Smartmontools

smartmontools is Article description::a utility to read and monitor the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) information of ATA/SATA and SCSI/SAS drives.

Hardware
S.M.A.R.T. support needs to be enabled in the BIOS or EFI firmware for correct operation.

Emerge
Install :

Invocation
{{RootInvocation|smartctl -h|output= smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.16.0-30-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Usage: smartctl [options] device

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=============================== SHOW INFORMATION OPTIONS =====

-h, --help, --usage Display this help and exit

-V, --version, --copyright, --license Print license, copyright, and version information and exit

-i, --info Show identity information for device

--identify[=[w][nvb]] Show words and bits from IDENTIFY DEVICE data               (ATA)

-g NAME, --get=NAME Get device setting: all, aam, apm, lookahead, security, wcache, rcache, wcreorder

-a, --all Show all SMART information for device

-x, --xall Show all information for device

--scan Scan for devices

--scan-open Scan for devices and try to open each device

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===================== SMARTCTL RUN-TIME BEHAVIOR OPTIONS =====

-q TYPE, --quietmode=TYPE                                          (ATA) Set smartctl quiet mode to one of: errorsonly, silent, noserial

-d TYPE, --device=TYPE Specify device type to one of: ata, scsi, sat[,auto][,N][+TYPE], usbcypress[,X], usbjmicron[,p][,x][,N], usbsunplus, marvell, areca,N/E, 3ware,N, hpt,L/M/N, megaraid,N, cciss,N, auto, test

-T TYPE, --tolerance=TYPE                                          (ATA) Tolerance: normal, conservative, permissive, verypermissive

-b TYPE, --badsum=TYPE                                             (ATA) Set action on bad checksum to one of: warn, exit, ignore

-r TYPE, --report=TYPE Report transactions (see man page)

-n MODE, --nocheck=MODE                                            (ATA) No check if: never, sleep, standby, idle (see man page)

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================= DEVICE FEATURE ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS =====

-s VALUE, --smart=VALUE Enable/disable SMART on device (on/off)

-o VALUE, --offlineauto=VALUE                                      (ATA) Enable/disable automatic offline testing on device (on/off)

-S VALUE, --saveauto=VALUE                                         (ATA) Enable/disable Attribute autosave on device (on/off)

-s NAME[,VALUE], --set=NAME[,VALUE] Enable/disable/change device setting: aam,[N|off], apm,[N|off], lookahead,[on|off], security-freeze, standby,[N|off|now], wcache,[on|off], rcache,[on|off], wcreorder,[on|off]

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========================== READ AND DISPLAY DATA OPTIONS =====

-H, --health Show device SMART health status

-c, --capabilities                                                 (ATA) Show device SMART capabilities

-A, --attributes Show device SMART vendor-specific Attributes and values

-f FORMAT, --format=FORMAT                                         (ATA) Set output format for attributes: old, brief, hex[,id|val]

-l TYPE, --log=TYPE Show device log. TYPE: error, selftest, selective, directory[,g|s], xerror[,N][,error], xselftest[,N][,selftest], background, sasphy[,reset], sataphy[,reset], scttemp[sts,hist], scttempint,N[,p], scterc[,N,M], devstat[,N], ssd, gplog,N[,RANGE], smartlog,N[,RANGE]

-v N,OPTION, --vendorattribute=N,OPTION                           (ATA) Set display OPTION for vendor Attribute N (see man page)

-F TYPE, --firmwarebug=TYPE                                        (ATA) Use firmware bug workaround: none, nologdir, samsung, samsung2, samsung3, xerrorlba, swapid

-P TYPE, --presets=TYPE                                            (ATA) Drive-specific presets: use, ignore, show, showall

-B [+]FILE, --drivedb=[+]FILE                                      (ATA) Read and replace [add] drive database from FILE [default is +/etc/smart_drivedb.h        and then    /var/lib/smartmontools/drivedb/drivedb.h]

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=============================== DEVICE SELF-TEST OPTIONS =====

-t TEST, --test=TEST Run test. TEST: offline, short, long, conveyance, force, vendor,N, select,M-N, pending,N, afterselect,[on|off]

-C, --captive Do test in captive mode (along with -t)

-X, --abort Abort any non-captive test on device

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====================================== SMARTCTL EXAMPLES =====

smartctl --all /dev/hda                   (Prints all SMART information)

smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on --saveauto=on /dev/hda (Enables SMART on first disk)

smartctl --test=long /dev/hda         (Executes extended disk self-test)

smartctl --attributes --log=selftest --quietmode=errorsonly /dev/hda (Prints Self-Test & Attribute errors) smartctl --all --device=3ware,2 /dev/sda smartctl --all --device=3ware,2 /dev/twe0 smartctl --all --device=3ware,2 /dev/twa0 smartctl --all --device=3ware,2 /dev/twl0 (Prints all SMART info for 3rd ATA disk on 3ware RAID controller) smartctl --all --device=hpt,1/1/3 /dev/sda (Prints all SMART info for the SATA disk attached to the 3rd PMPort          of the 1st channel on the 1st HighPoint RAID controller) smartctl --all --device=areca,3/1 /dev/sg2 (Prints all SMART info for 3rd ATA disk of the 1st enclosure          on Areca RAID controller) }}

Examples
is a utility that is used to control and monitor S.M.A.R.T. enabled drives.

Print information of a drive, including S.M.A.R.T. support:

Enable S.M.A.R.T. on a drive:

Print the S.M.A.R.T. health status of a drive:

If the result is, the drive is in good health. If the result is, drive failure is imminent and the data should be backed up.

Print the S.M.A.R.T. capabilities of a drive, including supported tests and the time required to run them:

Print the vendor specific S.M.A.R.T attributes of a drive:

Run a S.M.A.R.T. test on a drive:

The possible values for  include:


 * : Run the S.M.A.R.T. Immediate Offline Test.
 * : Run the S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test.
 * : Run the S.M.A.R.T. Extended Self Test.
 * : Run the S.M.A.R.T. Conveyance Self Test.

Print a S.M.A.R.T. log of a drive:

The possible values for  include:


 * : Print the S.M.A.R.T. error log. This log will contain all errors. If the result is, the drive is in good health. If there are some old errors, the drive is most likely in good health. If there are many recent errors, drive failure may be imminent and the data should be backed up.
 * : Print the S.M.A.R.T. self-test log. This log will contain the results for the,   and   tests.

To send out notifications using custom scripts, place those scripts at. To run all scripts - add "@ALL" to the -m directive in. If the -m directive also contains an email address in the form of the notification will be sent using both email address and custom scripts. For more information, see -m and -M sections of

S.M.A.R.T. daemon
is a daemon that continuously monitors the S.M.A.R.T. information of drives. It can be configured via. See for more information. will log any errors to.

In this example monitors 4 drives and sends a test e-mail on startup. It also runs a scheduled test every week on Friday at 3:00 a.m.

To start :

To start at boot:

To debug and check for possible configuration errors:

External resources

 * smartmontools bugtracker: known bugs
 * smartmontools bugtracker: known bugs