Drive constantly working

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 8:29am

Hi,

I transfered all my images to my cloud, that is a big lot of 50 000 images.

All went fine. When no device were accessing the drive, the blue activity light was stable, and I couldn’t hear the drive working.

I then installed the WD PHOTOS app on my iPhone, and accessed the drive. It launched an “initial configuration” phase where it went on indexing all the photos which of course caused the drive to work. After 1 hour, I decided to cancel the process and even uninstalled the app.

But since then the drive is constantly working. I tried to shut it down, reboot… nothing will stop it working.

My questions are:

Shouldn’t the drive activity light be stable when no device is accessing the drive ? It was my impression that when the drive was not solicitated it was quite.
Could the WD photo app has launched an indexing process that is still ongoing even after a shut down ?

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 8:39am

It could be your phone I remember I have to uninstall that app because my phone was always trying to upload something even after it finished uploading all my photos. Try uninstalling the app or keeping your phone off or on airplane mode during the night and see what happens. If the drive goes back to sleep its a dead give away that is the phone. It could also be the built in media crawler generating thumbnails for all your pictures. If memory serves me right I remember that being an issue on large video/picture libraries a while back.

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 8:41am

Hi won’t help, I uninstalled the app already and went to air plane mode during the whole night.

How could I SSH into device and see what’s going on ? I enabled SSH, set password, but how to I get in, and what should I type ?

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 8:45am

You’ll need an SSH client.

If your on a MAC open a terminal and type in “ssh root@10.0.0.3” change 10.0.0.3 for your myclouds IP Address,

If you don’t know it open a terinal or command prompt, type “ping MyCloud” and hit enter. The reply address that follows will be your devices IP ADDRESS.

Enter the ssh password, Default password for ssh is welc0me.

You’ll be asked something about a key just enter yes and hit enter.

If your on a windows machine download putty, google it its a popular ssh client for windows

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 8:50am

once in type top and hit enter it should give you somthing that looks like this.

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 8:53am

Thanks for your help.

I see this:

Mem: 496640K used, 12096K free, 0K shrd, 7136K buff, 238880K cached

CPU: 0.5% usr 6.1% sys 93.0% nic 0.0% idle 0.1% io 0.0% irq 0.0% sirq

Load average: 4.82 3.94 2.04 3/196 7097

PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND

4493 1 root S 47616 9.3 0 92.8 {wdmcserver} /usr/local/wdmcserver

3777 1 root S 5280 1.0 0 2.7 system_daemon

4066 4064 root S 31520 6.1 0 0.5 /usr/local/twonky/twonkyserver -D

2537 1 root R 2272 0.4 0 0.5 up_read_daemon

6955 6929 root R 3008 0.5 0 0.2 top

209 2 root SW 0 0.0 0 0.2 [kswapd0]

3 2 root SW 0 0.0 0 0.2 [ksoftirqd/0]

3004 2 root SW 0 0.0 0 0.2 [kworker/0:2]

3050 2 root SW 0 0.0 0 0.2 [jbd2/md1-8]

2421 1 root S 836m167.9 0 0.0 /usr/local/restsdk/restsdk-server

4190 1 root S 70208 13.7 0 0.0 upnp_nas_device -webdir /etc/upnp

3912 3687 root S 44064 8.6 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

3913 3687 root S 44000 8.6 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

5597 3687 root S 43808 8.5 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

6527 3687 root S 43424 8.5 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

5598 3687 root S 43360 8.5 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

5591 3687 root S 43360 8.5 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

6811 3687 root S 41760 8.1 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

4519 1 root S 41536 8.1 0 0.0 {wdphotodbmerger} /usr/local/wdmcs

7052 3687 root S 41312 8.1 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

3687 1 root S 40896 8.0 0 0.0 httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/h

4586 1 root S 34880 6.8 0 0.0 smbd -D

4328 4253 root S 30016 5.8 0 0.0 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr

4588 1 root S 18368 3.6 0 0.0 nmbd -D

4425 1 root S 16992 3.3 0 0.0 mt-daapd -P /var/run/mt-daapd_daem

2919 1 root S 14368 2.8 0 0.0 mail_daemon

4409 1 root S 10688 2.1 0 0.0 /usr/local/bin/wdnotifier

4662 4650 root S 9568 1.8 0 0.0 /usr/sbin/afpd -d -F /etc/netatalk

6843 3185 root S 8064 1.5 0 0.0 sshd: root@ttyp0

3801 1 root S N 7840 1.5 0 0.0 /usr/local/orion/communicationmana

4424 1 root S 7776 1.5 0 0.0 mt-daapd -P /var/run/mt-daapd_d

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 8:59am

CPU: 0.5% usr 6.1% sys 93.0% nic 0.0% idle 0.1% io 0.0% irq 0.0% sirq

This line is interesting your CPU load is at .5% which is nothing but your NIC load is at 93%. My opinion its definitely being accessed by something on the network. Another PC or phone perhaps.

