PMS Schedule Task Caused my NAS overheat?

xb_dodo · June 21, 2023, 1:19am

Server Version#: 1.32.4.7195
Player Version#: N/A
Synology 920+
DSM 7.2-64570
My NAS automatically shutdown during every midniht, There is the only schedule task of Plex at that time. And I have raised the NAS log file to Synology. They found that at that time, there is a lot of plex workload.
I remember this problem raised after I replaced with the 2 larger HDD in 920+ and move the previouse smaller HDDs to expand unit DX517.
Can you check the Plex log files to see what happens?

Thanks.
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-06-21_09-01-27.zip (408.9 KB)

I attach the screenshot of the last time shutdown analysis. The time is different, but the case is the same.

FordGuy61 · June 21, 2023, 1:35am

I’ve never heard of Plex causing a NAS to overheat.

Unfortunately, debug logging has been disabled, so the log files do not have enough information.

Suggestions:

Make sure the NAS has good airflow.
Shutdown the NAS, remove the drives, and clean out any accumulated dust.
Configure the NAS to run cooler. In DSM 7.1: Control Panel → Hardware & Power, and set the fans to run at full speed. DSM 7.2 should be similar.
Enable debug logging on Plex Media Server. Do not enable verbose logging.
Settings → Server_Name → General + Show Advanced.

debug715×154 20.9 KB
After the next shutdown, pull the logs and post to the thread.

xb_dodo · June 21, 2023, 10:31pm

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-06-22_06-24-39.zip (1.4 MB)
See the attached logs please. NAS shutsdown as usual at around 04:51.
I have stop the backup schedule already, the issue still exists.
If I stop the Plex in the package center. My NAS will survive to the morning. That’s why I am sure this is Plex issue.

Thanks

JaysPlex · June 21, 2023, 10:40pm

My NAS runs about about 45 degrees and jumps up to 55 during maintenance while it’s running

If your NAS in the 90 degree range and shutting down that means there is something wrong with the NAS

The overheating is the issue, not that Plex happens to be running at the time it overheats

FordGuy61 · June 21, 2023, 10:54pm

Plex is running though the nightly tasks, analyzing music.

DSM signals Plex to shutdown (“ordered to stop server”) and Plex performs an orderly shutdown.

If the NAS CPU is hitting 90 degrees, then it is something with the NAS or its environment. If it were Plex there would be a ton of people yelling on the forum.

Follow the suggestions.

Shutdown the NAS remove the drives and blow out any accumulated dust, etc.
Make sure the fans are clean as well as the hard drive SATA connectors.
Set the NAS fans to full speed (I’ve a DS918+, fans at full speed, and I cannot hear them from 2’ away).
If necessary, relocate the NAS to a place with better airflow.

From Plex Media Server.1.log

Jun 22, 2023 04:45:54.799 [139999748946744] DEBUG - [Butler/MusicAnalysis] Decoded 9 files for input to the analyzer.
Jun 22, 2023 04:45:54.799 [139999748946744] DEBUG - [Butler/JobRunner] Job running: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/8217c1c-4565-linux-x86_64/' "/volume1/@appstore/PlexMediaServer/Plex Media Server" "Plex Music Analyzer" /var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/tmp/music-analysis-b47de790-b41b-4163-aff7-eeb2894f961a /volume1/@appstore/PlexMediaServer/Resources/Music.tflite labels index.txt
Jun 22, 2023 04:45:54.799 [139999748946744] DEBUG - [Butler/JobRunner] In directory: "/var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/tmp/music-analysis-input-f717d5bb-0b10-4219-89ff-582ac3b5f376"
Jun 22, 2023 04:45:54.800 [139999748946744] DEBUG - [Butler/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 15324
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999814310712] DEBUG - Shutting down with signal 15 (Terminated)
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999814310712] DEBUG - Ordered to stop server.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Stopping server...
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999819053712] DEBUG - HttpServer: Stopping server.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999806327608] DEBUG - MetadataItemClusterRequestHandler: a shutdown event has been received
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999806327608] DEBUG - TranscodeJobManager: [Running] onServerShutdown
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999806327608] DEBUG - TranscodeJobManager: [Running] -> [Shutdown]
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Server stopped.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999819053712] DEBUG - NetworkService: Stopping advertisement.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.123 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Killing plug-ins.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.282 [139999819053712] DEBUG - [com.plexapp.system] Killing.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.291 [139999814310712] WARN - JobManager: Could not find job for handle 26765
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.300 [139999819053712] DEBUG - ChildProcessMonitor: Waiting for Plex Tuner Service to exit.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.300 [139999819053712] DEBUG - [JobRunner] Signalling job ID 28192 with 2
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.468 [139999814310712] DEBUG - Jobs: '/volume1/@appstore/PlexMediaServer/Plex Tuner Service' exit code for process 28192 is 0 (success)
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.469 [139999738399544] DEBUG - [ChildProcessMonitor] Plex Tuner Service exited.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.477 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:47.477 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Database: Shutting down.
Jun 22, 2023 04:51:49.039 [139999819053712] DEBUG - Database: Shutting down.

xb_dodo · June 21, 2023, 11:00pm

As I said, if I stop the Plex in package center. NAS will work fine, no any shudown.

