Constant low level disk activity since 9.1.2.1

[SkyMonkey]

I upgraded from 8.2.something to 9.1.2.1 this weekend, and have noticed that my disks no longer spin down. Something is causing constant low level disk activity on my array.

I noticed that there was an option to use the system dataset as the syslog which was added and automatically checked, I think this was causing some of the activity. Unchecking this option caused quite a few errors in the console (cannot open logfile etc), which wasn't all that unexpeted, and they went away after a reboot. However, this did not solve the problem.

Basically, even with nothing on my network using the filer I get graphs like the one shown below (ignore the bit with the read on the right hand side, something I did while ssh'ed in caused that activity).

I am pretty sure this something to do with the new samba version which also gets a dataset constantly writing to the disks...is there anyway to prevent this?

 

[Yatti420]

On 9.2.1.2 I believe you can choose the old method which isn't recommended anymore I believe..

 

[cyberjock]

I'm not a 9.2.1.x user yet(too many problems with 9.2.1.x to make me want to risk it on my server) but I think this is a situation that may not have a good solution. We've been telling people since day 1 that trying to sleep your drives is going to be difficult if not impossible both in the here and now and the future. Well, the future is here and it looks like it's not pretty for people that want to sleep their disks.

The only solution I can think of that has a high chance of success is to have a dedicated pool for the syslog/system dataset. Other than that, I don't have any recommendations because I've not eve installed 9.2.1.x in a VM, so I have no understanding of the internal workings at this time.

 

[SkyMonkey]

Update: when all samba clients are offline, the array activity drops to zero. However, the disks still don't seem to spin down. Multiple actors at work here I think....

 

[cyberjock]

Not too surpsiing about the samba clients thing.. that's part of the reason why .system was created to start with. The new Samba service needs a place to work.

As for the disks still not spinning down I don't have any clue. You're on your own most likely since all the experts here don't spin down their disks.

 

[dlavigne]

Do you have any jails/plugins installed?