% of filled HD = slow?

jonte1 · August 28, 2014, 5:24pm

Hello!
System (this is my main DE PC) openSUSE 13.1_64, KDE 4.11.4, APU AMD A3850, 4GM Ram, HD WDC WD8000AARS-0(800GB) Rev 80.0 . File system Ext4.

I think that I have read that Linux HD’s doesn’t have to be defragmented, but when you reach a certain grade of >Xn% full it’s getting slower. I did a quick backup to my DE HD for some (for me) important Dir/files.

# df
Filesystem         1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2           20510716  13627096   5818664  71% /
devtmpfs             1752400        44   1752356   1% /dev
tmpfs                1766752      2812   1763940   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                1766752      7212   1759540   1% /run
tmpfs                1766752         0   1766752   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                1766752      7212   1759540   1% /var/lock
tmpfs                1766752      7212   1759540   1% /var/run
/dev/sda3          746311160 633170524 112365912  85% /home
192.168.0.1:/home 1419298816 785635328 561544192  59% /home/****/ss

OK, - I need to look into the tread “The wisdom of emptying tmp at boot time” in the forum. A large / but this installation have been around for some time and had been updated on the run (rolling) to newer versions of openSUSE. I deleted /tmp and:

# df
Filesystem         1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2           20510716  10279188   9166572  53% /
devtmpfs             1752400        44   1752356   1% /dev
tmpfs                1766752      2824   1763928   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                1766752      7224   1759528   1% /run
tmpfs                1766752         0   1766752   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                1766752      7224   1759528   1% /var/lock
tmpfs                1766752      7224   1759528   1% /var/run
/dev/sda3          746311160 633171416 112365020  85% /home
192.168.0.1:/home 1419298816 785635328 561544192  59% /home/****/ss

The HD sounds like that a handful of gravel have been throw in to it when new programs started and it’s painfully slow.

Is this “normal” ?

regards

gogalthorp · August 28, 2014, 6:18pm

No and the hard drive making sounds is not good it could be trying to reread a defective sector. Run smartctl to check the health of the drive

Note you can in most cases defrag a Linux partition but normally it is not needed. and may depend on the file system used.

ab · August 28, 2014, 6:25pm

On 08/28/2014 09:26 AM, jonte1 wrote:
>
> Hello!
> System (this is my main DE PC) openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.11.4, APU AMD A3850,
> 4GM Ram, HD WDC WD8000AARS-0(800GB) Rev 80.0 . File system Ext4.
>
> I think that I have read that Linux HD’s doesn’t have to be
> defragmented, but when you reach a certain grade of >Xn% full it’s
> getting slower. I did a quick backup to my DE HD for some (for me)
> important Dir/files.
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> # df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda2 20510716 13627096 5818664 71% /
> devtmpfs 1752400 44 1752356 1% /dev
> tmpfs 1766752 2812 1763940 1% /dev/shm
> tmpfs 1766752 7212 1759540 1% /run
> tmpfs 1766752 0 1766752 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
> tmpfs 1766752 7212 1759540 1% /var/lock
> tmpfs 1766752 7212 1759540 1% /var/run
> /dev/sda3 746311160 633170524 112365912 85% /home
> 192.168.0.1:/home 1419298816 785635328 561544192 59% /home//ss
> --------------------
>
>
> OK, - I need to look into the tread “The wisdom of emptying tmp at boot
> time” in the forum. A large / but this installation have been around for
> some time and had been updated on the run (rolling) to newer versions of
> openSUSE. I deleted /tmp and:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> # df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda2 20510716 10279188 9166572 53% /
> devtmpfs 1752400 44 1752356 1% /dev
> tmpfs 1766752 2824 1763928 1% /dev/shm
> tmpfs 1766752 7224 1759528 1% /run
> tmpfs 1766752 0 1766752 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
> tmpfs 1766752 7224 1759528 1% /var/lock
> tmpfs 1766752 7224 1759528 1% /var/run
> /dev/sda3 746311160 633171416 112365020 85% /home
> 192.168.0.1:/home 1419298816 785635328 561544192 59% /home//ss
> --------------------
>
>
> The HD sounds like that a handful of gravel have been throw in to it
> when new programs started and it’s painfully slow.
>
> Is this “normal” ?

No, a hard drive, even the old spinning ones, should not sound like gravel
ever. Make sure your backup is good and be ready for when the gravel eats
through your platter and the magic smoke is released from your driver,
rendering it useless (a drive, or any computer component, that releases
the magic smoke will not work anymore due to a lack of magic).

–
Good luck.

