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What does an inode represent?

In the web hosting industry, especially with hosting providers that offer Unix based servers, you might have come across the term "Inode". What does it mean? What does an Inode represent, and what is its application? 

The Linux Operating system treats EVERYTHING as a file. Be that hardware device that is connected to it, folders, or media files. It's just how it is programmed to work. Each Inode contains the data type, which defines it as a directory, text file, multimedia file, or a device. Additional information that is held within the Inode is the size, permissions, ownership, and last modified date. The aggregation of this metadata is known as an index node or in a short Inode

The number of Inodes a system can hold is set during the setup of the Unix FileSystem. The type of information contained within the Inode is a defining factor in the Unix system. If it did not exist, we would just be looking at bits of storage that have more or less no meaning to us at all. In addition to holding the metadata of each file, Inodes contain information regarding the size and the location of the file.

Was the explanation confusing? Here is a concise summary: You may consider an inode, everything inside the FileManager of your cPanel account - be that a file or directory. The Inode count can be seen inside the cPanel as well, under the "Statistics" section on the right side, below the "General Information" section.

It is essential to keep track of the number of Inodes on your account. Having a large Inode count can cause performance issues as each time a file is opened, the kernel starts reading it. The more files/folders on the account means that the core of the OS will use up more resources to read/execute them. This circumstance created the necessity for web hosting providers to limit this resource (Inode usage), especially on their shared hosting plans to maintain a stable environment for the clients.

Additional downsides of having a high Inode count include:

  • Getting your account excluded from the backup system.
  • You may start facing problems with uploading files on your account/websites.
  • You may stop receiving emails.
  • Your account's resource utilization will increase, resulting in degraded performance for your sites.

We at HostArmada value our customer's experience, thus we have created a guide regarding reducing the Inodes on your account. It contains useful advice and standard practices you can use in the day-to-day tasks that will surely boost your awareness and will make you feel a lot more confident when using our hosting plans, knowing that your account is in excellent shape!

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