#376 Disks not spinning down [solution found!]

[ethaniel]

My disks were not spinning down. As a result they were always running and overheating my DNS-320.

Here is how I fixed it - i ssh'd into the system and set:

smartctl --offlineauto=off /dev/sda
smartctl --offlineauto=off /dev/sdb

I also disabled smart power management in the alt-f interface, and now my disks are spinning down just as I wanted them to (they are following the setting).

Perhaps hardcode this into the alt-f?

[João Cardoso]

Alt-F uses 'hdparm' to inform the disk to spin down by itself after a given inactivity timeout.

The smartctl manual says about 'offlineauto':

          [ATA  only]  Enables  or  disables  SMART automatic offline test, which scans the drive
          every four hours for disk defects. This command can be given during normal system oper-
          ation.  The valid arguments to this option are on and off.

          Note  that  the  SMART  automatic offline test command is listed as "Obsolete" in every
          version of the ATA and  ATA/ATAPI  Specifications.   It  was  originally  part  of  the
          SFF-8035i  Revision  2.0  specification,  but  was never part of any ATA specification.
          However it is implemented and used by many vendors.  You can tell if automatic  offline
          testing is supported by seeing if this command enables and disables it, as indicated by
          the ´Auto Offline Data Collection´ part of the  SMART  capabilities  report  (displayed
          with ´-c´).

Notice that there is an Alt-F option to turn this on/off using Services->System->smart, Configure: "Scans the drive every four hours for disk defects"

[Carsten Arenz]

I had a strange, but similar issue. sda never went into std-by, sdb did. When I specifically forced sda to std-by, that woke up sdb (kind of understandable), but after the specified waiting time sdb suspended again and both disks stayed in their sleep state.
After a request that made the two disks wake up, sdb went back in std-by and sda didn´t.
After I issued the above commands, it looks like it is working now as desired.