It's questionable if it should be considered a bug or not. The culprit is smartd. Ironically I used the package smartmontools 6.3+svn4002-2 to get smartctl, for testing if something wakes up a green drive. Despite the policy to autostart everything by default, that can be autostarted for better or worse, it's to consider if the default configuration, to poll every 30 minutes, is a wise decision. By an EU Regulation all external hard disk drives are forced to spin down and go to sleep after a while. I disabled smartd.service, any unneeded service is unwanted on my machine.
After disabling it, nothing does wake up a green drive anymore. [root@moonstudio weremouse]# echo;date;t=10800;y=$(smartctl -A /dev/sdc|grep Lo|awk '{print $NF}');sleep $t;x=$(smartctl -A /dev/sdc|grep Lo|awk '{print $NF}');printf "\n$(uname -rm)$(lsb_release -d|cut -f2 -d:|cut -f1 -d"(")\n$x-$y=$((x-y)) spins in $(($t/60/60)) hours\n\n";date Mon Aug 24 15:00:50 CEST 2015 3.10.61-rt65-1-moonstudio x86_64 Ubuntu Wily Werewolf 15377-15376=1 spins in 3 hours Mon Aug 24 18:00:56 CEST 2015 The only spin is caused by smartctl, when it was executed on demand, to finish the test. How I noticed that smartd is the culprit: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2015-August/015782.html A note regarding smartd: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2015-August/015784.html ** Package changed: linux (Ubuntu) => smartmontools (Ubuntu) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1484497 Title: [Wily] wakes up green drives without a valid reason Status in smartmontools package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Hi, a minimalist Wily server install, around 4.5 GiB small does cause endless spin downs and spin ups, so that green drives get damaged. I maintain an around 37.5 GiB large Arch Linux install, quasi using the same software used by the Wily install and in addition a little bit more software, which isn't used by the Wily install. For Arch Linux I don't experience this issue. I expect the same for an Ubuntu install. I'm already hunting the culprit, see https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-devel/2015-August/006570.html and https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-devel/2015-August/006571.html, but run out of ideas. The claim the install is 2 GiB small is a typo, the backup archive is of that size. However, assumed Ubuntu won't contribute to http://andrewmcconnell.photoshelter.com/gallery/G0000oLuiBLHIsmM this "feature" should be removed from the defaults. $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu Wily Werewolf (development branch) Release: 15.10 Regards, Ralf To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smartmontools/+bug/1484497/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp