Unraid 6.12.8 - Drives won’t stay spun down.

[prongATO]

I’ve searched other threads, installed the File Activity plug-in and I can’t figure out why my drives won’t stay spun down.  I rolled back from 6.12.13 to 6.12.8 to see if that helped but it didn’t.  I’ve tried disabling each docker and even disabling dockers altogether and nothing seems to work.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

They either spin right back up or after about 5 to 12 minutes, the entire array spins back up.  

 

I’ve just let the server sit there with a movie playing in the background and the spin down time I have set to 45 minutes happens, the disks all spin back up minutes later, without fail. 

 

 

mrpunrfsx1-diagnostics-20240917-0208.zip

Edited September 17, 2024 by prongATO

[Veah]

Had a similar issue that went away when I relocated my share of iso files to the cache drive.  Might be worth trying.

[prongATO]

7 hours ago, Veah said:

Had a similar issue that went away when I relocated my share of iso files to the cache drive.  Might be worth trying.

Thanks for the suggestion, I have my ISOS, Appdata, domains and system on an NVMe SSD already.  

[prongATO]

I have no idea what is spinning the disks up.  I tried disabling all plugins and dockers and something still spins them up every hour.  I spun them down and can see when file activity (windows backup) accessed disk 9 but all the others spun up with something making a few reads to the entire array shortly afterward.

 

I'd understand if disk 9 and Parity spun up but why did the entire damn array spin up?  

 

Maybe because I have a MacOS machine with Time Machine pointed to disk 9 also?

 

mrpunrfsx1-diagnostics-20240919-1435.zip

Edited September 19, 2024 by prongATO

[prongATO]

I just noticed a correlation, not sure why it's happening; hopefully someone can explain what's going on.

 

Windows Backup is writing to a file on disk 9 at approximately 30 minutes past, every hour.  It should be spinning Disk 9 and Parity up.  Then within seconds, the entire array spins up corresponding to Windows Backup writing to Disk 9.  Windows Backup only exists on Disk 9, by design.  The share is only on Disk 9.

 

Additional information: the share Windows Backup is set to not use the cache disk and write directly to the array.

 

From File Activity (disk):

** Disk 9 **

Sep 19 15:29:19 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 15:29:19 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 15:29:19 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 15:29:19 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 15:29:19 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config2.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 16:29:40 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config2.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 MODIFY => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 ATTRIB => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

Sep 19 17:30:02 OPEN => /mnt/disk9/Windows Backup/prong/MRPWINMCX1/Configuration/Config1.xml

 

Syslog Spin-ups: (I've shortened these logs so it's not a WOT but it is spinning up the entire array along with disk 9 and parity)

Sep 19 15:29:20 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdh

Sep 19 15:29:20 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdg

Sep 19 15:29:20 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdd

...

Sep 19 16:29:41 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdj

Sep 19 16:29:41 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdi

Sep 19 16:29:50 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdh

...

Sep 19 17:30:03 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdj

Sep 19 17:30:03 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdi

Sep 19 17:30:12 MRPUNRFSX1 emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdh

 

 

Edited September 19, 2024 by prongATO
added info

[prongATO]

I changed the backup shares to use the cache_sdd then move to the array.  We will see if that helps the spin-up issue.

 

Thanks for all the help, BTW..  

Edited September 19, 2024 by prongATO

[Veah]

In your Fix Common Problems plugin... check if 'Avoid spinning up disks for tests?' is set to skip tests on spun down disks.  Also even try removing the plugin for a day.  

[prongATO]

31 minutes ago, Veah said:

In your Fix Common Problems plugin... check if 'Avoid spinning up disks for tests?' is set to skip tests on spun down disks.  Also even try removing the plugin for a day.  

I uninstalled Fix Common Problems as part of my investigation.  I did have that option checked (skip spun down disks)  I just can't figure out why when Windows Backup accesses JUST disk 9 , it spins the whole array up.

[Veah]

Those spin up entries and spin downs in the earlier diagnostic were sandwiched by some sort of plugin error, I cannot recall it exactly now.  There were also the Fixcommonproblems errors in vicinity.  I would try removing all the plugins you can and see if it makes a difference.  Like you, I'm having a hard time seeing how windows backups on a single drive can be causing this.

[prongATO]

17 minutes ago, Veah said:

Those spin up entries and spin downs in the earlier diagnostic were sandwiched by some sort of plugin error, I cannot recall it exactly now.  There were also the Fixcommonproblems errors in vicinity.  I would try removing all the plugins you can and see if it makes a difference.  Like you, I'm having a hard time seeing how windows backups on a single drive can be causing this.

