Drive StandBy Monitor - Plugin Support


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This plugin allows you to track how long your drives are (or are not) in standby. This is great for those that are trying to make their rig as low power as you can as it will allow you to see what drives are highly active.

 

The plugin gives you an overview of activity per device, but also gives you a breakdown of the status changes. It scans your drives every 15 minutes, this should not cause them to spin up, and logs the data.

 

Upcoming releases will tie the data to drive serial numbers and show a bit more information as to disk names, currently it is based on the dev name (/dev/sdX).

 

You can check out the repo HERE if you come across a bug or issue feel free to open a issue on Github as well. If you're having an issue related to drives spinning up and believe it is related to the plug-in, please file a ticket on the github repo using this link as it has a command you can run and get a better look into what the issue might be.

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
  • Like 2
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Hello,

 

Been testing the plugin, works well. 
I am currently testing if this plugin is waking disks for SMART reporting, as I have seen disks spin up more often than usual. May uninstall it for a day or two to see if it resolves the spin ups.

The most recent update shows disk names which is a nice added touch.

Let me know your feedback on the spin-ups.

Thanks.

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@bombz Do keep me posted! The script side of it uses `smartctl` to query the drive status and other information, but it should not spin up a drive that is currently in standby. I have testing this with a range of internal drives, both connected directly to the motherboard and via a pcie hba, and have yet to see the drives spin-up. That being said, I have read some things online that people using USB enclosures could see the command spin up the drives due to the controller that the USB enclosures use. However, USB enclosures are not know for following the rules when it comes to SMART data. 😁

 

If you do see an issue feel free to open an issue on github as well.

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20 minutes ago, EldonMcGuinness said:

@bombz Do keep me posted! The script side of it uses `smartctl` to query the drive status and other information, but it should not spin up a drive that is currently in standby. I have testing this with a range of internal drives, both connected directly to the motherboard and via a pcie hba, and have yet to see the drives spin-up. That being said, I have read some things online that people using USB enclosures could see the command spin up the drives due to the controller that the USB enclosures use. However, USB enclosures are not know for following the rules when it comes to SMART data. 😁

 

If you do see an issue feel free to open an issue on github as well.

Hello, 

 

Appreciate the response and good to know. I have been watching the logs for time stamps of spin downs, force spin downs and then spin ups for SMART. I don't see an enabled/disable plugin at this moment in time so I may uninstall to investigate further.

All disk are attached to an LSI HBA currently.

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Out of curiosity, what model? I'm using the 9207-8i.

 

Additionally, try the following command and let me know what you get, this will test all your drives /dev/sdb thru /dev/sdz:

curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/EldonMcGuinness/ea36fd56660860f851395aab42cfbbc1/raw/39a92fa5b63b71c4d155ba72a2ba3e0b2bb71a83/diskstandbytest.sh | bash

 

Don't bother with the below snippet, but I'm leaving it for posterity.

clear
echo Put Drive to Sleep
hdparm -y /dev/sdX
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX
sleep 20
echo Try hdparm -I
hdparm -I /dev/sdX > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX 
sleep 20
echo Try smartctl -i -n never 
smartctl -i -n never /dev/sdX  > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX

 

NOTE: replace /dev/sdX with the target drive

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
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2 hours ago, EldonMcGuinness said:

Out of curiosity, what model? I'm using the 9207-8i.

 

Additionally, try the following commands and let me know what you get:

clear
echo Put Drive to Sleep
hdparm -y /dev/sdX
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX
sleep 20
echo Try hdparm -I
hdparm -I /dev/sdX > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX 
sleep 20
echo Try smartctl -i -n never 
smartctl -i -n never /dev/sdX  > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX

 

NOTE: replace /dev/sdX with the target drive

smartctl -n never will spin up devices should be smartctl -n standby if you dont want to spin up devices.

 

also using hdparm if it is a SAS drive could spin it up also.

 

sdspin works with both sata and sas(if sas spin down plugin installed)

 

root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# sdspin sdk status 
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# echo $?
2
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# sdspin sdc status 
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# echo $?
1
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# sdspin /dev/sdc status 
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# echo $?
1
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# sdspin /dev/sdk status 
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# echo $?
2
root@computenode:/usr/local/sbin# 

 

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7 hours ago, EldonMcGuinness said:

Out of curiosity, what model? I'm using the 9207-8i.

