Constant disk activity

[elfidge]

Hey John,

I installed 2.70, restarted and disabled all apps.
I'm not sure the diagnostic tool is going to prove all that useful - the reason I say is that the sequential LED flashing activity still occurs, and nothing shows in the tool. This could be polling time possibly (can that be set?), but also there's no output to show what state the hard disks (or array), are actually in.
It'd be useful to parse the hdparm -C in to the GUI, to show status as far as the OS is concerned.

Also, the information rollover says "maximum time is 2 hours", but it defaults to 5 minutes, and this is not configurable (again can this done in a conf file somewhere?)

The download button then simply downloads a self-signed SSL cert and key pair? I would expect it to download logs.

As far as services causing disk activity, the only thing I saw was lighttpd, which I guess it what you're using for the web gui.

Hello elfidge,
Ok, let me explain more. ADM can show HDD state (active or spin-down) using HDD green LED. Here is the definition:

• Active state: LED lights up normally. LED will blink when NAS is reading / writing data.
• Spin-down state (stand-by): LED will turn on and off very slowly (around once per 10 seconds)

So you can know HDD states when you check the green LEDs. However, that's definitely helpful if we can show HDD state in ADM web page in case of NAS being far away. We'll take your suggestion (hdparm -C) and check if it's feasible. Thanks.

I think I'd better to describe the usage case of this diagnostic tool. Here is steps that I recommend:

• Setup NAS according to your expectation. I mean, for example, you can disable all Apps. Or you can enable some Apps and put those App into idle state.
• Check the settings on HDD sleep timer. 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or others.
• Start the diagnostic tool by press "Start" button.
• Close ADM web page. Go to see a TV drama.
• Login to ADM web page again after HDD sleep timer expired. Open diagnostic tool. You should see the active processes if your HDDs do not go to spin-down state. If you see nothing during the period, that's good. Because your HDDs should had gone to spin-down state.

Thanks for your suggestion about inspection time. We'll check if we can put this item as user selectable field.

Yes, the download button is to download the log after you stopped recording.

And, yes, you'll see lighttpd if you keep ADM web page active. I'll recommend that you can follow the operation steps as mentioned above.

Sounds that we should improve on-line help of this tool. Thanks.

Thanks very much John, however, the LEDs on the disks have *NEVER* turned off. Previously on my AS302T (RAID-1), they would go off after the allocated time I specified. My AS6204T has both internal and external disks set to 5 minutes, however, they never, ever spin down.

Previously on the AS302T I noticed that Download Centre *MUST* be disabled in order to allow disks to go to sleep, but even with this disabled on the AS6204T, it still doesn't allow disks to go to sleep. Hence they are always on and active. They may be in low-power state (not spun up in the world of magnetic disks, and idle in the world of SSDs), however, they are *NEVER* put in to standby.

Hence, there's no point whatsoever in having the option to hibernate disks, if they can never go in to that state. This really needs some proper troubleshooting in your QA in order to narrow down the cause between whichever version of ADM broke it. It may be a kernel change, it may be the RAID controller (or is it all software RAID?), but either way as things stand this important feature does not work.

As a side-note, that makes your EuP/ErP functionality null and void. That could mean litigation in some parts of the world.

[John@AST]

Anyway I made a new with my 4 disks. I disabled all apps and even pulled the network.

https://youtu.be/cf5Pi0t7bao

I have my NAS in my bedroom and I hope you get that this rythmic disk noise is a biiiiiit annoying. Hehe. I have to put the NAS in sleep mode as a temporary fix. My other NAS I used before this, has only disk activity when I access Plex and torrents are active (which I disable automatically at night.)

Just noted that you created a video before. Thanks again for your efforts. That proves your HDDs are working in active mode. You said that your HDD is WD Red? Can you share the model name with me?
Because elfidge got ADM 2.7.0 running, I think we can check his log file first to see if there are further information.

[John@AST]

Thanks very much John, however, the LEDs on the disks have *NEVER* turned off. Previously on my AS302T (RAID-1), they would go off after the allocated time I specified. My AS6204T has both internal and external disks set to 5 minutes, however, they never, ever spin down.

Previously on the AS302T I noticed that Download Centre *MUST* be disabled in order to allow disks to go to sleep, but even with this disabled on the AS6204T, it still doesn't allow disks to go to sleep. Hence they are always on and active. They may be in low-power state (not spun up in the world of magnetic disks, and idle in the world of SSDs), however, they are *NEVER* put in to standby.

Hence, there's no point whatsoever in having the option to hibernate disks, if they can never go in to that state. This really needs some proper troubleshooting in your QA in order to narrow down the cause between whichever version of ADM broke it. It may be a kernel change, it may be the RAID controller (or is it all software RAID?), but either way as things stand this important feature does not work.

