SOLVED WD Utility for RED drives with High Load Cycle Counts

[crumbz]

what am i doing wrong?

Those binaries are for Linux, so they won't execute on FreeNAS/FreeBSD.

 

[crumbz]

I will check the next time I purchase a Red drive

I have just purchased two 4TB Red's and these have the head parking timer set to 300 from the factory.

 

[crumbz]

Question, can the wd reds be updated from freenas or will I have to move the drives to another computer?

I'm guessing they can't be updated from FreeNAS, since the tools available are for Windows and Linux.

Moving the drives to another computer seems like overkill though, just boot your FreeNAS box with a Linux live CD.

 

[Michael Wulff Nielsen]

Have you tried it? it won't nuke the contents?

 

[joeschmuck]

If you do not have very high LCC values (in the thousands) then I would not make the update. How do you check this you say?

An easy way to see if your timer has been disabled like they use to come from the factory is to do a "smartctl -a /dev/ada0" and look at the values:
4 Start_Stop_Count
192 Power_Off_Retract
193 Load_Cycle_Count

If value Power_Off_Retract+ Load_Cycle_Count = Start_Stop_Count (or is very close) then you timer is likely disabled. If there is a larger difference then you need to take into account how long the drive has been running (9 Power_On_Hours) and if you were manually trying to sleep the drives. Basically if Load_Cycle_Count is a very high value as you have seen people mention in this thread or other threads then you likely have an 8 second timer set and should do the update.

I can state with 100% certainty that if you use the WDIDLE3.exe on the 2TB drives that no data is lost and from what I've read that is true for all the Reds when running this program. I have not tried the new program WD recently started pushing. The benefit of the WDIDLE3.exe is it will run from a DOS bootable USB flash drive if your computer supports it so you don't need to pull your hard drives to use it, well unless you have hardware not supported by DOS like a speedy SATA controller card. I was able to change (play) one drive in my FreeNAS machine using a DOS USB Flash drive to a 300 second timer value (it started at disabled) and once done there was no data loss, I disabled the timer in the same way which is what it started at and where I will leave it.

Hope this helps some.

EDIT: Normal Disclaimer... Backup all important contents before you try to upgrade your hard drives. You never know what might happen unintentionally.

 

[Ramboxman]

@crumbz I was curious what the firmware and manufacturer date is on your drive? If not too much trouble.

 

[MarknSF]

I can confirm that no data was loss when I update my 5 Red with this utility. With the FreeNAS server shutdown I removed one drive at a time, connected it to a windows machine and ran the utility. Of course it's always best to have a backup (after all you could drop the drive) and make sure power is not interrupted during the update. The utility will list all of the WD drives in the machine so be sure to select the correct one. Running it on a bootable Linux might be easier if the drives are difficult to remove.

 

[GaiusBaltar]

guess i don't need to run the utility.
my LCCs aren't above 30. (last reboot was around 5am today)

Code:

[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada0 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 27
 
[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada1 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 31
 
[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada2 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 30
 
[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada3 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 30
 
[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada4 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 29
 
[root@freeNAS ~]# smartctl -a /dev/ada5 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 6
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 81
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 30

though, my drives aren't set to power down:

not sure if that makes a difference regarding the drives parking their heads and increasing LCC or not.

 

[joeschmuck]

guess i don't need to run the utility.
my LCCs aren't above 30. (last reboot was around 5am today) though, my drives aren't set to power down:
not sure if that makes a difference regarding the drives parking their heads and increasing LCC or not.

Red drives will not power down, there is no HDD Standby timer in this line. Do not enable APM or Acoustic level either, leave them as you have it setup.

I can tell from your data that you have only turned off power once for these drives, rebooted 5 times, and the head parking timer on your drives are not disabled but likely set to 300 seconds simply because the the LCC is greater than 5. Am I close to being correct with respect to your power on/off and rebooting?

And that is true, you don't need to run the utility.

 

[Ramboxman]

Awesome did not know I could specify the smart values with the grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada0 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027  192  191  021    Pre-fail  Always      -      1400
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      143
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  093  093  000    Old_age  Always      -      5648
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      69
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      73
#20  Short offline      Completed without error      00%      1921        -
[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada1 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      15
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      7
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      14
[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada2 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      13
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      5
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      13
[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada3 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      15
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      7
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      13
[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada4 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      19
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      11
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      13
[root@freenas] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada5 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      17
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      9
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      15

 

[Dusan]

Red drives will not power down, there is no HDD Standby timer in this line. Do not enable APM or Acoustic level either, leave them as you have it setup.

