8:smartd
From Linux Man Pages
smartd - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon
smartd [options]
FULL PATH
/usr/sbin/smartd
PACKAGE VERSION
smartmontools-5.37 released 2006/04/12 at 17:39:01 UTC
DESCRIPTION
smartd is a daemon that monitors the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) system built into
many ATA-3 and later ATA, IDE and SCSI-3 hard drives. The purpose of SMART is to monitor the reliability of the
hard drive and predict drive failures, and to carry out different types of drive self-tests. This version of
smartd is compatible with ATA/ATAPI-7 and earlier standards (see REFERENCES below).
smartd will attempt to enable SMART monitoring on ATA devices (equivalent to smartctl -s on) and polls these and
SCSI devices every 30 minutes (configurable), logging SMART errors and changes of SMART Attributes via the SYSLOG
interface. The default location for these SYSLOG notifications and warnings is /var/log/messages. To change
this default location, please see the �-l� command-line option described below.
In addition to logging to a file, smartd can also be configured to send email warnings if problems are detected.
Depending upon the type of problem, you may want to run self-tests on the disk, back up the disk, replace the
disk, or use a manufacturer�s utility to force reallocation of bad or unreadable disk sectors. If disk problems
are detected, please see the smartctl manual page and the smartmontools web page/FAQ for further guidance.
If you send a USR1 signal to smartd it will immediately check the status of the disks, and then return to polling
the disks every 30 minutes. See the �-i� option below for additional details.
smartd can be configured at start-up using the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf (Windows: ./smartd.conf). If
the configuration file is subsequently modified, smartd can be told to re-read the configuration file by sending
it a HUP signal, for example with the command:
killall -HUP smartd.
(Windows: See NOTES below.)
On startup, if smartd finds a syntax error in the configuration file, it will print an error message and then
exit. However if smartd is already running, then is told with a HUP signal to re-read the configuration file, and
then find a syntax error in this file, it will print an error message and then continue, ignoring the contents of
the (faulty) configuration file, as if the HUP signal had never been received.
When smartd is running in debug mode, the INT signal (normally generated from a shell with CONTROL-C) is treated
in the same way as a HUP signal: it makes smartd reload its configuration file. To exit smartd use CONTROL-\
(Cygwin: 2x CONTROL-C, Windows: CONTROL-Break).
On startup, in the absence of the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf, the smartd daemon first scans for all
devices that support SMART. The scanning is done as follows:
LINUX: Examine all entries "/dev/hd[a-t]" for IDE/ATA devices, and "/dev/sd[a-z]" for SCSI devices.
FREEBSD: Examine all entries "/dev/ad[0-9]+" for IDE/ATA devices and "/dev/da[0-9]+" for SCSI devices.
NETBSD/OPENBSD:
Authoritative list of disk devices is obtained from sysctl �hw.disknames�.
SOLARIS: Examine all entries "/dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s?" for IDE/ATA and SCSI disk devices, and entries "/dev/rmt/*" for
SCSI tape devices.
DARWIN: The IOService plane is scanned for ATA block storage devices.
WINDOWS: Examine all entries "/dev/hd[a-j]" ("\\.\PhysicalDrive[0-9]") for IDE/ATA devices on WinNT4/2000/XP,
"/dev/hd[a-d]" (bitmask from "\\.\SMARTVSD") for IDE/ATA devices on Win95/98/98SE/ME. Examines all
entries "/dev/scsi[0-9][0-f]" for SCSI devices on ASPI adapter 0-9, ID 0-15. If a 3ware 9000 controller
is installed, examine all entries "/dev/hdX,N" for the first logical drive (�unit� "/dev/hdX") and all
physical disks (�ports� ",N") detected behind this controller. Same for a second controller if present.
The following forms are not scanned for but can be given explicitly in the configuration file and only
apply to WinNT4/2000/XP/2003. The form "/dev/sd[a-z]" can be given for SCSI disks "\\.\Physi-
calDrive[0-25]" (where "a" maps to "0"). Additionally the form "/dev/pd[0-255]" can be given for SCSI
disks "\\.\PhysicalDrive[0-255]". The form "/dev/tape[0-255]" can be given for SCSI tape drives
"\\.\Tape[0-255]".
