Ext. unassigned USB HDD spins up every 30 Minutes

[WoRie]

Hi,

 

I've perused the search results concerning similar topics but only discovered "hacks" for older versions of unraid. 

 

I have an external HDD connected through USB which spins up every 30 minutes, while the log shows:

 

Quote

Apr 10 19:19:34 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 19:49:35 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 20:19:36 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 20:49:37 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 21:19:38 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 21:49:39 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 10 22:19:40 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 03:35:20 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 04:05:21 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 04:35:22 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 05:05:23 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 05:35:24 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 06:05:25 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 06:35:26 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 07:05:27 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 07:35:28 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 08:05:29 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 09:51:13 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 10:30:54 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 11:00:55 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 11:30:56 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 13:16:47 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 13:46:48 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 16:47:36 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 17:17:37 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Apr 11 17:47:38 WoNas emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc

 

It seems as if the disk spins up when Unraid is trying to spin it down, since Unraid doesn't detect the spun down state correctly. The disk will then enter standby somewhere between two of the spin down commands and spin up again the next time it is asked to spin down.

 

Is there any solution to this? It doesn't matter if the disk is mounted or not and clicking the green icon in UD will spin it down while the icon stays green afterwards.

[jinlife]

Try Unraid 6.9.1, it is probably the last version can spin down USB disk and keep it spin down.

All the newer version will always read Smart and spin it up after 15 mins.

You can also see a lot of emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdx in the log

Edited May 20, 2022 by jinlife

[itimpi]

36 minutes ago, jinlife said:

You can also see a lot of emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdx in the log

As far as I know Unraid only tries to read the SMART data if it thinks the drive is active (spun-up).  Sounds as if the USB enclosures are not tending to correctly report the drive status when they have spun down the drive.

[jinlife]

3 minutes ago, itimpi said:

As far as I know Unraid only tries to read the SMART data if it thinks the drive is active (spun-up).  Sounds as if the USB enclosures are not tending to correctly report the drive status when they have spun down the drive.

I just tried 6.10, it should tell the right status:

/usr/local/sbin# hdparm -C /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 drive state is:  standby

It looks like the state is correct, but it still spin up after 15~20 minutes according to the log.

emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sda

 

The other SATA disks are all fine, they keep in spin down mode. Only the USB disk(sda) has problem.

6.9.1 is working fine for all these disks.

[SimonF]

2 hours ago, jinlife said:

I just tried 6.10, it should tell the right status:

/usr/local/sbin# hdparm -C /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 drive state is:  standby

It looks like the state is correct, but it still spin up after 15~20 minutes according to the log.

emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sda

 

The other SATA disks are all fine, they keep in spin down mode. Only the USB disk(sda) has problem.

6.9.1 is working fine for all these disks.

Does smartctl -n standby /dev/sda produce an error and spin up the drive?

[jinlife]

9 hours ago, SimonF said:

Does smartctl -n standby /dev/sda produce an error and spin up the drive?

Here is the output.

smartctl -n standby /dev/sda

Device is in STANDBY mode, exit(2)

After this, hdparm -C /dev/sda still report drive state is:  standby.

Edited May 21, 2022 by jinlife