I’m reaching to you, after I have already reached to UGreen support. I own a UGreen NAS with the capability of running Docker containers.
For context, on our setup, docker containers are using for their storage folders a SSD that contains all configurations folders and folders that require constant access. The NAS then contains other HDD for cold storage that do not require to be accessed frequently. The idea here is that HDD’s can “sleep” when aren’t being accessed, while SSD can be accessed whenever required.
Recently, a group of users (this is not only my issue) found that around every 30min, HDD’s are spinning up without an apparent reason. I have tested myself to stop all containers and drives are still spinning up around every 30min.
Today I had a seesion with UGreen support that confirmed this issue is being caused by the docker app itself, and not the containers. This is the conclusion from UGreen support:
“Hello,
Today, our remote support engineer has completed the remote session and checked your environment.
The issue is not caused by any particular container—it is the enabled state of Docker apps themselves that prevents the hard drive from entering sleep mode. This cannot be avoided and will not be improved in future system updates.
Please help delete the temporary administrator account ‘support’.
If you have any further issues in the future, please feel free to to contact us again.”
Do you think you can explain this behavior? If any additional information is required, please let me know.
How was Docker installed on the NAS? Can you share the output of the following commands?
docker info
docker version
Youc an remove anything from the output that looks like private information like username or private registry domains.
And please, don1T forget to use code blocks (like in markdown)for the shared output which makes it easier to read.
I don’t know how your Docker is configured and what part of Docker needs the SSD or the HDD. If anything reads or writes your HDD that could be a health check or garbage collection or any event written to the logs. So first we need to understand how Docker was installed and configured.
Client: Docker Engine - Community
Version: 29.4.3
API version: 1.54
Go version: go1.26.2
Git commit: 055a478
Built: Wed May 6 17:07:37 2026
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Context: default
Server: Docker Engine - Community
Engine:
Version: 29.4.3
API version: 1.54 (minimum version 1.40)
Go version: go1.26.2
Git commit: 56be731
Built: Wed May 6 17:07:37 2026
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Experimental: false
containerd:
Version: v2.2.3
GitCommit: 77c84241c7cbdd9b4eca2591793e3d4f4317c590
runc:
Version: 1.3.5
GitCommit: v1.3.5-0-g488fc13e
docker-init:
Version: 0.19.0
GitCommit: de40ad0
I’m not sure how they install Docker into the NAS. It is simply one of the available apps.
The way I configured docker, is all configuration files and any other thing that needs to be read constantly, stays on the SSD.
Downloaded files are imported into the HDD automatically when those are complete, only to be accessed again when needed.
There are in fact some folders in the HDD that are part of media library that are mapped into the docker apps, but as I said, those should be accessed only upon request.
Additionally, I have shut down all containers and HDD disks are still spinning up without any need to do so, therefore it is confirmed that it isn’t the containers forcing the HDD’s to spin up.
Docker Engine itself should only write data into its data root folder, and the system logs. I can’t speak for the Docker App (=the fronted you see in your UGOS Pro UI), as it’s not part of the Docker Engine, the Docker App (=the frontend) commands the Docker Engine.
Though, the Docker Engine depends on and uses containerd, which also stores state of its own. Can you figure out where it stores its data? On a normal Linux distribution the configuration would be in etc/containerd/config.toml, if it’s not there on UGOS Pro, then you will need to search where it’s located or check the running processes, whether it’s data folder is configured using command arguments.
Do you happen to know where UGOS Pro stores its logs? If it’s on a SSD, I can’t see how the Docker Engine without deployed containers should be responsible to wake up hard disks.
You can open an issue in Docker’s upstream repository:
It is one of the support channel for the open source Docker Engine.
When you open the issue please share all relevant information like the output of docker info and docker version, along with the exact version of UGOS Pro and their Docker App.
UGreen released new updates to firmware, and a bunch of apps. The model app and sync and backups app were causing the spin ups every 30 min. Hasn’t spun up since I updated. Hope that helps your problem.
