high inode use and low file system use.

[gigiz]

hi Guys,

i have a strange situation on my hp server.

I have any file system  with oracle archive data, that have a low file system utilization, and a strange inode file system utilization:

          kbytes    used   avail %used  iused  ifree %iuse Mounted on

11005056  310992 10610648    3% 10420225 334175   97% /dbWMSp/akWMSp01

33085056  190176 32637896    1% 15729152 1027936   94% /dbRAMp/akRAMp01

33085056  577400 32253696    2% 26673664 1015840   96% /dbHCRMp/akHCRMp01

33085056 3322432 29530232   10% 9306114 930078   91% /dbMOGp/akMOGp01

33085056  516984 32313768    2% 48496641 1017727   98% /dbSDMp/akSDMp01

in the file system there are few file .

mmm It can be a bug?

May be a old file removed that can't release the inode?

thanks at all

[Dennis Handly]

>that have a low file system utilization, and a strange inode file system utilization:

Are these HFS or VXFS?  The inode count usually doesn't matter with the latter, it will make more.

[gigiz]

A file system type is VXFS ...

Yes i know that a vxfs are dinamic management of inode ...

but i think that this high inode use are a  bad symptom or a bug or a bad practice of deleting archive file.

[Dennis Handly]

>but I think that this high inode use are a bad symptom or a bug or a bad practice of deleting archive file.

No as I said, inode percentages are not useful for VXFS when it can make more dynamically.

So don't use "bdf -i" or ignore it.

[gigiz]

yes i agree with you but because there are high inode use ?

My customer want a response ... about it

[Dennis Handly]

>11005056  310992 10610648    3% 10420225 334175   97% /dbWMSp/akWMSp01

>but because there are high inode use?

The only useful info is that the inode use is 10420225, not 97%.  Also, how does this compare to other filesystems?

>My customer want a response ... about it

Just mention that for VXFS, inodes are created dynamically and therefore the percentage isn't really helpful to monitor.

[gigiz]

Dennis,

i'm sure that isn't normal.

in one of this file system i have 5 file and  thousand of inode.

for me is a bug of vxfs or vxvm ( volume manager).

[donna hofmeister]

i think "old think" is being used to try to interpret this.  yes, vxfs has inodes but they're not used in an hfs manner.

this link might be useful towards explain things:

http://book.soundonair.ru/hall2/ch08lev1sec5.html

if this still isn't satisfactory, i suggest you look at applying any outstanding vxfs updates/patches.  however, I don't think you'll see any change in what's being reported.

[Dennis Handly]

>in one of this file system I have 5 files and  thousands of inodes.

How many extents in each file?  What does ll(1) show for each?

Did you ever have lots of files that have since been deleted?

[Bill Hassell]

It is perfectly normal for a large filesystem with one file to have thousands of inodes. inodes point to blocks of data. For small files, one inode points to the entire file. But as a file grows and needs additional blocks, additional inodes are allocated. So five files can certainly have thousands of inodes. VxFS handles inodes without any maintenance at all. bdf -i was designed for the archaic HFS filesystems but today, HFS is only required on PARISC systems (/stand). Otherwise, new systems are all VxFS and require no inode maintenance at all, whether the filesystem is 100 MB, 100 GB or 100 TB.