Tutorial[ Seagate Disks ]: Optimize Life Span/Power Managment

[tuxd3v]

Hello all,

Following the OpenSeaChest Utilities install here.
Documentation for Configuration: here

There are some nice tuning features,
That can increase disks Life Span, Consume Less current, and Increase Life Span of the power provider Source, etc..


1). Power Up In Standby Mode.
     When System goes up and Power is provided to all components, Power Consumption spikes,
     from processor to disks, and all peripheral components..
     So in this fase,
     Disks also consumes more power, because they need to start the Controller Board,
     and Also start spinning plates , and moving heads..

     Some Seagate Disks, have this option, 
     So to configure Power Up in StandBy( Its a Persistent Feature, so only apply one time, no reboot required  ), disk( sdX ):

Code:

openSeaChest_Configure --device /dev/sdX --puisFeature enable

      In this Way,
      When system goes Up, disks will push a lot less current,
      because only Disks internal controller is up( StandBy Mode, also known as APM mode 1  ).

      Only when you require access( Read Write, the disk will Start spinning and heads will move, and working with the APM configuration they already had..

      So this feature is only working for, starting system up/powering the disks,
      after that, this feature does nothing( disks are already Up ).


2). Low Current SpinUP  
     
     After System Up,
     Each time they go StandBy, it stop spinning the plates, and park its heads..

     But the problem is,
     Each time you request access, they will need to start spinning the plates, and moving heads to read/write..
 
     This start process, is painful, for power Consumption, and creates more vibration( it pushs several Amps in spikes for that.. )..

     So to minimise it,
     Seagate Disks have a Feature, to start spinning in a progressive way, instead of abrupt way.

     To activate this Feature( Its a Persistent Feature, so only apply one time, a reboot  is required  ), disk( sdX ):

Code:

openSeaChest_Configure --device /dev/sdX --lowCurrentSpinup enable

     After steps 1). / 2). ,
     Shutdown the system, if needed take disks out for a bit, insert them again,
     Boot up and check if features are already enabled..


3). Control Park, and Unpark Mode:

     When disks are spinning, after operations, and they are not been used,
     They will go to a less aggressive power State.

     Usually Power Mode 127, permits, that they enter in Standby,  which means stop spinning and park Heads..

     In this situation, you should monitor Park/Unpark Head, if the Number grows very fast or Not..
     Command Bellow will measure Power Cycles and park/Unpark Count:

Code:

apt-get install -y smartmontools && for blockid in {a..d};do smartctl --attributes /dev/sd${blockid}|grep -E "^ 12|^193"; done

     If this values for example in 10-15 minutes grows significantly, the disk life will be Reduced..
     Some Known Characteristics:
         Seagate IronWolf/IronWolf PRO - '600000' Park/Unpark cycles
         Seagate IronWolf                          - ~1,000,000 Hours MTBF( Mean Time Between Failures )
         Seagate IronWolf PRO                 - ~1,200,000 Hours MTBF( Mean Time Between Failures )

3.1). If this value are already too big, or if increasing too fast( measure, for example, at beginning, and at the end of 1 week, .. for example.. ),
        maybe consider, modes >=128

3.2). If this values don't grow too much, of if your disks have low values,
        Then mode 127 seems the best,
        Since you have a lower number of load/unload heads, disks "are like new" on that regard, and so, you can go standby more often..



4). Check if your disk( sdX ) Support Power Balanced Mode:
    You can also configure a power Balanced mode, if your disk supports it..
    Check if supported, disk ( sdX ):

Code:

openSeaChest_PowerControl --device /dev/sdX --powerBalanceFeature info

5). To Check information on Features and so on, about the disks Capabilities,or Enabled ones,
     You can type each time:

Code:

openSeaChest_Basics --deviceInfo --device /dev/sdX

In this way you can check points 1)., 2)., 3)., 4). ...

This article could be improved in the Feature,
For now, here are the first Basic rules.


Hope you Enjoy,
Best Regards

NOTE:
1). The first 4 Points above, forms the base of Seagate Disks Configurations...

     They prolong Disks Life Span,
     They prolong Power Supply Life Span( in this, case power Supply of Rockpro64 )
     They prolong Computer( in this case RockPro64 ) Life Span
     They consume less energy.

2). Each Time you run a Command, if disk is in StandBy( sleeping ),

    It could wake up the disk,if so, the number of Load/Unload Cycles will decrease by 1

    **Use the tools**, to configure and check if your disks are well configured **only when needed**..