NAS5200 - CPU Loading 100%

[dglacey]

My NAS5200 has been running for several months in RAID 5 configuration with no problems. Just recently, the CPU Loading has gone to 100% and stays there (with lots of HDD activity) for long periods of time.

I can access the NAS from my PC and all the files on it are accessible.

However, the CPU loading means that when I try to stream video to my television, the picture is jerky and I lose sound (I assume because there is not enough CPU availabililty to stream at the necessary speed).

Any suggestions as to what might cause this, or what the CPU is doing?

David

The NAS5200 is setup as follows:

Firmware 2.00.04
5 x 750GD HDD in RAID 5 configuration (all healthy)
Raid Information: Level 5, Healthy
Services: All Stopped except Media Server and SMB/CIFS

[DR]

Are you sure all your disks are ok?

[dglacey]

I was worried it might be a bad drive but:

If I go to Storage/Disks and it reports 5 disks each with status "OK".
If I go to Storage/RAID it reports the RAID as "Healthy" with 5 disks used.

Is there any other option for checking drive health?

David

[DR]

Thats the only places I'd check - I would also look at network activity is anything else accessing it? Also what firmware were you running before.. ?

[dglacey]

Thanks DR, I was running 2.00.01 before.

I powered down all the other devices on the network and the HDD activity has subsided. I am at a loss to explaion why it happened - there must have been something going on!

David

[rhumba]

My next task would be to bring up your "other devices" on the network one at a time to see which one is the culprit.

Also, if your 'other devices' mount the folder from the NAS, check to make sure your virus scan ignore those mount. Imagine your virus scan software went off and try to scan the 4TB share you mounted. That alone can clog your network.

Other issues to look for would be uplinking of switches and pay special attention to switch daisy chain.

[dglacey]

Thanks rhumba, I did that and found that the 100% CPU utilisation and drive thrashing continued even with the 5200 disconnected from the network.

I turned off one service after another on the 5200 - when I turned off the media server the utilisation immediately dropped.

The media server is pushing the utilisation to 100%; perhaps doing a rescan of the media looking for new files? I cannot find any way to set the mediaserver to manual scan, so will contact Thecus for more advice.

Thanks to all for help on this.

David

[dglacey]

I contacted Thecus and received a very prompt reply:

<<The Media Server will rescan every 2~3 hours, in case there are lots of media files in the folder, the system will rescan too often thus reduce access performance.

This is a known issue and we will fix it in the future version firmware.>>

Looks like I just need to wait until the next firmware update.

David