vol maxfiles

I was asked the other day what happens with maxfiles. Maxfiles has to do with inodes on the NetApp. This can get full due to many small files in a volume and you can still have plenty of space but not have enough inodes.

Basically, increasing the maxfiles cannot be reversed, however when you grow a volume the maxfiles grows as well. When you shrink a volume the maxfiles is still set at what it was and is not shrunk.

The maxfiles also grows if you’ve set a higher maxfiles than what the volume would originally specify but you grow the volume and the new maxfiles for that volume size is higher than what you’ve previously set.

na-ifas-01: vol create testvol1 aggr0 10g
Creation of volume 'testvol1' with size 10g on containing aggregate
'aggr0' has completed.
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol1
Volume testvol1: maximum number of files is currently 311280 (96 used).
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol1 411280

The new maximum number of files specified is more than twice as big as
it needs to be, based on current usage patterns. This invocation of the
operation on the specified volume will allow disk space consumption for
files to grow up to the new limit depending on your workload. The maxfiles
setting cannot be lowered below the point of any such additional disk space
consumption and any additional disk space consumed can never be reclaimed.
Also, such consumption of additional disk space could result in less
available memory after an upgrade.
The new maximum number of files will be rounded to 411270.

Are you sure you want to change the maximum number of files? y
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol1
Volume testvol1: maximum number of files is currently 411270 (96 used).
na-ifas-01: vol size testvol1 20g
vol size: Flexible volume 'testvol1' size set to 20g.
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol1
Volume testvol1: maximum number of files is currently 622580 (96 used).

na-ifas-01: vol create testvol2 aggr0 10g
Creation of volume 'testvol2' with size 10g on containing aggregate
'aggr0' has completed.
na-ifas-01: vol size testvol2 20g
vol size: Flexible volume 'testvol2' size set to 20g.
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol2
Volume testvol2: maximum number of files is currently 622580 (96 used).
na-ifas-01: vol size testvol2 10g
vol size: Flexible volume 'testvol2' size set to 10g.
na-ifas-01: maxfiles testvol2
Volume testvol2: maximum number of files is currently 622580 (96 used).