diff --git a/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst b/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
index a861491a57..3c54113c16 100644
--- a/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
+++ b/doc/topics/troubleshooting/master.rst
@@ -75,7 +75,11 @@ can simply be appended to ``/etc/security/limits.conf``.
 
 As with any change to resource limits, it is best to stay logged into your
 current shell and open another shell to run ``ulimit -n`` again and verify that
-the changes were applied correctly.
+the changes were applied correctly. Additionally, if your master is running
+upstart, it may be necessary to specify the ``nofile`` limit in
+``/etc/default/salt-master`` if upstart isn't respecting your resource limits::
+
+    limit nofile 4096 4096
 
 .. note::