inode limit on a filesystem

[sheevm]

Hi,

Can any one tell me:

How to find the inode limit on a VXFS filesystem?

Is there a limit, can we run out of it? Because I have a filesystem which has 60,000 files in it.

HP-UX 11.23. VXFS filesystem

Thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

This is set in the kernel.

Use sam to check kernel.

kmtune

# displays kernel output. SAM has good explanation.

SEP

[sheevm]

what is the kernel parameter name? thanks

[Pete Randall]

From SAM's "Help on Configurable Kernel Paramters":

ninode
Specify the maximum number of open inodes that can be in memory.
Acceptable Values:

Minimum: 14
Maximum: Memory limited
Default: nproc+48+maxusers+(2*npty)

Specify integer value or use integer formula expression. For more information, see Specifying Parameter Values.
Description
ninode defines the number of slots in the inode table, and thus the maximum number of open inodes that can be in memory. The inode
table is used as a cache memory. For efficiency reasons, the most recent Ninode (number of) open inodes is kept in main memory. The table is hashed.


Pete

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

For VxFS (JRF) filesystems, 'inodes' allocation is unlimited, as long as there is space in the filesystem and as long as 'largefiles' is enabled. Wthout 'largefiles' enabled, you are limited to about 8-million inodes.

Long before you run out of inodes, your filesystem performance will probably suffer.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Ivan Krastev]

See 'df_vxfs -i' command - http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60105/df_vxfs.1M.html


regards,
ivan

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

If we are dealing with VxFS filesystems, and not HFS (deprecated) ones, then 'ninode' does not apply:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/7779/commonMisconfig.pdf

Regards!

...JRF...

[bixley]

Kesh,

run
# bdf -i

for all mounted filesystems or bdf -i /xyz

and check your usage for what you've currently configured. You could then write a script to alert you at say 80%

[Bill Hassell]

There is *no* limit to the number of inodes allowed on a VxFS filesystem. Unlike HFS, VxFS allocates inodes as needed and the only limit is disk space. So you can create millions of files without any problem as long as there is enough space.

BUT:

Unless you store the files in subdirectories, you will have endless, endless problems with all the standard commands like ls, ll, find, du, and so on. The reason is that a massively large flat filesystem requires an enormous amount of time to search. Now if you upgrade to 11.31, you will see significant improvements for large flat filesystems. This is never to be interpreted that such filesystems are encouraged -- that's what databases are for.