Topic: Hard drive power management

[ml1710]

Hi,

I've tried everything I could find to let my hard drive go on standby (since it isn't in use very often), but it is always constantly accessed.

here is the results of running lm-profiler (from laptop tools)

[root@sme ~]# lm-profiler
Profiling run started.
Accesses at 2/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 7/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 12/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 16/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 17/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 20/600 in run: md2_raid1
Accesses at 22/600 in run: md2_raid1
22 seconds elapsed, 578 remaining.

Does anyone know if RAID is the cause of this?  I've searched the forums, but I don't know how to disable it.  Any help would be appreciated!

[dsemuk]

I think you will struggle to get this working, after all servers are by design ment to work 24/7.

What are you using your server for if it isn't used very often?  Perhaps a server isn't the best solution to meet your needs?

Dave

[judgej]

I also think you would be struggling. Most NAS systems allow drives to shut down, and for them it is sensible, since there is little else going on other than disk access when a network user requests a file.

For SME, there is a lot more happening, such as virus scanning, e-mail checking, proxy serving etc.

Now, if you have managed to get this working with a USB-connected drive, I would be most interested. To get a backup to run to a USB drive each night, and have the drive shut down the rest of the time (powered down, that is, not just unmounted - and I'm not sure what protocols USB drives support in this area), would be a great benefit. If the backup drive is only running for half an hour each day, I think it would last far longer than if it were left on 24/7/52. If nothing else, it would draw less power.

-- JJ

[jerryh]

I agree, being able to wind down drives would be a large power saving.
I use 3 SCSI 10k rpm HD's on a PIII SBC at home, its convenient for data backup, transfering files from PC to PC and private webhosting.

It gets used intensively for short periods of time. The drives equate to half the power consumption of the rig, and are noisy as the fan has to run 24/7 to keep them cool.
SME is perfect for the job - if only i could throttle back the when not used.