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WD Reds: spin down or let run 24/7?


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Hey all,

 

I've got a server I recently built filled with a bunch of WD Reds. I'm running unRAID v6.0 (beta 12). The discs are currently set to spin down every hour. My question: do I need to spin them down, or can I let them run 24/7? If I go with 24/7, what does that do to life expectancy (vs. spinning them down every hour, probably spinning them up ~10 times per day at max)?

 

Looking for lots of input and experiences. Thanks!

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Two thoughts ...

 

#1)  WHY are you running a Beta instead of the v6.1.3 stable release ??

 

#2)  It doesn't matter whether you spin the drives down or not.  At 10-20 spinups a day you won't come even close to the rated 600,000 cycles for YEARS  :)  [At one spinup/hour it would be over 68 years before you hit the spec  :) ... and with a 1 hour spindown timer, you'd have to have an access immediately after they spun down EVERY time for 68 years to even do that !!]

 

Spinning them down saves a bit of power (and generates less heat) ... but as long as they're adequately cooled there's no harm in letting them spin 24/7 either.

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... if it ain't broke, don't fix it ...

 

A very good rule.  I've followed it for many years (decades actually)  :)

 

Nevertheless, there's a reason the ongoing development versions are called "Betas".  Within a given version, I do recommend running the latest stable.    I still have one server running v4.7 and another running v5.0.6 ... and neither of those will be upgraded until something "breaks" and I need to make a change.    But my v6 server definitely is on the latest release, and is VERY stable.

 

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Actually, the server doesn't need to be shutdown at all.

 

I don't recall exactly when the automated built-in Update feature was added.    Look on the Plugins tab of the Web GUI and see if there's a "Check for Updates" button.  If so, you can just click on it to do the update.

 

If not, just copy bzroot and bzimage from the v6.1.3 download to the flash drive across your network; then reboot the server and you'll be running the latest version.

 

Once you're running the current version, you can easily check for updates by just clicking on the button in the Plugins tab.

 

 

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