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9

4

I am the owner of a NAS, running some Linux distribution. It comes with a web administration frontend, where I can manage several services, user rights and also when it should go to sleep. My problem is, for some reason, when the NAS has gone to sleep, the hard drive turns on again after a couple of minutes. Then it will spin for some time, then sleep again. This keeps going on indefinitely.

How can I try to determine the cause for this? I am very new to Linux, but I managed to get root access, and now have a SSH connection.

linux hard-disk

share|improve this question

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  This is very old, but may still have relevant tips.
  
  – Gilles
  Jan 19 '12 at 0:36
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Do you have some analytics /like plugin with the web/frontend interface to NAS box? what are the NAS box details? I am wondering if some systemtap tools can be employed in there to check out the disk activity. systemtap is only available for later versions of Linux kernel.
  
  – Nikhil Mulley
  Jan 19 '12 at 6:16
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The NAS is a Lacie d2 Network 2. There is no plugin options, but i guess i could load anything into it. It runs a Green Unicorn webserver. The kernel is 2.6.31.14-svn6790.
  
  – Andreas
  Jan 19 '12 at 17:38
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

9

4

I am the owner of a NAS, running some Linux distribution. It comes with a web administration frontend, where I can manage several services, user rights and also when it should go to sleep. My problem is, for some reason, when the NAS has gone to sleep, the hard drive turns on again after a couple of minutes. Then it will spin for some time, then sleep again. This keeps going on indefinitely.

How can I try to determine the cause for this? I am very new to Linux, but I managed to get root access, and now have a SSH connection.

linux hard-disk

share|improve this question

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  This is very old, but may still have relevant tips.
  
  – Gilles
  Jan 19 '12 at 0:36
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Do you have some analytics /like plugin with the web/frontend interface to NAS box? what are the NAS box details? I am wondering if some systemtap tools can be employed in there to check out the disk activity. systemtap is only available for later versions of Linux kernel.
  
  – Nikhil Mulley
  Jan 19 '12 at 6:16
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The NAS is a Lacie d2 Network 2. There is no plugin options, but i guess i could load anything into it. It runs a Green Unicorn webserver. The kernel is 2.6.31.14-svn6790.
  
  – Andreas
  Jan 19 '12 at 17:38
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I am the owner of a NAS, running some Linux distribution. It comes with a web administration frontend, where I can manage several services, user rights and also when it should go to sleep. My problem is, for some reason, when the NAS has gone to sleep, the hard drive turns on again after a couple of minutes. Then it will spin for some time, then sleep again. This keeps going on indefinitely.

How can I try to determine the cause for this? I am very new to Linux, but I managed to get root access, and now have a SSH connection.

linux hard-disk

share|improve this question

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

share|improve this question

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

share|improve this question

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

edited Jan 20 '12 at 16:47

Kevin

29.2k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges105105 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

asked Jan 19 '12 at 0:00

AndreasAndreas

14811 gold badge11 silver badge33 bronze badges

4 Answers
4

active

oldest

votes

6

inotify-tools is a simple way of doing this. There are several examples on their site that would be able to do what you want (see the inotifywatch example for a really basic one).

share|improve this answer

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am currently looking into this. First, i need to compile the source for an ARMv5TE cpu. That might prove to be difficult enough :)
  
  – Andreas
  Jan 19 '12 at 17:34
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

6

Try running iotop perhaps? I've found it useful in the past.

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 20 '12 at 19:53

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

add a comment | 

2

Another tip: Use Systemtap, there are bunch of probe scripts on systemtap's site useful enough to find the culprit.

