NAS with reliable spin-down

[alexandru]

Hi,

I am looking for a NAS with a REALLY reliable spin-down function / power management.

So far I had a ReadyNAS Duo (older model) and an Iomega ix2-200, which both had heavy issues (random spin-ups + spin-ups right after spin-down), making this feature basically useless. I went through pretty much every possible troubleshooting procedure, but those devices don't seem capable of keeping their disks spun down.

On the other hand I have a 6 year old NoName IDE NAS which DOES spin-down and STAYS spun down until actionally accessed (even several weeks / months).

So what other devices can do this simple, yet aparently so difficult task?

I am looking for a single- or dual-drive NAS, but other suggestions are also welcome.

Cheers
Alex

 

[claykin]

Have you visited the Readynas forums to see about resolving the issue with your Duo? Its not normal for your Duo to randomly spinup unless you have apps attempting to access data on the NAS or are running the internal DHCP server or WINS server for example.

I would pursue a fix to your Duo issues before deciding it wont work for you.

 

[stevech]

Would an example of an app be...
NAS has a share which becomes a drive mount on Windows and windows tries to index that in it's scheme for fast search indexing. That makes the drive spin up of course. Another might be Windows tasks that maintain a Restore Point on that logical drive.
Or some such.

 

[claykin]

Would an example of an app be...
NAS has a share which becomes a drive mount on Windows and windows tries to index that in it's scheme for fast search indexing. That makes the drive spin up of course. Another might be Windows tasks that maintain a Restore Point on that logical drive.
Or some such.

Yup, that amongst other things.

 

[alexandru]

As I wrote, I spend a lot of time on troubleshooting, also trying out every possible solution from the ReadyNAS-Forums, including some custom extensions that suposedly were to solve this issue. And the Netgear support was utterly useless.

Of course I would not expect for a drive to stay spun down if its mounted on some windows machine. And of course I disabled EVERY SINGLE SERVICE (exept CIFS) and disconnected the NAS from the network. Same behavior. On both NASes. After several Factory Resets and Firmware Upgrades.

I think I spent way to much time (= money, enough to buy more than one new NAS) on this issue, now I want something that works out of the box.

 

[claykin]

As I wrote, I spend a lot of time on troubleshooting, also trying out every possible solution from the ReadyNAS-Forums, including some custom extensions that suposedly were to solve this issue. And the Netgear support was utterly useless.

Of course I would not expect for a drive to stay spun down if its mounted on some windows machine. And of course I disabled EVERY SINGLE SERVICE (exept CIFS) and disconnected the NAS from the network. Same behavior. On both NASes. After several Factory Resets and Firmware Upgrades.

I think I spent way to much time (= money, enough to buy more than one new NAS) on this issue, now I want something that works out of the box.

What disks are in your Duo? Whats your forum nickname so i can lookup your thread(s)?

 

[alexandru]

Sorry claykin, I intended to write that I sold my ReadyNAS, but apparently I somehow accidently deleted that sentence pefore posting.

JFYI, had the same nickname as here (see this thread) and just remembered that I also had another really annoying issue with it. It was a RND2175 first with 2x HD753LJ and later with 2x ST31500341AS (the only 1.5 TB drives on the compatibility list at that time - which I bought just hoping to solve this issue). I was really happy to get rid of it.

So You see, I did not give up that easily on the ReadyNAS, because I really liked it, but this issue caused so me much frustration, that I don't think I'll ever get another one.

Thank You for trying to help me with that one anyway.

 

[alexandru]

Hm, not a single specific suggestion so far..

Is that because nobody cares about that feature or because most NASes cope with this problem?

 

[claykin]

Sorry claykin, I intended to write that I sold my ReadyNAS, but apparently I somehow accidently deleted that sentence pefore posting.

JFYI, had the same nickname as here (see this thread) and just remembered that I also had another really annoying issue with it. It was a RND2175 first with 2x HD753LJ and later with 2x ST31500341AS (the only 1.5 TB drives on the compatibility list at that time - which I bought just hoping to solve this issue). I was really happy to get rid of it.

