Hello – new user here. I recently updated my My Cloud EX2 to firmware version 2.12.127 and its performance has nosedived. The dashboard takes ages to respond (it can time out before loading fully); it takes 20-30 seconds to view the contents of a folder on the NAS in Windows Explorer; making a copy of a small file in the same folder (i.e. only on the NAS with no network transfer) takes 30+ seconds. GoodSync times out while synchronising a folder.
Two 6TB WD Red drives are installed in RAID 1 with 3.42TB free. The power LED is solid blue; both HDD LEDs are continuously blinking. This tells me the drives are working and being continually accessed.
Dashboard access is equally slow via Chrome, IE and Edge. All cloud sharing and media services are turned off from the dashboard. No user has cloud access enabled. No USB devices are connected. The NAS has been connected via the same gigabit switch and cables, before and after the firmware update.
Dashboard Device Activity:
CPU: The dashboard shows repeated spikes of CPU activity every 10-15 seconds
LAN: Network Tx and Rx is barely noticeable on the chart (0.00MB Tx, up to 2MB Rx).
Processes: 53 processes running. upnp_nas_device and httpd show occasional CPU usage.
I have read online that automatic thumbnail generation can slow the drive down, I have tried connecting via SSH to disable wdmcserverd and wdphotodbmergerd:
/etc/init.d/wdmcserverd stop
/etc/init.d/wdphotodbmergerd stop
Both commands result in an error message: You need to specify whom to kill.
I’ve used the command ps to show a list of all process IDs; wdmcserverd and wdphotodbmergerd are not listed (note – they are not listed in the web Dashboard Processes list either).
I have two questions:
Am I correct to assume these processes are not running on my EX2?
Thanks for replying thetick. Google has been my friend for a long time and the blog you’ve linked is one of the most straightforward to follow.
As I stated in my original post, the wdmcserverd and wdphotodbmerger jobs aren’t running, so trying to stop the Indexing Services results in an error (e.g. wdmcserver: not found).
Have you had any success with other ways of improving performance?
@thetick… thank-you for the update and apologies for not giving you feedback sooner. I haven’t fixed the issue yet, but I have a slightly different result, so that’s progress!
Previously when I tred to stop the incorrectly named service this happened:
root@WDMyCloudEX2 root # /etc/init.d/wdmcserver stop
-sh: /etc/init.d/wdmcserver: not found
Adding that missing “d” to the service names causes this:
root@WDMyCloudEX2 root # /etc/init.d/wdmcserverd stop
Stopping wdmcserver
sh: you need to specify whom to kill
The difference between “…not found” and “stopping…” is progress, but I still don’t know what to do about “you need to specify whom to kill”. I’m a command line novice, so I’m guessing I may need to add an extra element to the stop command to “specify” the correct service.
I think you are fine and can ignore the “sh: you need to specify whom to kill”. I think it’s just some sloppy testing or lack there of on WD’s part to cleanup irrelevant logging. WD has great hardware but their software is very sloppy at best. Note during my career I accumulated decades of hardware, software and firmware development and testing knowledge so I like to think I know a bit about sloppy work.
Thank-you thetick. Unfortunately even after those commands (and neither process showing up in a list of active processes) the disks are still being hammered. I’ve turned off cloud sharing and DLNA sharing already.
Do you have any other insights about what could be occupying its time, or how to find out?
Thanks for trying to help thetick. If I’ve correctly understood the syntax, that command will show the details of the top four CPU-consuming processes.
Like this:
root@WDMyCloudEX2 root # ps aux | sort -rk 3,3 | head -n 5
3249 messageb 3520 S /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
4428 root 86592 S upnp_nas_device -webdir /etc/upnp
17953 root 71136 S httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf -k graceful
17952 root 69536 S httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf -k graceful
27093 root 67328 S httpd -f /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf -k graceful
I haven’t done anything new to the MyCloud since your last suggestion, but in the last week it has stopped hammering its disks and all the LEDs are steady blue.
That could be because it finished its indexing at last, or there was a delayed response to something you advised previously (I’m just guessing!). Either way, thank-you very much for pitching in and trying to help me on this one. I can be grateful for a NAS that seems to be behaving itself for the time being!
