Overflow inodes

To check the remaining disk space, run:

df -h

If there is free space on the disk, but applications still report insufficient free space, inodes are full. For example, MySQL may throw Error 28 No space left on device.

Inodes contain information about files and folders:

  • the size;
  • information about the owner;
  • which group the file belongs to;
  • access rights;
  • current location;
  • etc.

Inodes contains all information about a file or folder, except for the content and name.

The more files on the server, the more inodes are used. When you create a large number of small files or directories, there may actually be some free disk space left, but low disk space will be reported. Most often this is due to the fact that temporary files are not deleted or the mail queue is accumulating.

For information about busy inodes, connect to the server via SSH and enter:

df -hTi

As a result of executing the command, the following information will be obtained:

  • Inodes - the total amount of disk space allocated for inodes.
  • IUsed - the actual volume used by inodes;
  • IFree - free disk space for inodes;
  • IUse% - volume occupied by inodes, in percentage.

If there are not enough free inodes, you need to delete files and folders with a large number of files.

To find folders with a lot of files, enter:

echo "Detailed Inode usage for: $(pwd)" ; for d in `find -maxdepth 1 -type d |cut -d\/ -f2 |grep -xv . |sort`; do c=$(find $d |wc -l) ; printf "$c\t\t- $d\n" ; done ; printf "Total: \t\t$(find $(pwd) | wc -l)\n"

Use the rm command to remove files and folders.

Delete only unnecessary files and folders!

If you still have questions, please create a ticket to technical support.