Should I be worried with these errors?

[groenator]

From time to time I see these SMARTCTL errors on my hard drives:

Code:

New alerts:
 * Device: /dev/sdf [SAT], Failed SMART usage Attribute: 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel..
Current alerts:
 * Device: /dev/sdi [SAT], Failed SMART usage Attribute: 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel..
 * Device: /dev/sdg [SAT], Failed SMART usage Attribute: 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel..
 * Device: /dev/sdf [SAT], Failed SMART usage Attribute: 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel..

I have some tasks running early in the morning. Is this something which I should be worried about?

 

[Samuel Tai]

Some more info, please. What model disks, and how are they connected to your system?

 

[groenator]

Sure! Let me get that info.

 

[groenator]

Hi,

I have 8 HDDs with two VDEVs. Each VDEV has 4 HDDs attached to it. Only the IronWolf VDEV is complaining about the heat. The other VDED runs without any issues.

These are Seagate IronWolf 6 TB NAS Internal Hard Drive.

Disk details:

Disk	Model
/dev/sdf	ST6000VN0033-2EE110
/dev/sdi	ST6000VN0033-2EE110
/dev/sdg	ST6000VN0033-2EE110

Do I need to supply more info?

Thank you!

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Have a sharp look at how the HDDs are mounted in the chassis and think of ways to get more air across the IronWolf that complains. It's getting too hot, plain and simple.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Are your other drives 5400 rpm? Your IronWolfs are 7200 rpm, and would naturally run hotter. Also, unless smartctl -i /dev/sdf shows the drive in the SMART database, I would take the alert with a grain of salt. Seagates are known for using weird attributes to report SMART data, and to use known attributes in non-standard ways.

 

[groenator]

Have a sharp look at how the HDDs are mounted in the chassis and think of ways to get more air across the IronWolf that complains. It's getting too hot, plain and simple.

Thats true. I have fans on all sides of the NAS. However, the place where I keep the appliance is a bit tight. I used to keep a QNAP with thede same HDDs in the same place and I never had issues with the airflow. Not to mention that QNAP had only one fan, my new appliacne has at least 3-4 fans. What I did now is removed a magnetic grill that sits on the side of the case. This should allow more air to get in. These alerts are triggered when cronjobs or other taks I have configured are running, usually in the morning.

Thanks for your input.

 

[groenator]

Are your other drives 5400 rpm? Your IronWolfs are 7200 rpm, and would naturally run hotter. Also, unless smartctl -i /dev/sdf shows the drive in the SMART database, I would take the alert with a grain of salt. Seagates are known for using weird attributes to report SMART data, and to use known attributes in non-standard ways.

These are 7200 RPM. The other disks are Toshiba and they run perfectly fine. They do get a bit hotter when the NAS is running tasks.

Can you tell me more about smart database?

 

[groenator]

Forgot to mention. Only 3 out of 4 HDDs are alerting. The other HDDs is fine. Is there a way how to change the fan speed?

 

[Samuel Tai]

Just run the command smartctl -i /dev/sdf, and it will tell you whether the drive is in the database. If it is, you can rely on the attribute values being correct for that drive. If not, SMARTmontools had to guess which attributes are valid, and it may have guessed wrong.

 

[groenator]

Cool, thank you!

 

[groenator]

Just run the command smartctl -i /dev/sdf, and it will tell you whether the drive is in the database. If it is, you can rely on the attribute values being correct for that drive. If not, SMARTmontools had to guess which attributes are valid, and it may have guessed wrong.

The smartcl output

Code:

smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.10.70+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate IronWolf
Device Model:     ST6000VN0033-2EE110
Serial Number:    ZADA50E7
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0c46e25cb
Firmware Version: SC60
User Capacity:    6,001,175,126,016 bytes [6.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Nov  1 18:56:24 2021 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Looks like it is in the database.

 

[Samuel Tai]

OK, then you'll need to redo the airflow. Having fans blow from all sides just means you're relying on convection to carry heat up and away. You'd be better off having a single airflow direction to carry heat away horizontally outside your chassis so it can be redirected away.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Agree with Samuel - you need to have airflow through your case, not air blown in from all sides. All commonly used fans have a little arrow on one of their four sides indicating the direction of airflow. Probably you can turn one or two of your fans 180 degrees and just remount them.

 

[groenator]

I am pretty sure I configured the airflow correctly. I will check the configuration of the fans again. Btw, once I removed the grill which sits on the side of the NAS the HDDs temperature decreased. I think my problem is more with the space where the NAS is than the airflow.

Anyway, thanks for your input. I'll have to make some adjustments now.