Inodes and WP Multi-Network Install

For months, I grappled with an inode issue on my website. I took several steps to optimize my WordPress installation, but the problem persisted. I stumbled upon a solution when I troubleshooted another issue.

Inodes are metadata structures within a UNIX-based filing system. Inodes store information about files and directories. When I exceeded my hosting quota, my WordPress instillation had issues. I did not have enough resources for visitors to visit my sites.

To prevent my shared hosting account from exceeding my inodes quota, I removed unnecessary CMS projects, database, and HTML projects. Despite optimizing my hosting space, I still exceeded my inode quota. My WordPress install is a multi-network installation. I’m managing 3 different networks serving different domains, on one WordPress installation.

While troubleshooting another issue I accidently dropped the database tables for the BuddyPress plugin. BuddyPress turns a WordPress website into a Social Network. I destroyed my own social network. Because of this error, I deactivated the security plugins I had for this website/network. I then noticed that my website was not consuming so much inodes.

 Initially, I had enabled WordFence and Solid Security Basic plugins across all networks. I believed this caused cross-scripting errors and resource consumption. To address this, I restricted security plugins to be active on the primary network. Config file rewrites no longer triggered redundant requests. And I was not receiving the errors I previously saw when I debugged my WordPress install.

My websites run faster without timeout errors. I feel more confident that my WordPress installation will not break unexpectedly. It was a complete oversight on my part how WordPress plugins work. I didn’t think activating the same plugin on different networks would create new requested. I incorrectly assumed the same request from multiple networks within one install would merge into one request. It did not.

In the future, I will watch my inode consumption periodically to see if any plugins or code is creating redundant requests. Cross-scripting can kill a Content Management System like WordPress.

Creator of Totally Naked Man (https://totallynakedman.com/) and McSchluberson (https://mcschluberson.com/). Web Developer and Designer. Pronouns: His, him, he