CYGWIN: See "WINDOWS" above.
OS/2,eComStation:
Use the form "/dev/hd[a-z]" for IDE/ATA devices.
smartd then monitors for all possible SMART errors (corresponding to the �-a� Directive in the configuration
file; see CONFIGURATION FILE below).
OPTIONS
Long options are not supported on all systems. Use �smartd -h� to see the available options.
-c FILE, --configfile=FILE
Read smartd configuration Directives from FILE, instead of from the default location /etc/smartd.conf
(Windows: ./smartd.conf). If FILE does not exist, then smartd will print an error message and exit with
nonzero status. Thus, �-c /etc/smartd.conf� can be used to verify the existence of the default configura-
tion file.
By using �-� for FILE, the configuration is read from standard input. This is useful for commands like:
echo /dev/hdb -m user@home -M test | smartd -c - -q onecheck
to perform quick and simple checks without a configuration file.
-d, --debug
Runs smartd in "debug" mode. In this mode, it displays status information to STDOUT rather than logging it
to SYSLOG and does not fork(2) into the background and detach from the controlling terminal. In this
mode, smartd also prints more verbose information about what it is doing than when operating in "daemon"
mode. In this mode, the QUIT signal (normally generated from a terminal with CONTROL-C) makes smartd
reload its configuration file. Please use CONTROL-\ to exit (Cygwin: 2x CONTROL-C, Windows: CON-
TROL-Break).
Windows only: The "debug" mode can be toggled by the command smartd sigusr2. A new console for debug out-
put is opened when debug mode is enabled.
-D, --showdirectives
Prints a list (to STDOUT) of all the possible Directives which may appear in the configuration file
/etc/smartd.conf, and then exits. These Directives are also described later in this man page. They may
appear in the configuration file following the device name.
-h, --help, --usage
Prints usage message to STDOUT and exits.
-i N, --interval=N
Sets the interval between disk checks to N seconds, where N is a decimal integer. The minimum allowed
value is ten and the maximum is the largest positive integer that can be represented on your system (often
2^31-1). The default is 1800 seconds.
Note that the superuser can make smartd check the status of the disks at any time by sending it the
SIGUSR1 signal, for example with the command:
kill -SIGUSR1 <pid>
where <pid> is the process id number of smartd. One may also use:
killall -USR1 smartd
for the same purpose.
(Windows: See NOTES below.)
-l FACILITY, --logfacility=FACILITY
Uses syslog facility FACILITY to log the messages from smartd. Here FACILITY is one of local0, local1,
..., local7, or daemon [default]. If this command-line option is not used, then by default messages from
smartd are logged to the facility daemon.
If you would like to have smartd messages logged somewhere other than the default /var/log/messages loca-
tion, this can typically be accomplished with (for example) the following steps:
[1] Modify the script that starts smartd to include the smartd command-line argument �-l local3�. This
tells smartd to log its messages to facility local3.
[2] Modify the syslogd configuration file (typically /etc/syslog.conf) by adding a line of the form:
local3.* /var/log/smartd.log
This tells syslogd to log all the messages from facility local3 to the designated file:
/var/log/smartd.log.
[3] Tell syslogd to re-read its configuration file, typically by sending the syslogd process a SIGHUP
hang-up signal.
[4] Start (or restart) the smartd daemon.
For more detailed information, please refer to the man pages for syslog.conf, syslogd, and syslog. You
may also want to modify the log rotation configuration files; see the man pages for logrotate and examine
your system�s /etc/logrotate.conf file.
Cygwin: Support for syslogd as described above is available starting with Cygwin 1.5.15. On older
releases or if no local syslogd is running, the �-l� option has no effect. In this case, all syslog mes-
sages are written to Windows event log or to file C:/CYGWIN_SYSLOG.TXT if the event log is not available.
Windows: Some syslog functionality is implemented internally in smartd as follows: If no �-l� option (or
�-l daemon�) is specified, messages are written to Windows event log or to file ./smartd.log if event log
is not available (Win9x/ME or access denied). By specifying other values of FACILITY, log output is redi-
rected as follows: �-l local0� to file ./smartd.log, �-l local1� to standard output (redirect with �>� to
any file), �-l local2� to standard error, �-l local[3-7]�: to file ./smartd[1-5].log.