 

Additionally, try the following commands and let me know what you get:

clear
echo Put Drive to Sleep
hdparm -y /dev/sdX
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX
sleep 20
echo Try hdparm -I
hdparm -I /dev/sdX > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX 
sleep 20
echo Try smartctl -i -n never 
smartctl -i -n never /dev/sdX  > /dev/null
sleep 20
hdparm -C /dev/sdX

 

NOTE: replace /dev/sdX with the target drive


I am currently using:
LSI SAS 9300-16I HBA *IT MODE*

Apologies, I am a little new to some of the scripts with the plugin. Do you have to have to enter this in console?
As I don't see anywhere in the plugin options to enter custom scripts.

Here are the logs from since 12AM of the disk spin up, reading SMART

 

Nov 21 00:14:38  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdj
Nov 21 01:11:57  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Nov 21 01:30:54  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdm
Nov 21 02:17:46  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdd
Nov 21 03:04:25  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdl
Nov 21 03:04:40  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdn
Nov 21 03:04:50  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdk
Nov 21 03:05:41 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdf
Nov 21 03:05:53  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdj
Nov 21 03:22:57  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sde
Nov 21 03:22:57  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdo
Nov 21 04:10:07  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sde
Nov 21 04:10:07  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdo
Nov 21 05:24:57  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sde
Nov 21 05:24:57  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdo
Nov 21 06:01:05  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdl
Nov 21 06:01:07  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Nov 21 06:01:50  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdf
Nov 21 06:11:53  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sde
Nov 21 06:11:53  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdo
Nov 21 06:31:40  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdd
Nov 21 06:37:40  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdk
Nov 21 06:40:17  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdj
Nov 21 06:46:08  emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdm
Nov 21 07:33:30  emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdn

 

Edited by bombz
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@SimonF

Indeed however, using smartctl -i -n standby /dev/sdX does not get you the serial number or model number of the drive in question, only an exit code of 2. I thought about using hdparm, which sdspin is using, to get the serial and model number, but that could result in spin up of the drive according to sources on Google. It seems, since there really is no 100% standard to how drives and controllers act with regard to querying standby status, there are reports of virtually every command out there spinning up some type of drive/setup, the best one can do is shoot for what should work.

 

As the script sits now, it captures the serial+model of each drive when checking to make sure no drives have changed their assignment. I do want to try to hook into udev and do something a bit more intelligent there, but as of now this seems to work well except for outlier cases when the drives or the controllers are not following regular standards.

 

I think I'll add a disclaimer in the app description that some drives and controllers may not work correctly with it due to deviance from the standards.

 

  

@bombz

You got it, just post that in the console and post what you get.

What is your standby timer set to? I would expect that if the plugin were spinning up your drives then I would see a uniform wake/sleep of the drives, then again, this is just the emhttpd log and I don't think it logs outside actions of waking and sleeping, at least it is not when I test it.

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
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5 hours ago, EldonMcGuinness said:

  

@bombz

You got it, just post that in the console and post what you get.

What is your standby timer set to? I would expect that if the plugin were spinning up your drives then I would see a uniform wake/sleep of the drives, then again, this is just the emhttpd log and I don't think it logs outside actions of waking and sleeping, at least it is not when I test it.

Hello, 

 

Here are the results of replacing X with sdM

Put Drive to Sleep

/dev/sdm:
 issuing standby command

/dev/sdm:
 drive state is:  standby
Try hdparm -I

/dev/sdm:
 drive state is:  active/idle
Try smartctl -i -n never

/dev/sdm:
 drive state is:  active/idle

 

I saw it woke the disk after the command

 

Nov 21 18:43:01 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdm


hope that helps?

 

Thanks.

Edited by bombz
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in this case it looks like hdparm is waking the drive. Give this a try and post back what you get, this tries to put the drive to sleep then query it and then check the status again. It will do it with both hdparm and smartctl.

 

curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/EldonMcGuinness/ea36fd56660860f851395aab42cfbbc1/raw/739ada10cab68f5bf45bf377dd7f04553327ab61/diskstandbytest.sh | bash

 

You should get back something like:

Starting Sleep Tests
==============================

Testing /dev/sdb: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdc: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdd: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sde: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdf: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdg: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdh: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdi: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdj: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdk: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdl: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdm: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]

 

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On 11/21/2023 at 8:09 PM, EldonMcGuinness said:

in this case it looks like hdparm is waking the drive. Give this a try and post back what you get, this tries to put the drive to sleep then query it and then check the status again. It will do it with both hdparm and smartctl.