In another case altogether,

If you want to find out which process caused the disk to spin up, you can
gather information by setting the flag /proc/sys/vm/block_dump.
When this flag is set, Linux reports all disk read and write operations that take place, and all block dirtyings done to files. This makes it possible to debug why a disk
needs to spin up, and to increase battery life even more. The output of
block_dump is written to the kernel output, and it can be retrieved using
"dmesg" or look at your syslog kern facility for the destination of the debug messages. Generally, it should be /var/log/debug . When you use block_dump and your kernel logging level also includes
kernel debugging messages, you probably want to turn off klogd, otherwise
the output of block_dump will be logged, causing disk activity that is not
normally there.

share|improve this answer

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

add a comment | 

2

You need to tell the kernel to inform you of all the reads/writes to disks, then you need to look at that information.

So:

# sync

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump

# dmesg -c | grep '/dev/sda'

sync flushes all pending writes to disks, so that you'll only see new reads or writes.
dmesg -c shows you the kernel messages, and clears them (otherwise you see the old ones too, each time you run dmesg).
grep filters the output of dmesg for activity for the disk you're interested in. Replace /dev/sda with your actual device.

I usually use something like this to spin down the disk, then check for when it spins up again:

# sync

# hdparm -y /dev/sda

# while true; do hdparm -C /dev/sda ; sleep 600 ; done

The while loop checks the disk active/idle status every 10 minutes. When you see it power up, run the dmesg line above to see whodunnit.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

add a comment | 

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6

inotify-tools is a simple way of doing this. There are several examples on their site that would be able to do what you want (see the inotifywatch example for a really basic one).

share|improve this answer

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am currently looking into this. First, i need to compile the source for an ARMv5TE cpu. That might prove to be difficult enough :)
  
  – Andreas
  Jan 19 '12 at 17:34
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

6

inotify-tools is a simple way of doing this. There are several examples on their site that would be able to do what you want (see the inotifywatch example for a really basic one).

share|improve this answer

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am currently looking into this. First, i need to compile the source for an ARMv5TE cpu. That might prove to be difficult enough :)
  
  – Andreas
  Jan 19 '12 at 17:34
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

inotify-tools is a simple way of doing this. There are several examples on their site that would be able to do what you want (see the inotifywatch example for a really basic one).

share|improve this answer

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

share|improve this answer

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

edited 46 mins ago

Ward Muylaert

11144 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

answered Jan 19 '12 at 0:13

PatrickPatrick

53.9k1212 gold badges141141 silver badges189189 bronze badges

6

Try running iotop perhaps? I've found it useful in the past.

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 20 '12 at 19:53

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

add a comment | 

6

Try running iotop perhaps? I've found it useful in the past.

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 20 '12 at 19:53

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

add a comment | 

Try running iotop perhaps? I've found it useful in the past.

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 20 '12 at 19:53

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 20 '12 at 19:53

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:09

Faheem MithaFaheem Mitha

24.1k1818 gold badges8888 silver badges140140 bronze badges

2

Another tip: Use Systemtap, there are bunch of probe scripts on systemtap's site useful enough to find the culprit.

In another case altogether,

If you want to find out which process caused the disk to spin up, you can
gather information by setting the flag /proc/sys/vm/block_dump.
When this flag is set, Linux reports all disk read and write operations that take place, and all block dirtyings done to files. This makes it possible to debug why a disk
needs to spin up, and to increase battery life even more. The output of
block_dump is written to the kernel output, and it can be retrieved using
"dmesg" or look at your syslog kern facility for the destination of the debug messages. Generally, it should be /var/log/debug . When you use block_dump and your kernel logging level also includes
kernel debugging messages, you probably want to turn off klogd, otherwise
the output of block_dump will be logged, causing disk activity that is not
normally there.

share|improve this answer

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

add a comment | 

2

Another tip: Use Systemtap, there are bunch of probe scripts on systemtap's site useful enough to find the culprit.

