*ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

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danchees
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Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

*ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

Hello folks, I am sending this also as support ticket, but here is hoping that maybe community came up with some new ideas. I've read through past similar threads. Unfortunately, my Linux skills are almost non-existing, so I am looking maybe for some easier suggestions?

Setup:
AS1002T
Disk 1: ST4000VN008 as single volume - System, Downloads (Qbittorrent) and apps (Couchpotato, Git, Jackett, Mono, Perl, PMS, Python, Qbittorrent, Sonarr)
Disk 2: also ST4000VN008 as single volume - Media library, both just a passive repository and Plex folders.
So, no raid. I just wanted a network attached storage with some utilities.

Problem:
First - noise. There is constant access sound from drives and I constantly hear the deeper/quieter sound of heads seeking and also thinner/clicky sound of heads un/parking. Enclosure is definitely part of the problem as it is much quieter when you remove the shroud, but still there. Constant disk activity was there from day one, but my living room is quieter today and now It is on the level that it is irritating. I was looking into ways to dampen the sound, but then started looking into why there is constant disk access.

Hardware > Energy Control > Diagnostic Tool shows constant, every few seconds access to Volume 1 by MDADM. This never, ever stops.
System Information > Log > System Log shows that Volume 1 has NEVER EVER entered hibernation, from the first moment it was turned on. Volume 2 hibernates normally.

But the real bummer was when I fired up SMART:

Disk 1:
9 Power_On_Hours 6660
12 Power_Cycle_Count 15
193 Load_Cycle_Count 18888
241 Total_LBAs_Written 3629148626

Disk 2:
9 Power_On_Hours 6656
12 Power_Cycle_Count 15
193 Load_Cycle_Count 192919
241 Total_LBAs_Written 5342476681

Now, this CANNOT be right, right? Almost 200.000 head parks on Disk 2 in one year??? This is almost half the life of a drive.

Anyway, as I cannot RMA the unit where I live (Croatia), I am almost at the point to just throw it out of the window and buy an established brand. Sorry for the frustration, but I really prefer when equipment works out of the box, especially if it is sold as an easy solution.

Anyway, I do not even know where to move from here, what to test or what to change and would be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks in advance!
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orion
Posts: 3482
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 11:09 am

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by orion »

Did you close ADM web page after you started the diagnostic tool? You'd better to close browser window and keep NAS idle. After the detecting period (default 30 minutes), you can login the page again to get the report. I can see MDADM working when browser page is still active.

EDIT: did you check this thread: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9246. It's highly possible that the count is increased by HDD firmware, rather than ADM. And it seems somebody got fixed by upgrading HDD firmware.
danchees
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

Update: after turning off ALL the apps, disk activity lasts for another 30 minutes or so, but then it stops and Volume 1 went into hibernation for the first time in almost a year... yipeee :/

However, turning anything on returns the NAS into a state of constant disk access. Tried: PMS only, Sonarr+Mono (required) only. It is as on old laptops when they start swapping into pagefile on disk. But there is no pagefile on Linux, right? In any case, memory use never goes over 70%, so no reason to swap anyway.

Orion: thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I went through that thread, but unfortunately, I don't know how to check the bios version while drives are inside NAS - Seagate utility does not find them from my PC. And anyway, Seagate lists no bios upgrades for my drives.

This is all extremely frustrating. I've reduced my NAS ro network attached brick. And on top of it, not a peep from Asustor technical support. Not even acknowledgement of received ticket. It is as if I wrote the whole ticket into a black hole.

I will test one more thing today - as all my apps are on Volume 1 and all my media is on Volume 2 (no RAID), which is not an usual setup, I will try moving everything onto a single volume, maybe there is a conflict of some kind when Volume 2 goes into hibernation and app from Volume 1 tries to access it in vain. Don't know what else to try.
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orion
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Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by orion »

Although I do not try Seagate update tool, I believe the tool should be executed on your PC (Windows or Mac). And your HDD should, of course, be put inside your PC.

I used to send tickets to asustor. I believe there are something wrong about your submission. Did you fill your e-mail address in the submission field? https://support.asustor.com/ You should be able to receive an e-mail notification with a ticket number.
danchees
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

Update: zero luck on Asustor support, guess they just don't support you once they make the sale.

Anyway, to the problem at hand. I managed to isolate the issue. Whenever ANY app is enabled on the device, constant disk activity starts. Logs show that "mdadm" process is accessing the Volume 1 exactly every 10 seconds, no matter if applications such as Plex accessed it or not. There are periods in logs with no app activity for minutes but mdadm still tortures the disk. What is it doing?!? I don't even have a RAID set up, just single volumes.

I am thinking that reinitializing the system might help, but OF COURSE you cannot do it without losing all your data.

A horrible, horrible product.
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orion
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Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by orion »

danchees wrote:Update: zero luck on Asustor support, guess they just don't support you once they make the sale.
Did you receiver an e-mail notification? If no, your submission was failed. I guess that's why you got nothing responses from asustor.
danchees
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

orion wrote:Did you receiver an e-mail notification? If no, your submission was failed. I guess that's why you got nothing responses from asustor.
Yeah, it is obvious their system has failed.
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orion
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Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by orion »

danchees wrote: Yeah, it is obvious their system has failed.
Then, I can only suggest you to submit another ticket. I'm sure their ticket system is working fine. We can only share experiences in this forum. I believe they only supervise their ticket system, not in this forum.
danchees
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

orion wrote:We can only share experiences in this forum.
I agree. Exactly what I am doing. My experience is that a) product is not as advertised, b) support is hard (or impossible, judging from other experiences here) to reach and c) easy RMA is impossible in EU.

I work in an company servicing over 600.000 clients... if our support was as bad as this, we would have been out of business long time ago.
danchees
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:34 pm

Re: *ANOTHER* constant disk activity thread

Post by danchees »

Update: their answer went straight into Spam folder on both my mobile and desktop, so for this part I accused them wrongly, although, again, any mail address from reputable support should not get stopped by Outlook spam system and I would work with Microsoft to get de-blacklisted.

However, their answers are a joke: "The issue you are encountering mdadm process normally related to the volume or Raid health".

So, to Asustor it is normal to 1) have Volume 1 never, ever stop reading/writing and 2) to wear down Volume 2 in 10 months to the point of needing a replacement?
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