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show your appreciation and click on the star below…

jonte1 · August 28, 2014, 8:33pm

Ok. I are sick after a big loss of of(double worlds?) data/photos 1996-1999 and thunderstruck here. The backup was on a VM MS SBS2003 server and veritas backup ->SCSI tape station diden’t had a way to reread the tapes.

Just run back up to 2 other disk’s to my DE (esata connected local DE) from my server.

Tested to fill up my local disk to 100%. The Swap was activated at once and was growing by the second.

 
#df
Filesystem         1K-blocks       Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2           20510716   10262736   9183024  53% /
devtmpfs             1752400         32   1752368   1% /dev
tmpfs                1766748         88   1766660   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                1766748       3820   1762928   1% /run
tmpfs                1766748          0   1766748   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                1766748       3820   1762928   1% /var/lock
tmpfs                1766748       3820   1762928   1% /var/run
/dev/sda3          746311160  745319740    216696 100% /home
/dev/sdb1               1922728752 1195725800 725033056  63% /home/jodot/95f75518-578c-43b4-9cc8-9964c89d3784
192.168.0.1:/home       1419298816  785635328 561544192  59% /home/****/ss
192.168.0.1:/home/movie  595988480  265334784 300355584  47% /home/****/ss/movie

top - 19:04:53 up  1:01,  3 users,  load average: 1.61, 1.99, 1.99
Tasks: 216 total,   1 running, 215 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 15.5 us,  6.5 sy,  0.0 ni, 60.4 id, 16.2 wa,  0.0 hi,  1.4 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:   3533500 total,  3400972 used,   132528 free,   142636 buffers
KiB Swap:  2095100 total,    53808 used,  2041292 free,   753028 cached

Run a smartctl --all /dev/sda

****:/home/**** # smartctl --all /dev/sda
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.11.10-21-desktop] (SUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green (AF)
Device Model:     WDC WD8000AARS-00Y5B1
Serial Number:    WD-WCAV59413025
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2043188f3
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    800,166,076,416 bytes [800 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Thu Aug 28 20:04:55 2014 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever 
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:                (18780) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 217) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x3031) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   123   116   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6850
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       3484
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   088   088   000    Old_age   Always       -       9207
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       3477
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       114
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   074   074   000    Old_age   Always       -       378212
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   115   102   000    Old_age   Always       -       32
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Did I get any wiser? Maybe. After deleted backup on local HD I have no problems but can see a purchase in the future for a new HD.

regards

robin_listas · August 29, 2014, 1:03am

On 2014-08-28 20:36, jonte1 wrote:

> Tested to fill up my local disk to 100%. The Swap was activated at once
> and was growing by the second.
>
> Code:
> --------------------

> top - 19:04:53 up 1:01, 3 users, load average: 1.61, 1.99, 1.99
> Tasks: 216 total, 1 running, 215 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
> %Cpu(s): 15.5 us, 6.5 sy, 0.0 ni, 60.4 id, 16.2 wa, 0.0 hi, 1.4 si, 0.0 st
> KiB Mem: 3533500 total, 3400972 used, 132528 free, 142636 buffers
> KiB Swap: 2095100 total, 53808 used, 2041292 free, 753028 cached
>
> --------------------

Swap is just 53 MB used, that’s just a trifle.

> Run a smartctl --all /dev/sda
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> jodotpc:/home/jodot # smartctl --all /dev/sda

> SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
> Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
> ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
> 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0

> 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
> 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
> 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 088 088 000 Old_age Always - 9207

> 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
> 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0

All that is good…

> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

But that is not. You have never tested the disk. Run the short test,
read log, then run long test and read log again.

“smartctl -h” tells you how.

> --------------------

Is that a laptop or a desktop? Generally, I dislike “green” disks. They
do things like parking the heads and powering off aggressively. Not bad
on a laptop, but it shortens the HD life on a desktop.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

jonte1 · August 30, 2014, 11:45am

Mea culpa… looked in to smartct -h and:

smartctl --test=short /dev/sda
...
smartctl --test=long /dev/sda

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Green (AF)
Device Model:     WDC WD8000AARS-00Y5B1
Serial Number:    WD-WCAV59413025
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2043188f3
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    800,166,076,416 bytes [800 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Sat Aug 30 11:40:06 2014 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84) Offline data collection activity
                                        was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever 
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:                (18780) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 217) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x3031) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   123   116   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6841
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       3487
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   088   088   000    Old_age   Always       -       9219
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       3480
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       114
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   074   074   000    Old_age   Always       -       378352
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   118   102   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      9215         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      9212         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

The gravel sound is gone and performance ~ok after del the large bckup. Yes it’s a greendisk. Thinking on a small SSD as system disk and use the mechanital HD as a another bckup in my eSATA dock. I store everything worth saving on my server anyway ~50-90MB/sec in reading from there).