When using the event log, the enclosed utility syslogevt.exe should be registered as an event message file
to avoid error messages from the event viewer. Use �syslogevt -r smartd� to register, �syslogevt -u
smartd� to unregister and �syslogevt� for more help.
-p NAME, --pidfile=NAME
Writes pidfile NAME containing the smartd Process ID number (PID). To avoid symlink attacks make sure the
directory to which pidfile is written is only writable for root. Without this option, or if the --debug
option is given, no PID file is written on startup. If smartd is killed with a maskable signal then the
pidfile is removed.
-q WHEN, --quit=WHEN
Specifies when, if ever, smartd should exit. The valid arguments are to this option are:
nodev - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found at startup in the configura-
tion file. This is the default.
errors - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found in the configuration file
/etc/smartd.conf at startup or whenever it is reloaded.
nodevstartup - Exit if there are no devices to monitor at startup. But continue to run if no devices are
found whenever the configuration file is reloaded.
never - Only exit if a fatal error occurs (no remaining system memory, invalid command line arguments). In
this mode, even if there are no devices to monitor, or if the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf has
errors, smartd will continue to run, waiting to load a configuration file listing valid devices.
onecheck - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then check device�s SMART status once, and
then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked correctly.
This last option is intended for �distribution-writers� who want to create automated scripts to determine
whether or not to automatically start up smartd after installing smartmontools. After starting smartd
with this command-line option, the distribution�s install scripts should wait a reasonable length of time
(say ten seconds). If smartd has not exited with zero status by that time, the script should send smartd
a SIGTERM or SIGKILL and assume that smartd will not operate correctly on the host. Conversely, if smartd
exits with zero status, then it is safe to run smartd in normal daemon mode. If smartd is unable to moni-
tor any devices or encounters other problems then it will return with non-zero exit status.
showtests - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then write a list of future scheduled self
tests to stdout, and then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked correctly. Device's
SMART status is not checked.
This option is intended to test whether the '-s REGEX' directives in smartd.conf will have the desired
effect. The output lists the next test schedules, limited to 5 tests per type and device. This is followed
by a summary of all tests of each device within the next 90 days.
-r TYPE, --report=TYPE
Intended primarily to help smartmontools developers understand the behavior of smartmontools on non-con-
forming or poorly-conforming hardware. This option reports details of smartd transactions with the
device. The option can be used multiple times. When used just once, it shows a record of the ioctl()
transactions with the device. When used more than once, the detail of these ioctl() transactions are
reported in greater detail. The valid arguments to this option are:
ioctl - report all ioctl() transactions.
ataioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with ATA devices.
scsiioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with SCSI devices.
Any argument may include a positive integer to specify the level of detail that should be reported. The
argument should be followed by a comma then the integer with no spaces. For example, ataioctl,2 The
default level is 1, so �-r ataioctl,1� and �-r ataioctl� are equivalent.
--service
Cygwin and Windows only: Enables smartd to run as a Windows service.
On Cygwin, this option simply prevents forking into background mode to allow running smartd as service via
cygrunsrv, see NOTES below.
On Windows, this option enables the buildin service support. The option must be specified in the service
command line as the first argument. It should not be used from console. See NOTES below for details.
-V, --version, --license, --copyright
Prints license, copyright, and CVS version information onto STDOUT and then exits. Please include this
information if you are reporting bugs, or have specific questions about the behavior of smartd.
EXAMPLES
smartd
Runs the daemon in forked mode. This is the normal way to run smartd. Entries are logged to SYSLOG (by default
/var/log/messages.)
smartd -d -i 30
Run in foreground (debug) mode, checking the disk status every 30 seconds.
smartd -q onecheck
Registers devices, and checks the status of the devices exactly once. The exit status (the bash $? variable)
will be zero if all went well, and nonzero if no devices were detected or some other problem was encountered.
