[Inode limitations]

Because the number of inodes on a system is limited. A single user in theory could fill an entire systems inodes if their allocation is space allocation is high enough and they make single 1 byte files. Then there are file system performance issues you can run into when dealing with many small tiny files. For most people 250,000 inodes is a lot of files and if they're running into such limits it typically means there is a problem.

There is several issues you run into just with dealing with all these files. For one there are limitations on the number of files that can be in a directory which I believe is 32,000. Of course well before then you'll run into other issues like you won't even be able to browse inside a folder with that many files via ftp. SSH you can but it'll sure be slow bringing up that list of files. So for me I'm wondering if you actually had that many files for sites and if it wasn't just coming from somewhere else. A common problem people run into is they actually have a ton of files via mail accounts. So they turn on a catch-all and it ends up with 100,000 emails sitting there unread and growing every day.

Thanks for the reply.

Keep in mind the files are spread across multiple domains and multiple directories.

You talk about it as though it was all contained in a single directory.

Only a fool would set up a single directory with a quarter million files in it.

As well, for the most part, my files are jpgs, as thumbs and photos, so their size is actually a good deal bigger then 1 byte or they are straight html files.

Currently, I have on my local machine, 98,000 files in 9100 directories.

The very old stuff I dumped.

If they were all evenly distributed across 6 domains that would only be approximately 16000 files per domain...way, way below any limit.

However if one keeps building soon enough one has 8 or 10 domains and 200000 files....still way below any limit for an individual domain but one would find themselves getting kicked off the box anyway.

And no I did not have a catch all e-mail box that was sitting with 100000 junk emails.

Being aware of my former host's 250000 inode limit I had the e-mail set up to refuse delivery of everything except for one primary address which was closely monitored.

The salient point being "unlimited" is a misnomer.

Having "unlimted" add-on domains and "unlimted" sub-domains is rather useless if you can't fill them with anything.

When a guy achieves some success and he starts going over space or bandwidth...that's the time to hit him for a raise.

This whole inode thing is an issue of "we will rent you the space...but we really don't want you to use it, except if you pay more for it, then you can use it"

Regards

[Inode limitations]

Maybe a reseller account will be a better option for you?

Under a reseller account, you can create individual cpanel accounts for each of your domains. Each of these individual cpanel accounts/domains has a maximum of 250,000 inodes (i.e. what I understand from Tony's reply).

Interesting idea....only a reseller account is 3 times the price of a shared hosting account.

And lets face it, on the web today, selling porn is like selling ice to the Inuit.

Very difficult indeed, you have to make your dollars go as far as possible.

As well

This whole inodes limit thing came from providers doing cPanel backups. Since we use R1Soft it does not mean as much as we're just taking block changes.

If the whole inode thing doesn't mean as much because of your back up strategy, then why limit them at all?

Thanks again for all the input.

Regards

Bob

[Inode limitations]

Lets just say it's 250,000 then a good round number. Above that we'd question what exactly an account is being used for if it has 250,000 different files and folders.

Thank you for the answer

Here is your competitors TOS on inodes:

7b.) INODES

The use of more than 250,000 inodes on any shared account may potentially result in a warning first, and if no action is taken future suspension. Accounts found to be exceeding the 100,000 inode limit will automatically be removed from our backup system to avoid over-usage, however databases will still be backed up. Every file (a webpage, image file, email, etc) on your account uses up 1 inode.

I was with them and running an adult site with multiple domains and I actually did exceed the 100,000 inode limit and got close enough to 250,00 inodes to be told that I have to shut the whole thing down.

The strange thing was, none of the sites were wildly high in traffic or cpu use.

Nor were there any scripts or cron jobs running...just pure html.

It was just the combination of building the sites and multiple domains.

I get the feeling that if I sign up with Hawk Host I will be in the same predicament within 6 to 12 months.

If you work an adult site hard, have multiple domains and build every day like you are supposed to, then 250,000 just ain't enough.

It does not take much effort to have 10 domains with 25,000 inodes each.

Under a single account that's 250,000 inodes!

Hopefully you will re-consider the limit.

Regards

Bob

[Inode limitations]

I am thinking of signing up as well...

But I had a hard time with the inode crap on my other host

There they set a limit and it's just way too low.

Here the "we are going to just monitor it" policy sounds too arbitrary.

The judgment call will be based on things that are way beyond the customers control.

So what would be an acceptable limit on inodes for the "Super" plan?

What does Hawk Host consider abusive?