Query regarding inode

[Srinivas Sreekumar]

query regarding the inode value of a directory.

We have a directory in production machine number of files are increasing and hence the inode value increases. However after a limit the number of files will become constant and then inode value will also not increase.

We want to know what is the maximum limit for inode count and is there any potential danger if the inode value has already reached to a limit like 12 million.

Files in this directory are of very small size (less than 100 bytes) but number of files can increase upto 0.6 million.

Please let us know if there can be a potential issue due to this increasing number of inode value

We get the inode value using the command -
ls -ltr

[R. Sri Ram Kishore_1]

Hi,

Check out the following links:

a) http://www.interex.org/pubcontent/enterprise/nov01/grumann.jsp

b) http://www.samag.com/quest/archive/1999/0592.htm

HTH.
Regards,
Sri Ram

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

Check this doc from the ITRC database.

http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000064129598

Inode Limitation on VxFS w/o Large File Support DocId: UFSKBRC00010611

You can use the
# bdf -i
command to list the number of inodes.

Hope this helps,
Robert-Jan

[Bharat Katkar]

Hi,
I think this is what you are looking for. Go thr' the discussion below:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=279360

Hope that helps.
regards,

[RAC_1 · Accepted solution]

The number of inodes used in file system can be checked with bdf -i command.

The kernel parameter ninode applies only to hfs file systems. (You can take care of this while creating hfs file system)

The vxfs file system creates the inodes dynamically. The kernel tunable vx_ninode is tunable with a patch. Otherwise leave it as 0.

But a word of caution here. Having so many files in a dir will create few problems. If you plan to backup this directory it will slow doen the operation.

ll/tar commands may give error as ARG list too long (controlled by max_arg_list--check getconf man page)

Anil