There is a standby timer in WD REDs. I have my WD REDs set to spin down after 60 minutes of inactivity and they really do spin down.

 

[GaiusBaltar]

Red drives will not power down, there is no HDD Standby timer in this line. Do not enable APM or Acoustic level either, leave them as you have it setup.

I can tell from your data that you have only turned off power once for these drives, rebooted 5 times, and the head parking timer on your drives are not disabled but likely set to 300 seconds simply because the the LCC is greater than 5. Am I close to being correct with respect to your power on/off and rebooting?

And that is true, you don't need to run the utility.

that sounds about right. i feel like there's been maybe 1 or 2 more shutdowns and reboots but my head math may be wrong. thanks for the further insight! given that, ill leave my settings as is :)

Awesome did not know I could specify the smart values with the grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'

i see that for your 1st drive, the spinup time got picked up by the grep filter since it saw the text string "192" in there. given that, i updated the command to run a bit so that you filter out all but what you care about a little more clearly:

Code:

smartctl -a /dev/adaX | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'

(where X is the drive number).

 

[Ramboxman]

Thanks for the code smartctl -a /dev/ada0 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'

 

[joeschmuck]

There is a standby timer in WD REDs. I have my WD REDs set to spin down after 60 minutes of inactivity and they really do spin down.

Maybe I'm wrong, I can admit it, and thanks for correcting me. I thought there was a way to tell what the idle timer was set to but I don't see it through ataidle nor smartctl.

 

[Yatti420]

I disabled my timer and use FreeNAS to spindown the drives (greens) after about 15 mintues.. They don't spin alot anymore except for startup..

Code:

[root@NAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada2 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  098  098  000    Old_age  Always      -      2173
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  073  073  000    Old_age  Always      -      20275
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      246
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  196  196  000    Old_age  Always      -      14916
[root@NAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada3 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027  192  186  021    Pre-fail  Always      -      5391
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  099  099  000    Old_age  Always      -      1294
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  089  089  000    Old_age  Always      -      8718
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      49
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      1543

 

[HolyK]

I have two REDs in mirror and no issue at all ...


Model Family: Western Digital Red (AF)
Device Model: WDC WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
Serial Number: WD-WMC4XXXXXXXX
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee xxxxxxxxx
Firmware Version: 80.00A80

Code:

[root@HolyNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada0 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      9
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  097  097  000    Old_age  Always      -      2525
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      8
[root@HolyNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada1 | grep '4 Start\|9 Po\|192\|193'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032  100  100  000    Old_age  Always      -      9
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032  097  097  000    Old_age  Always      -      2525
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032  200  200  000    Old_age  Always      -      8

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm such a Schmuck!

 

[jyavenard]

ouch...

I wonder if I should worry already !

not even 3 months old disks:

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 179 179 000 Old_age Always - 65821

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 180 180 000 Old_age Always - 62813

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 180 180 000 Old_age Always - 62809

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 180 180 000 Old_age Always - 62558

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 179 179 000 Old_age Always - 65886

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 180 180 000 Old_age Always - 61999

so far:

9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 1686

so that's over 37 times per hour on average...
What is weird is not even my greed drives, which I have *never* tweaked have anywhere as high value even after 3 years

 

[SmallGuy]

Device Model: WD20EFRX
Firmware Version: 80.00A80

ada0-->ada2
Serial Number: WD-WMC301XXXXX
WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0

ada3 & ada5
Serial Number: WD-WCC300XXXXX
WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0

ada4
Serial Number: WD-WMC4M1XXXXXX
WDC WD20EFRX-68EUZN0

Code:

[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada0 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       90
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       6934
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       47
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada1 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       90
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       6935
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       47
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada2 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       90
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       6934
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       47
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada3 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       19
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1712
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       11
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       7
[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada4 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       4
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1378
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
[root@FomoNAS] ~# smartctl -a /dev/ada5 | grep '4 St\|9 Po\|192 Po\|193 Lo'
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       19
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1712
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       11
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       7

As there is a Jail on my pool, and since I have completly rebuilt my pool (3 disks in RaidZ1 -> 6 disks RaidZ2) follow by the 9.1.1 upgrade, I have disable the disk power management, and set standby mode on 'always on' on Disk settings.
So far so good...

 

[jyavenard]

Hmm... I tried running this utility against all my drive, and for all of them it states that the update is not needed.
Firmware is 80.00A80

I have disable the disk power management, and set standby mode on 'always on' on Disk settings.
So far so good...

You have the same firmware as I; how did you manage such a low load count ?