January 11, 201412 yr I've dont quite a few searches but havent come back with anything related to Unraid. I was wondering if there are people who just leave their server on all the time. Is this bad for the longevity of the hard drives/server??
January 11, 201412 yr Only shut down long enough to swap or add disks. Otherwise 2 towers running 24/7 with most of that time all drives sleeping. Built to be green, the two use less power than the single Dell Windows server they replaced.
January 11, 201412 yr I leave mine on all the time. Only time I shut it down is for configuration changes (install more/bigger drives), minor maintenance (re-seat connectors, blow out the dust), or when on vacation (reduce fire hazard or potential for lightening damage). Equipment reliability has been very good for over four (4) years. Kevin
January 11, 201412 yr Same here, only shutdown to perform preventative maintenance ie.... hard drive swap/add/remove - software/hardware upgrade - or least favorite troubleshooting.
January 11, 201412 yr I only shut down when needed. I have 2 boxes and they were up near 6 months before we had a power outage of about an hour last week.
January 11, 201412 yr Author Thanks for all the quick replies. I guess I shouldnt have an issue leaving my server on all the time as long as the drives go to sleep. Im wondering if this will affect my power usage a lot over the course of a month? I never realized people have no worries about leaving the server on all the time. Unraid doesnt support WOL on my motherboard unfortunately which is why I was asking.
January 11, 201412 yr My main media server hasn't been shut down in ~ 6 years except for a few power failures that exceeded 5 minutes, which is the threshold I have the APC UPS package set to do an auto-shutdown. My second server hasn't been shut down since I built it a little over a year ago. My backup server is shutdown all the time except for once/month when it's turned on (via WOL) to automatically sync the data from my other two servers.
January 11, 201412 yr Mine just gets shut down when I upgrade something or change a disk, which isn't that often. Other then that it goes to sleep around 12.00 once the mover the s done and I wake it up again around 7 or 8am. The only other time it gets shut down as after 3min when there's a power failure which isn't that often.
January 11, 201412 yr Thanks for all the quick replies. I guess I shouldnt have an issue leaving my server on all the time as long as the drives go to sleep. Im wondering if this will affect my power usage a lot over the course of a month? I never realized people have no worries about leaving the server on all the time. Unraid doesnt support WOL on my motherboard unfortunately which is why I was asking. Your drives use 5 - 10 Watts of power each. There have been COUNTLESS studies and putting your drives to sleep or not does not shorten / extend the life of your drives.
January 11, 201412 yr Im wondering if this will affect my power usage a lot over the course of a month? Obviously this depends on how much power your system draws at idle (drives not spinning). Mine, for example, draws 20 watts in that state. 20 watts x 24 hrs x 365 days = ~ 175kwh/year, or at $0.12/kwh (typical US cost) that's about $21/year to leave it on all year. A more power-hungry server that draws 2-3 times that would obviously cost more, but still not likely more than $5/month.
January 11, 201412 yr Obviously this depends on how much power your system draws at idle (drives not spinning). Mine, for example, draws 20 watts in that state. 20 watts x 24 hrs x 365 days = ~ 175kwh/year, or at $0.12/kwh (typical US cost) that's about $21/year to leave it on all year. A more power-hungry server that draws 2-3 times that would obviously cost more, but still not likely more than $5/month. I can't tell you how many nerds who lost their minds that I didn't spend $50, $100, $200, $500+ dollars extra when buying Hardware for a Server that was lower power or why I do not jump through hoops so my Server can sleep. I drive a car that gets 15 MPG and don't recycle my bath water... Why they expect me to spend the extra money / drive myself crazy putting a Server to sleep over $20 - $50 dollars a year is beyond me. I think for some nerds... All the power stuff is a hobby / challenge / passion / religion.
