SAS adapter does not support windows spin down commands. Native version for DrivePool?

[Benoire]

Hi,

 

I have one of those annoying LSI SAS adaptors (9211-8i) that when set to IT mode (jbod) it will not pass the windows spin down commands to the attached HDDs. unRAID got around this by using a spin down command in Linux and I wondered whether Drivepool had something similar.  If not, is it something that could be added and that every time a new HDD was added to the pool the spin down ability was added for the new HDD automatically?  Would solve my issues immensely!

 

Chris

[Christopher (Drashna)]

No, StableBit DrivePool doesn't have anything like that. We rely on Windows for any spindown or idling of the drives.

 

That said, Check the balancing settings. If you have to immediate balancing, make sure you check the "not more than every X hours" option and set it a couple of hours or more. This should help with that.

 

 

Also, are you using StableBit Scanner, as well?

[Benoire]

Hi Christopher,

 

I have the balancing plugin that fills a single drive at a time as that will ensure that only one or two drives will be spinning out of the pool however ALL drives attached to the SAS card do not spin down at all, only those attached to the motherboard headers actually can use the windows settings.  I believe this is because the LSI HBA cards on the whole do not pass through the windows commands to the drives.  I know SDParm can spin the drives down as I can hear them physically stop but I have no way of creating a script that basically sets it to it on a set interval.

 

I appreciate that perhaps the users of SAS cards are low but I wonder if this is something that could be looked at? Drivepool plus snapraid gives you a very cost effective parity protection using some very simple programs in my opinion.

 

Stablebit scanner shows active at all times for the drives attached to the SAS cards.

 

Chris 

[4Frame]

Hi Benoire,

 

In Scanner, you could try right clicking on a drive, going to "Disk Control" and scrolling to the bottom where you will see "Standby timer" and try setting standby times there. This worked for my setup using 'unsafeDirectIO', but depending on the card itself it still might not pass the command through to the disks.

[Benoire]

H 4Frame,

 

The card itself has been crippled by LSI as its the lower end of their range apparently.  I've allowed unsigned drivers in my install now and have modified the LSI inf to add in a particular but called 'idlepowermanamgement' but unfortunately I'm not sure if this has worked.  Got a new supermicro motherboard coming soon which will be final home for the storage system so will try it on a brand new install and see what happens.

[Shawn]

Not sure what OS you're running but if it's Win 8.1 with update 1 or server 2012 r2 with update 1, then you'll need to run the Windows 7 driver. I ran into this problem when the update 1 patch came out for server 2012r2. I had an IBM m1015 flashed to an LSI 9211 - I've sold it since but I remember reading that the Windows 7 driver works but you might still need to modify the inf file for the idlepowermanamgement thing.

[Benoire]

Thanks Shawn, I will give this a go later!

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@Benoire,

 

Once you get the drivers working for that, and the INF edited, would you mind sending me a copy at christopher@covecube.com?  I'd like to see if we can get it hosted somewhere for others using the same card. (as they're pretty popular from what I've seen)

[Benoire]

Hi Christopher,

 

They appear to be working fine now, I can physically hear the drives spinning down and up.  I'll email the drivers later on when I get home from work as I'm about to leave.

[Benoire]

@Drashna,

 

Email has been sent.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Thanks, and received.

[klepp0906]

On 8/28/2014 at 12:50 AM, Christopher (Drashna) said:

Thanks, and received.

these drivers hosted anywhere?  this is the necro of all necro's but man am i digging around trying to find a solution to get my LSI 2308-e to shoot over spindown commands from win10