Low Power Mode

[lhpderckx]

Hi,

Ok, so the Asustor AS5002T has means to power down HDD's or to put itself in sleep mode entirely. Sleep mode is great for saving power.

However, while both Sleep Mode and remote viewing your (media) content by using AiVideos, AiMusic, AiPhotos or AiData (damn, why not integrate those?!) are all advertised features, it is impossible to combine those!

It would be lovely to be able to put the NAS in low power mode AND be able to see my photo's, listen my music and watch my films / series / video's while being away from my own network. Sleep mode can only be undone by sending a WOL package. I understand that the Ai Apps, not even AiMaster can wake the Asustor, because it's simply unresponsive and passing a WOL packet from outside the networks requires some router features and technical know-how (port forwarding etc). Skills that many people simply lack and no NAS or App can automatically do for me.

So, from a technical standpoint, combining remote access and sleep mode with the hardware WOL feature simply isn't possible.

I don't wish to choose: low power consumption OR access anything, anytime, anywhere. I want them both! I believe this is a common treat.

So, the only way to go would be to put the NAS in a low power mode, not only cutting HDD's power, but also powering-off as much hardware as can possible be powered-off, allowing only a small piece of software to run that is able to respond to incoming connections and will put the NAS in normal power mode again. Unfortunately, this feature is not available. Whether it can be done by a software update alone, I don't know. Otherwise, it would be a nice feature for future products.

Please share me your thoughts.

Best regards,

Luc

[Gunthor]

[...] <- Deleted!

I think this is miseading:

So, from a technical standpoint, combining remote access and sleep mode with the hardware WOL feature simply isn't possible.

because from what I know only when using WOL it is possible to combine remote access and sleep mode.

There are the following methods to wake up an Asustors machine from sleep mode (S3 or STR):
1.) WOL through Telnet/SSH: Use this one within your LAN.
2.) Remote Wake On LAN via Port Forwarding: Use this one within WAN.
3.) Own Wake-On-LAN Daemon: Write your own daemon and run it on your router

• - catching NAS accessing requests
  - checking if the NAS is up and running (ping it)
  - if so passing on the accessing request
  - if not sending a WOL packet to the NAS first and afterwards pass on the accessing request

As for the third option I cannot assist because I've never written one myself, but I think your request aims into using smart NICs within future Asustor machines that are capable of executing a designated portion of network protocols and thus are able to wake up those system when truly needed.

I very much doubt that our Asustor NICs belong to this category, which would be mandatory in order for a future ADM release to enhance them with what you are asking about. However, I'd be thrilled if an ASUSTOR employee will reply to your post proving my assumptions to be wrong.

[lhpderckx]

* in response to Gunther's pre-edit *
Gunther, your reply looks more like a rant than anything constructive. It's also far from an answer. If you would've read carefully, you'd understand that I do NOT expect Asustor to configure my router in such a way that it can open up a way to unsleep the NAS by sending a WOL package.

What I'm saying is that this is the only way possible to currently combine sleep mode with the advanced features of being able to access my content while being away from my own home network. So I WILL open up a port to send a WOL from the internet for that specific MAC address, unless the feature that I requested becomes available by an Asustor update. Please understand that both are advertised features: saving power AND remote access. Understand that remote access IS currently possible by just leaving the NAS in normal, non-sleep mode.

I trust Asustor to be competent enough to have the NAS to be secure enough so that it cannot easily be hacked. I have the Cloud ID setup, which basicly provides a DNS for my nas. I trust hackers to be smart enough to try many xxx.myasystor.com combinations, but hope, and therefore rely on Asustor, that the NAS itself is secure enough so that hackers/governments etc. cannot pass through the NAS' 'firewall'.

The thing i DID ask for is for Asustor to have a power mode somewhere between powering down HDD's and Sleep mode. Maybe this is not the proper place to have a feature request. If so, I'd happily post again somewhere else more appropriote. I'm actually expecting an Asustor moderator to pick up this request and post a reply.

[lhpderckx]

Addition: I've done some "research" on how secure a NAS really is. This obviously highly depends on the brand, but I found an article (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2462600/ ... finds.html) that started me to think about security... Basically, I'm taken aback a bit by how insecure NAS-es in general seem to be (Asustor was also tested).

I will still make my NAS accessable for my remote devices, but I will remove the Cloud ID DSN and configure my NAS and router in such a way that only my devices are able to connect. Not having the NAS in the "here hackers, this is a list of all Asustor NAS-es" myasustor cloud and the other changes will not guarantee a secure environment, but it will definately help. Unless someone purposely targets my NAS as a victim, those changes will keep most evil parties out, or so I hope.

Hence my initial question / feature request still remains.

[Auberon2k]

You could use a combination of the power options available on the NAS. Using the HDD spin-down during the day time to conserve some power when you are not accessing it while still having the data available combined with a full sleep mode to power it down at night. Depending on your schedule you may need to tweak things now an then, but for the most part that may provide what you are seeking. I don't recall if I configured the light power settings on my 608T or not, but I do use the full Sleep mode, powering down when I typically go to bed and waking again in the morning.

[lhpderckx]

Is there a light power mode in the 6-Series, or do you simply mean the mode where the HDD's are simply spinned down? If this is indeed the power mode that I'm looking for (less power than simply idle HDD's, but more power than sleep mode), then I hope it's purely software-matic and also falls within the scope of the 5-series, possibly something for Asustor to enable in future updates.

[Gunthor]

Hi lhpderckx,
reading you first post again tonight I have to admit that I really misunderstood your feature request and apologise my previous reply. Kindly see my editied post above.

[lhpderckx]

Hi Gunther,

Apologies accepted Thank you for reviewing your post and by providing ways of using WOL from LAN / WAN. I very much doubt that my standard provider's UBEE modem with built-in router will let me create a deamon , but I wasn't aware that it was even possible. I think I will use your second option, although I very much like the daemon idea and will see if it works with my router.

I'm not quite sure what a Smart NIC is. I know you're referring to a network interface card, but that's about it Maybe that is what it takes from a hardware point of view to combine less power consumption and native responsiveness from the NAS, and trust your view on this.

I too hope that someone from Asustor can share their views about this.

[orion]

I also desire this feature very much. My nas is idle most of time, although it wakes up everyday by power scheduling. If nas can wake up when I need, it will save huge energy. I believe smart NIC is a perfect way to achieve access-on-demand seamlessly. However, I'm indeed worry about security issue. It should take more software efforts carefully.
Forwarding WOL packet by router / gateway is possible (but it's not access-on-demand ). It really depends on router's capability. My router does not support it.

[Auberon2k]

I think there is a misunderstanding around what is being attempted, what can be done and what is possible. These NAS (and other manufacturers) are very simple computers running a much slimmed linux kernel. If Linux has no method to resume from full sleep without a WOL magic packet Asustor is not going to be able to create such as a feature. If your internet router is unable to pass forward these WOL packets then you are not going to be able to use WOL to wake the NAS remotely. You are going to have to work out some other method within the constraints of the existing power features of the NAS and what is generally possible with a linux PC.

My recommendation (and my personal settings): I use full Sleep/Wake on a schedule. Puts the unit into S3 sleep overnight when my family is alseep. This also silences the unit. During the daytime I have it set to spin the drives down. Like you I cannot send the WOL packet through my router, nor do I want to expose those interfaces.

**** EDIT: I should say that resuming from S3/WOL is more of a hardware related process than a software one. Asustor is still constrained within standard PC type architecture processes and the only other type of system that handles waking like this that I can think of is Intel AMT which is quite involved to setup for small numbers of stations and would likely involve additional licensing