diff --git a/src/opserver/partition_handler.py b/src/opserver/partition_handler.py
index 0a95887a8de..13f19cd4de7 100644
--- a/src/opserver/partition_handler.py
+++ b/src/opserver/partition_handler.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 from pysandesh.util import UTCTimestampUsec
 import select
 import redis
+import errno
 from collections import namedtuple
 
 PartInfo = namedtuple("PartInfo",["ip_address","instance_id","acq_time","port"])
@@ -637,6 +638,10 @@ def _run(self):
                 self.stop_partition()
 		self._failed = True
                 pause = True
+                if hasattr(ex,'errno'):
+                    # This is an unrecoverable error
+                    if ex.errno == errno.EMFILE:
+                       raise SystemExit(1)
 
         self._logger.error("Stopping %s pcount %d" % (self._topic, pcount))
         partdb = self.stop_partition()