Disk_inode_usage

Alerts
1

disk_inode_usage

OS: Linux, FreeBSD

This alert presents the percentage of used inodes storage of a particular disk.

The number of inodes indicates the number of files and folders you have. An inode is a data structure,
containing metadata about a file. All filenames are internally mapped to respective inode numbers, so if you have a lot of files, it means there are a lot of inodes1

If the alert is raised, it means that your storage device is running out of inode space. Each disk has a particular limitation on the amount of inodes it can store, determined by its size.

Many modern filesystems use dynamically allocated inodes instead of a static table. These should not be presented on the charts associated with this alert, and should not ever trigger it. If such a filesystem does trigger this alert, and it’s constantly reporting max inode usage, it’s probably a bug in the filesystem driver.

Some such filesystems incorrectly report having max inode count when they should not because they have no max limit, and in turn they trigger a false positive alert.

References and Sources
  1. Understanding UNIX / Linux filesystem Inodes
  2. Linux Inodes

Troubleshooting Section

Clear cache files or delete unnecessary files and folders
  • To reduce the amount of how many inodes you store currently, you can clear your cache, trash any unnecessary files and folders in your system.

Note: Netdata strongly suggests that you practice a high degree of caution when cleaning up drives, and removing files, make sure that you are certain that you delete only unnecessary files.