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XserveRAID power down at end of work day?
I posted a few days ago on the Xsan forum but since I only got one response I thought I’d throw the question out to the FCP community:
Do those of you who have XserveRAID turn it off and the day’s end or leave it running 24/7? My technician says it’s meant to stay on all the time. In fact it is kind of querky to turn off and yesterday in fact I was not able to – it just didn’t power down using the same tecnique as described in the manual. I am afraid of lighting stikes and general electricity problems…
Given the investment I don’t want to damage it!
Thanks, kimDual 2.7 GHz G5, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9650, Xserve RAID, AJA IO, 2 20″ Cinema Display, FCP 5.02, OS X10.4.2
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5 Replies
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Most people leave drives on all the time. However I’ve never done that, and have always shut down then restarted each day. It can be argued that you should keep them up all the time for longevity, but then, I”ve never done this in 16 years of NLE work and can’t say it’s cost me drives.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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I’d have to say, “Leave ’em on”. In our shop, we often have people working at night, so the systems have to stay on anyway. However, in my experience, most drive failures have occurred on Monday morning after being shutdown all weekend. (Seriously!)
Other considerations are air conditioning. Those drives generate a lot of heat, so if your AC goes off at night, and the drives stay on, that can really raise the temperature in the room. In that case, turn ’em off.
This “on/off” debate has existed forever. There is no conclusive answer.
Mark
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There certainly is an argument to leave them on alright… sort of like if you leave a lightbulb on all the time it lasts for years, but turning it off and on all the time causes wear or damage… That said, I’ve never lost a drive in 16 years of this… and shut it all down every night.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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I too have never had a drive die because I turn it off each day.
I have had drives die but this is always after the drive started acting funky for a few days or even weeks. When this happens to me I transfer the files and replace the thing.
Drives are mechanical, they grind and wear out, they also suck up power, little as it is over time and quantity of drives and days (nights) adds up.
I have heard, even from intelligent people, that you should not turn computers or drives off because of the power surge that hits them when you turn them on. Guess what, the folks that design and make this stuff know all about the start up issues and have taken care to solve that problem long long long ago.
Never a dead drive on start up…
Chris
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Thanks everybody. Over the years I’ve had the same philosophy as Jerry and have never left drives on at night (if I wasn’t working!) I was just concerned if there were particularities regarding the XserveRAID. I’ll continue to power down as always. Luckily I was able to power down without a glitch this last week.
Dual 2.7 GHz G5, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9650, Xserve RAID, AJA IO, 2 20″ Cinema Display, FCP 5.02, OS X10.4.2
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