There are 2 values. The default and the maximum.
It starts at the default and can be increased up the maximum.
If you want change the value persistently and machine wide, you can put a config option
in /etc/system. Something like
set rlim_fd_cur = 8129
set rlim_fd_max = 8129
If you want to do it for your account only then, just put those lines into your profile.
But you'll still be only able to increase it up to the max.
The max can only be increased by root or in /etc/system.
In /etc/services it is 8196 only
the user root get this value 8196
where as if logged in as another user, say smradm, it is not possible to inrease the value.
If I use the command ulimit -n 8196 or
ulimit -Sn 8196, the result is
ulimit : bad umilit.
I would like to mention that this user, smradm has a project in /etc/project. Will it anyway affect this?