Hi all,

 

Running the latest version of the 6 branch (6.12.15), but this problem has started some time last year I think. I've been using this server for a long time, and the drives always used to spin down when not in use after two hours, which I believe is the default setting.

 

But at some point they no longer did spin down, or at least they no longer stay spun down. Looking at the logs, it seems the system reads the SMART info shortly after I spin them down manually, which mean within a minute or so they are back up. At least that's what it looks like to me:

 

Feb 11 16:40:30 Zaphod webGUI: Successful login user root from 192.168.88.18
Feb 11 16:41:57 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Feb 11 16:41:59 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdb
Feb 11 16:42:03 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdb
Feb 11 16:42:10 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdc
Feb 11 16:42:10 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdg
Feb 11 16:42:11 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdf
Feb 11 16:42:11 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sde
Feb 11 16:42:13 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdd
Feb 11 16:42:14 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdh
Feb 11 16:42:14 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdj
Feb 11 16:42:16 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdi
Feb 11 16:42:38 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdb
Feb 11 16:42:43 Zaphod emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdc
Feb 11 16:43:08 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdf
Feb 11 16:43:37 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdd
Feb 11 16:43:37 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdb
Feb 11 16:43:37 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdi
Feb 11 16:43:52 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdg
Feb 11 16:43:52 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sde
Feb 11 16:44:01 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdc
Feb 11 16:44:18 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdj
Feb 11 16:44:18 Zaphod emhttpd: read SMART /dev/sdh

 

Any idea what could cause this phenomenon? I don't want my drives to be spinning all day long when I only need them occasionally during the day.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 11, 20251 yr by chrisb42

Unraid issues the SMART read when it detects that a field has just been spun up so this a symptom, not a cause.   There must be something accessing the disks that is causing them to spin up.

 

The File Activity plugin might give a clue.

 

I suggest you attach your system’s diagnostics zip file to your next post in this thread to see if anything relevant shows up there.  It is always a good idea when asking questions to supply your diagnostics so we can see details of your system, how you have things configured, and the current syslog.

 

 

Thanks, just installed the file activity plugin - will see if I can find out more with that.

Sadly, it seems the plugin doesn't have any information what causes the SMART reads or spinups, nothing is being shown.

 

Attached the diagnostics; thanks!

zaphod-diagnostics-20250211-1722.zip

Anyone have any suggestions what could cause my drives to spin up again?

I have no idea, chrisb42, but I have the same situation.  I also thought I had a lot of reads on the array, but I couldn't find anything that causing the issue.  If I looked at the disk log for each disk, there seemed to be files opened (by what, I have no idea!) but those files shouldn't have been opened in my opinion.  There was no one watching those files on my Plex so no idea why they would open.  I also have just posted that I thought I was getting a lot of reads on the disks, but maybe I'm mistaken. 

 

As an example,

When I check the file activity under Tools | System Information | File Activity, I see the last activity was from this morning about 9:30, when I watched an episode of House:

 

The disk log information for my disk1 (the icon immediately left of the identification column on the main screen) looks like this:

 

I have no idea what might be causing the drive to spin up and read SMART information.  However, disk1 (sdh) above suggests it might actually spin down for durations ranging from about 2 minutes to 2 hours.  This is better than it was in the past, as I think the spin down was only 1 to 2 minutes each time before SMART was read again.  Despite my efforts, I couldn't find anything accessing the disk, but I ended up uninstalling the disk cache plugin as I thought this might be keeping my disks spinning.  After removing the plugin, I'm not sure if things are better, since every time I look at the Main window in Unraid, my disks all appear to be spinning.  Contrarily, I have long pauses/delays when accessing files on the server, which suggests the drives might have to spin up before I access them, but I'm not sure since I never see them spun down.  Maybe the indication on the Main page isn't accurate???  Anyway, I hope you get some resolution, as I'll be watching this thread in hopes to improve my setup.   

 

ATE

 

 

Attach Diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread.

Either you have a docker container accessing a disk, your docker.img or your virtual machines are running on said disk or a plugin is polling that drive for information.

I didn't really want to hijack the thread, so I hope chrisb42 doesn't mind that I include my diagnostics here as well.   I have no VMs and I believe everything goes to my cache drive until mover runs (daily at 8:30 am, if memory serves)

tower-diagnostics-20250214-2226.zip

I have no VMs and only one app in Docker, but unloading that also doesn't solve the problem, the disks just spin right back up after about a minute. Not sure what else I can look at, especially since everything has been fine for years before this started happening.