Re: Controlling power settings for external USB disk drives using sdparm
Update to this:
In the message below, I said that setting "SCT=18000" would be a 15
minute spindown, but this does not appear to be correct.
I suspect this parameter is like the hdparm -S argument, which is
non-linear.
I have confirmed that SCT=1200 is 1-minute, and SCT=3000 is 5-minutes.
I tested with SCT=9000 but about two hours later the drive is still
spinning.
If you want a spindown time longer than 5-minutes, you'll have to figure
it out yourself, because I have no idea.
Additionally, I wrote the following compound "--set" command below:
"sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set SCT=18000 --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb"
This doesn't appear to work right, even though the man page says it's
possible and there are no errors. If you issue the set commands
independently though, it works:
sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set SCT=18000 /dev/sdb
sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
Notes updated with corrections:
# Show your disks and devices
udisksctl status
udisksctl info -b /dev/sdb
# Interogate the device to collect info:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -i /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -i -a /dev/sdb
# Show all of the parameters/settings:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -a /dev/sdb
# Immediately start and stop the disk:
sudo sdparm --readonly --command=stop /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --command=start /dev/sdb
# Per the hdparm man page, It may be necessary to mark the disk
as "offline" with:
# sudo bash -c 'echo offline > /sys/block/sdb/device/state'
# Normalize with:
# sudo bash -c 'echo running > /sys/block/sdb/device/state'
# Get the auto-spindown parameter current settings:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --get SCT /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --get STANDBY /dev/sdb
# SCT = spindown timer in 100 miliseconds.
# NOTE: The sdparm man page says SCT is measured in 100ms. but
for my Seagate drive, it varies.
# STANDBY = the spindown timer on/off switch. 0=off (never spin
down), 1=on (spin down to timer)
# These were my default values on my ST4000DM000:
# STANDBY 0 [cha: y, def: 1, sav: 1]
# SCT 4294967286 [cha: y, def:9000, sav:9000]
# This means the device NEVER spins down by default.
# Set the auto-spindown parameters to spin down after 5 minutes of
inactivity:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set SCT=3000 /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
# NOTE: this these settings are lost on reboot.
# Set and save the auto-spindown parameters to spin down after 5 minutes
of inactivity:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --save --set SCT=3000 /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --save --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
# NOTE: Values will be saved to the device and *should* be
retained between reboots and host moves.
# NOTE: My Seagate ST4000DM000 failed to save settings. Not all
drives will support this.
On 8/4/15 3:09, Jesse Molina wrote:
Hi everyone
I wanted to post, for posterity, what I recently learned while playing
with my new external USB3 disk drive.
I needed to control the power settings for this drive. I noticed that
it was never ever spinning down, so I wanted to be able to either
power in up/down on command, or have it automatically spin down after
a period of inactivity. In the end, I was able to do both.
My device is a Seagate ST4000DM000. This should probably work for
similar Seagate enclosures, like the STEB2000100, STEB3000100, and
STEB5000100.
I wasn't able to get hdparm to work with my device at all, but that
should probably be your first step. See if "hdparm -i" works, then do
a -I, then try setting the spin-down with -S.
I had to use the sdparm tool instead, and the notes here reflect what
worked for me.
WARNING: Use the /dev/disk/by-id path for USB devices, not
letter-device path like the sdb example I used below.
# Show your disks and devices
udisksctl status
udisksctl info -b /dev/sdb
# Interogate the device to collect info:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -i /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -i -a /dev/sdb
# Show all of the parameters/settings:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l -a /dev/sdb
# Immediately start and stop the disk:
sudo sdparm --readonly --command=stop /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --command=start /dev/sdb
# Per the hdparm man page, It may be necessary to mark the
disk as "offline" with:
# sudo bash -c 'echo offline > /sys/block/sdb/device/state'
# Normalize with:
# sudo bash -c 'echo running > /sys/block/sdb/device/state'
# Get the auto-spindown parameter current settings:
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --get SCT /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --get STANDBY /dev/sdb
# SCT = spindown timer in 100 miliseconds.
# NOTE: The sdparm man page says SCT is measured in 100ms. but
for my Seagate drive, it's actually 1=50ms.
# STANDBY = the spindown timer on/off switch. 0=off (never
spin down), 1=on (spin down to timer)
# These were my default values on my ST4000DM000:
# STANDBY 0 [cha: y, def: 1, sav: 1]
# SCT 4294967286 [cha: y, def:9000, sav:9000]
# This means the device NEVER spins down by default.
# Set the auto-spindown parameters to spin down after 15 minutes of
inactivity (assuming SCT=50ms instead of 100ms):
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set SCT=18000 /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
# NOTE: this these settings are lost on reboot.
# Set the auto-spindown parameters to spin down after 15 minutes of
inactivity (assuming SCT=50ms instead of 100ms):
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --save --set SCT=18000 /dev/sdb
sudo sdparm --flexible -6 -l --save --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
# NOTE: Values will be saved to the device and *should* be
retained between reboots and host moves.
# NOTE: My Seagate ST4000DM000 failed to save settings.
Seagate sucks. Whatever.
Finally, I put this in my /etc/rc.local to set on boot:
sdparm --flexible -6 -l --set SCT=18000 --set STANDBY=1 /dev/sdb
I hope this helps someone. The HOWTOs and examples I found while
searching the internet didn't really help me that much. I had to do a
lot of experimenting before I discovered that this device would not
really talk to me without "--flexible -6" being set, and that
"--readonly" was required with the stop command (or it just spun right
back up).
If you have any feedback or corrections, let me know!
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