Note that smartmontools provides a start-up script in /etc/rc.d/init.d/smartd which is responsible for starting
and stopping the daemon via the normal init interface. Using this script, you can start smartd by giving the
command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/smartd start
and stop it by using the command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/smartd stop
If you want smartd to start running whenever your machine is booted, this can be enabled by using the command:
/sbin/chkconfig --add smartd
and disabled using the command:
/sbin/chkconfig --del smartd
CONFIGURATION FILE /etc/smartd.conf
In the absence of a configuration file, under Linux smartd will try to open the 20 ATA devices /dev/hd[a-t] and
the 26 SCSI devices /dev/sd[a-z]. Under FreeBSD, smartd will try to open all existing ATA devices (with entries
in /dev) /dev/ad[0-9]+ and all existing SCSI devices /dev/da[0-9]+. Under NetBSD/OpenBSD, smartd will try to
open all existing ATA devices (with entries in /dev) /dev/wd[0-9]+c and all existing SCSI devices /dev/sd[0-9]+c.
Under Solaris smartd will try to open all entries "/dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s?" for IDE/ATA and SCSI disk devices, and
entries "/dev/rmt/*" for SCSI tape devices. Under Windows smartd will try to open all entries "/dev/hd[a-j]"
("\\.\PhysicalDrive[0-9]") for IDE/ATA devices on WinNT4/2000/XP, "/dev/hd[a-d]" (bitmask from "\\.\SMARTVSD")
for IDE/ATA devices on Win95/98/98SE/ME, and "/dev/scsi[0-9][0-7]" (ASPI adapter 0-9, ID 0-7) for SCSI devices on
all versions of Windows. Under Darwin, smartd will open any ATA block storage device.
This can be annoying if you have an ATA or SCSI device that hangs or misbehaves when receiving SMART commands.
Even if this causes no problems, you may be annoyed by the string of error log messages about block-major devices
that can�t be found, and SCSI devices that can�t be opened.
One can avoid this problem, and gain more control over the types of events monitored by smartd, by using the con-
figuration file /etc/smartd.conf. This file contains a list of devices to monitor, with one device per line. An
example file is included with the smartmontools distribution. You will find this sample configuration file in
/usr/share/doc/packages/smartmontools/. For security, the configuration file should not be writable by anyone but
root. The syntax of the file is as follows:
� There should be one device listed per line, although you may have lines that are entirely comments or white
space.
� Any text following a hash sign �#� and up to the end of the line is taken to be a comment, and ignored.
� Lines may be continued by using a backslash �\� as the last non-whitespace or non-comment item on a line.
� Note: a line whose first character is a hash sign �#� is treated as a white-space blank line, not as a non-
existent line, and will end a continuation line.
Here is an example configuration file. It�s for illustrative purposes only; please don�t copy it onto your sys-
tem without reading to the end of the DIRECTIVES Section below!
################################################
# This is an example smartd startup config file
# /etc/smartd.conf for monitoring three
# ATA disks, three SCSI disks, six ATA disks
# behind two 3ware controllers, three SATA disks
# directly connected to the highpoint rocket-
# raid controller, two SATA disks connected to
# the highpoint controller via a pmport device
# and one SATA disk.
#
# First ATA disk on two different interfaces. On
# the second disk, start a long self-test every
# Sunday between 3 and 4 am.
#
/dev/hda -a -m admin@example.com,root@localhost
/dev/hdc -a -I 194 -I 5 -i 12 -s L/../../7/03
#
# SCSI disks. Send a TEST warning email to admin on
# startup.
#
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb -m admin@example.com -M test
