The number of inodes represents the number of files/folders you have on your web hosting account. The more inodes your account uses, the more system resources it consumes.
Thus it is wise to keep the number of your inodes(files/folders) as small as possible.
SiteGround customers can see the number of inodes they are using from their cPanel > Inodes Usage.
To reduce the number of inodes your account uses, you should:
- remove all files/folders you don't need;
- check the number of cache files you have; applications such as Joomla can generate a lot of cache files; you should regularly check your cache folder and reduce the number of cached files you keep;
- if you have Default Address (catch-all) enabled, make sure you check the mailbox regularly and delete all mails you don't need;
- check your cPanel's main email account regularly; the mails for it are kept in:
/home/username/mail/cur
/home/username/mail/new
where username is your cPanel username. You can manually delete the messages in these folders using cPanel's File Manager or your favorite FTP client;
- you should also check your email accounts regularly and delete any spam messages from them;
- if you have email accounts you don't need or use, it would be best to remove them;
If you have a large number of files/folders and reducing their number is not a suitable option for you, you may consider upgrading your account to a dedicated solution. There the number of inodes you use will not be a problem because all system resources will be dedicated to your account.
REFERENCES
http://kb.siteground.com/article/How_to_reduce_the_number_of_inodes_my_account_uses.html
