Trying to spin down/idle harddrives.

[vooze]

Hi

Thank you for this awesome software. This is my first time using it, so please be gentle :)

Here goes:
Can't figure out the difference between Advanced Power Management and HDD Standby. Can I use them both? Also there is a option about noise.
What is the best practice here?

I did find some guides online, but most were a few years old, and did not really mention these features.

Setup:
I have 2 x WD Red 2TB in Raid0 + 1 External HDD plugged into USB3.

It's a SuperMicro motherboard, Intel Xeon Quadcore 1230 (IIRC), 32GB ram etc. if that matters, so the machine is plenty powerfull :)

Before setting up my new server, I just had the external HDD in my router setup with SMB + Time Machine for Mac, and when nothing was going on, it would go idle and stop making noise (it's quite noisy) so I know, the external HDD is capable of doing it.

Thank you for your time ! :)

 

[m0nkey_]

I have 2 x WD Red 2TB in Raid0 + 1 External HDD plugged into USB3.

This is a very bad configuration. As soon as a drive fails, you lose your data. With the two WD RED drives, put them in a mirror, this way if one drive fails you still retain your data. Also, USB is frowned upon as it can cause corruption.

Can't figure out the difference between Advanced Power Management and HDD Standby. Can I use them both? Also there is a option about noise.
What is the best practice here?

While you can spin down drives, typically it's not recommended as it can put additional stress on the drives, plus the cost saving is minuscule.

FreeNAS also stores the .system dataset on your pool. If you pool is spinning drives, then they will never spin down as logs, jails, etc. will always be doing something. You'd need to move your .system dataset and any jails to a SSD pool.

 

[vooze]

This is a very bad configuration. As soon as a drive fails, you lose your data. With the two WD RED drives, put them in a mirror, this way if one drive fails you still retain your data. Also, USB is frowned upon as it can cause corruption.

While you can spin down drives, typically it's not recommended as it can put additional stress on the drives, plus the cost saving is minuscule.

FreeNAS also stores the .system dataset on your pool. If you pool is spinning drives, then they will never spin down as logs, jails, etc. will always be doing something. You'd need to move your .system dataset and any jails to a SSD pool.

Thank you for your reply!

Regarding the configuration, I agree (I did not know about the USB though). This is just my first setup. I will probably end up buying 2 x 4TB or something later and set it up for raid0 (mirror). Though there is no important data on them atm. So it's no big deal

Regarding moving the .system dataset. I use a SSD for boot drive (120 GB) do you have a good guide for this? I was unable to find one with a quick google search.

The reason I want to spin them down (standby) is mostly about noise (the server is on my desk) and I probably only access them 1-2 twice as day. Not that much really. So I was thinking it would be good for them to power down when they are not being used (90% of the time).

 

[vooze]

Okay I found the System dataset pool move option. But when trying to move it to boot (120GB SSD) I will click save and OK and nothing happens.

EDIT: Okay, I'm stupid as well :D I found your bug report. https://bugs.ixsystems.com/issues/19172 - Seems it's moved now!

 

[Glorious1]

The makers of FreeNAS seem to have no interest in really supporting drive standby, even though there is that setting. Even when you do everything to allow that, they will randomly spin up from time to time. And most experienced forum members don't think it's a good idea either. I pretty much gave up on it long ago, but here is an old thread on the topic.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-let-drives-spin-down.26314/

 

[vooze]

The makers of FreeNAS seem to have no interest in really supporting drive standby, even though there is that setting. Even when you do everything to allow that, they will randomly spin up from time to time. And most experienced forum members don't think it's a good idea either. I pretty much gave up on it long ago, but here is an old thread on the topic.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-let-drives-spin-down.26314/

Wow. That was the perfect guide. Just what I was looking for. Thanks you so much.

 

[Glorious1]

Wow. That was the perfect guide. Just what I was looking for. Thanks you so much.

By the way, there is an updated version of the monitoring script that logs more data (spincheck.sh) available here:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...d-drive-temperatures.41294/page-4#post-285668