* Must be enough for ip:port */
 #define REDIS_BINDADDR_MAX 16
+#define REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS 32
 
 #define ACTIVE_EXPIRE_CYCLE_LOOKUPS_PER_LOOP 20 /* Loopkups per loop. */
 #define ACTIVE_EXPIRE_CYCLE_FAST_DURATION 1000 /* Microseconds */
@@ -139,9 +140,9 @@
 #define REDIS_LONGSTR_SIZE      21          /* Bytes needed for long -> str */
 #define REDIS_AOF_AUTOSYNC_BYTES (1024*1024*32) /* fdatasync every 32MB */
 /* When configuring the Redis eventloop, we setup it so that the total number
- * of file descriptors we can handle are server.maxclients + FDSET_INCR
+ * of file descriptors we can handle are server.maxclients + RESERVED_FDS + FDSET_INCR
  * that is our safety margin. */
-#define REDIS_EVENTLOOP_FDSET_INCR 128
+#define REDIS_EVENTLOOP_FDSET_INCR (REDIS_MIN_RESERVED_FDS+96)
 
 /* Hash table parameters */
 #define REDIS_HT_MINFILL        10      /* Minimal hash table fill 10% */
@@ -786,7 +787,7 @@ struct redisServer {
     list *clients_waiting_acks;         /* Clients waiting in WAIT command. */
     int get_ack_from_slaves;            /* If true we send REPLCONF GETACK. */
     /* Limits */
-    unsigned int maxclients;        /* Max number of simultaneous clients */
+    int maxclients;                 /* Max number of simultaneous clients */
     unsigned long long maxmemory;   /* Max number of memory bytes to use */
     int maxmemory_policy;           /* Policy for key eviction */
     int maxmemory_samples;          /* Pricision of random sampling */