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[Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's questionable if it should be considered a bug or not. The culprit
is smartd. Ironically I used the package smartmontools 6.3+svn4002-2 to
get smartctl, for testing if something wakes up a green drive. Despite
the policy to autostart everything by default, that can be autostarted
for better or worse, it's to consider if the default configuration, to
poll every 30 minutes, is a wise decision. By an EU Regulation all
external hard disk drives are forced to spin down and go to sleep after
a while. I disabled smartd.service, any unneeded service is unwanted on
my machine.

After disabling it, nothing does wake up a green drive anymore.

[root@moonstudio weremouse]# echo;date;t=10800;y=$(smartctl -A
/dev/sdc|grep Lo|awk '{print $NF}');sleep $t;x=$(smartctl -A
/dev/sdc|grep Lo|awk '{print $NF}');printf "\n$(uname -rm)$(lsb_release
-d|cut -f2 -d:|cut -f1 -d"(")\n$x-$y=$((x-y)) spins in $(($t/60/60))
hours\n\n";date

Mon Aug 24 15:00:50 CEST 2015

3.10.61-rt65-1-moonstudio x86_64	Ubuntu Wily Werewolf 
15377-15376=1 spins in 3 hours

Mon Aug 24 18:00:56 CEST 2015

The only spin is caused by smartctl, when it was executed on demand, to
finish the test.

How I noticed that smartd is the culprit:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2015-August/015782.html

A note regarding smartd:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2015-August/015784.html

** Package changed: linux (Ubuntu) => smartmontools (Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1484497

Title:
  [Wily] wakes up green drives without a valid reason

Status in smartmontools package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Hi,

  a minimalist Wily server install, around 4.5 GiB small does cause
  endless spin downs and spin ups, so that green drives get damaged. I
  maintain an around 37.5 GiB large Arch Linux install, quasi using the
  same software used by the Wily install and in addition a little bit
  more software, which isn't used by the Wily install. For Arch Linux I
  don't experience this issue. I expect the same for an Ubuntu install.

  I'm already hunting the culprit, see
  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-devel/2015-August/006570.html and
  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-devel/2015-August/006571.html,
  but run out of ideas.

  The claim the install is 2 GiB small is a typo, the backup archive is
  of that size.

  However, assumed Ubuntu won't contribute to
  http://andrewmcconnell.photoshelter.com/gallery/G0000oLuiBLHIsmM this
  "feature" should be removed from the defaults.

  $ lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu Wily Werewolf (development branch)
  Release:	15.10

  Regards,
  Ralf

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