January 12, 201412 yr I think for some nerds... All the power stuff is a hobby / challenge / passion / religion. Aren't we all nerds ? And yes ... it is a combination of everything you mention above, and don't forget WAF (no buzzing sounds at night)
January 12, 201412 yr Im wondering if this will affect my power usage a lot over the course of a month? Obviously this depends on how much power your system draws at idle (drives not spinning). Mine, for example, draws 20 watts in that state. 20 watts x 24 hrs x 365 days = ~ 175kwh/year, or at $0.12/kwh (typical US cost) that's about $21/year to leave it on all year. What mobo/processor and combination of drives are you using to get 20 Watts at idle? Does your processor also sleep?!
January 12, 201412 yr What mobo/processor and combination of drives are you using to get 20 Watts at idle? Does your processor also sleep?! No, my CPU doesn't sleep. The system actually draws 19w when the drives are spun down. It's a SuperMicro X7SPA-H-D525-O motherboard with 6 3TB WD Reds (when I built it, the 4TB's weren't out yet).
January 12, 201412 yr It's a server...it's not meant to be turned off. I don't spin anything down either.
January 12, 201412 yr Mine is turned on 24/7 but spends most of its time asleep - mainly to keep noise down, as it lives in my office.
January 12, 201412 yr Mine is on 24/7 and is never turned off except to do maintenance like changing drives. It's out of the way in my basement so I don't hear any noise. Just the way I like it - out of the way so I don't even know it's running, but available when needed.
January 13, 201412 yr What mobo/processor and combination of drives are you using to get 20 Watts at idle? Does your processor also sleep?! No, my CPU doesn't sleep. The system actually draws 19w when the drives are spun down. It's a SuperMicro X7SPA-H-D525-O motherboard with 6 3TB WD Reds (when I built it, the 4TB's weren't out yet). which processor?
January 13, 201412 yr What mobo/processor and combination of drives are you using to get 20 Watts at idle? Does your processor also sleep?! No, my CPU doesn't sleep. The system actually draws 19w when the drives are spun down. It's a SuperMicro X7SPA-H-D525-O motherboard with 6 3TB WD Reds (when I built it, the 4TB's weren't out yet). which processor? Did you look up the motherboard?? It's got an Atom D525 embedded on it (thus the name).
January 13, 201412 yr Add me to the list of people who never shut down their server except for maintenance or reboots for OS upgrades. Mine runs 24/7, but obviously spends most of its time at idle.
January 13, 201412 yr Ditto for me...never shut down the server except for maintenance or reboots for OS upgrades. Mine runs 24/7, but obviously spends most of its time at idle.
January 16, 201412 yr What mobo/processor and combination of drives are you using to get 20 Watts at idle? Does your processor also sleep?! No, my CPU doesn't sleep. The system actually draws 19w when the drives are spun down. It's a SuperMicro X7SPA-H-D525-O motherboard with 6 3TB WD Reds (when I built it, the 4TB's weren't out yet). which processor? Did you look up the motherboard?? It's got an Atom D525 embedded on it (thus the name). Sorry, I meant to go back and edit that post after I reviewed the MB. I wasn't familiar with embedded processors so just assumed you forgot to mention it.
January 16, 201412 yr I don't understand the question. Why would anyone want to turn off a server? Just kidding. This is simply a cost-benfit problem. Does the cost of running the server 24/7 outweigh the benefits? The cost is primarily electricity. As long as the server is used daily the wear on components is not a significant factor
January 16, 201412 yr My esxi box is always on. I even have my router on that thing so turning it off is a big no no
January 17, 201412 yr Server, 4 desktop PCs, 2 HTPCs, 4 phones, 4 tablets - all on 24/7. Too lazy to turn 'em off, and as grumpy & gary mentioned the power usage is probably about the same cost as a quick snack at Taco Bell or McDs, so I don't worry about it. Don't know if it's still the case (maybe it never was), but as a young 'un, I was always told that the greatest danger to electronics was in the initial power surge when turning them on, so it was actually better on the electronics to leave them on 24/7. I was just looking at some SMART stats on my drives - I've got one that reports almost 43000 power on hours.
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