Re: [smartmontools-support] Sleeping drives don't wake.

[Jon H. <jd_...@ya...>]

--- On Fri, 16/5/08, Justin Piszcz <jp...@lu...> wrote:

> From: Justin Piszcz <jp...@lu...>
> Subject: Re: [smartmontools-support] Sleeping drives don't wake.
> To: Jo...@eH...
> Cc: sma...@li...
> Date: Friday, 16 May, 2008, 9:41 AM
> On Fri, 16 May 2008, Jon Hardcastle wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > i have 4 Sata 500GB Seagates (i think) arranged as a
> raid 5 device which is them lvm'd.
> >
> > They are all configured to spin down after 30mins of
> in activity.
> >
> > Problem is they are all also configured to run a short
> test 5 times a week and a long test 2 days aweek.
> >
> > The problem I have is if the drives are sleeping the
> test doesn't suitably wake them up. It tries to but the
> drives seem to take just slightly too long to spin up again
> and presumably when smartd tries again they haven't
> quite finished spinning up and it reports they are not
> smart capable.
> >
> > I know it can work as i have engineered cases where
> they are not sleeping and the test commences find.
> >
> > Also if i do a smartctl -a on a sleeping drive it
> pauses and after a second or 2 reports the drive isn't
> smart capable - I can audibly hear the drive still spinning
> up. Once complete if i run again it completes fine.
> >
> > Any help? I'd like to know these precious beauties
> are being watched over!
> 
> How often do they spin down and spin up? I read in a paper
> somewhere that
> that is the equivalent of 6 hours of use (spin down, spin
> up).
> 
> So if you spin them down are you letting them stay down for
> a period for more
> than 6 hours, otherwise you sort of defeat the purpose of
> trying to make them
> last longer unless power conservation is your primary
> objective?
> 
> Justin.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

If the machine isn't used for 30mins it usually means it isn't going to get used for hours - as in over night hours. The machine primary purpose is file storage.