Even if I run backup task all day, the NAS works well too.

FordGuy61 · June 21, 2023, 11:30pm

The log files do not indicate anything is wrong with Plex Media Server.

Please perform the suggested steps. It will assist with troubleshooting.

Not sure how running a backup is relevant. A backup takes minimal CPU cycles.

xb_dodo · June 21, 2023, 11:35pm

I think my next step is shorten the maintenance window. Maybe keep it under 1 hour is better. Anyway it is shutdown after about 80 mins.

JaysPlex · June 21, 2023, 11:52pm

Do you generate intro’s, credit markers and chapter thumbnails?

never
as a scheduled task and when media is added
as a scheduled task

I still think you have an airflow problem but doing some of those tasks only as a scheduled task might be making it worse

There are numerous overheating problems with that exact model and they all have to do with some poorly designed airflow cut outs that are easy to block by accident

“This is, in my view as a former hardware engineer, a bad design. Non obvious intake in an unexpected location”

ChuckPa · June 22, 2023, 12:12am

If I may comment?

There is definitely a problem with the NAS.

I live in a dusty farm environment.
The biggest issue I have is fine dust getting inside the NAS (there are no filters on any Synology).

Dust collects on the CPU cooler fins (there is no active cooling fan)
Dust collects on the leading edges of the rear fan blade(s) which greatly reduce air flow.

If you’ve remove the cover,
cleaned all these areas (can of compressed air or dry brush)
and it still fails with high temp,

Then it needs repair. Depending on when purchased a DS920+ might still be under Synology warranty and repaired for free.

For reference: The J4125 is a 10watt CPU. It takes very little to cool it.
There might be heat sink compound failure.

xb_dodo · June 22, 2023, 12:17am

Thanks JaysPlex7,

This is the NAS CPU data. We can see since plex schedule tasks starts, the CPU load increased dramatically. And I put the latest maintenance windows at 08:00, we can see CPU usage increased at that time in the graph too.

I am not clear about the “generate intro’s, credit markers and chapter thumbnails”, I just put media in the folder and scan folder immediately to show it in the liberary.

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 12:49am

I currently suspect that it is caused by sonic analysis feature, it consumes a lot of CPU and lasts long time.
I have separated the NAS and cleaned the dust. Hope it helps

FordGuy61 · June 23, 2023, 2:14am

Thanks for the update.

Please set the fans to high after the NAS is back together.

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 2:15am

Thanks, that is my first step…

ChuckPa · June 23, 2023, 3:53am

How much dust did you find? I always find WAY more than anyone would expect.

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 5:25am

Actually, no much dusts on CPU cooler, some dusts are on frame, fan, main board.
And I am not sure whether this works

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 6:09am

If so, can dev team set a control parameter to allow us restrict the CPU usage under 50%, 70%？

ChuckPa · June 23, 2023, 6:35am

The dev team will not change software to nurse bad hardware. Bad hardware needs to be repaired.
Synology doesn’t build boxes which can’t hold up to the load.
Please use my test below to figure out what’s happening on your machine. It’s either configuration or a hardware fault (or dust on the fans – already corrected)/
Here is a DS418 (1 fan in the rear), which has no hardware transcoding acceleration playing a 4K movie (which is painful to watch because it pauses for 30+ seconds then plays for 5 seconds) to demonstrate the load.

** The CPU cooling settings.

** Directly pull the temp from the CPU itself.

** You can open a SSH session to the Syno and do this yourself to watch.
** Here’s what I used.

while [ 1 -eq 1 ]; do   Temp=$(cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp);   Temp=$(( Temp / 1000 ));   echo Temp = $Temp C;   sleep 10; done

The CPU hovers around 56C which is well within operational tolerences even while all four cores are trying to transcode HEVC HDR in software.

You can see where it’s hovering. I wouldn’t hesitate to let it play until completed (several hours from now – haha)

chuck@ds418:~$ while [ 1 -eq 1 ]; do   Temp=$(cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp);   Temp=$(( Temp / 1000 ));   echo Temp = $Temp C;   sleep 10; done
Temp = 55 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 55 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 55 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
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Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C
Temp = 56 C

I stopped PMS.
It will take a bit to cool completely but Synology’s passive CPU cooling is working as it should.

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 8:39am

Thanks for your detailed help.

My NAS directory is different from yours:

xb_dodo · June 23, 2023, 9:00am

I found the file. Let’s keep eyes on it.

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