hilly

I have a similar issue with all of my disks ..... see my thread "Unresponsive server & Disk activty" I will watch to see what people come back to you with.

Hi, Yes i have that plug in and it shows a number of files but if i read it right they are all on the cache drive, there are almost none, or none that are accessing a drive called \\mnt\ but maybe i just dont know how to read it properly, and if i did what to do about it. I will go and take another look at the info on the plugin but i dont remember any details about how to read or interpret the output for those who are not so technical? Edit: Hmmm maybe i have the open file plugin and this is something different. Will try it out when home and give it a go and report back. Thanks for the hint. Edit 2 - I tried the open files plugin but nothing shows up there but the disks are still spun up - this is confusing ..... Edit 3: So i have the open files plugin running. I stopped docker and after a few mins all disks were spun up again? i have been watching the open files and so far, in over 3 hours the only access has been crashplan on one disk, about 3 hours ago. Disks are set to spin down after 15 mins. They are all currently showing as active and it seems nothing is accessing them !!! Could it be something else or does anyone have any further hints?

Sorry to bump but been trying different things as got no replys. So i stopped all of my dockers with the exception of crashplan, this i set to only back up once per day for an hour as not much changes on the server other than to get a backup of my key file changes each day and this sends them off site. I went into the disk settings and set each disk to spin down after 15 mins rather than setting to "default" and having the default at 30 mins just to try something different. After my hard reset to get the server back i made these changes and all the disks were inactive. Now when i get my daily report they are all active again, all of the time and this meand they are all sitting there spinning away and keeping warm for what i can see as no reason. I dont want to stop docker as that kind of defeats the point, i have everythin g as far as i know running of the cache disk rather than a spinning disk but still they keep on going?? Any guidance or things to check appreciated. This is not doing any real harm i dont think but it should not be like this and i would like to resolve, or at least understand.

Hi. It seems that my disks remain "active" all of the time which makes them warm/hot all of the time. I have tried doing disk spindown but either that does not work or they are pretty soon back as active. i tried shutting most things down but its still the same. I have tried to see why using the tools / open files but to be honest that does not tell me what is keeping the disks active. My server is pretty much where i keep all my backups but it is not used for anything else so its not being used hard or accessed much other than to send offsite my crashplan stuff My server became unresponsive today from my computer and would not repsond to SSH commands. I could SSH into it but nothing else. I issues reboot commands and shutdown commands but these did nothing to the server, you can see them in the log but it just sat there. You can also see i reset my router and reset my network switch to try to kick it back into life. Before i did a hard reset i got my diagnostics which are attached Can anyone see why 1) my disks always seem to be active 2) why the system became unresponsive tower-diagnostics-20170310-1041.zip

Hi. I was having problems to connect to the crashplan desktop and was hunting in the forum for any solutions. I found and did this update and it works brilliant - thank you very much gfjardim :-) I had a big problem with adopting my old backup when i loaded this to my server and after several weeks and limited support from code42 i have had to start again - and as my backup was over 1TB its going to take some time, happy i was not !! no fault of the docker i must add. Can i suggest you go to the docker sticky where all of the containers repositories are listed and make an update as the old docker is there with the crashplan desktop which is no longer needed. Maybe an edit to the OP would also help a loot of people who are hunting around like me? Thanks again to all of the really helpful key members here

Maxse - you will need an additional 30cm e-sata to sata cable pref with a 90 degree on one end to go from the back of the server, inside thropugh the card slot area and then to the new drive (make sure its a good quality one, i had trouble with cheap ones not working, the e-sata slot is a bit fussy it seems). You will also need a power splitting Y cable so you have 2 power connectors. there are some good walk throughs of how to do this on the net. Its not a hard job and well worth doing in my opinion. I have my main server with 6 * 2TB drives for 10TB of storage, in such a small and neat box its a great way to go Niklask - dont know if there is room for a 2.5 HDD in there as well, possibly, but i dont know what you would connect it to if you already had 6 drives in the machine? If you are talking about a single 3.5 in the ODD slot with a 2.5 underneath then yes that will fit, its been done by a number of people and the case is a good idea if it does not cause a heat problem for the drive

If you do the fan mod and went for a pico power supply i think you will get pretty quiet as there will be almost no sound from the fan and nothing from the power supply (mine seem quiet, there are reports of noisy ones due to the samll fast fan inside). I have these 2 servers in my study (given that they are actualy sat next to each other on my desk right now - but that will have to be changed) the noise is still not an issue. would not be good if it were in a silent TV room but one of them at the kind of distances you are talking about would be fine. I am not an expert but my understanding is that as long as you are very clear on which is your parity drive and assign it correctly, same goes for your cache drive you can take your existing setup and just put it into the new box, no different to changing your motherboard etc. your setup is on the thumb drive and so migration should be pretty painless. Look forward to hearing how it goes and what your thought are on the N40L

