Shared hosting operating system developer CloudLinux  today released CloudLinux Inode Limits for cPanel, a new feature that can be used to limit the number of files and folders on a per account or per package basis.

Web hosting providers who market services based on ‘unlimited’ disk space, but want to prevent customers from filling up the hard disks, can hence use the new offering to make server performance more consistent.

By allocating specific hardware resources to each account, servers can be filled to maximum capacity without the risk of poor performance.

 Our customers now have the opportunity to restrict data on a files and folders level. This is an effective way to eliminate the bad neighbour effect, improve server stability, and maintain excellent service for every webmaster.

– Igor Seletskiy, Founder and CEO, CloudLinux.

With CloudLinux, shared hosting accounts are contained in Lightweight Virtual Environments (LVEs), which can be controlled from a user interface called LVE Manager. In LVE Manager, limits can be set for a wide range of hardware resources. This range now includes inodes.

An inode is a data structure that stores useful information about files and folders. Counting the number of inodes in a given partition is an effective way to gauge the number of files and folders currently stored.

As a result, setting a per package or per account limit on the number of inodes helps keep customers within their allocated disk space quota.

Soft Limit mode: Sometimes shared hosting customers exceed their resource allocations because they need to decompress an old backup file or test new software. CloudLinux Inode Limits for cPanel can be configured for a “soft limit” (where customers may pass the inode limit for a short period of time) to accommodates webmasters who temporarily exceed inode restrictions.

Hard Limit mode: The extension can also be launched in “hard limit” mode, where it would be impossible to create new files and folders after allocations have been used.

Also, with support for popular web hosting control panels including cPanel, webmasters can monitor their current inode usage at any time.

“At CloudLinux, we are always finding new ways to help hosting companies take control of their servers, and our new Inode Limits for cPanel provides an alternative way to limit the way storage is used,” said Igor Seletskiy, Founder and CEO, CloudLinux.

“Fundamentally, the Inode Limits Extension is designed to offer flexibility. While it works on a disk quota level, it is not always appropriate to limit storage itself. Our customers now have the opportunity to restrict data in a different way, on a files and folders level. This is an effective way to eliminate the bad neighbour effect, improve server stability, and maintain excellent service for every webmaster,” he added.