Seagate ST4000DM004 random hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients

1. offizieller Beitrag

    Hi all,

    I recently added a brand new HDD to my NAS to store all media files. Client access these media files via SMB and the clients decode the files themselfs. (no transcoding on NAS)

    When playing these video's randomly the video freezes for 1-5sec before continuing. I've checked the following:

    - No client issue because all SMB connected devices are facing this issue.

    - checked for network congestion

    - checked TOP when freezing -> NAS is basicaly idle

    - ran SMART tests -> all passed. (drive is brand new)

    - tried other SATA cables and SATA ports

    - # fsck /dev/sdc1

    fsck from util-linux 2.29.2

    e2fsck 1.44.5 (15-Dec-2018)

    Media: clean, 3089/244195328 files, 520796728/976754385 blocks


    The general config file/report is included in the attachment. The new disk is /dev/sdc1


    Any ideas?


    Much appreciated!

    Pariclas

  • Pariclas

    Hat den Titel des Themas von „Random hiccups / stutters when serving videofiles to clients“ zu „Random hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients“ geändert.

    Hi, could you tell us more about the hardware involved?

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

    • Offizieller Beitrag


    If your not transcoding as you say....really just about any client NAS (and probably a ton of clients) should be able to pull this off no problem. Even my NAS which is running a old Celeron and my laptops (which are pushing about 5-6yrs old each) stream over NFS and/or SMB just fine to everything I have (laptops, an Nvidia Shield and a Firestick, all of which use Kodi to access the shares). I even use 5400 rpm drives, again,.. .no problems at all here with anything up to 1080p (I don't usually try to find 4k stuff)


    I suspect it will be something in your networking setup. Given my experience even with pretty old hardware,.. what you're doing should work just fine. What's our router make/model, switch make/model (if you have one) and the NIC on your NAS?

    Hi,


    Thanks for reply.

    The problem only occurs when accessing files from this new drive. Mediafiles on other drives in this NAS work fine.

    IMO this rules out NIC's, switches and my firewall/router.


    The disk is a Seagate 4TB ST4000DM004, purshased in december 2020. I already looked into some fora for more info on this particular drive type and model.

    Apparently it has aggresive spin down timers and power saving settings. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to force the disk to be in 'active state' the whole time, instead of entering an idle or sleep mode. It doesn't help this drive does NOT support APM, which rules out hdparm or sdparm to tweak power disk settings.


    However I'm not sure these power related settings are actually causing my problem . But.. at this time the drive settings seem to be the only possible reason for the issue I'm facing.

    Do you guys agree?


    Greetings,

    Pariclas

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I just searched for that drive and found myself on Amazon, as you do, some of the comments in there threw out a warning that these drives are SMR drives but Seagate don't state that in the data you have to find that out yourself.

    There is a thread regarding this on the forum somewhere and by the power Grayskull that's confirmed on the Seagate site, not sure if that is the cause of the problem.

    Zitat von geaves

    these drives are SMR drives but Seagate don't state that in the data

    this is exactly the reason I asked for more details like model numbers of hardware.

    This is the only way to find the known issues quickly. Sometimes ever serials are needed

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

    @Pariclas you didn't share OS & OMV version details yet. Recent OS versions seem to handle issues caused by SMR drives much better or even fix them.

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

    Hi guys,


    I think I resolved the issue. I used the hd-idle tool to force the drive to never spin down and remain active constantly. (https://github.com/adelolmo/hd-idle) The program automatically runs at startup and keeps the drive awake. A 30 min playback worked perfectly.


    If the issue occurs again I will upload all details of my installation.


    Off topic: SMR seems to almost completely affect write performance, not read performance like in my case)


    Greetz and thanks for your help so far,

    Pariclas

    I'd see this as a temporary workaround only, because it negatively impacts energy consumption while the HDD is actually not used.

    Did you consider to complain to the manufacturer via their support hotline?

    Personally I'd make it a warranty claim, because the HDD is not working as required for this normal usage pattern!

    Returns are costly, therefore manufactures will consider a firmware update.

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

    what I forgot, would you mind to change to title to "Seagate ST4000DM004 HDD cause stutters when serving (video)files to clients"?

    This way everybody will see what this the root cause and search machines will show it to potential new customers for this HDD =>pressure on manufacturer increases

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

  • Pariclas

    Hat den Titel des Themas von „Random hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients“ zu „Seagate ST4000DM004 andom hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients“ geändert.

    mi-hol,


    I know what you're getting at, but I consulted the product page and it clearly states that APM is not supported. I might try looking for a newer firmware. Using this workaround is good enough for me personally since I dont use my NAS too often. It's shut down most of the time.

    Users looking for heavy duty disks probably will stay away from a 80 euro 4TB disk anyway.


    I changed the subject :)


    Still got some more testing to do first, to verify it works 100%

    Zitat von Pariclas

    changed the subject

    a typo sneaked in "andom" and actually from how you described its all but random

    omv 6.9.6-2 (Shaitan) on RPi CM4/4GB with 64bit Kernel 6.1.21-v8+

    2x 6TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 via 2port PCIe SATA card with ASM1061R chipset providing hardware supported RAID1


    omv 6.9.3-1 (Shaitan) on RPi4/4GB with 32bit Kernel 5.10.63 and WittyPi 3 V2 RTC HAT

    2x 3TB 3.5'' HDDs (CMR) formatted with ext4 in Icy Box IB-RD3662-C31 / hardware supported RAID1

    For Read/Write performance of SMB shares hosted on this hardware see forum here

  • Pariclas

    Hat den Titel des Themas von „Seagate ST4000DM004 andom hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients“ zu „Seagate ST4000DM004 random hiccups / stutters when serving (video)files to clients“ geändert.

    Hello mi-hol,


    Issue isn't fixed using hd-idle..

    I attached the system report to this post as you asked for.


    To summarize all things I tested:

    - No client issue because all SMB connected devices are facing this issue.

    - checked for network congestion

    - checked TOP when freezing -> NAS is basically idle

    - ran SMART tests -> all passed. (drive is brand new)

    - tried other SATA cables and SATA ports

    - fsck /dev/sdc1 and badblocks

    - hd-idle utility to keep disk active constantly


    Grtz

    Pariclas

    Hello all,


    I was enable to identify the issue.

    iotop showed the smb daemon consuming 100% io for a very short time. This occurs randomly and always happens when my videos freeze.

    Since I'm not to keen on troubleshooting smb I now use Plex. Plex also allows you to serve the untranscoded video files to clients. Using Plex everything works fine.

    Still seems very strange to me that this particular disk has issues with smb (io), and my other disks don't. If you happen to know the explanation, please let me know.


    Grtz,

    Pariclas

  • Pariclas

    Hat das Label OMV 4.x hinzugefügt.

  • Pariclas

    Hat das Label gelöst hinzugefügt.

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