As a side-note, that makes your EuP/ErP functionality null and void. That could mean litigation in some parts of the world.

Hello elfidge,

Sounds that you got a big movements for the issue. Can you send me the log file (you can pm me if you feel uncomfortable to send this file here directly)? Can you simply disable all Apps, run diagnostic tool, close ADM page, wait 10 minutes, login to ADM page, run diagnostic tool again, stop it, down load the log file? Thanks.

By the way, can you let me know your HDD model name?

[nero78]

Anyway I made a new with my 4 disks. I disabled all apps and even pulled the network.

https://youtu.be/cf5Pi0t7bao

I have my NAS in my bedroom and I hope you get that this rythmic disk noise is a biiiiiit annoying. Hehe. I have to put the NAS in sleep mode as a temporary fix. My other NAS I used before this, has only disk activity when I access Plex and torrents are active (which I disable automatically at night.)

Just noted that you created a video before. Thanks again for your efforts. That proves your HDDs are working in active mode. You said that your HDD is WD Red? Can you share the model name with me?
Because elfidge got ADM 2.7.0 running, I think we can check his log file first to see if there are further information.

All my disks are 3TB WD RED. The model name is: WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB 5400RPM

I read that elfidge's disks never spin down. My disks spins down after all apps are disabled. Weird that he's disks are not spinning down. Maybe different disks? I've said multiple times now i think (hehe), but my disks make that access noise up until they spin down...

[elfidge]

Thanks very much John, however, the LEDs on the disks have *NEVER* turned off. Previously on my AS302T (RAID-1), they would go off after the allocated time I specified. My AS6204T has both internal and external disks set to 5 minutes, however, they never, ever spin down.

Previously on the AS302T I noticed that Download Centre *MUST* be disabled in order to allow disks to go to sleep, but even with this disabled on the AS6204T, it still doesn't allow disks to go to sleep. Hence they are always on and active. They may be in low-power state (not spun up in the world of magnetic disks, and idle in the world of SSDs), however, they are *NEVER* put in to standby.

Hence, there's no point whatsoever in having the option to hibernate disks, if they can never go in to that state. This really needs some proper troubleshooting in your QA in order to narrow down the cause between whichever version of ADM broke it. It may be a kernel change, it may be the RAID controller (or is it all software RAID?), but either way as things stand this important feature does not work.

As a side-note, that makes your EuP/ErP functionality null and void. That could mean litigation in some parts of the world.

Hello elfidge,

Sounds that you got a big movements for the issue. Can you send me the log file (you can pm me if you feel uncomfortable to send this file here directly)? Can you simply disable all Apps, run diagnostic tool, close ADM page, wait 10 minutes, login to ADM page, run diagnostic tool again, stop it, down load the log file? Thanks.

By the way, can you let me know your HDD model name?

Thanks John, I just did as you asked and the CSV generated has just this content:

"No processes that continually access hard disks were detected."

So I don't think that'll be very much help (!)

My disk models are all Sandisk X400 1TB (SanDisk SD8SB8U1T001122 as far as ADM is concerned)

[John@AST]

All my disks are 3TB WD RED. The model name is: WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB 5400RPM

I read that elfidge's disks never spin down. My disks spins down after all apps are disabled. Weird that he's disks are not spinning down. Maybe different disks? I've said multiple times now i think (hehe), but my disks make that access noise up until they spin down...

Oops, then I might misunderstand your whole story. I thought that you took the video after you disabled all of Apps and HDD sleep timer expired. Can you describe the condition of the recorded video?
And I'm confused about:

I have been on teamviewer with asustor support and tried a lot of stuff. I got to make the disks go into standby, but the sound like it's accessing every 7-8 seconds is there until it goes to standby. So the access noise is NOT asustor accessing. It's has to be the disks internaly doing something...

You said that there are no sounds when disk goes to standby. But you said "the access noise is NOT asustor accessing". I cannot link this relation.
Actaully, I think your system is working as we expected. Let me itemize them:

• Disk goes to standby mode after all Apps disabled and HDD sleep timer expired.
• Disk goes to active mode when there are certain processes are working on disk. The diagnostic tool can help you to identify which processes are working.

We actually found there are certain Apps being accessing volume1 even if those Apps are in idle. We are now treating the behaviors as a bug. However there are still 3rd-party Apps that we cannot fix. The diagnostic tool can help users to decide if you need to disable certain Apps or not.

Please help to highlight if there are anything that I misunderstand. Thanks.

[John@AST]

Thanks John, I just did as you asked and the CSV generated has just this content:

"No processes that continually access hard disks were detected."

So I don't think that'll be very much help (!)

