How to See How Many Inodes on Linux Servers?

Inode is a data structure in a Linux file system that stores information about files and directories. Every file and directory on a Linux system has an inode associated with it. Inodes contain metadata such as file ownership, permissions, timestamps, and pointers to the actual data blocks on disk. In this guide, we will show you how to see how many inodes are on your Linux server.

Step 1: Log in to your Linux server

First, log in to your Linux server via SSH or physical access. Open a terminal or command prompt on your local machine and enter the following command:

ssh username@server_ip_address

Replace “username” with your username and “server_ip_address” with the IP address of your Linux server.

Step 2: Check Inode Usage

Once you have logged in to your Linux server, you can use the “df” command to check the inode usage on your file systems. Enter the following command:

df -i

This command will display a list of all the file systems on your server, along with their inode usage statistics.

Step 3: Interpret the Output

The “df -i” command will output the following information:

Filesystem: the name of the file system
Inodes: the total number of inodes on the file system
IUsed: the number of inodes used on the file system
IFree: the number of free inodes on the file system
IUse%: the percentage of inodes used on the file system
The “IUse%” column indicates the percentage of inodes used on each file system. If the percentage is high, it means that the file system is running out of available inodes, which can cause issues with file and directory creation.

Alternative Solution

Go to your root directory then run this command :

[root@rhel6 ~]# cd /
[root@rhel6 /]# 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"
Detailed Inode usage for: /
116             - bin
29              - boot
1               - cgroup
623             - dev
1579            - etc
5               - home
3598            - lib
1               - lost+found
10              - media
1               - misc
1               - mnt
1               - net
1               - opt
17533           - proc
55              - root
266             - sbin
1               - selinux
1               - srv
8994            - sys
1               - testfolder
12              - tmp
33003           - usr
12884           - var
Total:          78719

Commands Mentioned:

• ssh – Secure shell protocol to remotely access a server
• df -i – Command to check inode usage

Conclusion

In this guide, we have shown you how to see how many inodes are on your Linux server using the “df -i” command. Checking inode usage is important because it can help you identify file systems that are running out of available inodes, which can cause issues with file and directory creation. By regularly monitoring inode usage, you can ensure that your file systems have enough inodes available to handle file and directory creation. If you have any comments or suggestions for improvements, please feel free to share them below.