So You see, I did not give up that easily on the ReadyNAS, because I really liked it, but this issue caused so me much frustration, that I don't think I'll ever get another one.

Thank You for trying to help me with that one anyway.

I am not trying to be argumentative, but your last post about this issue to the Readynas forums was 2.5 years ago. After that you only posted about NFS issues with a Readynas NV+.

The Samsung HD753LJ was never an approved disk. I did not see any posts from you discussing the Seagate disk you mentioned.

As you said, the Duo is gone, so I suspect there's no more troubleshooting.

I cannot recommend another NAS that will guarantee reliable spindown. The Readynas should have worked fine for you. The several Readynas units I manage all spindown correctly. Not sure what to tell you. Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[alexandru]

After that you only posted about NFS issues with a Readynas NV+.

I have the NV+ at my office, but I never even set up spin-down for this one.

The Samsung HD753LJ was never an approved disk. I did not see any posts from you discussing the Seagate disk you mentioned.

You are right, this was the reason I got the Seagates (in 2009). But after facing the exact same behaivor, despite repeating all troubleshooting steps, I turned (again) to the Netgear support, which enraged me so badly that just put it up on ebay and ordered the Iomega.

BTW: I put one of the Samsung drives in a Windows machine and it spins down and stays quite well spun down.

Do you have any rarely used Duos you're managing? What was the longest time (by logs) their disks stood still?

 

[claykin]

Readynas units I manage are accessed everyday. Some are used for shared data, others are used for backups. Some used for both and more...

The two Readynas I see almost everyday seem to spindown reliably after 4 hours of inactivity. They sit for a long time (never timed it) and spinup the next time I access them.

Not sure about your network topology or what services you were using on your LAN/NAS, but I suspect something was up. Seems your Iomega NAS had the same issue?? I have no experience with Iomega NAS products. Cannot help with that.

 

[alexandru]

Not sure about your network topology or what services you were using on your LAN/NAS, but I suspect something was up.

Well, that was the only thing Netgear support came up with aswell, BUT it is very inprobable, because:

- Only CIFS enabled / no streaming clients etc. on LAN
- Same problems even when NAS is disconnected from LAN
- IDE NAS stays spun down (days, weeks, months.......)

Seems your Iomega NAS had the same issue?? I have no experience with Iomega NAS products. Cannot help with that.

Not exactly, at least it does not very often spin up right after spinning down, just entirely randomly. Lets say with the ReadyNAS it was 9 out of 10 spin-ups right after spinning down, with the Iomega it's just 1-2 out of 10. Right now, I set it to 6 hours, just to not hear it spin-up/-down all the time. I still hear it 2-3 times a day.

 

[claykin]

Do you ever use your NAS or do you want it spun down all the time? Odd question I know but I'm not sure what you use your NAS for...

Your NAS would spinup with no Ethernet cable connected to it? It randomly spun-up after you changed to the Seagate 7200.11 disks too (and no Ethernet cable)? Did you have any addons installed or was the Duo factory defaulted with only CIFS enabled? Seems weirder by the minute. Are you sure you don't have power problems?

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but I'm not so sure that Synology or Qnap NAS' will solve your problems. You can try one and see if you have better luck. Just make sure to use disks from their compatibility list.

 

[alexandru]

I use my NAS mainly for movies, music and irregular backups. Sometimes I just don't watch, listen to or backup anything for several days or even longer.

Your NAS would spinup with no Ethernet cable connected to it? It randomly spun-up after you changed to the Seagate 7200.11 disks too (and no Ethernet cable)? Did you have any addons installed or was the Duo factory defaulted with only CIFS enabled? Seems weirder by the minute. Are you sure you don't have power problems?

Yes, yes, factory default³ + all but CIFS disabled, damn sure.

I don't know, I'm still pretty sure it was a firmware issue, as well as with my current NAS. The problems of limiting I/O to zero while services are still running are obvious, yet not unsolvable.

 

[stevech]

As I wrote, I spend a lot of time on troubleshooting, .... And the Netgear support was utterly useless.

Not surprising, is it?