Compare it to my device’s stats and see

CLOUD9:~# top

top - 02:02:26 up 6 days, 3:11, 1 user, load average: 3.11, 3.15, 3.18

Tasks: 90 total, 1 running, 89 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie

%Cpu(s): 0.3 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni, 99.7 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st

KiB Mem: 232448 total, 169920 used, 62528 free, 7040 buffers

KiB Swap: 500672 total, 103872 used, 396800 free, 33856 cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

12619 root 20 0 4352 3392 1408 R 0.7 1.5 0:04.94 top

1 root 20 0 2752 832 512 S 0.0 0.4 0:18.26 init

2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 kthreadd

3 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 cpu1_hotplug_th

4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 1:19.92 ksoftirqd/0

7 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0

8 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1

10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:41.52 ksoftirqd/1

11 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper

214 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.80 sync_supers

216 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.08 bdi-default

218 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd

224 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata_sff

235 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.46 khubd

241 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 md

264 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rpciod

277 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 1:36.42 kswapd0

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 9:07am

Well I think I solved the problem, altough i’m not sure what was causing it.

I always have my device “Cloud access” off, except when i’m away for a few days.

For some reason it got activated again whithout me being aware of it. Maybe when I installed WD PHOTOS yesterday since it seems to require it. I didn’t activated it myself… it got activated.

Anyway I turned it back off. The hard drive, and activity lights instantly stabilized.

Strange. The only device who ever accessed it with cloud access was the iphone when I installed WD PHOTOS. But even with plane mode and app uninstalled, the drive keep being busy.

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:08am

http://community.wd.com/t5/Network-Product-Ideas/The-options-to-disable-the-convert-wdmcserver-wdphotodbmerger/idi-p/712550

I found this in the threads, I think i will benefit you since the WDMCSERVER is what is causing your problem. I missed that earlier sorry.

4493 1 root S 47616 9.3 0 92.8 {wdmcserver} /usr/local/wdmcserver

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:10am

all the wd apps, and the wd to go site require the cloud access so yeah by setting up the app it would have turned your cloud features back on. But your issue is the WDMCSERVER and im not sure if thats linked with the cloud featues.

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 9:19am

Thanks for the link, I just read it all.

So they said that they implemented a “fix” and that turning cloud access off would shut of this process.

This is exactly what happens for me.

In case it will start again when I need cloud access, shall I do this

$ /etc/init.d/wdmcserverd stop
$ /etc/init.d/wdphotodbmergerd stop

?

tks

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:23am

Well I’m just glad I could be of help, enjoy your MyCloud :smiley:

Remeber to mark the reply that helped you as a solution so that others with this issue can use your thread for refrence.

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 9:25am

Yes, I will mark it as answer.

A question: when the drive is in sleep, should all the led turn off, or do they remain on ?

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:28am

No, when my devices are in “sleep mode” they display a solid blue light. The MyCloud manual specifies what the different colored and blinking lights mean (manual is posed online on the WD site). If they bother you, you have the option of turning it on in the Dashboard.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705103.pdf

look at page 10

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:36am

wait I think see what your saying the constantly blinking lights in the back? Yeah those are always on and should be on and blinking so long as the mycloud is connected to the network. You want to pay attention to the condition of the light in the front of the device and closely listen to see if the harddrive is spinning. You can also just power the device down completely at night.

brakkar · October 10, 2015, 9:40am

No no, don’t worry, I was referring to the front lights and disk spinning. I know the rear lights are network access lights. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for your concern

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 9:46am

yeah just look at page 10 of the manual I refrenced ^ 3 replies up it explains it all, page 10 is the 15th page in the pdf

cpt_paranoia · October 10, 2015, 11:38am

Sleep mode isn’t a solid blue, it’s a slowly pulsing blue, and occurs when the hard disk is actually stopped and parked. Solid blue will have the disk still spinning.

For the indexing and thumbnailing processes, here’s the ‘definitive’ thread:

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/Hidden-wdmc-directories-created-by-mcserver-and-photodbmerger/m-p/682091

Theagustin · October 10, 2015, 3:22pm

I know thats what the manual says, but mines alwayes sold blue. And I know for a fact that the drive is parked becuase I’ll wait and hour go back to it try and access it and I’ll hear it spin back up. My light has never pulsed

deepakvrao · October 10, 2015, 4:48pm

Yup, my drive always has a solid blue LED too, but the drive seems to be spinning all the time though?