diff --git a/data/templates/frr/daemons.frr.tmpl b/data/templates/frr/daemons.frr.tmpl
index a65f0868ac..c637e18bc2 100644
--- a/data/templates/frr/daemons.frr.tmpl
+++ b/data/templates/frr/daemons.frr.tmpl
@@ -108,7 +108,6 @@ valgrind_enable=no
 
 frr_profile="traditional"
 
-#MAX_FDS=1024
+MAX_FDS={{ descriptors }}
 
 #FRR_NO_ROOT="yes"
-
diff --git a/interface-definitions/system-frr.xml.in b/interface-definitions/system-frr.xml.in
index 9fe23ed756..76001b3924 100644
--- a/interface-definitions/system-frr.xml.in
+++ b/interface-definitions/system-frr.xml.in
@@ -15,6 +15,20 @@
               <valueless/>
             </properties>
           </leafNode>
+          <leafNode name="descriptors">
+            <properties>
+              <help>Number of open file descriptors a process is allowed to use</help>
+              <valueHelp>
+                <format>u32:1024-8192</format>
+                <description>Number of file descriptors</description>
+              </valueHelp>
+              <constraint>
+                <validator name="numeric" argument="--range 1024-8192"/>
+              </constraint>
+              <constraintErrorMessage>Port number must be in range 1024 to 8192</constraintErrorMessage>
+            </properties>
+            <defaultValue>1024</defaultValue>
+          </leafNode>
           <leafNode name="irdp">
             <properties>
               <help>Enable ICMP Router Discovery Protocol support</help>
diff --git a/smoketest/scripts/cli/test_system_frr.py b/smoketest/scripts/cli/test_system_frr.py
index 3eb0cd0ab2..a2ce58bf6e 100755
--- a/smoketest/scripts/cli/test_system_frr.py
+++ b/smoketest/scripts/cli/test_system_frr.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 #
-# Copyright (C) 2019-2020 VyOS maintainers and contributors
+# Copyright (C) 2021-2023 VyOS maintainers and contributors
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or later as
@@ -16,13 +16,13 @@
 
 import re
 import unittest
+
 from base_vyostest_shim import VyOSUnitTestSHIM
 from vyos.utils.file import read_file
 
 config_file = '/etc/frr/daemons'
 base_path = ['system', 'frr']
 
-
 def daemons_config_parse(daemons_config):
     # create regex for parsing daemons options
     regex_daemon_config = re.compile(
@@ -33,13 +33,20 @@ def daemons_config_parse(daemons_config):
     for daemon in regex_daemon_config.finditer(daemons_config):
         daemon_name = daemon.group('daemon_name')
         daemon_options = daemon.group('daemon_options')
-        daemons_config_dict[daemon_name] = daemon_options
+        daemons_config_dict[daemon_name] = daemon_options.lstrip()
 
     # return daemons config
     return (daemons_config_dict)
 
 
 class TestSystemFRR(VyOSUnitTestSHIM.TestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        super(TestSystemFRR, cls).setUpClass()
+
+        # ensure we can also run this test on a live system - so lets clean
+        # out the current configuration :)
+        cls.cli_delete(cls, base_path)
 
     def tearDown(self):
         self.cli_delete(base_path)
@@ -64,7 +71,7 @@ def test_frr_snmp_multipledaemons(self):
             else:
                 self.assertFalse(snmp_enabled)
 
-    def test_frr_snmp_addandremove(self):
+    def test_frr_snmp_add_remove(self):
         # test enabling and disabling of SNMP integration
         test_daemon_names = ['ospfd', 'bgpd']
         for test_daemon_name in test_daemon_names:
@@ -124,7 +131,7 @@ def test_frr_irdp(self):
         irdp_enabled = regex_irdp.match(daemons_config_dict['zebra'])
         self.assertTrue(irdp_enabled)
 
-    def test_frr_bmpandsnmp(self):
+    def test_frr_bmp_and_snmp(self):
         # test empty config section
         self.cli_set(base_path + ['bmp'])
         self.cli_set(base_path + ['snmp', 'bgpd'])
@@ -141,6 +148,15 @@ def test_frr_bmpandsnmp(self):
         self.assertTrue(bmp_enabled)
         self.assertTrue(snmp_enabled)
 
+    def test_frr_file_descriptors(self):
+        file_descriptors = '4096'
+
+        self.cli_set(base_path + ['descriptors', file_descriptors])
+        self.cli_commit()
+
+        # read the config file and check content
+        daemons_config = read_file(config_file)
+        self.assertIn(f'MAX_FDS={file_descriptors}', daemons_config)
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main(verbosity=2)
diff --git a/src/conf_mode/system_frr.py b/src/conf_mode/system_frr.py
index 6727b63c26..07f291000e 100755
--- a/src/conf_mode/system_frr.py
+++ b/src/conf_mode/system_frr.py
@@ -40,7 +40,9 @@ def get_config(config=None):
         conf = Config()
 
     base = ['system', 'frr']
-    frr_config = conf.get_config_dict(base, get_first_key=True)
+    frr_config = conf.get_config_dict(base, key_mangling=('-', '_'),
+                                      get_first_key=True,
+                                      with_recursive_defaults=True)
 
     return frr_config