Even if I’m not systemd greatest supporter I realize that I have to relearn commands and start using systemctl syntax. Any signs to have have some of the functionality from systemd in YaST ahead?

regards

robin_listas · August 30, 2014, 4:43pm

On 2014-08-30 11:46, jonte1 wrote:
>
> Mea culpa… looked in to smartct -h and:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> smartctl --test=short /dev/sda
> …
> smartctl --test=long /dev/sda
> --------------------
>
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> …SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
> # 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 9215 -
> # 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 9212 -
>
> …
> --------------------

Well, that’s good

Have a look at parameters 1, 5, 7, 196, and 197. They should still be zero.

> The gravel sound is gone and performance ~ok after del the large bckup.
> Yes it’s a greendisk. Thinking on a small SSD as system disk and use the
> mechanital HD as a another bckup in my eSATA dock. I store everything
> worth saving on my server anyway ~50-90MB/sec in reading from there).

I don’t consider using SSDs here. Maybe on the laptop, but a 500MB unit
is expensive (200€), and I don’t see any 2.5 inch SSD unit in my big
local provider.

> Even if I’m not systemd greatest supporter I realize that I have to
> relearn commands and start using systemctl syntax. Any signs to have
> have some of the functionality from systemd in YaST ahead?

I don’t see how systemd comes in the picture here?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

jonte1 · August 30, 2014, 6:00pm

I don't see how systemd comes in the picture here?

But I do, -I have been asking more then 15 years why it s should be so hard to serve people with a decent graphic interface to do simple user tasks. For a reason I had to start a VM Win8.1 today and using it (IE demands)). I had a check about check HD/Defrag function . It was still there. Easy accessible.

I admit that I was reading the output for smartctl -h and tried at least 6-7 times before I could get syntax right on my local DE in a Konsole.

Yup whatever on a Saturday afternoon :).

regards

robin_listas · August 30, 2014, 7:03pm

On 2014-08-30 18:06, jonte1 wrote:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> I don’t see how systemd comes in the picture here?
> --------------------
>
>
> But I do, -I have been asking more then 15 years why it s should be so
> hard to serve people with a decent graphic interface to do simple user
> tasks. For a reason I had to start a VM Win8.1 today and using it (IE
> demands)). I had a check about check HD/Defrag function . It was still
> there. Easy accessible.
>
> I admit that I was reading the output for smartctl -h and tried at least
> 6-7 times before I could get syntax right on my local DE in a Konsole.

But systemd does not do anything related to hard disk test. Not fsck,
not smart testing (which Windows does not do at all, unless you buy or
download some program for it).

And systemv did neither.

Well, no, both can run the smartd daemon, which outputs text to plain
text logs, and sends emails on emergencies. In beautiful plain text.

Then there is also dbus-daemon which does something similar.

And both systemd and systemv run fsck on boot. Only systemd logs the
result, or tries to.

You are blaming systemd for some thing that is not on its scope. Wait…
systemd is out for world dominance… just wait and it will do it >:-P

You want a graphical tool for this? I did not tell you, on purpose.
More difficult to tell how to use and paste output on email. But you can
try “gnome-disks”, aka Palimpsest, package gnome-disk-utility. It does a
lot of nice things. No, I do not know of a KDE equivalent, maybe it exists.

(careful - that tool can delete partition on a click)

> Yup whatever on a Saturday afternoon :).

I’m going out for some chocolate icecream :-p

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

jonte1 · August 30, 2014, 7:14pm

Hello robin_listas… What is Gnome? Is it something edible in your neighbourhood? In class of San Miquel?

Written whit a in my eye.

regards

robin_listas · August 30, 2014, 8:29pm

On 2014-08-30 19:16, jonte1 wrote:
>
> Hello robin_listas… What is Gnome? Is it something edible in your
> neighbourhood? In class of San Miquel?

I don’t know… the gnome could cast a spell on you while you eat him :-p

> Written whit a in my eye.

I don’t currently use gnome desktop. But using kde, xfce, or whatever
does not stop anybody from using a useful application, regardless what
desktop it was designed for. I don’t care.

Try this “gnome-disks”, it is quite good.

And if somebody knows of a similar tool in kde or another desktop, or
preferably (for me) in --ncurses, please say it!

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

jonte1 · August 30, 2014, 9:58pm

LOL.

regards