Wdphotodbmerger & wdmcserver pegging 100% CPU

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX4
1

I have been seeing regular instances of “wdphotodbmerger” & “wdmcserver” taking 100% of the CPU.  In my case well over 5 days of this.  My EX4 has been in place for about a month and is streaming media & files correctly and effectively.

When I SSH into the unit and look at “/var/log/wdmcserver.log” I find numerous messages of:

"

Apr  3 13:01:41 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2’ (0 items, 0.033 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:06 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:06 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling:  /shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3’ (0 items, 0.102 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:31 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:31 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3/Foobar4’ (0 items, 0.046 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:33 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41a91490] Info  DQSize=0

Apr  3 13:02:57 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:57 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3/Foobar4/Foobar5’ (0 items, 0.110 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%). 

"

repeated ad naseum, every 30 seconds or so…

Now I have a share “Foobar” setup, but this is set for Media Serving “OFF” ad so it shouldn’t be being scanned.

What is wdmcserver doing crawling this share???

How can I get a log from wdphotodbmerger???

Until I can get some help to figure this out I am assuming that this is a bug.  I have stopped both the wdmcserver & the wdphotomerger daemons.

2

Hello,

Most likely the system is trying to create thumbnails of the photos that you copied over to the device.

In ideal situations, it should die down once the thumbnails are all taken care of.

See if these links help.

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX4/CPU-Spike-at-100/m-p/631927#M117

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX4/WDPHOTODBMERGER-and-WDMCSERVER/m-p/644139/highlight/true#M285

3

Thanks for the response - the puzzle is that I have not selected “Media Serving” for the share in question.  It appears as though the firmware is not checking this correctly before trying to scan the volume.

Since stopping the 2 daemons, the NAS is “sleeping” as per expectation.

4

A little more information here.  I have turned on the automatic power-off feature on my EX4, basically because I don’t want the unit spun-up overnight when it’s standby mode seems to be so hit-and-miss.  If standby mode was reliable, I wouldn’t need to do this.  And to be fair, I woudn’t be worrying about it at all if I had Red drives in the unit, rather than the Green units that I have…

Ironically perhaps, after the first days of this regime, the unit is now regularly in standby.  The only thing I can think off is that the logging behaviour that I have observered (i.e. the fault in wdmcserver continually re-scanning the same directories on a share whcih has “Media Server” turned off), was forcing the disks to remain active.  Even the stopping of both the wdphotodmerger and wdmcserver daemons wasn’t sufficient to stop periodic disk activity.  I could also be that some of the systems at home (I have a streaming media player, another NAS and a varity of wireless AP’s and PC’s & Mac’s) was keeping the unit alive.  

In addition the wdphotodmerger and wdmcserver daemons are quiet…

5

this happens to ALL OF US.

:frowning:

one thing you can try doing is goto your EX4’s “twonky” page

http://[yourserver]:9000

then goto settings and change the scan option to do “video only” and take out the photos.  it should help.

6

HDKnows wrote:

Hello,

 

 

Most likely the system is trying to create thumbnails of the photos that you copied over to the device.
 
In ideal situations, it should die down once the thumbnails are all taken care of.

 

See if these links help.

 

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX4/CPU-Spike-at-100/m-p/631927#M117

 

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX4/WDPHOTODBMERGER-and-WDMCSERVER/m-p/644139/highlight/true#M285

    • *> Why force users to create multiple topics on this same issue instead of just making it a sticky so we can find the biggest issues right away by opening the EX4 section of the forum?
7

skiwi wrote:

I have been seeing regular instances of “wdphotodbmerger” & “wdmcserver” taking 100% of the CPU.  In my case well over 5 days of this.  My EX4 has been in place for about a month and is streaming media & files correctly and effectively.

 

When I SSH into the unit and look at “/var/log/wdmcserver.log” I find numerous messages of:

 

"

Apr  3 13:01:41 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2’ (0 items, 0.033 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:06 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:06 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling:  /shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3’ (0 items, 0.102 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:31 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:31 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3/Foobar4’ (0 items, 0.046 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr  3 13:02:33 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41a91490] Info  DQSize=0

Apr  3 13:02:57 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41e11490] Info  IdleProcessor::Alarm

Apr  3 13:02:57 Eatons-NAS wdmcserver: [3885:0x41d91490] Info  Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume_1/Foobar/Foobar2/Foobar3/Foobar4/Foobar5’ (0 items, 0.110 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%). 

"

 

repeated ad naseum, every 30 seconds or so…

 

Now I have a share “Foobar” setup, but this is set for Media Serving “OFF” ad so it shouldn’t be being scanned.

 

What is wdmcserver doing crawling this share???

 

How can I get a log from wdphotodbmerger???

 

Until I can get some help to figure this out I am assuming that this is a bug.  I have stopped both the wdmcserver & the wdphotomerger daemons.

 

Hi guys, this issue is currently under investigation. 

8

jubei04 wrote:

Hi guys, this issue is currently under investigation. 

Since this affects so many users they should probably make the firmware update for the EX4 a top priority.  Theres tons of threads related to same issue.

9

Jumpman wrote:

jubei04 wrote:

Hi guys, this issue is currently under investigation. 

Since this affects so many users they should probably make the firmware update for the EX4 a top priority.  Theres tons of threads related to same issue.

We are making this a priority.  However, we’re still in the middle of validating and testing.

1 Like
10

Thanks - it’s good to know that it is being looked at.

I have further information.  A folder in my EX4 is updated weekly with 4 patch files.  When these patches come through, I will see this EX4 behaviour (high wdphotodbmerger and wdmcserver CPU)  solely focussed on those dircectories (as per the /var/log/wdmcserver.log log) DESPITE me not having media service on for the share in question (these are software patches but they will, in some instances include GIF/JPG files - the software is maintenance software with diagrams).

