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XXD
n00b
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 33
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 Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 7:20 pm Post subject: Issues related to spinning down idle hard drives on a server |
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Hi guys.
I'm running a samba file server (among other things) on my gentoo box for my windows machines. Right now I'm not using any APM/ACPI on it, as I'm not too interested in running any power management on it anyways since this is a server, but I would like to spin down hard drives that are idling to increase their longevity.
I have 3 hdds on the machine, first one contains the OS, the second and third drives are used in the file server. Second drive is the WD 200 GB SE and the third is WD 250 SE drive. 200 GB drive is mounted in read/write mode while 250 GB is mounted in read-only. File shares on both of these drives are accessed from Windows machines and some machine have mapped drive letters to these shares.
So my questions are,
1) Does Samba allow drives to idle (so they could spin down), when they are still mapped to drive letters in windows (but not accessing any data).
2) If the drives have spun down, but somebody tries to access the share would they spin up again? I'm asking whether remote accesses to shares would also signal the drives to spin up?
3) Do no I need APM or ACPI support in the kernel to do this or would just hdparm settings to "-s 240" (spin down after 20 mins of idle time) in /etc/conf.d/hdparm and adding hdparm to the default run level be enough?
4) How stable is it to use these hdd spinning down settings in hdparm. I have heard that some settings in hdparm are still experimental. Maintaining the integrity of the data on my drives is very crucial.
6) Anything else I need to do to complete the procedure?
7) Is there a way to know (to log, etc) when the hard drives spun down/up, so I could monitor that these settings are working?
I would really appreciate any help you could give me on it.
Thanks.
XXD |
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pygoscelis
Guru
Joined: 07 Jun 2003
Posts: 402
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| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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Spinning down hard drives will NOT increase their longevity. If anything, it will DEcrease. Load on the spindle assembly is much higher during spin-up/spin-down than during normal operation, and it can last for only so many start/stop cycles.
Don't just trust me, do your own research. |
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Arno
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 19 Oct 2002
Posts: 126
Location: France
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| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:31 pm Post subject: Re: Issues related to spinning down idle hard drives on a se |
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| XXD wrote: |
1) Does Samba allow drives to idle (so they could spin down), when they are still mapped to drive letters in windows (but not accessing any data). |
AKAIK, yes.
| XXD wrote: |
2) If the drives have spun down, but somebody tries to access the share would they spin up again? I'm asking whether remote accesses to shares would also signal the drives to spin up? |
Yes they will. However, it may take some time for the drive to be ready and the remote end may timeout. I have this happening with NFS, where the remote end say "NFS server timed out". The user has to retry the operation then. I don't know how windows clients would behave in this case.
| XXD wrote: |
3) Do no I need APM or ACPI support in the kernel to do this or would just hdparm settings to "-s 240" (spin down after 20 mins of idle time) in /etc/conf.d/hdparm and adding hdparm to the default run level be enough? |
hdparm is what I use to spin down my drives, without kernel support needed.
| XXD wrote: |
4) How stable is it to use these hdd spinning down settings in hdparm. I have heard that some settings in hdparm are still experimental. Maintaining the integrity of the data on my drives is very crucial. |
This one setting is stable. I've used it for at least two years on rarely used drive.
| XXD wrote: |
7) Is there a way to know (to log, etc) when the hard drives spun down/up, so I could monitor that these settings are working? |
I'm not aware of anything like this.
One piece of advice. I've hear and read that hard-disk's mecanics can wear out quickly if spun down and up too often. I use this only on drives rarely used (only few accesses a week). |
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XXD
n00b
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 33
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| pygoscelis wrote: | Spinning down hard drives will NOT increase their longevity. If anything, it will DEcrease. Load on the spindle assembly is much higher during spin-up/spin-down than during normal operation, and it can last for only so many start/stop cycles.
Don't just trust me, do your own research. |
Hmm... this is interesting. I was not aware of it. I could not find anything to back this up on google so I posted the question to Western Digital. Let's see what they have to say.
But anyhow, thanks for letting me know. |
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XXD
n00b
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 33
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| Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:07 pm Post subject: Re: Issues related to spinning down idle hard drives on a se |
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Thanks for the clarifications, Arno. I appreciate it. I think I will wait for a reply from Western Digital before doing anything.
| XXD wrote: |
7) Is there a way to know (to log, etc) when the hard drives spun down/up, so I could monitor that these settings are working? |
I really wish there is a way to monitor what's happening, so if anybody have any ideas, feel free to jump in.
Thanks guys.
XXD |
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Boris27
Guru
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 562
Location: Almelo, The Netherlands
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 9:39 pm Post subject: Re: Issues related to spinning down idle hard drives on a se |
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| XXD wrote: | Thanks for the clarifications, Arno. I appreciate it. I think I will wait for a reply from Western Digital before doing anything.
| XXD wrote: |
7) Is there a way to know (to log, etc) when the hard drives spun down/up, so I could monitor that these settings are working? |
I really wish there is a way to monitor what's happening, so if anybody have any ideas, feel free to jump in.
Thanks guys.
XXD |
My drive is audible. It clicks its heads in to the park cylinder (or something)... |
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