SMART and data scrubbing schedule

[Enquiries]

I have a DS923+ with WD Red Plus HDD (2x4 TB and 2x10 TB). I am trying to understand a best practice for how frequently to schedule SMART tests (short and long) and data scrubbing tasks. A quick web search reveals quite a bit of what people do, but no discussion of why they choose to test daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever. Do you have any guidance based on analysis or experience? I tried a chat with WD, but with little help.

[ed]

Thank you for reaching out with this important question! SMART tests and data scrubbing are critical for maintaining the health of your NAS and ensuring data integrity. Here’s a recommended schedule and the reasoning behind it, based on best practices and experience:

SMART Tests Schedule
1. Short SMART Test
Frequency: Weekly
Why?
The short test takes only a few minutes and checks for immediate, critical issues like read/write errors or disk surface defects.
This frequency strikes a balance between regular monitoring and not overloading the drives unnecessarily.
2. Long SMART Test
Frequency: Monthly
Why?
The long test performs an in-depth scan of the drive surface, identifying bad sectors or other potential issues.
Since this is a resource-intensive process, running it monthly is sufficient to catch early signs of disk degradation.
Data Scrubbing Schedule
Frequency: Every 1–2 months
Why?
Data scrubbing ensures data integrity by scanning and verifying data blocks for corruption, particularly important in RAID configurations like SHR or RAID 5/6.
Running it every 1–2 months minimizes risk without adding unnecessary stress to the drives.
Synology recommends data scrubbing at least quarterly, but for WD Red Plus drives and your mixed-capacity setup, a slightly more frequent schedule can be beneficial.
Additional Considerations
Stagger Tasks:

Avoid scheduling SMART tests and data scrubbing simultaneously, as both are disk-intensive operations.
For example:
Short SMART Test: Every Sunday at 2 AM.
Long SMART Test: First Saturday of the month at 2 AM.
Data Scrubbing: Second Sunday of the month at 2 AM.
Drive Usage and Environment:

If your NAS experiences heavy usage or operates in a high-temperature environment, you may want to run tests and scrubbing more frequently.
Monitor Results:

Regularly check the results of SMART tests and data scrubbing in Synology DSM.
If errors or warnings appear, investigate immediately and consider replacing the affected drive.