I'm using a Synology DS420 as a backup server. This is located in a loft space, due to office space, and wanting it to be out of the way as it were. I'm seeing a unit temperature of up-to 64°C and 48 on the drives. Is this something to be overly concerned about?
Synology Temperatures
- Thread starter Hunterlit
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What drives are they?
I think it's pretty common for most drive manufacturers to provide an operating temp of up to ~60c but I wouldn't personally be comfortable running them for too long. I prefer to keep drives under 40c, although that's not to say they can't run hotter and still be reliable. Within reason, I think temperature fluctuations are more harmful to electronics than a high operating temperature.
Have you checked the cooling settings on the DS to make sure the fans are operating correctly? If it's in the loft I guess you aren't bothered about noise, I'd set the fan profile to 'cool' mode.
I think it's pretty common for most drive manufacturers to provide an operating temp of up to ~60c but I wouldn't personally be comfortable running them for too long. I prefer to keep drives under 40c, although that's not to say they can't run hotter and still be reliable. Within reason, I think temperature fluctuations are more harmful to electronics than a high operating temperature.
Have you checked the cooling settings on the DS to make sure the fans are operating correctly? If it's in the loft I guess you aren't bothered about noise, I'd set the fan profile to 'cool' mode.
Soldato
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@agw_01 is right on the money, 48c for drives isn't terrible (I've seen servers in businesses with drive temperatures that have gone to the low 50s) however it entirely depends on the drives used as to what their recommended temperature window is (However most is normally under 60c)
What I would say is like most things, a higher temperature (Within parameters) will result in faster degradation of the hardware, maybe not by a huge amount but it will still have a negative impact in the long run so I would be doing what you can to try and drop the temps be that increasing the fan profile or checking the unit to see that it's not got too dusty from being in the loft.
What I would say is like most things, a higher temperature (Within parameters) will result in faster degradation of the hardware, maybe not by a huge amount but it will still have a negative impact in the long run so I would be doing what you can to try and drop the temps be that increasing the fan profile or checking the unit to see that it's not got too dusty from being in the loft.
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Soldato
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Lofts can become pretty damn toasty in summer, and dust/fibreglass from insulation can't be good.
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40 degrees is a good maximum. The failure rate rapidly increases once you get above 45 degrees. I seem to remember that WD used to fit heat sinks to bring hot-running drives down to the low 40's.
But, in the summer my loft will get well over 40 degrees, and that really is going to be a problem for an HD.
But, in the summer my loft will get well over 40 degrees, and that really is going to be a problem for an HD.
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No I haven't tried altering the fan speed, I will do that tonight or in the morning as it's going to be another Hot one tomorrow by the looks of it. The drives are Seagate IronWolf.
The downside to adding about 300mil of wool to the loft is this, I did find insulation over some of the fans/vents when I last went up there. I have thought about putting some fine mesh or something over the vents.
I was going to say, choice of HDD can obviously have a huge bearing on temperatures. I have some Ironwolfs and have found them to run very cool.
I used to run 6x 1TB WD (7200 rpm) drives in a RAID array and struggled to keep them under 40c even with active cooling. In the summer I was hitting 45c quite often.
I replaced them with 2x 4TB Ironwolfs (5900 rpm) which ran passively cooled (only using airflow from the rear case fans) and I struggled to keep them warm
They'd sit quite happily at 24/25c all year round.
Now I run 2x 14TB Toshiba MG (7200 rpm) drives which again are passively cooled and only run a couple of degrees more than the Seagates. The DS420 has dual fans, unless your loft is on fire I wouldn't be expecting to see drive temps of over 50c tbh.
I used to run 6x 1TB WD (7200 rpm) drives in a RAID array and struggled to keep them under 40c even with active cooling. In the summer I was hitting 45c quite often.
I replaced them with 2x 4TB Ironwolfs (5900 rpm) which ran passively cooled (only using airflow from the rear case fans) and I struggled to keep them warm
They'd sit quite happily at 24/25c all year round.Now I run 2x 14TB Toshiba MG (7200 rpm) drives which again are passively cooled and only run a couple of degrees more than the Seagates. The DS420 has dual fans, unless your loft is on fire I wouldn't be expecting to see drive temps of over 50c tbh.
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Soldato
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Looking at those drives in theory anything up to 70c is "not critical" but I must I wouldn't like them getting anywhere near that if they were mine.
I had some servers in the loft previously (We have boards down as well to help reduce the amount of fibers getting up and around) but your idea about mesh is a good idea, when we had a server up in the loft we had fine mesh over it and whilst it did cause a drop in air-flow it if run the fans a bit faster and clean them every two months or so then it should be "better-er".
As an extreme sticking a vent up there might also help keep the loft temps in check a bit more but that's a bit much
A loft space really isn’t an ideal location for a server, the range of temperatures tends to be extreme, and the particulate content is often high for conventional filtration, it’s just the wrong environment, I certainly wouldn't want part of my data backup strategy in that kind of enviroment.
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I suppose it would be possible to reverse the fans and then put the duct over what would now be the intake at the back of the NAS. That would feed air in directly from the outside.