Why won't the number of open file descriptors change when I set them in CentOS 6.3?

uname -a:

Linux lab.testing.com 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Thu Sep 3 03:33:56 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

ulimit -Hn: 1024

ulimit -Sn: 1024

ulimit -n: 1024

I opened /etc/sysctl.conf in vi and added this at the bottom:

fs.file-max = 65536

I opened /etc/security/limits.conf in vi and added this at the bottom:

• 
  

  (<- that is a star, not a dot) soft open files 8192

  
  


• 
  

  (<- that is a star, not a dot) hard open files 10240

  
  

testuser soft open files 8192

testuser hard open files 10240

Whether I login as root or as testuser, and whether I reboot or cold-boot the box, I still get:

ulimit -Hn: 1024

ulimit -Sn: 1024

ulimit -n: 1024

I can set the open file descriptors to 10240 at the command line but that only sets it for the session and then it's lost when I logout/login and/or reboot/cold-boot:

[root@lab ~]# ulimit -n 10240

[root@lab ~]# ulimit -Hn

10240

[root@lab ~]# ulimit -Sn

10240

[root@lab ~]# ulimit -n

10240

What am I missing?

And in case someone wants to see it:

[root@itnm ~]# ulimit -a (before I set it at the command line):

core file size (blocks, -c) 0

data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited

scheduling priority (-e) 0

file size (blocks, -f) unlimited

pending signals (-i) 46464

max locked memory (kbytes, -l) 32

max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited

open files (-n) 1024

pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 8

POSIX message queues (bytes, -q) 819200

real-time priority (-r) 0

stack size (kbytes, -s) 10240

cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited

max user processes (-u) 46464

virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited

file locks (-x) unlimited