Sorry for the delay in updating this post, I had made a note in the related issue to do so but have thus far not done so, oh well here it is:
I just wanted to note here that the previously referenced issue open on GitHub “drive power down interface” has now been closed as of Rockstor version 3.8-13.06 (testing channel updates) as we now have a WebUI interface to set drive power down via an hour glass icon for each disk within the Disks page. This feature should, if all goes well, end up in the next stable release also.
@William212 Hopefully this should server your requirements and just for completeness to login as root via ssh you simply have to specify the user root ie
ssh root@rockstor-ip
And yes root privileges are required to run hdparm from the command line. Though hopefully it should now no longer be necessary to execute hdparm this way as that is exactly what the drive power down feature does ‘under the hood’. There is also now a drive power status readout and a column indicating the current APM setting for each drive along with an ability to adjust this setting if need be (rolled into the spin down idle time setting). Oh and a little pause button for each drive to request that the drive enter the standby state and consequently spin down.https://forum.rockstor.com/t/dev-log-for-3-8-14/1412/9?u=phillxnet
Thanks.
There are still open issue on “Custom Cron Jobs via WebGUI” and “Schedule power down/up of the system” both of which relate to automating shutdown and power on configuration capabilities.