HostGator iNode Warning – Upgrade or your suspended!

July 29, 2008 by Lee Jones
Filed under: Articles

This is the Facts as I see them - And how to prevent suspension of your Hostgator account!

HostGator are a fantastic web space provider and will bend over backwards to help you, and provide many built in facilities that many other web space providers only wish they could supply at such a low cost.

But just the other day, I received an email ( see below for full email ) stating that my iNodes where more than 50,000 and if I didn’t reduce them within seven days my account may be suspended, an alternative was to upgrade to a Dedicated Server ( more costly, of course) .

After the initial panic, I thought OK, i’ll reduce my iNodes – That’s if I knew what an iNode was !, which at the time I didn’t. An iNode stores the information of the file in the Linux file system. To reduce the usage of the iNode, just remove the unwanted files from your web space. So basically, to reduce you iNode, you remove some files from you account using either an FTP Software or the c-panel. Simple enough I thought.

The problem is there is no way that i know of showing how many iNodes (or files) you have on this shared server webspace, using any of the supplied tools in the c-panel

PHP Script To The Rescue

To find out how many iNodes you are using on your shared HostGator account, download any of the 2 files below, and upload to your root folder on the HostGator server.

For Example: upload your inode1.php File to the public_html folder
then using your browser go to www.yoursite.com/inode1.php
and you will instantly see how many inodes have been used on your account, without opening c-panel or your ftp software.

PHP 1: Simple

iNode 1 - Download file Here

PHP 2: more Detailed

iNode 2 - Download file Here

use your browser and go to www.yoursite.com/inodes1.php or inodes2.php or what ever you called the PHP files, and your iNode count will be revealed!

25,000 iNodes & counting

On the account I have with hostgator, i had over 25,000 txt files in a folder that i was unaware of, and this was the reason why my warning was issued. These files where stored on the websapce in a folder called cache, and this was steadily increasing on a daily basis

There was nothing wrong with this but due to the software requirements, this folder would rapidly fill up, and therefore i decided to delete all files and software related to it, to gain back my lost webspace.

10 Step email check

one of the first things you need to do is check for spam mail, even if your site does not have webmail set up. As this will increase your iNode count dramatically, and will allow you to keep all your legitamate files on the server without deletion.
10 Steps

Go to http://www.yoursite.com/cpanel
1. Click on Mail
2. Click on Web mail
3. Click on Horde
4. Login
5. Click on Mail
If you find a lot of spam emails
6. Click on Folders
7. Tick Inbox
8. Choose Empty Folders from the Drop Down box above
9. Click Empty Selected Folders
10. Do this regularly before you get an email from Hostgator like this:

This was the email sent to me

Server: gator99
     User: xxxxxxx
    Email: xxxxxxxxx (Owner)
   iNodes: 52476 (warning)
Catchalls: 1 (warning)

Date: Sun Jul 27 00:14:20 CDT 2008
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Account Name: xxxxxxx
Server: gator99.hostgator.com
iNodes (Files): 52476/50,000 (104.00%)

Hello,

To maintain the highest level of performance on our shared servers we have a maximum inode (file) limit of 50,000 inodes (files) per account. The size of the file does not matter, only the number of files. For example, a DVD image (say, 4.5gb) only counts as one inode, or file. Our limit, as outlined in our terms of service, is 50,000 files per account. We generally don’t hold people strictly to this limit, but at the same time we expect our users to respect the limits of the system. When an account has hundreds of thousands of files, it significantly degrades overall disk performance, as each file on the disk must be tracked/indexed.

An easy analogy would be a table of contents or glossary for a book. If the book only has a few hundred pages, the index or glossary is likely to be small and easy to search. If the book has 5,000 pages, finding what you want might take significantly longer. The file system on a server works in a similar way, just on a larger scale. Our experience has shown that 50,000 files per account is a fair number, and accounts that exceed that by a significant amount cause disk performance issues. This message is to inform you that the listed account has significantly exceeded our limits for disk inodes/files and could potentially lead to disk issues.

It is also important to realize that accounts that exceed the inode (file) limit are not backed up by our courtesy weekly backup service, per section 7b of our Terms of Service. Of course, we advise every user to run their own backups to be safe. Accounts over our the 50,000 inode limit are bypassed so that backups can complete in a timely fashion for everyone. Otherwise, accounts with hundreds of thousands or more inodes will utilize more server resources than other accounts, and could lead to file system errors on our backup servers.

This account will be re-checked again in 7 days to verify it is below 50,000 files. If this account remains above the maximum inode limit after repeated checks, we’ll have to review the situation further and advise a course of action. It is critical that one of the following actions take place before that happens:

a) reduce the number of inodes/files. This change must be permanent; if you have a high number of cache files or similar, and you expect them to naturally exceed the inode limit again in the future, the configuration must be changed to limit the total number of cached files.

If you are completely unaware of the source of the inodes, it may be that you have left your default mailbox enabled, and never cleared it. Over time, it can fill up with spam, consuming hundreds of thousands of inodes. If you have a catch-all enabled on your account, this can greatly increase the amount of mail/spam that our account receives and will raise your inode usage quickly unless routinely emptied. If you would like assistance clearing these folders from unwanted email or removing the catch-all from your account, please let us know and we would be happy to assist you.

The default mailbox is located at:

/home/xxxxxxxx/mail/cur
/home/xxxxxxxx/mail/new

b) upgrade to dedicated service, where inode counts are no longer checked. In many cases, accounts that significantly exceed our inode/file limits have simply outgrown the shared environment, and a dedicated server is the logical choice. In many cases, the transfer from a shared to dedicated server will incur no charge. In rare situations, accounts with excessive numbers of accounts or users may require a fee; the transfer department would advise you of that fact prior to the transfer taking place. If you’ve read this far, it’s clear you’re serious about taking care of the issue and we can offer you 50% off off the first month’s purchase of a dedicated server. To receive the discount, please:

– Reply to this email stating you’d like to upgrade. You will
automatically be assigned a ticket number, which will be
visible in the subject line. You may need to confirm your
email if this is the first time you’ve ever sent us a
ticket or emailed one of our departments.

– Order a dedicated server:
http://www.hostgator.com/billing/order/orderwiz.php

– Email sales@hostgator.com after placing your order. This
promotion is unadvertised, and must be manually approved.
You must reference the ticket # you receive (above) to
qualify for the discounted rate. This promotion only
applies to dedicated servers priced $ 219.00 or higher.

We thank you for taking the time to resolve this issue. If you have any questions or perhaps you are not sure what could be causing the high number of inodes, we can help you with that. Simply reply to this email and we will be more than happy to assist you.

Date: Sun Jul 27 00:14:20 CDT 2008
Email: xxxxxx
Account Name: xxxxx
Server: gator99.hostgator.com
iNodes (Files): 52476/50,000 (104.00%)

Written by Lee Jones - Visit Website

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Tags: Amp, Dedicated Server, Email, Ftp Software, Hostgator, Html Folder, Initial Panic, inode, iNodes, Linux, Linux File System, Php Download, Php File, Php Files, Root Folder, Seven Days, Software Php, suspend account, Unwanted Files, Upload, Upload Php, Web Space Provider, Web Space Providers, Webspace

Comments

14 Comments on HostGator iNode Warning – Upgrade or your suspended!

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Keiko Nyland on Mon, 27th Apr 2009 9:14 PM

It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.

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