According to the /var/log/wdmcserver.log these directories are getting continually trawled.  If I stop the daemons, and then resatrt them, the behaviour does not go away, but a stop/restart of the unit returns it to normal operation

11

With regard to the red drives, I had one fail after a month and a half.  Like all drives,even the most reliable, they are subject to failure.

12

OK I have upgraded the firmware to 1.02.36 and can say that the issue appears to be mitigated somewhat, but not solved. 

Since the upgrade I have copied media files to shares with MEDIA SERVING turned OFF and there is still evidence (per the /var/log/wdmcserver.log file) of trawling of this share.  But it seems as though the wdmcserverd process no longer peggs the CPU.  With wdmcserverd (and wdphotodbmergerd) busy, I’m seeing it keeping over 10% CPU headroom at all times.  Which is good.

Interestingly, on a share with MEDIA SERVING tured ON and a number of movie files copied, there is no exidence (per the log file) of any of this activity - the activiity only occurs to the share with MEDIA ACCESS turned OFF.  

Still not sure why  /var/log/wdmcserver.log shows wdmcserverd crawling a share with MEDIA ACCESS turned off.

Looking at the log, there appears to be 3 passes (" AutoTranscoding P1 :96x, AutoTranscoding P2: 1024x, & AutoTranscoding P3 160x),  After these 3 passes, rather than the log going quiet, it will repeat all over again, but without wdmcserverd using allt he CPU.

So the problem appears not to be solved, but mitigated, although still a puzzle on why the share is crawled in the first place, Given this behaviour though I canot see how the EX4 would ever enter “Standby” state with drives set off.

a cut from the log is here - the offending directory is “Foobar 4” on Share 2 - this cycle has repeated over 10x in the last 30 minutes. 

"Apr 18 12:11:04 Info AutoTranscoding P1: 96x 

Apr 18 12:11:08 Info Finished extracting metadata on ‘/shares/Volume’ for category: ‘image’ (0 items, 3.407 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:08 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P1 (0 items, 0.088 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:11 Info Finished extracting metadata on ‘/shares/Volume’ for category: ‘audio’ (0 items, 2.863 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:13 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P1 (0 items, 2.388 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:16 Info Finished extracting metadata on ‘/shares/Volume’ for category: ‘video’ (0 items, 3.244 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:17 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P1 (0 items, 0.449 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:20 Info Finished extracting metadata on ‘/shares/Volume’ for category: ‘other’ (0 items, 3.134 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:20 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P1 (0 items, 0.190 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:20 Info AutoTranscoding P2: 1024x 

Apr 18 12:11:20 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P2 (0 items, 0.100 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:24 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P2 (0 items, 3.808 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:24 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P2 (0 items, 0.288 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:24 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P2 (0 items, 0.099 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:24 Info AutoTranscoding P3: 160x 

Apr 18 12:11:25 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P3 (0 items, 0.120 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:28 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P3 (0 items, 3.089 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:28 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P3 (0 items, 0.020 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:11:28 Info Finished transcoding on ‘/shares/Volume’ for P3 (0 items, 0.013 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:15:28 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume’ (0 items, 260.990 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:15:38 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 1’ (0 items, 0.047 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:15:46 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 2’ (0 items, 0.075 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:15:53 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 2/Foobar 1’ (0 items, 0.044 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:15:58 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 2/Foobar 1/Foobar 2’ (0 items, 0.069 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:16:06 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 2/Foobar 1/Foobar 2/Foobar 3’ (0 items, 0.060 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

Apr 18 12:16:12 Info Finished crawling: ‘/shares/Volume/Share 2/Foobar 1/Foobar 2/Foobar 3/Foobar 4’ (0 items, 0.045 W   0.000 U   0.000 S   0.0%).

"

A re-boot fixes this behaviour.  Until the next time I put files into that directory.

13

wdmcserver isn’t the media server. It’s the WD My Cloud server.

14

OK thanks for the clarification.  Any idea what wdmcserverd is doing with the share subfolder???

15

I’m not 100% certain, but IIRC, wdmcserverd is generating thumbnails for videos, music, and photo files that are then used by the My Cloud remote apps (or My Cloud desktop app) when browsing those folders, such as:

Untitled.png
Untitled.png1024×768 126 KB

16

Hi skiwi

I’ve got the same problem.

How do you kill those deamons?

Could you give me step by step directions? I’ d be so gratefull.

I’ve got a 4TB MyCloud Mirror, but I guess the procedure is the same.

Any other advice would be welcome too.

17

  1. open  ssh in your terminal 

  2. copy or type:

/etc/init.d/wdmcserverd stop

/etc/init.d/wdphotodbmergerd stop

You can see the log file by typing: cat /var/log/wdmcserver.log

having said that I have not had the issue re-occur over the last 3 weeks.  I’m not sure why but the unit has stabalised and is going into Standby regularly, and CPU usage is very very low - even when I re-create the file updates I have outlined in this thread.

18

Spoke too soon - the behaviour has come back again…

19

How’s it working now?

20

I have been runnning the new firmware (1.03.39) since release and have, in that time gone through my software patching cycle (outlined in the thread) 5 times.

At no time has the behaviour reappeared.  In other words, once the wdmcserver transcoding pass has finished wdmcserver no longer executes and the /var/log/wdmcserver.log file is clean - apart from the original transcoding run.  The behaviour where continual transcoding runs would be logged in /var/log/wdmcserver.log a few minutes apart no longer occurs.

Thanks!

However, I would note that the unit appears to no longer be going into standby.  However, by looking at a cpu chart and the drive lights, I believe that the unit is in actual fact in standby, it is just that the display is not saying so.