Drive Will Not Spin Down

[curtis-r]

Recently installed Docker, with appdata on disk1.  Disk1 is now always spun-up.  Also installed Plex but have it set to never auto-check for anything, but this happens even if Plex is stopped and set to not autostart.  If I manually spin-down, disk1 spins right up  So it appears Docker alone keeps the drive up.  Is that proper?  I searched around but couldn't find the answer.

tower-diagnostics-20210315-1730.zip

[Hoopster]

3 minutes ago, curtis-r said:

Recently installed Docker, with appdata on disk1.  Disk1 is now always spun-up.  Also installed Plex but have it set to never auto-check for anything, but this happens even if Plex is stopped and set to not autostart.  If I manually spin-down, disk1 spins right up  So it appears Docker alone keeps the drive up.  Is that proper?  I searched around but couldn't find the answer.

tower-diagnostics-20210315-1730.zip 93.2 kB · 0 downloads

This is why it is recommended to install appdata, docker.img, etc. on an SSD.  There are always things going on with docker and individual containers that could cause an HDD that stores these things to be spun up.  Database maintenance, backups, config changes, any access to any file in appdata or docker.img for any reason will cause the HDD to be spun up.  Particular docker apps don't necessarily need to be running for access which could cause disk spin up.

[curtis-r]

Thanks for the quick reply. In my research, I did see that maybe I should install an SSD cache drive. I assume that's what your talking about?

Edited March 16, 2021 by curtis-r

[Hoopster]

2 minutes ago, curtis-r said:

Thanks for the quick reply. In my research, I did see that maybe I should install an SSD cache drive. I assume that's what your talking about?

Yes, SSD as a cache drive with appdata, domains, system shares set to cache-prefer or cache-only shares.  Cache-prefer will be needed initially in order to move anything from these shares from the array to the cache drive (with the Mover) once you have it installed and configured in your unRAID server.

[curtis-r]

Will do.  Thanks.

[kizer]

You'll also notice a vast improvement with Plex using an SSD. If you browse your Media it will load a lot faster since SSD's never technically spin down so it will display your meta data much faster nearly instantly. 

 

I prefer it that way because often family members will check Plex to see what I've added and if nothing sparks their fancy they just leave the app. No drives are spun up browsing and my server just sits there idling with no drives spun up until they are needed. 

 

Just remember like Hoopster said. Make sure you set your appdata Share to Cache Only so its not moved on to your array when the mover runs. 

Also as a side note adding an SSD which I would recommend at least a 250G or larger, heck any more I'd recommend at least 500G or larger. That way set your Shares to use the cache drive and when you copy files to your Shares there will be a little boost in speed and when you fire up Plex it'll pull from the SSD which loads instantly until the mover triggers and copies your files to the array.