Hey everyone, I recently ran into a strange issue with my Proxmox server and wanted to share my experience. I have three identical 14TB hard drives in my setup, and one of them kept going into a sleep-like state. This happened twice in three weeks.
The weirdest part? When I physically nudged the drive, it would spring back to life as if nothing was wrong. I know, it sounds crazy, right?
I was stumped. I figured something was up with the connection. Maybe a loose cable? I checked all the connections, reseated the drive, and everything seemed fine physically. The problem kept coming back.
So, I started digging deeper into Proxmox’s settings. I suspected the drive might be going into a low-power state due to inactivity. But I couldn’t find any misconfigured power settings.
Then, I started looking at hardware issues. Could it be a failing drive? Was there something about the brand? Were they all from the same batch and sharing a defect? Was it some kind of SATA connector issue? I was starting to wonder if tapping the drives was just an accident.
I checked the SMART data on the drives using smartctl, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No errors, no pending failures. It was a real head-scratcher.
After more research and troubleshooting, I finally stumbled upon a forum thread where someone mentioned a similar issue. They suggested checking the SATA power cable. Apparently, some SATA power cables can become worn or lose their connection over time, causing intermittent power loss to the drive.
I decided to try swapping the SATA power cable for the problematic drive. And guess what? The issue disappeared! Turns out it wasn’t a failing hard drive or a complex Proxmox configuration problem. It was a simple, loose SATA power cable.
So, if you’re experiencing a similar issue with your Proxmox server or any other system, don’t overlook the basics. Double-check all your connections, including the SATA power cables. It might just save you a lot of time and frustration.
I learned a valuable lesson from this experience: sometimes the simplest solution is the right one. And sometimes, a gentle nudge is all it takes to uncover a hidden problem. Just be sure to check those cables first!