In another case altogether,

If you want to find out which process caused the disk to spin up, you can
gather information by setting the flag /proc/sys/vm/block_dump.
When this flag is set, Linux reports all disk read and write operations that take place, and all block dirtyings done to files. This makes it possible to debug why a disk
needs to spin up, and to increase battery life even more. The output of
block_dump is written to the kernel output, and it can be retrieved using
"dmesg" or look at your syslog kern facility for the destination of the debug messages. Generally, it should be /var/log/debug . When you use block_dump and your kernel logging level also includes
kernel debugging messages, you probably want to turn off klogd, otherwise
the output of block_dump will be logged, causing disk activity that is not
normally there.

share|improve this answer

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

add a comment | 

Another tip: Use Systemtap, there are bunch of probe scripts on systemtap's site useful enough to find the culprit.

In another case altogether,

If you want to find out which process caused the disk to spin up, you can
gather information by setting the flag /proc/sys/vm/block_dump.
When this flag is set, Linux reports all disk read and write operations that take place, and all block dirtyings done to files. This makes it possible to debug why a disk
needs to spin up, and to increase battery life even more. The output of
block_dump is written to the kernel output, and it can be retrieved using
"dmesg" or look at your syslog kern facility for the destination of the debug messages. Generally, it should be /var/log/debug . When you use block_dump and your kernel logging level also includes
kernel debugging messages, you probably want to turn off klogd, otherwise
the output of block_dump will be logged, causing disk activity that is not
normally there.

share|improve this answer

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

share|improve this answer

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

answered Jan 20 '12 at 16:22

Nikhil MulleyNikhil Mulley

6,6262222 silver badges4545 bronze badges

2

You need to tell the kernel to inform you of all the reads/writes to disks, then you need to look at that information.

So:

# sync

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump

# dmesg -c | grep '/dev/sda'

sync flushes all pending writes to disks, so that you'll only see new reads or writes.
dmesg -c shows you the kernel messages, and clears them (otherwise you see the old ones too, each time you run dmesg).
grep filters the output of dmesg for activity for the disk you're interested in. Replace /dev/sda with your actual device.

I usually use something like this to spin down the disk, then check for when it spins up again:

# sync

# hdparm -y /dev/sda

# while true; do hdparm -C /dev/sda ; sleep 600 ; done

The while loop checks the disk active/idle status every 10 minutes. When you see it power up, run the dmesg line above to see whodunnit.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

add a comment | 

2

You need to tell the kernel to inform you of all the reads/writes to disks, then you need to look at that information.

So:

# sync

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump

# dmesg -c | grep '/dev/sda'

sync flushes all pending writes to disks, so that you'll only see new reads or writes.
dmesg -c shows you the kernel messages, and clears them (otherwise you see the old ones too, each time you run dmesg).
grep filters the output of dmesg for activity for the disk you're interested in. Replace /dev/sda with your actual device.

I usually use something like this to spin down the disk, then check for when it spins up again:

# sync

# hdparm -y /dev/sda

# while true; do hdparm -C /dev/sda ; sleep 600 ; done

The while loop checks the disk active/idle status every 10 minutes. When you see it power up, run the dmesg line above to see whodunnit.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

add a comment | 

You need to tell the kernel to inform you of all the reads/writes to disks, then you need to look at that information.

So:

# sync

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump

# dmesg -c | grep '/dev/sda'

sync flushes all pending writes to disks, so that you'll only see new reads or writes.
dmesg -c shows you the kernel messages, and clears them (otherwise you see the old ones too, each time you run dmesg).
grep filters the output of dmesg for activity for the disk you're interested in. Replace /dev/sda with your actual device.

I usually use something like this to spin down the disk, then check for when it spins up again:

# sync

# hdparm -y /dev/sda

# while true; do hdparm -C /dev/sda ; sleep 600 ; done

The while loop checks the disk active/idle status every 10 minutes. When you see it power up, run the dmesg line above to see whodunnit.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

# sync

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump

# dmesg -c | grep '/dev/sda'

# sync

# hdparm -y /dev/sda

# while true; do hdparm -C /dev/sda ; sleep 600 ; done

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges

answered Jul 1 '14 at 23:14

Greg BellGreg Bell

35033 silver badges1111 bronze badges