Inodes Test

An Inode is a data structure holding information about files in a Unix file system. There is an inode for each file and a file is uniquely identified by the file system on which it resides and its inode number on that system. Each inode contains the following information: the device where the inode resides, locking information, mode and type of file, the number of links to the file, the owner's user and group ids, the number of bytes in the file, access and modification times, the time the inode itself was last modified and the addresses of the file's blocks on disk. A Unix directory is an association between file names and inode numbers. The operating system is configured to hold a maximum number of inode objects for each disk partition. When there are no free Inodes, then new files cannot be created in the system. The purpose of this test is to provide the statistics of the Inodes for each. This test works on the Unix platforms only.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the DISABLED TESTS list, and click on the << button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Unix system

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every file system configured

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
FStype	There is an inode for each file on a machine and a file is uniquely identified by the file system on which it resides and its inode number on that system. Therefore, provide a file system name in the FSTYPE text box - eg., nfs (for network file systems). Multiple file system names can be provided as a comma-separated list - eg., nfs,ufs,bfs.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Inodes used:	The number of inodes that are currently in use for a disk partition.	Number
Inodes free:	The number of Inodes that are free for a disk partition.	Number
Inodes total:	The total number of Inodes that are available for a disk partition	Number
Percent inode usage:	The percentage of the inodes that are currently in use for a disk partition	Percent	High percentage of inode usage may lead to a problem in creating new files / directories.