IntermediateScenario
10 min
Inode Exhaustion on Filesystem
LinuxStorageOperations
Advertisement
Interview Question
Disk usage looks low, but new files cannot be created and services fail with ENOSPC. How do you confirm inode exhaustion and fix it?
Key Points to Cover
- Confirm with df -i; identify directories with many small files
- Clean up temp/cache directories and rotate logs
- Bundle small files, adjust app temp file behavior
- Consider filesystem with higher inode density or reformat
- Add alerts on inode utilization
Evaluation Rubric
Detects inode exhaustion precisely30% weight
Finds directories causing inode pressure30% weight
Applies cleanup and longer-term solutions20% weight
Adds monitoring to prevent recurrence20% weight
Hints
- 💡Look for per-user caches and build artifacts.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How to design apps to avoid inode issues?
- ❓Would object storage help?
Advertisement