TrueNas Mini XL+ make "clonky" sounds

[Hans Otto Lunde]

I bought a TrueNas Mini XL+ and WD Red NAS Pro disks to fill up the 8 bays it has.
But the machine comes with TrueNas installed and this version only supports ZFS for the storage system.
I've set the machine up with the 8 disks in the same vdev and a 6+2 RaidZ2 pool configuration.
This is what I planned from reading the docs, but also what the Truenas software recommended for me to do..
It seems to run just fine. There is just one thing that bothers me...
The machine makes weird "clonky" sounds....
I attach a recording of it while it runs a large rsync-synchronisation job.
Well I can't attach that file-type, so a link to the recording is here.
It is as though it somehow buffers a lot of data, and then writes to the disks, then buffers again etc.
This might be the way it should work, but it doesn't sound right.
It seems as if the sound occurs, when the disk writes are occuring.
All disks have passed a short S.M.A.R.T test and everything seems to works just fine...
Have any of you any experience with the TrueNas Mini XL+ and this phenomenon?

P.S
The recording was done with a VERY sensitive microphone, so it might sound worse than it does in reality.
You can see the microphone hanging on the machine's front door on the left.

 

[ChrisRJ]

That doesn't sound right to me. You should immediately backup all data, then run a long SMART test, followed by a scrub. And then check the SMART values for each disk.

 

[Alecmascot]

It is as though it somehow buffers a lot of data, and then writes to the disks, then buffers again etc.

That is how TrueNAS works.
The seeking sounds seem normal to me. The drive spec is 36dB operating which can sound loud in a quiet environment.
In addition the server is placed on a "sounding board" which will amplify any noise.
The tower servers I am using have a soft plastic caddy that helps isolate the drive noise from the chassis. I am not familiar with the product you have.
If you are concerned the routine SMART testing will uncover and issues, and you are holding a cold spare in reserve.

 

[Hans Otto Lunde]

Thanks guys
I did already start the long SMART test before the post. It's running now.
We'll see....
But I'm not putting this machine into production before I know, what is going on...

 

[Samuel Tai]

This sounds like disks periodically parking and unparking their heads. What does the SMART Start_Stop_Count counter display per disk, and is it increasing rapidly after about 5 minutes? Are you setting your disk power settings under Storage->Disks?

 

[Hans Otto Lunde]

I was also suspicious about the parking/unparking of drive-heads, but all the disks have the ALWAYS ON setting:

Disk Type:
HDD​

Description:

Model:​

WDC WD141KFGX-68FH9N0

Transfer Mode:​

Auto

Rotation Rate (RPM):​

7200

HDD Standby:​

ALWAYS ON

Adv. Power Management:​

DISABLED

Acoustic Level:​

DISABLED

Enable S.M.A.R.T.:​

true

S.M.A.R.T. extra options:​

I'm waiting for the long SMART test to finish.....

 

[ChrisRJ]

Head parking is something different from spinning down the disk. You can see it by running smartctl -a /dev/<DEVICE> and looking at Load_Cycle_Count.

 

[Hans Otto Lunde]

All 8 disks have now passed the long SMART test error-less and without any alarming values in any of the variables, that have been mentioned by the helpful members of this friendly forum.
So i conclude that the disks in this machine are somewhat loud when operating, as some of you have pointed out.
I'll finish configuring it and put it into production.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[ragametal]

@Hans Otto Lunde , i had the same issue with my Truenas mini X+ and it was driving me absolutely nuts.

In my case, the sound was produced when the "System Dataset" was writing the "Syslog" information which happens every 5 seconds or so.

By default, Truenas installs the “System Dataset” in the same pool as the first dataset. As a solution, one could move the “System Dataset” to the boot pool which is installed on an SSD with no moving parts.

Go to System-->System Dataset, under System Dataset Pool select the “boot-Pool” and click “save”.

Now my system is almost silent (you can still hear the fan noise from time to time but that is normal and expected).