Scrub and SMART testing schedules

LIGISTX

Guru
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
525
I am very knew to Freenas and Linux in general. I will be starting my build in the near future and just trying to learn up on stuff so I can hit the ground walking like a baby, not crawling lol.

Stupid jokes aside, I have been looking around the forum for SMART and Scrub related things and unless I missed something (I am sure I did since you guys are thorough) how do you actually go about setting SMART and Scrubs up? Is there anything that must be done in command line or through the webUI to actually set them up to work properly on the drives? Or is it just a on off slider in the webUI, set and forget and boom SMART is working?

And just to see if I am learning the lingo and understand what is happening correctly, SMART tests are on a drive by drive basis, but a scrub is across the entire pool? I did read the thread about hdd burn in, and I assume during burn in I don't want to be doing any of these tests correct? Just let the burn in do its thing after memtesting my RAM, then build my pool and enable these features and schedule them correct?
 

Bidule0hm

Server Electronics Sorcerer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
3,710
Scrub settings are in the volume tab in the GUI. The SMART tests are in the tasks tab in the GUI too (don't forget to enable the SMART service in the services tab...). That's all, no need to use the CLI. Everything is in the manual, please read it for more details :)
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
FreeNAS is built on FreeBSD, which is not Linux.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
Do you have a suggestion for snapshot schedules too?
Those really depend on what you want to accomplish.
"Oh crap, I overwrote my work from 10 minutes ago!", "We should audit this morning's file", "I accidentally deleted this file two days ago" ....
 

causa-prima

Cadet
Joined
Aug 17, 2015
Messages
2
Am I missing something or is the threshold-option only available for scrubs? If so, is there any reason why, and is there some way to use a threshold?

What I would like to achive is a bi-weekly scrub and long smart test, where the scrub is executed on thuesdays and the smart test on a thursday at 1 am. Even better would be if the test get executed in different weeks, so on even weeks the scrub will be performed, while on odd weeks the smart test will be executed. But I have no idea how I could do that other than using a script that includes the logic. But with a script I would also not be shure how to only send emails when a test or scrub has failed/ produced errors.
 
Last edited:

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
Am I missing something or is the threshold-option only available for scrubs? If so, is there any reason why, and is there some way to use a threshold?

What I would like to achive is a bi-weekly scrub and long smart test, where the scrub is executed on thuesdays and the smart test on a thursday at 1 am. Even better would be if the test get executed in different weeks, so on even weeks the scrub will be performed, while on odd weeks the smart test will be executed. But I have no idea how I could do that other than using a script that includes the logic. But with a script I would also not be shure how to only send emails when a test or scrub has failed/ produced errors.
The easiest method is to do it according to the day of the month.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
I think FreeNAS 10 will be a lot more standardized. The current GUI and middleware are a somewhat rushed product that's had stuff tacked on and patched up. It's a somewhat messy solution that is being fixed at the moment.
 

garyn_87048

Dabbler
Joined
Feb 11, 2013
Messages
23
So you're asking what schedule to set for scrubs and SMART testing. Well, here's a few tidbits of info:

<clip>

No doubt others will provide their configurations.

Good luck and happy storing!

Thank you for the setup tips! I recently built a new system and I have followed your recommended schedule.

Question: you have set the SMART times to when you assume that the system is going to be idle. I think what I see in your settings "Power Mode" set to "never". Just curious, why not use "idle". You're attempting to find an idle time, ... but just in case something unexpected is happening, why not block the SMART checks if the system is busy?

Thanks!
 

cyberjock

Inactive Account
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
19,526
I'm not sure where you "see" that. I don't even know what you are talking about when you say "Power Mode". Can you clarify where this setting is you are talking about?
 

Bidule0hm

Server Electronics Sorcerer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
3,710
The APM I guess...
 

Marcet

Contributor
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
193
Useful guide, thanks (y)

I'm wondering how long a scrub can last. How can I figure it out (before running it) ?
 

DrKK

FreeNAS Generalissimo
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
3,630
Useful guide, thanks (y)

I'm wondering how long a scrub can last. How can I figure it out (before running it) ?
The length of time for a scrub depends on hard drive quality, pool configuration, and a number of other factors.

Typically speaking, ***and this is variable so I am not guaranteeing this***, it takes about 70-90 minutes for each TiB of data that needs to be scrubbed, assuming everything is in good shape and there are no bottlenecks in the scrubbing process. (Note, it's *data*, not capacity). So if you have 3 TiB of data in a pool, then scrubbing the pool is going to run about 4 hours. More or less.
 

Marcet

Contributor
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
193
So if you have 3 TiB of data in a pool, then scrubbing the pool is going to run about 4 hours. More or less.
Thanks for this clear answer.

So scrub can run for days on my 42 TiB system if it's full (up to 3 days).
How did that affect performance ?
 

DrKK

FreeNAS Generalissimo
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
3,630
So scrub can run for days on my 42 TiB system if it's full (up to 3 days).
Yes.
How did that affect performance ?
Scrubbing is done as non-intrusively as possible. Performance is impacted if you attempt to use the pool during a scrub, but there's more impact against the scrub itself than against the normal user usage. I think most people don't even realize a scrub is going on.
 

Marcet

Contributor
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
193
Scrubbing is done as non-intrusively as possible. Performance is impacted if you attempt to use the pool during a scrub, but there's more impact against the scrub itself than against the normal user usage. I think most people don't even realize a scrub is going on.
All right, got it. Thanks.
 

Scharbag

Guru
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
620
Real quick question: how many SMART test results are kept in the HDD log? Is it vendor specific or standardized?

Reason I ask is that I do not see any extended tests logged in my drives but it would make sense if the logs are only so long. I run SMART short tests every 6 hours:

Code:
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description	Status				  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17915		 -
# 2  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17909		 -
# 3  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17903		 -
# 4  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17897		 -
# 5  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17891		 -
# 6  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17885		 -
# 7  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17879		 -
# 8  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17873		 -
# 9  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17867		 -
#10  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17861		 -
#11  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17855		 -
#12  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17849		 -
#13  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17843		 -
#14  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17837		 -
#15  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17831		 -
#16  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17825		 -
#17  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17819		 -
#18  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17813		 -
#19  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17807		 -
#20  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17801		 -
#21  Short offline	   Completed without error	   00%	 17795		 -


Is 21 the max number of logs that are shown or is 21 simply the maximum that are stored by any drive? All of my spinning and SSD drives report 21 tests in the logs.

I will try to remember to check for extended test logs after the 27th as that is my next scheduled long test.

Cheers,
 

Jailer

Not strong, but bad
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
4,974
Every 6 hours? o_O

21 tests is all mine show as well.
 
Top