diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/nginx.go b/internal/ingress/controller/nginx.go
index 6ce3fb3cd..4d4c3328c 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/nginx.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/nginx.go
@@ -527,7 +527,7 @@ func (n *NGINXController) OnUpdate(ingressCfg ingress.Configuration) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			wp = 1
 		}
-		maxOpenFiles := (sysctlFSFileMax() / wp) - 1024
+		maxOpenFiles := (rlimitMaxNumFiles() / wp) - 1024
 		klog.V(3).Infof("Maximum number of open file descriptors: %d", maxOpenFiles)
 		if maxOpenFiles < 1024 {
 			// this means the value of RLIMIT_NOFILE is too low.
diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/util.go b/internal/ingress/controller/util.go
index 4046d02f7..253989708 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/util.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/util.go
@@ -64,9 +64,8 @@ func sysctlSomaxconn() int {
 	return maxConns
 }
 
-// sysctlFSFileMax returns the maximum number of open file descriptors (value
-// of fs.file-max) or 0 in case of error.
-func sysctlFSFileMax() int {
+// rlimitMaxNumFiles returns hard limit for RLIMIT_NOFILE
+func rlimitMaxNumFiles() int {
 	var rLimit syscall.Rlimit
 	err := syscall.Getrlimit(syscall.RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rLimit)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/util_test.go b/internal/ingress/controller/util_test.go
index de85e783a..d1e5daf28 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/util_test.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/util_test.go
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 )
 
-func TestSysctlFSFileMax(t *testing.T) {
-	i := sysctlFSFileMax()
+func TestRlimitMaxNumFiles(t *testing.T) {
+	i := rlimitMaxNumFiles()
 	if i < 1 {
 		t.Errorf("returned %v but expected > 0", i)
 	}