My disk models are all Sandisk X400 1TB (SanDisk SD8SB8U1T001122 as far as ADM is concerned)

Sounds very clear. You disks are SSD which don't have spin-down mode (there is no motor inside). I believe the SSD disk simply skips the sleep timer command. The idle state (when no accesses) should be similar to normal 3.5" HDD spin-down mode. The power consumption should be low enough. How do you think?

[nero78]

All my disks are 3TB WD RED. The model name is: WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB 5400RPM

I read that elfidge's disks never spin down. My disks spins down after all apps are disabled. Weird that he's disks are not spinning down. Maybe different disks? I've said multiple times now i think (hehe), but my disks make that access noise up until they spin down...

Oops, then I might misunderstand your whole story. I thought that you took the video after you disabled all of Apps and HDD sleep timer expired. Can you describe the condition of the recorded video?
And I'm confused about:

I have been on teamviewer with asustor support and tried a lot of stuff. I got to make the disks go into standby, but the sound like it's accessing every 7-8 seconds is there until it goes to standby. So the access noise is NOT asustor accessing. It's has to be the disks internaly doing something...

You said that there are no sounds when disk goes to standby. But you said "the access noise is NOT asustor accessing". I cannot link this relation.
Actaully, I think your system is working as we expected. Let me itemize them:

• Disk goes to standby mode after all Apps disabled and HDD sleep timer expired.
• Disk goes to active mode when there are certain processes are working on disk. The diagnostic tool can help you to identify which processes are working.

We actually found there are certain Apps being accessing volume1 even if those Apps are in idle. We are now treating the behaviors as a bug. However there are still 3rd-party Apps that we cannot fix. The diagnostic tool can help users to decide if you need to disable certain Apps or not.

Please help to highlight if there are anything that I misunderstand. Thanks.

The conditions of the video:

1. all apps are disabled on the NAS.
2. pulled the network cord so no network connection
3. system is on and all disks are active as in they are spinning

The problem here is that when the system is as described in my 3 steps, the NAS makes constant access sound every 7-8 seconds. This sound is making the disks "click" as in they are read and/or written to.

I dont have any timer for the system to go into sleep mode or that the disks go into spindown mode. I CAN get the disks into spindown is I set that option. And IF i use hdd spindown timer and the system spins down the disks, the noise/access is every 7-8 second until they spin down.

Another thing is that with my Qnap system, I can have plex and transmission active and still get the disks spin down when It's not downloading or I use plex. ASUSTOR can never spin down unless I diable everything... If I have to disable everything, the whole point of spindown mode and energy stuff, could just be removed from your NAS system.

The thing is NOT that the disks spin down or not. The thing is that the NAS is constantly accessing the disks, even if there are no apps and there is NO REASON whatsoever for the NAS to access them. This is a problem with the asustor nas hardware/software

[John@AST]

The conditions of the video:

1. all apps are disabled on the NAS.
2. pulled the network cord so no network connection
3. system is on and all disks are active as in they are spinning

The problem here is that when the system is as described in my 3 steps, the NAS makes constant access sound every 7-8 seconds. This sound is making the disks "click" as in they are read and/or written to.

I dont have any timer for the system to go into sleep mode or that the disks go into spindown mode. I CAN get the disks into spindown is I set that option. And IF i use hdd spindown timer and the system spins down the disks, the noise/access is every 7-8 second until they spin down.

Another thing is that with my Qnap system, I can have plex and transmission active and still get the disks spin down when It's not downloading or I use plex. ASUSTOR can never spin down unless I diable everything... If I have to disable everything, the whole point of spindown mode and energy stuff, could just be removed from your NAS system.

The thing is NOT that the disks spin down or not. The thing is that the NAS is constantly accessing the disks, even if there are no apps and there is NO REASON whatsoever for the NAS to access them. This is a problem with the asustor nas hardware/software

Ok, let's focus on the condition of your recorded video. We have the same disks as yours. I'll ask our DQE to setup the condition exactly the same as yours to see what it is. Will update it soon here.

[John@AST]

The conditions of the video:

1. all apps are disabled on the NAS.
2. pulled the network cord so no network connection
3. system is on and all disks are active as in they are spinning
....

Ok, let's focus on the condition of your recorded video. We have the same disks as yours. I'll ask our DQE to setup the condition exactly the same as yours to see what it is. Will update it soon here.

Hello nero78,

There are a few progresses. Our WD Red disks (the same model) are very quiet. We hardly hear the tick sound even when disk is reading / writing. So we change to Hitachi 3TB disk (HUS724030ALA640). We can hear the tick sound pretty clear on this model when we access it. Now, we can hear something with your condition (no LAN, no HDD hibernation, system idle) in our lab. Our RD is now investigating it. It might take time to have a result.

Thanks that you can put efforts to report this issue. It really takes a long route.