Help with disks staying spun up

allischalmersman · December 31, 2016

Hi, I am sorry this is a novice issue but I cant figure it out. I have issues where my Disk 4 stays spun up all the time it seems like as well as both parity disks. I suspect something with either Plex, or something on my network is constantly waking up that disk. Fix common problems doesn't show any issues or warnings. I have Folder Caching installed but its defaulted. I am attaching diagnostics, and system log if anybody could help me figure out how to get my disks to spin down when not in use that would be awesome. Thanks!

Edit: Here is a copy paste of the Open Files

Program * Process ID Open Files Files that may prevent unRAID shutdown File Name and Path

shfs 11394

54 54 /mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Dat ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Dat ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Ser ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Dat ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/gn_lists.gdb

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Log ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex DLNA Serv ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Dat ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex DLNA Serv ...

/mnt/cache/appdata/PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Log ...

docker 12702

1 1 /var/lib/docker/containers/059bd5bd7f61aa170b6be3d445dc0b551f968ebbb57fef45fa9f04e97b187442/059bd5bd ...

Plex Media Serv 17467

44 43 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins. ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins. ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins. ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/gn_lists.gdb

Plex Script Hos 17479

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.system (worki ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.system.log

Plex DLNA Serve 17715

7 6 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.dlna.db- ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex DLNA Server Neptune.log

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.dlna.db

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.dlna.db- ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex DLNA Server.log

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log

Plex Script Hos 18034

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.agents.opensu ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.opensu ...

Plex Script Hos 18167

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.agents.plexth ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.plexth ...

Plex Script Hos 18210

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.agents.themov ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.themov ...

Plex Script Hos 18237

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.agents.plexmu ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.plexmu ...

Plex Script Hos 18239

2 2 /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Data/com.plexapp.agents.thetvd ...

/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs/com.plexapp.agents.thetvd ...

smbd 20114

1 0 /mnt/user/Movies

tower-diagnostics-20161231-1404.zip

tower-syslog-20161231-1401.zip

allischalmersman · January 26, 2017

Bump. Any help on this at all?

Squid · January 26, 2017

The logs show that disk 4 is indeed spinning down.

You might want to limit cache-dirs to certain *must-have* directories cached as it's attempts to keep the directory contents in RAM can cause spin ups if other app memory requirements cause the cached information to be dumped.

Additionally, if your windows box (or any other computer) decides to scan those folders for whatever information they want it may cause spinups.

Ultimately, the only way to diagnose spinup's if there is no obvious cause internally to unRaid (ie something like Plex or CP scanning for new media) is to turn off all other devices completely connected to the network and then access the UI via your phone to see if the drive(s) are indeed staying spundown as expected.

Another troubleshooting tip is to force the drive to spin down and then see when it spins back up and try and figure out why.

John_M · January 26, 2017

Your syslog shows a lot of this:

Dec 27 18:34:23 Tower kernel: mdcmd (126): spindown 0

Dec 27 18:34:24 Tower kernel: mdcmd (127): spindown 4

Dec 27 18:34:24 Tower kernel: mdcmd (128): spindown 29

Dec 27 19:35:13 Tower kernel: mdcmd (129): spindown 0

Dec 27 19:35:13 Tower kernel: mdcmd (130): spindown 4

Dec 27 19:35:14 Tower kernel: mdcmd (131): spindown 29

Dec 27 20:35:55 Tower kernel: mdcmd (132): spindown 0

Dec 27 20:35:56 Tower kernel: mdcmd (133): spindown 4

Dec 27 20:35:56 Tower kernel: mdcmd (134): spindown 29

which suggests a couple of things. Firstly, not long after spinning down it's being spun up again. Secondly, the two parity disks (Disk 0 and Disk 29) are following the same pattern, which suggests that the process waking up the drive is a write.

I see you have the global default spin down delay set to 30 minutes and your individual disks set to this default. Try changing it to 1 hour or 2 hours to prevent this behaviour - it's generally believed that it's better for disks to spin continuously than to spin up and down repeatedly. Then investigate what it writing to Disk 4 so often.

allischalmersman · January 27, 2017

Your syslog shows a lot of this:

Dec 27 18:34:23 Tower kernel: mdcmd (126): spindown 0

Dec 27 18:34:24 Tower kernel: mdcmd (127): spindown 4

Dec 27 18:34:24 Tower kernel: mdcmd (128): spindown 29

Dec 27 19:35:13 Tower kernel: mdcmd (129): spindown 0

Dec 27 19:35:13 Tower kernel: mdcmd (130): spindown 4

Dec 27 19:35:14 Tower kernel: mdcmd (131): spindown 29

Dec 27 20:35:55 Tower kernel: mdcmd (132): spindown 0

Dec 27 20:35:56 Tower kernel: mdcmd (133): spindown 4

Dec 27 20:35:56 Tower kernel: mdcmd (134): spindown 29

which suggests a couple of things. Firstly, not long after spinning down it's being spun up again. Secondly, the two parity disks (Disk 0 and Disk 29) are following the same pattern, which suggests that the process waking up the drive is a write.

I see you have the global default spin down delay set to 30 minutes and your individual disks set to this default. Try changing it to 1 hour or 2 hours to prevent this behaviour - it's generally believed that it's better for disks to spin continuously than to spin up and down repeatedly. Then investigate what it writing to Disk 4 so often.

Thanks! I changed the default spin down to 2 hours as suggested thanks. Sorry for the really newb question but how do I figure out what is writing to disk 4 so often?

John_M · January 27, 2017

You need to consider how Disk 4 is being used. Is it somehow different from the rest? You have something that writes to it regularly - it could be a docker downloading files or something running on your PC that writes regularly to the array. Disk 4 might not be used differently from the rest - perhaps it's just its time and when it fills up a little more you'll find that Disk 5 takes over and gets busy all the time.

allischalmersman · February 8, 2017

Ok guys I need help. I guess I am just too stupid to figure out how to troubleshoot this issue. Now it seems every time I look at my server since upgrading to 6.3 ALL discs seem to stay spun up. I can look at my "open Files" app, manually spin down all drives, look at "open Files" again and nothing changed. Come back hours later and drives are spun up again yet I did nothing to the array and havent accessed any files. This server is 99% used for movie storage and Plex accesses a share called MoviesMKV. Is there something in the log that I can look for that will actually tell me WHAT commanded the discs to spin up? I just dont understand how to troubleshoot this issue. My PC has "movies" and "moviesMKV" shares mapped as a network drive but I am not opening the folder on my PC. Does plex just running on my PC as a server constantly wake up the drives? (my desktop is WAY more powerful than my Unraid machine so I use my desktop as my Plex server and it accesses MKVs over the network via mapped network drive). I am talking about being gone to work all day long and coming home to find all my drives spun up and nobody has watched anything on Plex.

allischalmersman · February 8, 2017

And there it goes again. Just in the time I wrote that last post all but 1 disc spun back up and I have no idea why.

allischalmersman · February 8, 2017

Ok Well I turned off Plex on the Unraid box (I don't really use that one because it loads my CPU too much) and spun the disks down. They have stayed spun down now for several minutes. I will keep the Plex docker off for several days and see if my problem goes away or is reduced. Plex is the only Docker I have and I don't really use it because it struggles sometimes. I installed Plex server on my desktop and use it as the main Plex server because its 6 core i7 handles the transcoding much much better.

tdallen · February 8, 2017

Plex is well know for keeping the disk its internal libraries are installed on. That's why it's better for /config for Plex to be on the cache drive, and for the cache drive to be an SSD. It's Ok for TVShows and Movies to be on the array but you don't wan't /config on the array.

Beyond that, check and see how often you have Plex scanning for new media.

Help with disks staying spun up

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