I've tried disabling all plugins and dockers, no joy.  I can spin the array down and it stays down until 30 past the hour when Windows Backup opens a file and modifies it on disk 9.  As you can see referenced in the diagnostics attached.  Windows Backup opens and modifies a file every hour at 30 past the hour.  So I've seen what seems to cause the array to spin up and can predict when it happens.  I just don't get why when only disk 9 and parity should spin up, the whole array spins up and has 5-10 reads, per disk.

mrpunrfsx1-diagnostics-20240919-2010.zip

Edited September 20, 2024 by prongATO

[prongATO]

24 minutes ago, Veah said:

Those spin up entries and spin downs in the earlier diagnostic were sandwiched by some sort of plugin error, I cannot recall it exactly now.  There were also the Fixcommonproblems errors in vicinity.  I would try removing all the plugins you can and see if it makes a difference.  Like you, I'm having a hard time seeing how windows backups on a single drive can be causing this.

BTW, I appreciate your help.  Can't seem to get anyone else to even look at it.  I feel like I've narrowed it down considerably but just need someone that understands the innerworkings of Unraid more than I do.  If it's a setting I need to check or change.  I've tried everything, I tried changing the Windows Backup share (only on disk 9) to use the cache instead of writing to the array, I've managed to see a repeatable, maybe ancillary cause, when Windows Backup writes to disk 9.  Other than when that happens, the array stays spun down. 

 

I can also demonstrate that when I have Kodi access a TV show, Movie or Song, it doesn't spin up the entire array, just the disk it's on.

Edited September 20, 2024 by prongATO

[Veah]

Maybe something with the lsi card starting them all up when the backup starts it's thing.

[Veah]

I'm more of an adaptec guy for my hba so I can't suggest where or how to check there

[prongATO]

2 minutes ago, Veah said:

Maybe something with the lsi card starting them all up when the backup starts it's thing.

I just checked and disk 9 is on one of the standard SATA motherboard ports.  

[Veah]

Have you tried skipping one of those win backups?  Curious if those drives do or don't spin up at half past the hour if no backup taking place 

[prongATO]

Just now, Veah said:

Have you tried skipping one of those win backups?  Curious if those drives do or don't spin up at half past the hour if no backup taking place 

I just tried opening another file on disk 9.  It also stores my User shares (for Windows), Time Machine for my MacOS and a few other things and accessing a file manually by opening it  via user share, it does NOT spin up the whole array. 

 

So it's SOMETHING Windows Backup is doing.

[prongATO]

I guess, at this point, if I want to keep all my drives from spinning up every hour, stop using unraid for my windows backup location.

 

BTW, it's Windows 10.

Edited September 20, 2024 by prongATO

[Veah]

Maybe try recreating a new share for them for backup.  New share, ONLY used for bu...

It's a stretch but I'm quickly running out of ideas.

[prongATO]

Just accessed the Windows Backup share manually to copy the files to a spinning HDD on the MCX1 system and it did NOT spin up the whole array.  So, it's not anything to do with disk 9, it's something the process Windows Backup is doing when opening and modifying the files.  I am at a loss, I'm just going to quit using unraid for Windows Backups.  Nobody else seems to have an idea of what's going on, so F it.

[itimpi]

Have you checked whether you have Turbo Write mode enabled as if it is this would explain why writing to disk9 results in all drives being spun up.

[prongATO]

6 hours ago, itimpi said:

Have you checked whether you have Turbo Write mode enabled as if it is this would explain why writing to disk9 results in all drives being spun up.

Aka reconstruct write? Yes, I had that enabled instead of auto when I was troubleshooting my disk error issues.  
 

I think you’re spot-on, I just checked the logs and when the mover script ran overnight, it spun up the whole array when it moved a few items.

Edited September 20, 2024 by prongATO

[Veah]

Looks like I learned something.  

[prongATO]

1 hour ago, Veah said:

Looks like I learned something.  

It makes total sense and I can’t believe I didn’t think about it.  I don’t understand all the inner-workings of Unraid but I completely forgot I changed it from Auto to Reconstruct write when I was having to rebuild drives over and over again while tracking down the issue of drives intermittently throwing read and write errors. (It was a combination of things, an add on, software side and a 5 in 3 hot-swap cage where the backplane had something fail and had to be replaced)

[Veah]

That's a rough go of things.  Hope quiet stability is your future now.