adjust UI to prevent unclean shutdowns


Recommended Posts

I typically shut my system down carefully, by first stopping the VMs, then stopping the array, then powering down. Today I went straight for "stop array" and ended up with an unclean shutdown. Some research brought me to this helpful post by @dlandon:
 

 

Basically, these settings must be in sync to get your system to shutdown gracefully:

  • "Settings->VM Manager->VM Shutdown time-out": must be long enough to allow your VMs to shutdown
  • "Settings->Disk Settings->Shutdown time-out": must be long enough for the array to stop *after* VMs have shutdown. So 60 to 120 seconds longer than the VM timeout.
  • "Settings->UPS Settings->Time on battery": must be short enough that the system will have enough power to stay on for the entire "disk settings shutdown time-out"
  • Additionally, "Settings->UPS Settings->Turn off UPS after shutdown" seems extremely risky and should only be used if you know your UPS will stay on longer than the "disk settings shutdown time-out". I don't see any options to configure this.

 

Currently the UI provides no help in tying these settings together.

 

So the request is:

  1. Adjust the UI so that it won't allow you to set the disk settings shutdown timeout less than the VM shutdown timeout (plus perhaps a minimum additional delay?)
  2. Adjust the UI on the UPS Settings page to make it clear that you need to trigger the shutdown early enough to allow the system to run for at least as long as the "disk settings shutdown time-out"
  3. Add a warning telling users they probably don't want to enable the "Turn off UPS after shutdown" option
  4. It may be worth adding a new "Settings->Powerdown" page that contains all of the relevant settings in one place

 

 

A secondary request for @Squid: updating the UI to help people put in reasonable values is great, but will only help if you are looking at those screens. Perhaps FCP can alert the user if these settings are out of sync?

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, ljm42 said:

So the request is:

  1. Adjust the UI so that it won't allow you to set the disk settings shutdown timeout less than the VM shutdown timeout (plus perhaps a minimum additional delay?)
  2. Adjust the UI on the UPS Settings page to make it clear that you need to trigger the shutdown early enough to allow the system to run for at least as long as the "disk settings shutdown time-out"
  3. Add a warning telling users they probably don't want to enable the "Turn off UPS after shutdown" option
  4. It may be worth adding a new "Settings->Powerdown" page that contains all of the relevant settings in one place

Sounds good! Perhaps linking the fields, so that there is a prepopulated item beside the disk shutdown, showing the current VM shutdown timeout, and the disk shutdown you enter is additive to that field.  So what you enter in the disk shutdown is not the final value, it adds what you enter to the VM shutdown value and displays the sum as the disk timeout value. So, if you change the VM timer, it automatically adds the new value to the disk timer.

 

Same thing with the UPS, show the disk and vm timers, and allow you to add a value that will sum with the other two. Entering a value of 0 will result in a UPS timer of disk+VM. Obviously need to display that final value with explanations.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.