diff --git a/eth/common/utils.nim b/eth/common/utils.nim
index f242a96c..9f2e687d 100644
--- a/eth/common/utils.nim
+++ b/eth/common/utils.nim
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ proc parseAddress*(hexString: string): EthAddress =
 proc `$`*(a: EthAddress): string =
   a.toHex()
 
-newPublicGauge connected_peers, "number of peers in the pool"
+declarePublicGauge connected_peers, "number of peers in the pool"
 
diff --git a/eth/trie/backends/rocksdb_backend.nim b/eth/trie/backends/rocksdb_backend.nim
index 0f7aa7c6..94c43ab2 100644
--- a/eth/trie/backends/rocksdb_backend.nim
+++ b/eth/trie/backends/rocksdb_backend.nim
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ type
 
   ChainDB* = RocksChainDB
 
+# Maximum open files for rocksdb, set to 512 to be safe for usual 1024 Linux
+# limit per application
+const maxOpenFiles = 512
+
 proc get*(db: ChainDB, key: openarray[byte]): seq[byte] =
   let s = db.store.getBytes(key)
   if s.ok:
@@ -44,7 +48,8 @@ proc newChainDB*(basePath: string, readOnly = false): ChainDB =
   createDir(dataDir)
   createDir(backupsDir)
 
-  let s = result.store.init(dataDir, backupsDir, readOnly)
+  let s = result.store.init(dataDir, backupsDir, readOnly,
+                            maxOpenFiles = maxOpenFiles)
   if not s.ok: raiseStorageInitError()
 
   if not readOnly: