Constant disk activity

[torarnek]

My new AS6104T is constantly writing to disks. Even though all apps and services are stopped.
I find this very annoying as the machine is in our living room and is making this noise. It is configured with one disk.

Some debugging tells me that these processes are writing to disk:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump
dmesg
19890.044577] md1_raid1(1279): WRITE block 8 on sda4 (1 sectors)
[19895.799449] jbd2/md1-8(1338): WRITE block 5855755064 on md1 (8 sectors)
[19895.799478] md1_raid1(1279): WRITE block 8 on sda4 (1 sectors)
[19895.832861] jbd2/md1-8(1338): WRITE block 5855755072 on md1 (8 sectors)
[19895.833039] jbd2/md1-8(1338): WRITE block 5855755080 on md1 (8 sectors)
[19896.065395] md1_raid1(1279): WRITE block 8 on sda4 (1 sectors)
[19924.870628] kworker/u8:30(3062): WRITE block 9089318912 on md1 (8 sectors)
[19924.870659] md1_raid1(1279): WRITE block 8 on sda4 (1 sectors)
[19925.085581] md1_raid1(1279): WRITE block 8 on sda4 (1 sectors)
[19929.894468] kworker/u8:30(3062): WRITE block 9089057024 on md1 (8 sectors)

I would very much appreciate if anyone could explain what this is, and if possible, how to stop it.

Yours sincerely,
Tor


Some more debug:

parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD60EFRX-68M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 6001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 268MB 267MB
2 268MB 2416MB 2147MB raid
3 2416MB 4563MB 2147MB raid
4 4563MB 6001GB 5997GB raid

mdadm -D /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
Version : 1.2
Creation Time : Tue Feb 23 16:17:52 2016
Raid Level : raid1
Array Size : 2095104 (2046.34 MiB 2145.39 MB)
Used Dev Size : 2095104 (2046.34 MiB 2145.39 MB)
Raid Devices : 4
Total Devices : 1
Persistence : Superblock is persistent

Update Time : Wed Mar 2 19:39:18 2016
State : clean, degraded
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0

Name : AS6104T-1D32:0
UUID : dc55d46d:45c205c6:69877ad2:95ab4c8a
Events : 4052

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 2 0 active sync /dev/sda2
2 0 0 2 removed
4 0 0 4 removed
6 0 0 6 removed

mdadm -D /dev/md1
/dev/md1:
Version : 1.2
Creation Time : Tue Feb 23 16:18:12 2016
Raid Level : raid1
Array Size : 5855934464 (5584.65 GiB 5996.48 GB)
Used Dev Size : 5855934464 (5584.65 GiB 5996.48 GB)
Raid Devices : 1
Total Devices : 1
Persistence : Superblock is persistent

Update Time : Wed Mar 2 20:32:07 2016
State : clean
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0

Name : AS6104T-1D32:1
UUID : eccbf48c:9d13c7f1:f3770697:4069010d
Events : 8

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 4 0 active sync /dev/sda4

[KiT]

I see the same issue on my NAS, and any of process listed as "suspicious" with keeping disk busy is not active.

Regards,
Robert

[nero78]

I have the same on my 6204... I clocked it to every 7-8 seconds. I have the NAS in my bedroom so got very annoyed and turned if off...

[torarnek]

Thanks to KiT and nero78 for confirming that this is not only me.

Can someone from Asustor please comment whether this a known issue or not, and if there will be a fix for this?

My opinion is that this is a serious flaw, and I will be very disappointed by Asustor if this is not fixed.

Tor

[nero78]

Thanks to KiT and nero78 for confirming that this is not only me.

Can someone from Asustor please comment whether this a known issue or not, and if there will be a fix for this?

My opinion is that this is a serious flaw, and I will be very disappointed by Asustor if this is not fixed.

Tor

Is Asustor even active on this forum? In qnap you get answers really quick on their forum.

[nero78]

Have any of you tried to get the NAS into spin down mode (not sleep mode) for the disks? That should not be possible then?

[torarnek]

I set my disk to 5min spindown. And it actually spins down. And the disk activity stops. However, this does not solve the issue, because most of the time access to the disk is needed.

I am curious if this is a software open source linux issue, or particular for Asustor.. ?

[nero78]

I set my disk to 5min spindown. And it actually spins down. And the disk activity stops. However, this does not solve the issue, because most of the time access to the disk is needed.

I am curious if this is a software open source linux issue, or particular for Asustor.. ?

Eh? It can spin down the disks, but have to access them every 7-8 second while active? This does not make any sense... Any asustor experts here or what??

[MikeG.6.5]

What apps do you have installed on your NAS?

That would help trying to narrow this down a bit. ANY disk activity at all is going to have some impact here, and if you are running something like LooksGood which makes index files, Plex, doing the same, the different photo apps that make thumbnails, etc. you are going to get constant disk activity.

It's also possible you have a download app doing this, too. Transmission, uTorrent, Download Center, SABnzb+ etc. It would help a lot to see what apps you have doing what, and how they all play within Asustor's environment.

If you turn all of the apps you have installed via App Central off, and disable any of the cron jobs you have set up, does the NAS stop all disk activity afterwards? As I never want my NAS to sleep, I haven't check on disk activity like this... (Mine is always on and always available to anyone that I share media with, 24/7.)

[sys]

My AS5002T (2.5.3 RE23) is installed with Kodi and the other apps such as LooksGood, SoundsGood and the indexing is done. I configured one drive as single and the other as Myarchive. Disk hibernation is set to be 30 minutes and then system can go to sleep mode. The Myarchive drive will go to hibernation very easily (hdd led blinking very slow with interval of 7-8 seconds in between) but the Single drive much later. And after some time, the NAS system will go to sleep.