Sam i am - I have the N40L which is the replacement for the N36L (dont know if you are in the UK and can get the reduced price?) anyway i have 6 drives in one server and 4 in a second server. I did the silent PC fan mod which i have to say was much easier than i thought. They say to mount the speed control bracket for this outside the server but i just removed the control knob from the back plate, fixed it to prevent it turning with a small amount of tape to fix the speed base line and taped it to a cable inside so its out of the way. The above mod does not make these silent but it is a quieter, smoother more pleasant sound. I have 2 on my desk and mt normal tower PC is louder than both of them ! you can hear them but i would guess in a normal room, maybe behind a TV or sofa you would need to be listening for the sound rather than it being intrusive. If you have a silent bunker for movie watching then you will hear them but as an overall comment i would say they are quiet, not silent (there are different report and it seems some are louder than others - get one & do the fan mod). The noise of the drives spinning up and "chattering" can clearly be heard above the fan noise. hope that helps but noise is a hard thing to describe ....

I got some filter foam from e-bay, just do a search, it comes in different size options - works really well. I put it into the front door (easy job as door seperates pretty easy) as well and it seems to stop lots of dust without any affect on airflow - but if its only for occasional use you mkight not have much of an issue. Must say these servers with these simple mods holding 10TB of data (15TB if you use 3TB drives !!) in such a small footprint are really good - so far i am impressed :-)

I removed the metal internal cover as you would do to install and optical drive, the fron cover then comes out easily. I drilled lots of small holes in my cover to get some air flow over the drives. In a full parity chack the drives get up to 43 degrees - not ideal but its for 6 or 7 hours per month and the rest of the time they are mid 30's so i think its fine. There is some dust getting in through the holes so i think i will put some filter mesh inside if it becomes a bit of a problem. I have been running with 6 2TB drives in mt server for several weeks with no issues. I also did the silent fan mod and although not silent it gives the servers a smooth, and a little quieter sound profile, takes about 30 mins to do. I have 2 sitting side by side on my desk running 24*7 and its not silent but its not an issue.

Just done monthly parity check with 5 data drives, 2 of which are mounted in the top drive bay. Max temp was 41 in the top and 38 for one of the others in the main array area. Think that is fine if only for hard parity check. With 5 data drives I currently have 9.5 tb of space with possibility to grow to 15tb using 3tb drives these N40l servers with current uk discount are first class for this kind of set up.

Thanks for the info. Running a movie for 2 hours with the other drives spinning i am getting around 37-38. cannot try a parity check until i get drive and cable sorted out but if i get low 40's only during a parity and sub 40 for normal working i will be comfortable with that. If it gets more might consider a fan type bay cover and pump some air over them, lets see how it goes. Will keep you and anyone else this is useful for, informed

Thanks - got some feedback and stuff to try from joe.l. Powerdown, swap connector over to other sata cable in the ODD bay and power up - new disk is there, other has gone. Seems to be the disk not visible on that cable. Put everything back and now all running fine until i can source a new, different cable. Just running a test now with all disks spinning and running a movie off the disk in that bay to see how temps go. Seems to be around 36-37 so far, bit more than before but not excessive. What would you consider to be a worrying temp so i know when to stop and consider some alternative cooling (already put a row of holes into the plastic bezel so some ari gets drawn over the drive - maybe it will need some more before i gor gor cutting out a big area and sticking some mesh over .... Thanks again for the feedback, appreciated

Cheers - i am also now pretty convinced its the cable. The drive in a caddy with e-sata port works connected to the e-sata on the server so its not the port and its not the drive - does not leave much. Did not know theyw ere so fussy about cable quality. I think i used a link on this thred somewhere to get one off e-bay. Is there something specific i should be looking for on either end (thinking the server end is more fussy than the drive end). I got this cable http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110654586577?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 but its not like the picture e.g. the HDD end is just plastic, no metal parts As for the heat i think i will add some air space into the front cover to allow air to be drawn in through that bay by the main fan. I do not use the server for anything like user groups etc, just as a store for lots of movies and music so drives are spun down most of the time. I also do not have a cache drive in there. Parity check would be the most activity or if i was watching a movie from one of the 2 drives in that bay as it would stay spun up for a couple of hours. Think when i get the drive to work i will watch a parity check for a couple of hours to see how things go and then let it finish off overnight. Might also just run a test and let a film run on the pc off that drive, just to see how we go when its spinning for a while. Question - does the e-sata connected drive also get spun down So just need to get the darn thing to see my added drive now !!!

Neilt0 - i have taken your build and done something almost the same. As i only use if for holding and streaming data to 1 TV i have not done anything about memory but i have done the nexus double mod with the hacked bios. Couple of things 1. My system does not see the new disk at all. Did you have any such issue? in another thread someone has suggested it could be the e-sata to sata cable as these can be picky. 2. How are your temps in the top area? I put in the plastic bezel and the lower drive (the one already in the array) got past 40 pretty quick. It seems to show a degree or so higher than the others by default but this was more than 5 degrees hotter in a relativly short time with no work being done. Do you have a grill or fan in the front bay cover and how do your temps look? This gives me 9.5TB of working space with the option to go further as 3TB or 4TB get cheaper - this little N40L is a cracking little box ! Thanks