#
# Strange device. It�s SCSI. Start a scheduled
# long self test between 5 and 6 am Monday/Thursday
/dev/weird -d scsi -s L/../../(1|4)/05
#
# Linux-specific: SATA disk using the libata
# driver. This requires a 2.6.15 or greater
# kernel. The device entry is SCSI but the
# underlying disk understands ATA SMART commands
/dev/sda -a -d ata
#
# Four ATA disks on a 3ware 6/7/8000 controller.
# Start short self-tests daily between midnight and 1am,
# 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 am. Starting with the Linux 2.6
# kernel series, /dev/sdX is deprecated in favor of
# /dev/tweN. For example replace /dev/sdc by /dev/twe0
# and /dev/sdd by /dev/twe1.
/dev/sdc -d 3ware,0 -a -s S/../.././00
/dev/sdc -d 3ware,1 -a -s S/../.././01
/dev/sdd -d 3ware,2 -a -s S/../.././02
/dev/sdd -d 3ware,3 -a -s S/../.././03
#
# Two ATA disks on a 3ware 9000 controller.
# Start long self-tests Sundays between midnight and
# 1am and 2-3 am
/dev/twa0 -d 3ware,0 -a -s L/../../7/00
/dev/twa0 -d 3ware,1 -a -s L/../../7/02
#
# Three SATA disks on a highpoint rocketraid controller.
# Start short self-tests daily between 1-2, 2-3, and
# 3-4 am.
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/1 -a -s S/../.././01
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/2 -a -s S/../.././02
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/3 -a -s S/../.././03
#
# Two SATA disks connected to a highpoint rocketraid
# via a pmport device. Start long self-tests Sundays
# between midnight and 1am and 2-3 am
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/4/1 -a -s L/../../7/00
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/4/2 -a -s L/../../7/02
#
# The following line enables monitoring of the
# ATA Error Log and the Self-Test Error Log.
# It also tracks changes in both Prefailure
# and Usage Attributes, apart from Attributes
# 9, 194, and 231, and shows continued lines:
#
/dev/hdd -l error \
-l selftest \
-t \ # Attributes not tracked:
-I 194 \ # temperature
-I 231 \ # also temperature
-I 9 # power-on hours
#
################################################
CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES
If the first non-comment entry in the configuration file is the text string DEVICESCAN in capital letters, then
smartd will ignore any remaining lines in the configuration file, and will scan for devices. DEVICESCAN may
optionally be followed by Directives that will apply to all devices that are found in the scan. Please see below
for additional details.
The following are the Directives that may appear following the device name or DEVICESCAN on any line of the
/etc/smartd.conf configuration file. Note that these are NOT command-line options for smartd. The Directives
below may appear in any order, following the device name.
For an ATA device, if no Directives appear, then the device will be monitored as if the �-a� Directive (monitor
all SMART properties) had been given.
If a SCSI disk is listed, it will be monitored at the maximum implemented level: roughly equivalent to using the
�-H -l selftest� options for an ATA disk. So with the exception of �-d�, �-m�, �-l selftest�, �-s�, and �-M�,
the Directives below are ignored for SCSI disks. For SCSI disks, the �-m� Directive sends a warning email if the
SMART status indicates a disk failure or problem, if the SCSI inquiry about disk status fails, or if new errors
appear in the self-test log.
If a 3ware controller is used then the corresponding SCSI (/dev/sd?) or character device (/dev/twe? or
/dev/twa?) must be listed, along with the �-d 3ware,N� Directive (see below). The individual ATA disks hosted by
the 3ware controller appear to smartd as normal ATA devices. Hence all the ATA directives can be used for these
disks (but see note below).
-d TYPE
Specifies the type of the device. This Directive may be used multiple times for one device, but the argu-
ments ata, scsi, sat, marvell, cciss and 3ware,N are mutually-exclusive. If more than one is given then
smartd will use the last one which appears.
If none of these three arguments is given, then smartd will first attempt to guess the device type by
looking at whether the sixth character in the device name is an �s� or an �h�. This will work for device
names like /dev/hda or /dev/sdb, and corresponds to choosing ata or scsi respectively. If smartd can�t
guess from this sixth character, then it will simply try to access the device using first ATA and then
SCSI ioctl()s.
The valid arguments to this Directive are:
ata - the device type is ATA. This prevents smartd from issuing SCSI commands to an ATA device.
scsi - the device type is SCSI. This prevents smartd from issuing ATA commands to a SCSI device.
sat - the device type is SCSI to ATA Translation (SAT). smartd will generate ATA (smart) commands and
then package them in the SAT defined ATA PASS THROUGH SCSI commands. The commands are then routed through
the SCSI pass through interface to the operating system. There are two types of ATA PASS THROUGH SCSI com-
mands: a 12 byte and 16 byte variant. smartd can use either and defaults to the 16 byte variant. This can
be overridden with this syntax: �-d sat,12� or �-d sat,16�.
marvell - Under Linux, interact with SATA disks behind Marvell chip-set controllers (using the Marvell
rather than libata driver).
