Include S3 Sleep into unRaid

[darkside40]

Could you please add the function of the S3 Sleep Script into the Core of unRaid.

Althought it might not work for everybody, it would be a great addition for all users which live in Countrys other than the US where energy prices are much higher and users which care for the environment who think it is simply dumb letting a server run 24/7 when not needed.

 

See also here:

 

[Pandora09]

my server doesn't run 24/7 either, only when I need it. Electricity is expensive in Germany and with version 6.12.x the plugins no longer work as they should.

It's a pity that you pay $150 for a Pro license, but can't contribute anything to energy consumption and climate change

[Raptor2k]

Need this feature. +1

[primeval_god]

@darkside40 If your wondering why this request hasnt gotten much attention, its probably because it has been discussed on the forums for a very long time and is not likely to be added. There are several reasons, as you know there is already a plugin that adds this feature, but it often causes people trouble. The big problem is S3 sleep is a lot harder of a problem to sort out than most people think. The reason is that hardware support for sleep, and to a greater extent waking from sleep, is all over the place. This is especially true on linux, for server grade hardware (which includes HBA cards), and for booting from USB drives. People have all sorts of problems for different hardware setups, ranging from wont go to sleep, to wont wake, to wakes up in a weird state. Its a support nightmare and even when it works many people come to realize that S3 sleep is not a useful as it seems for a device like a NAS which is typically expected to available on demand. 

 

Personally i used the S3 plugin for a long time on the previous iteration of my NAS. It was a constant headache. Wake on Lan for on demand stuff never worked properly. Waking on a schedule took forever to figure out because as it turned out the realtime clock on my motherboard could only set alarms for something like 12hr in the future (anything longer just wouldnt wake). And most annoyingly disk spin state was always problematic on wakeup. I abandoned the concept of a sleeping NAS long ago.

 

P.S. This is in response to your post in the announcement thread. I am just a user like you, I dont speak for Limetech. My comments above are based on information i have gleaned on the forums over the years not any official word from Limetech.

[ich777]

On 6/28/2023 at 5:30 PM, darkside40 said:

Could you please add the function of the S3 Sleep Script into the Core of unRaid.

I'm in the same boat as @primeval_god.

 

It should be always be a plugin because sleep is nothing that should be used on a server in my opinion, a server, even if it's a home server is meant to run all the time and be as stable as possible.

With sleep you are introducing so much different variables and maybe instability. Not every device is waking up properly or is in a semi sleep state sometimes this is especially as @primeval_god pointed out the case often times with real server hardware because in a server farm sleep is not even considered as a feature. Of course consumer hardware has also some times its quirks and a component can also be in a semi sleep state or even won't wake up at all.

 

Even on Windows Sleep is not working properly on some machines (you'll find many posts about that on your favorite search engine).

 

You always have to keep in mind that only because it is working for you it doesn't mean that it is working for everyone.

 

If the plugin is working just fine then why not use it as is?

 

On 6/28/2023 at 5:30 PM, darkside40 said:

users which care for the environment who think it is simply dumb letting a server run 24/7 when not needed.

Thanks for calling me dumb... 😭

[Mainfrezzer]

Im sure a simple shutdown timer in the go file alongside a timer socket with the "power on on power loss" in the bios will work more reliably than S3 sleep and subsequent recovery.

[darkside40]

S3 works for me and many others out there really reliable in the past 10 years even with Sata Controller Cards etc. 
 

i think i can even remember when i startet using unRaid in 2011 it was meant to be a system which can run on consumer Hardware. That many use it nowadays on server grade hardware is there decision. 
 

So why not embedding such a feature with the info that i depends on hardware an that there will be no support?

 

To be honest it would be easier to do something like that as a community Plugin of there would be a plugin dev documentation but thats not the case. 

[JorgeB]

7 minutes ago, darkside40 said:

So why not embedding such a feature with the info that i depends on hardware an that there will be no support?

Because people will still expect it to work for them and ask for support when it doesn't.

[darkside40]

Okay, than it would may be a good idea to support community developers by giving them a comprehensive guide on how to write plugins and give them free of charge unRaid Licenses (can be restricted in time devices etc). But not even that happens. 

[ich777]

2 hours ago, darkside40 said:

That many use it nowadays on server grade hardware is there decision. 

Most people still run it on consumer hardware hut with parts from servers that are available for cheap on ebay and so on.

 

2 hours ago, darkside40 said:

So why not embedding such a feature with the info that i depends on hardware an that there will be no support?

But it is really hard to build such a hardware database sonce it can be also the case that some components work with sleep on one system and on the next it won‘t work because a firmware bug exists on one system and on the next not whcih is maybe fixed with a newer BIOS/firmware,…

 

2 hours ago, darkside40 said:

To be honest it would be easier to do something like that as a community Plugin of there would be a plugin dev documentation but thats not the case. 

Not sure if many users will install/opt in to such a plugin becuase you are basically collecting data and not everyone is willing to do so because you need certain things to identify the system to not include it twice in the database.

 

I thought a few times about that but it can be a nightmare in terms of a databreach and got hacked.

 

1 hour ago, darkside40 said:

But not even that happens. 

Sorry but isnmt that a completelly different topic, I thought you where asking about the S3 plugin.

 

However if the plugin is working as expected you can still use it.

 

EDIT: I‘m not sure if Proxmox or TrueNAS has such a feature but I can‘t imagine that (sorry can‘t give a definitive answer about that systems because I don‘t use/know them).

 

EDIT2: After reading the other thread I know that you want to see more action but have you seen that the plugin is from Dynamics and so to speak well maintained and almost a part of Unraid.

From what I can tell you are more worried that the plugin disappears at one point or isn‘t supported anymore correct?

Even if Dynamix disappears (what I really really can‘t imagine) someone else is able to fork the plugin and continue his work.

That‘s the beauty of plugins.

 

As an example I have just found a users who will now continue the support and maintain the Intel iGPU SRIOV driver plugin where the maintainer dissapeared.

 

We are a really good community here and we help each other as good as we can, sure I‘m also not a fan of the S3 Sleep plugin because of the above said reasons but many people use it and someone will support it, but as said I don‘t think that Dynamics will disappear because he is almost part of the OS. 😉