 

curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/EldonMcGuinness/ea36fd56660860f851395aab42cfbbc1/raw/739ada10cab68f5bf45bf377dd7f04553327ab61/diskstandbytest.sh | bash

 

You should get back something like:

Starting Sleep Tests
==============================

Testing /dev/sdb: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdc: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdd: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sde: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdf: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdg: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdh: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdi: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdj: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdk: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdl: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdm: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]

 


Ran this earlier:

 

Starting Sleep Tests
==============================

Testing /dev/sdb: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdc: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdd: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sde: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdf: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdg: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdh: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ]
Testing /dev/sdi: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdj: [ 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdk: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdl: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdm: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdn: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]
Testing /dev/sdo: [ 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ]


note there were some drive awake when this was ran.

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@bombz those are some interesting results.

  • /dev/sdb looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdc looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdd looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sde looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdf looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdg looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdh looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdi looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdj looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdk looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdl looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdm looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdn looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdo looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else

An interesting thing to note is that sdb, sdi, and sdj all get a return code of 1 from hdparm. I'm not sure why that is the case and you will likely need to investigate that further.

hdparm -I /dev/sdb

 

What I would look at next is what type of drives these are and how they are hooked up to see if there is a correlation. Additionally, if there is no correlation, you might need to shut all the services down and turn off the array and try the command again to look for different results.

 

In case you are curious the way the results reads is as follows:

  1. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  2. Run hdparm and see if the command runs without errors [0:OK]
  3. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  4. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  5. Run smartctl runs and reports the drive as in standby [0:Yes]
  6. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]

Anytime you see a 1 in the results, that means the drive was not in standby or the command did not execute properly.

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
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On 11/21/2023 at 5:51 PM, EldonMcGuinness said:

@SimonF

Indeed however, using smartctl -i -n standby /dev/sdX does not get you the serial number or model number of the drive in question, only an exit code of 2. I thought about using hdparm, which sdspin is using, to get the serial and model number, but that could result in spin up of the drive according to sources on Google. It seems, since there really is no 100% standard to how drives and controllers act with regard to querying standby status, there are reports of virtually every command out there spinning up some type of drive/setup, the best one can do is shoot for what should work.

 

As the script sits now, it captures the serial+model of each drive when checking to make sure no drives have changed their assignment. I do want to try to hook into udev and do something a bit more intelligent there, but as of now this seems to work well except for outlier cases when the drives or the controllers are not following regular standards.

 

I think I'll add a disclaimer in the app description that some drives and controllers may not work correctly with it due to deviance from the standards.

 

  

@bombz

You got it, just post that in the console and post what you get.

What is your standby timer set to? I would expect that if the plugin were spinning up your drives then I would see a uniform wake/sleep of the drives, then again, this is just the emhttpd log and I don't think it logs outside actions of waking and sleeping, at least it is not when I test it.

Can you not use the Unraid state file and the the id from there?

 

$docroot = $docroot ?: @$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ?: '/usr/local/emhttp';
$disks = @parse_ini_file("$docroot/state/disks.ini", true);

 

there is a devs.ini for unassigned devices.

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the new update causes email notifications:

image.thumb.png.df20ee6fe46637e1de112257e85f4cda.png

 

Nov 25 11:39:11 Unraid-1 emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdg
Nov 25 11:45:01 Unraid-1 crond[1468]: exit status 127 from user root /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/DriveStandbyMonitor/monitor.sh
Nov 25 11:45:01 Unraid-1 sSMTP[30712]: Creating SSL connection to host
Nov 25 11:45:01 Unraid-1 sSMTP[30712]: SSL connection using TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
Nov 25 11:45:03 Unraid-1 sSMTP[30712]: Sent mail for root@*****.de (221 2.0.0 Bye) uid=0 username=root outbytes=549

 

diagnostic is attaced

unraid-1-syslog-20231125-1052.zip

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On 11/23/2023 at 9:00 PM, EldonMcGuinness said:

@bombz those are some interesting results.

  • /dev/sdb looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdc looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdd looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sde looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdf looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdg looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdh looks like it went to standby and stayed there
  • /dev/sdi looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdj looks like it was awake and in use, not sure why hdparm returned a result code of 1 though
  • /dev/sdk looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdl looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdm looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdn looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else
  • /dev/sdo looks like it was in standby and then was woken up by smartctl or something else

An interesting thing to note is that sdb, sdi, and sdj all get a return code of 1 from hdparm. I'm not sure why that is the case and you will likely need to investigate that further.

hdparm -I /dev/sdb

 

What I would look at next is what type of drives these are and how they are hooked up to see if there is a correlation. Additionally, if there is no correlation, you might need to shut all the services down and turn off the array and try the command again to look for different results.

