RN104 automatically powering on

No there's nothing scheduled on the NAS, I don't have any apps installed on it and there's nothing that automatically tries to save to my NAS.

A practical solution is to connect the NAS to a power strip, and power down the power strip after you shut it off. A bit inconvenient, but it certainly will avoid the problem.

If the NAS generally isn't powered up for long, you could also create a power schedule to turn it off at a set time (say 6 am).  Then if it does power up, it won't stay up for longer than a day.

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StephenB wrote:

A practical solution is to connect the NAS to a power strip, and power down the power strip after you shut it off. A bit inconvenient, but it certainly will avoid the problem.

 

If the NAS generally isn't powered up for long, you could also create a power schedule to turn it off at a set time (say 6 am).  Then if it does power up, it won't stay up for longer than a day.

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Not sure I understand why you're suggesting options for powering up and down the NAS?  I don't need to do this, I'm ok with powering it on and off manually when I want.

My original question is why would my NAS power up all on it's own?

Responses so far have suggested it may be a faulty power connector, or a scheduled job.  I don't believe it's either of those, I've checked and there are no scheduled jobs and wrt the power connector it's not damaged and it's not been stretched/stained.  It's been inserted into the back of the RN104 maybe twice in the years I've had it.

When no one was able to suggest anything else I asked if there were any log files that I could look at by SSHing into my RN104.  Reply was that the RN104 doesn't record how it's been powered on.  I'm wondering if there's anything like an auth.log or syslog that I could take a look at but it doesn't look like it.

The suggestion StephenB is making is to prevent it from powering up on it's own.

Even when the NAS is "off", there is an internal standby voltage that is always on whenever the external power is applied, as it powers the power-on circuit and WoL.  By putting a switched power strip in, you remove the power from that circuit as well as the rest of the NAS.  In addition to stopping the annoyance of the NAS turning itself on, that could affect the life of your NAS.  Issues with the standby voltage regulation (from the 12V that comes from the power brick) or the power on circuit could be your issue.  But the rub is that without knowing the root cause, it could be just as likely that adding power cycles to those circuits would reduce their lifespan as much or more than reducing power-on time would increase it.

Is WoL enabled on the NAS?  Since you apparently don't use it, disabling that could help.

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Sandshark wrote:

The suggestion StephenB is making is to prevent it from powering up on it's own.

 

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Correct.  Using a switched power strip (or even just unplugging it) ensures that it can't power up when you don't want it to. The other idea would just make sure it shuts down reasonably promptly (in case you don't notice that it's on).

I agree with Sandshark that w/o knowing the root cause it's hard to say how this would effect the NAS life.  

RN104-Gumboe  wrote:

Reply was that the RN104 doesn't record how it's been powered on.  I'm wondering if there's anything like an auth.log or syslog that I could take a look at but it doesn't look like it.

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The logs might be able to tell you why the NAS powers down.  But not why it powers up.  There's nothing in the system logs that can tell you that.  

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Sandshark wrote:

The suggestion StephenB is making is to prevent it from powering up on it's own.

 

Even when the NAS is "off", there is an internal standby voltage that is always on whenever the external power is applied, as it powers the power-on circuit and WoL.  By putting a switched power strip in, you remove the power from that circuit as well as the rest of the NAS.  In addition to stopping the annoyance of the NAS turning itself on, that could affect the life of your NAS.  Issues with the standby voltage regulation (from the 12V that comes from the power brick) or the power on circuit could be your issue.  But the rub is that without knowing the root cause, it could be just as likely that adding power cycles to those circuits would reduce their lifespan as much or more than reducing power-on time would increase it.

 

Is WoL enabled on the NAS?  Since you apparently don't use it, disabling that could help.

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Ok thanks, I understand what StephenB was saying now and thanks to StephenB.  I'll definitely look into getting a switched power strip.

WoL is not enabled on the NAS and there are no scheduled jobs running.  I've had it power up on it's own about 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months.  On one occasion it even powered up at some point after I'd gone to bed without the ethernet cable being plugged into my Netgear GS116 switch which to me implies it's something on the RN104 causing the unit to power up on it's own rather than something on my network.

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StephenB wrote:

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Sandshark wrote:

The suggestion StephenB is making is to prevent it from powering up on it's own.

 

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Correct.  Using a switched power strip (or even just unplugging it) ensures that it can't power up when you don't want it to. The other idea would just make sure it shuts down reasonably promptly (in case you don't notice that it's on).

 

I agree with Sandshark that w/o knowing the root cause it's hard to say how this would effect the NAS life.  

 

RN104-Gumboe  wrote:

Reply was that the RN104 doesn't record how it's been powered on.  I'm wondering if there's anything like an auth.log or syslog that I could take a look at but it doesn't look like it.

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The logs might be able to tell you why the NAS powers down.  But not why it powers up.  There's nothing in the system logs that can tell you that.  

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Thanks, how do I access the logs?

From the System/Logs page of the admin GUI, select "Download Logs".