Cannot get disks to spindown

TrueNAS General
,
1

Hello,

I recently upgraded to TrueNAS Scale Dragonfish-24.04.2.5. Previously I was using one of the BSD-based versions of the product.

I’m not sure if this worked previously, but now I would like my disks to spin down when not in use.

I have two IronWolf drives using ZFS in a mirrored setup. Both disks have the following configuration (text instead of screenshot, forum won’t let embed media for some reason):

Disk Type:
HDD

Description:
N/A

Model:
ST8000VN004-3CP101

Transfer Mode:
Auto

Rotation Rate (RPM):
7200

HDD Standby:
5

Adv. Power Management:
64

Enable S.M.A.R.T.:
true

S.M.A.R.T. extra options:
N/A

I also have another HDD that the OS is installed on, the boot-pool.

I have no installed apps running (Emby is the only app, and it’s disabled). I have all disabled all shares. I have all disabled all services (smb, smart, etc.). Still, I notice that there seems constant write activity on the mirrored pool.

If I shell in and use zpool iostat -v 5

pool                                               alloc   free   read  write   read  write
-------------------------------------------------  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
MIRROREDPOOL                                       1.80T  5.47T      0     24  15.4K   331K
  mirror-0                                         1.80T  5.47T      0     24  15.4K   331K
    ata-ST8000VN004-3CP101_WWZ59HCG                    -      -      0     11  7.87K   165K
    ata-ST8000VN004-3CP101_WWZ5ABCW                    -      -      0     12  7.49K   165K
-------------------------------------------------  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
boot-pool                                          4.89G   127G      0      9  9.98K  67.9K
  ata-WDC_WD1600BEVS-00RST0_WD-WXC307017088-part2  4.89G   127G      0      9  9.98K  67.9K
-------------------------------------------------  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----

How could I figure out what is going on? I’d really like my disks to spin down as the are not in use 95% of the time.

Glad to post any missing info. Thanks!

2

Give this a try Storage → Select Disk → Edit Disk →

image
image1123×396 10.9 KB

edit: also see this thread which has plenty of information

HDD Sleep/Spindown/Standby - TrueNAS General - TrueNAS Community Forums

3

It’s not clear to me how disabling HDD standby would help me get the disks to spin down.

I checked the link, and it seems like I have tried all of that. All applications are on the boot pool as far as I can tell. Not sure how to verify the system logs are on the boot pool, but given the boot pool existed before the mirrored pool, I am assuming they are on the boot pool.

I’ve also disabled all services, including smart.

4

It’s most like the system dataset, which gets placed on the first storage pool that gets created. The system dataset collects metics for the reporting tab and is written to every 5 or 10 seconds. You can change the location of the system dataset to your boot pool.

5

Not sue why it doesnt spin down, but you could check with smartctl utility

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo /usr/sbin/smartctl -i -n standby /dev/sdb | grep Power
Power mode is: ACTIVE or IDLE

Manpage: Powermode – smartmontools

6

I did try changing the system dataset to the boot pool, but that did not fix the issue.

I think I have the core issue nailed down. I went to the Apps page and unset the pool. I could then see that there was no read/write activity to the mirrored pool anymore (though the disk seem to still be spinning).

Still, it seems like if the applications service is always causing some read/write activity on the mirror pool, the disks will never spin down. As a sanity check, I made sure to disable the only app I have, but leave the applications service running. Even with just the service running, it seems like there is a consistent amount of small read/write activity.

What should one do in this scenario? I have the HDD the boot-pool is on, and it’s almost entirely empty. It seems like moving the applications there though isn’t supported or encouraged.

7

Small update:

I upgraded to TrueNAS Scale 24.10. This immediately stopped the issue with the application service constantly writing to the mirrored pool.

I then configured the disks in the mirrored pool to have Adv. Power Management: 1 (lowest power setting with spindown).

When I run smartctl I get the following:

root@truenas[~]# sudo /usr/sbin/smartctl -i -n standby /dev/sdc
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.6.44-production+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Device is in STANDBY mode, exit(2)

It looks like everything is now worked as I would have hoped. I think we can mark this one as solved.

Thanks for the tips and support!

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