Disk Talkers

Unraid plugin that adds a dedicated WebUI page to show which containers, VMs, or host services are probably keeping each array disk or pool busy.

It also keeps lightweight history for per-disk spin-up sessions and exposes a compact temperature sparkline for each disk.

Disk Talkers is already testable before Community Apps listing by installing the plugin URL directly from Unraid.

Prerequisite: Disk Talkers needs Python 3 for UNRAID (6.11+) on the Unraid host. Install that plugin first from Community Applications, or install it afterward and then refresh the Disk Talkers page.

Official support thread: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/198305-plugin-disk-talkers/

Install On Unraid

WebUI method

1. Open your Unraid WebUI.
2. Go to Plugins.
3. Click Install Plugin.
4. Paste this URL:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/silkyclouds/unraid-disk-talkers/main/disk.talkers.plg

1. Confirm the installation.

CLI method

installplg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/silkyclouds/unraid-disk-talkers/main/disk.talkers.plg

The plugin page then appears in Unraid under System Information -> Disk Talkers.

If Python is missing, Disk Talkers will stay installed but show a dependency notice until Python 3 for UNRAID (6.11+) is installed.

Layout

• disk.talkers.local.plg: local development manifest that installs directly from the synced source/ tree on your Unraid host.
• disk.talkers.xml: Community Applications plugin metadata entry used by CA to list the plugin from this repository.
• disk.talkers.plg.template: public release manifest template used to produce the distributable .plg.
• ca_profile.xml: maintainer metadata shown by Community Applications for this repository.
• build-release.sh: builds the public .txz package and generated .plg manifest for Community Apps publication.
• release.env.example: variables required for the GitHub/raw/support URLs used by the public release manifest.
• packaging/: Slackware package metadata used when generating the .txz.
• source/: files copied to /boot/config/plugins/disk.talkers/source on the Unraid host.
• deploy-to-unraid.sh: sync the local source tree to the server and install or refresh the plugin.

Runtime model

• A lightweight Python collector runs on the Unraid host every 5 seconds.
• It combines:
  • /var/log/file.activity.log for recent host-side file paths.
  • fuser -vm /mnt/<mount> for processes that still hold a disk or pool open.
  • Docker inspect/template metadata to map PIDs to container names and icons.
• The collector writes /tmp/disk.talkers/state.json.
• The WebUI page fetches /plugins/disk.talkers/api/state.php.

Deploy

./deploy-to-unraid.sh

Optional target:

./deploy-to-unraid.sh root@192.168.3.2

After deploy, the page is available in Unraid under System Information -> Disk Talkers.

Build A Community Apps Release

1. Copy release.env.example to release.env.
2. Fill in:
   • GITHUB_REPO with the public repo that will host the manifest and release,
   • SUPPORT_URL with the public Unraid forum support thread,
   • optionally RELEASE_TAG, GITHUB_BRANCH, and WRITE_ROOT_MANIFEST.
3. Run:

./build-release.sh

1. The build produces:
   • dist/disk.talkers.plg
   • dist/disk.talkers-package-<version>-x86_64-1.txz
2. Upload the .txz to the GitHub release whose tag matches RELEASE_TAG.
3. Publish the generated .plg at the repo path expected by pluginURL.
   • easiest path: set WRITE_ROOT_MANIFEST="1" in release.env, then commit the generated disk.talkers.plg at the repo root before tagging the release.
4. Create the support thread on the Unraid forums.
5. Submit the plugin to Community Apps with the public .plg URL.

Notes

• The generated package is the CA-ready artifact. The local manifest remains separate so local development does not depend on GitHub Releases.
• The current public install path is the direct plugin URL above. Community Apps indexing will be added after Community Applications review.

Troubleshooting

If /var/log/disk.talkers.log shows:

nohup: failed to run command 'python3': No such file or directory

install Python 3 for UNRAID (6.11+) from Community Applications, then refresh the Disk Talkers page.