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reno1's avatar
reno1
Aspirant
Apr 25, 2015

RN314 drive spin down not working (6.2.3)

Hi,

I've just got a brand new RN314 and updated to v6.2.3 (stock was v6.1.6) and cannot seem to get the disk spin down function working.

I did some tests to see if the disks spin down, and despite the logs (below) suggesting that the system has spun down the disks I can hear them spinning as per normal.

Logs begin at Wed, 22 Apr 2015 22:29:52 +1000, end at Sat, 25 Apr 2015 11:22:41 +1000.
Apr 24 23:29:38 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Enabling spindown for disk 1 [sda,0:0:SAMSUNG_HD753LJ:S13UJ1KPC05615:1AA01160:]
Apr 24 23:29:38 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Enabling spindown for disk 2 [sdb,0:1:SAMSUNG_HD753LJ:S13UJ1KPC05618:1AA01160:]
Apr 24 23:34:43 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning down disk 2 (/dev/sdb).
Apr 24 23:36:15 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning down disk 1 (/dev/sda).
Apr 24 23:39:37 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning up disk 1 (/dev/sda) after 0:03:20.
Apr 24 23:39:37 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning up disk 2 (/dev/sdb) after 0:04:52.
Apr 24 23:44:37 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning down disk 1 (/dev/sda).
Apr 24 23:44:39 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning down disk 2 (/dev/sdb).
Apr 24 23:52:06 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning up disk 1 (/dev/sda) after 0:07:27.
Apr 24 23:52:06 ReadyNAS noflushd[3915]: Spinning up disk 2 (/dev/sdb) after 0:07:25.


Can someone please confirm that feature actually works? In my previous NAS (Dlink DNS323) I can hear the drives physically spin down as expected after an inactivity timeout.

My setup:
- RN314
- ReadyNAS OS 6.2.3
- Flexraid (RAID 1) - 2x 750GB Samsung HD753LJ
- 5 minute spin down timer enabled at all times
- Apart from default services, only SSH was enabled

Thanks

8 Replies

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  • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
    mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    The feature does work.

    Can you send in your logs (see the Sending Logs link in my sig)?
  • Just to be sure it's not config related, I reset the RN314 to factory settings and it then proceeded to reconfigure the disks to XRAID (RAID 1) as per default. I then let the data resync to complete (takes several hours). I also had nothing else changed from the default factory settings apart from time zone, hostname and enabling the disk spin down feature.

    EDIT: Should have also mentioned that I tested with both network connected and disconnected (just to make sure nothing else is trying to access disks).

    Unfortunately I'm still seeing the same symptoms and the disks are not spinning down.

    I have sent in the logs for the above test as per your request mdgm.

    Thanks
  • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
    mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Did you leave your web browser open with the web admin page open? I see lots of messages relating to apache around when your disks are spinning up.
  • I have done tests with browser closed and PC switched off also. My problem is that the disks do not appear to be spinning down at all.

    With my previous NAS, I can audibly hear the disks powering off when spinning down and only fan for the NAS remains audible. And when then I try to access the disks, there will be a short delay while the disks spin up which is also audible.

    With the RN314, I can see the LED displaying the message "waking disks" (or something to that effect) but access is immediate and there is no noticeable change in the disk spinning speed.
  • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
    mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Can you try with different disks? Your disks are not on the compatibility list
  • Thanks for your help.

    I'll report back when I have purchased new disks and if I still have issues.
  • Skywalker's avatar
    Skywalker
    NETGEAR Expert
    Since you have SSH enabled, you can run
    # hdparm -C /dev/disk/internal/*
    to ask the disk itself, rather than trying to detect audible changes.
  • Thanks for the tip.

    I installed another drive to retest and the spin down does work. This is with a single WD drive (WD20EARS) which is also not in the compatibility list.

    So it appears that the Samsung drives were the problem.

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