 

In case you are curious the way the results reads is as follows:

  1. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  2. Run hdparm and see if the command runs without errors [0:OK]
  3. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  4. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]
  5. Run smartctl runs and reports the drive as in standby [0:Yes]
  6. Is the drive in standby [0:Yes]

Anytime you see a 1 in the results, that means the drive was not in standby or the command did not execute properly.


Hello, 

 

Apologies for the delay.

  • sdb
  • sdi

Are SSD, so they will not spin down 

Visual here
image.thumb.png.669f67f7b1b1dba6ab8ec61f41b9af7e.png

I am not quite sure why your plugin is seeing another SK_hynix -- maybe it grabbed the info when it was plugged into UD, and since unmounted it resides in the db as a logged device?

I currently have some nvme in UD as well, staged to become pool devices... haven't got around to deploying them as of yet. I also recently disabled 'Dynamix Cache Directories' to possibly rule that out, been doing some reading on that plugin to see if it performs drive spin ups to cache, which it shouldn't... but it's new to me.

 

As for the connection type, all disk are plugged into the LSI card previously stated:

  • LSI SAS 9300-16I HBA *IT MODE*

Learning on the fly with your assistance of things to try, to hopefully assist with overall feedback to tweak this plugin, and to attempt to test the concerns you would like feedback on.

Appreciate your time on this and the assistance :-) 

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On 11/24/2023 at 4:19 PM, EldonMcGuinness said:

@SimonF That is an interesting idea and I will look into that, it would allow me to make sure there is parity between the status unraid is showing and what the plugin logs show.

 

Update:

OK, reworked the backend to make use of the existing unraid data. @bombz,let me know if that make a difference for you.

Would it be an option only to log if the state changes?

 

May be also have a config/settings to allow or disabled on the main page.

 

If you want to capture unassigned devices, something similar to the below.

 

$disks = array_merge_recursive(@parse_ini_file('state/disks.ini',true)?:[], @parse_ini_file('state/devs.ini',true)?:[]);

 

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16 hours ago, EldonMcGuinness said:

The latest version reworked the backend, give it a go and see what you get. If there is data that you want to clear, you can reset the database in the tools page or you can hide the lines you want via the "edit" button on the main page.

 

Thank you for testing it and all the feedback!

Hello,

 

Grabbed the new version today. Looking forward to seeing further developments of this plugin, really appreciate your time and support. I will keep an eye on this thread and post if any concerns come up moving forward.

 

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10 hours ago, SimonF said:

Would it be an option only to log if the state changes?

 

I don't think so as this is a longitudinal average of queries. If I don't have the intervals logged then, when they are all counted up and divided, the averages would not be the same. The way I calculate it is a simple average:

 

701407689_output-onlinepngtools(1).png.df98e955c7ff82fdd999a25bcc842411.png

 

Without each interval I would not be able to take a quick sum and it likely would get more complicated for minimal gain.

 

10 hours ago, SimonF said:

May be also have a config/settings to allow or disabled on the main page.

 

There is currently a show toggle that lets you hide it and it is cookie based so it should stick across sessions.

Screenshot 2023-11-26 144421.png

 

10 hours ago, SimonF said:

$disks = array_merge_recursive(@parse_ini_file('state/disks.ini',true)?:[], @parse_ini_file('state/devs.ini',true)?:[]);

I will have to look into this once I have an unassigned drive to test, unless someone would like to be my guineapig. :D In the case that you or someone else would, let me know and I'll setup a dev branch for you to test.

 

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
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9 hours ago, SimonF said:

I don't see them on my system this one is 6.12.5rc1

 

image.png

 

 

That is so odd, you are the second person that said that. I wonder if it is due to my script clashing/relying on anther script inadvertently. I will take a look. 👍

 

EDIT:

This is indeed what was happening, this is fixed in the next build [2023.11.26-004]

 

Also added dev support as of [2023.11.27-002]

Edited by EldonMcGuinness
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On 11/25/2023 at 6:00 PM, EldonMcGuinness said:

The latest version reworked the backend, give it a go and see what you get. If there is data that you want to clear, you can reset the database in the tools page or you can hide the lines you want via the "edit" button on the main page.

 

Thank you for testing it and all the feedback!

Hello,

 

Using the 'edit' button and hiding the disk function works. However if you leave the page or refresh the page, the drive/disk reappears again.
Thought I'd let you know.

Cheers.

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