What is inode?
Inode is a database which stores various basic informations about a file in Linux, such as access modes (read, write, execute permissions),file size, group, number of links, ownership, file type, , etc. An inode is assigned to file when it is created. Each inode is identified by integer number.
Command to find Inode number:
ll -i
so why inode ?
Every time a file is opened or created, the inode of the file is read by kernel of the server. The more files and folders you have, the more inodes are use. And more inodes you use,Your account consumes more system resources. This is the reason why it is a important to practice among hosts to limit number of inodes on shared server. It is not possible for one account to use system resources and leave no option for other accounts.
In case your account reaches the maximum number of inodes,you could experience several issues while file uploading, receiving mails,experience errors when accessing your website.
Command used to find the Inode value is
find . -printf “%h\n” | cut -d/ -f-2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
Shared and Reseller servers only allowed upto 100,000 inodes.