Prevent any disk write in idle

Question

I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server. And I want to disable hard drive when it is not used for a long time using SMART capabilities.

So, is it possible to prevent any Ubuntu writes on a hard drive in idle? And from what things should I start?

It is not a problem to set hdparm to disable hard drives. The problem is the system always writes something there, so timout never reached. My question is how to prevent any disk writes, but not to set up hdparm. — GLaz, Dec 02 '16 at 13:19
What is writing to disk? Have a look at this question in terms of more aggressive disk caching. Can the program writing to disk use a RAM disk? — Nick Sillito, Dec 02 '16 at 18:55

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 01 '16 at 21:09

You can set a disk to spin down when it is not accessed for a certain period of time

You need to edit /etc/hdparm.conf

try an entry along the lines of

/dev/disk/by-id/disk_id { spindown_time = 36 }

The spindown time is in blocks of 5 seconds, so 36 means spindown after 3 minutes on inactivity. disk_id is the id of the disk you want to spin down (ls -l /dev/disk/by-id to find the right one)

Prevent any disk write in idle

1 Answers1