Couple problems with new build, primary one is all HDDs making noises.

[The_Ianator]

My new NAS makes some unexpected noises, I tried putting my hand and ear to the drives to try and identify the problem drive but it seems to be coming from all of them. All the hard drives have passed short and long smart tests. The only other question I've found about all the drives in a build making noises is this one: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hdds-make-weird-clicking-sound-every-5-seconds.36444/ But my drives make the sound much more often, making a sound every few seconds or so when idling, and faster then a second when actively copying files to the NAS. Attached sound file is from when I was copying files.

One thought I had is that it might have something to do with making a new pool when I switched motherboards while building, I might be imagining it but it seems the new pool might be a few hundred GBs smaller than the first one. Maybe the noise is the drives skipping over the parts not in the new pool with the old pools data?

Other small problem is the fans. My case is a Node 804 and the three case fans are currently plugged into the manual switch on the case. If the manual switch is set to anything other than high drives start going over 40c. Would plugging the case fans into the fan headers on the motherboard solve this, or do the fans auto-run go off of CPU temp rather than HDD temp? Fans on high is kind of loud, and who knows it high will even be sufficient in the warmer months.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

it seems to be coming from all of them ... making a sound every few seconds or so when idling, and faster then a second when actively copying files to the NAS.

Your description suggests normal drive activity to me.

 

[cyberjock]

I can't really hear the sound very well... my 5.1 sound died a month or two ago so I have crappy speakers.

The sound seems normal. Now if it is a constant repeating pattern that could be the click of death. But if you are getting the click of death, SMART is almost certainly telling you that the house is on fire and the fire department isn't coming.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Other small problem is the fans. My case is a Node 804 and the three case fans are currently plugged into the manual switch on the case. If the manual switch is set to anything other than high drives start going over 40c. Would plugging the case fans into the fan headers on the motherboard solve this, or do the fans auto-run go off of CPU temp rather than HDD temp? Fans on high is kind of loud, and who knows it high will even be sufficient in the warmer months.

On my X10SL7-F the CPU fan headers are controlled by the CPU temperature. The case fan headers are controlled through settings in IPMI, or by using ipmitools on the command line. But you didn't tell us what motherboard you have, so we don't know how your fan headers work.

I've got a Node 804 case, with 5 x WD Red 4TB drives, distributed in the two trays to maximize the space between drives. I've got two cheap 120 mm PWM fans moving air through the drive side of the case, and one fan pull air out of the motherboard side of the case. I use a cron job to run a script every three minutes to check the HD temperatures, and it then uses ipmitool to set the rpm of the two fans on the drive side as required. Those fans are at minimum speed most of the time, and are pretty close to inaudible.

You may need to experiment with different drive and fan locations, but you should be able to find a quiet setup that keeps the drives below 40 deg C, unless your system is working hard all the time.

 

[1.21gigawatts]

Are you sure that the fans are not fighting each other? If they're all blowing into the case, for instance, you'll get lousy airflow. Generally, air should come in through one fan and out through another.

 

[The_Ianator]

Motherboard is an ASRock C2750D4I. Also just noticed that the sounds from the drives coincide with the HDD led lighting up. I'll assume the noises are normal and look into controlling the fans from a script.

 

[nojohnny101]

I listened and it sounds like regular seeking to me. Hard to tell though from just a sound file. How new is the system? Can you remember if you changed anything and then this started happening? You said you "switched pools", can you elaborate?

 

[RichTJ99]

Kevin - I am debating getting a Node 804 for 8x 6TB wd reds. It seems that in its stock configuration the airflow for hard drives isnt great with 5 drives? If thats the case I imagine it would be worse with 8 drives.

 

[nojohnny101]

@RichTJ99 I have the fractal node 804 with 6x3tb seagate nas. I have 2 in one tray and 4 in the other. front stock fan pulls air in and back stock fan pushes it out. airflow seems to be fine and i've never had temp problems. The other stock fan is blowing air out the back on the motherboard side, just as kevin stated.

the case has plenty of room and I have noticed good airflow.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Kevin - I am debating getting a Node 804 for 8x 6TB wd reds. It seems that in its stock configuration the airflow for hard drives isnt great with 5 drives? If thats the case I imagine it would be worse with 8 drives.

You can fit up to five fans on the hard drive portion of the Node 804 case - 2x120 mm fans, and 3x120 or 140 mm fans. My hard drive temperatures remain at 38 deg C or lower the vast majority of the time, with two 120 mm fans running at low speed (400 rpm). Very occasionally one of the hard drives will creep up to 39 deg C, in which case my cron task cranks those two fans up to 900 rpm until things cool down.

Hard drive temperatures should not be a problem. You will have to experiment a bit to find the best number, placement and speed of the fans, but that is true no matter which case you have.