3ware,N - the device consists of one or more ATA disks connected to a 3ware RAID controller. The non-nega-
tive integer N (in the range from 0 to 15 inclusive) denotes which disk on the controller is monitored.
In log files and email messages this disk will be identified as 3ware_disk_XX with XX in the range from 00
to 15 inclusive.
This Directive may at first appear confusing, because the 3ware controller is a SCSI device (such as
/dev/sda) and should be listed as such in the the configuration file. However when the �-d 3ware,N�
Directive is used, then the corresponding disk is addressed using native ATA commands which are �passed
through� the SCSI driver. All ATA Directives listed in this man page may be used. Note that while you may
use any of the 3ware SCSI logical devices /dev/sd? to address any of the physical disks (3ware ports),
error and log messages will make the most sense if you always list the 3ware SCSI logical device corre-
sponding to the particular physical disks. Please see the smartctl man page for further details.
ATA disks behind 3ware controllers may alternatively be accessed via a character device interface
/dev/twe0-15 (3ware 6000/7000/8000 controllers) and /dev/twa0-15 (3ware 9000 series controllers). Note
that the 9000 series controllers may only be accessed using the character device interface /dev/twa0-15
and not the SCSI device interface /dev/sd?. Please see the smartctl man page for further details.
Note that older 3w-xxxx drivers do not pass the �Enable Autosave� (-S on) and �Enable Automatic Offline�
(-o on) commands to the disk, if the SCSI interface is used, and produce these types of harmless syslog
error messages instead: �3w-xxxx: tw_ioctl(): Passthru size (123392) too big�. This can be fixed by
upgrading to version 1.02.00.037 or later of the 3w-xxxx driver, or by applying a patch to older versions.
See http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ for instructions. Alternatively use the character device inter-
faces /dev/twe0-15 (3ware 6/7/8000 series controllers) or /dev/twa0-15 (3ware 9000 series controllers).
cciss,N - the device consists of one or more SCSI disks connected to a cciss RAID controller. The non-neg-
ative integer N (in the range from 0 to 15 inclusive) denotes which disk on the controller is monitored.
In log files and email messages this disk will be identified as cciss_disk_XX with XX in the range from 00
to 15 inclusive.
3ware and cciss controllers are currently ONLY supported under Linux.
hpt,L/M/N - the device consists of one or more ATA disks connected to a HighPoint RocketRAID controller.
The integer L is the controller id, the integer M is the channel number, and the integer N is the PMPort
number if it is available. The allowed values of L are from 1 to 4 inclusive, M are from 1 to 8 inclusive
and N from 1 to 4 if PMPort available. And also these values are limited by the model of the HighPoint
RocketRAID controller. In log files and email messages this disk will be identified as hpt_X/X/X and
X/X/X is the same as L/M/N, note if no N indicated, N set to the default value 1.
HighPoint RocketRAID controllers are currently ONLY supported under Linux.
removable - the device or its media is removable. This indicates to smartd that it should continue
(instead of exiting, which is the default behavior) if the device does not appear to be present when
smartd is started. This Directive may be used in conjunction with the other �-d� Directives.
-n POWERMODE[,q]
This �nocheck� Directive is used to prevent a disk from being spun-up when it is periodically polled by
smartd.
ATA disks have five different power states. In order of increasing power consumption they are: �OFF�,
�SLEEP�, �STANDBY�, �IDLE�, and �ACTIVE�. Typically in the OFF, SLEEP, and STANDBY modes the disk�s plat-
ters are not spinning. But usually, in response to SMART commands issued by smartd, the disk platters are
spun up. So if this option is not used, then a disk which is in a low-power mode may be spun up and put
into a higher-power mode when it is periodically polled by smartd.
Note that if the disk is in SLEEP mode when smartd is started, then it won't respond to smartd commands,
and so the disk won't be registered as a device for smartd to monitor. If a disk is in any other low-power
mode, then the commands issued by smartd to register the disk will probably cause it to spin-up.
The �-n� (nocheck) Directive specifies if smartd�s periodic checks should still be carried out when the
device is in a low-power mode. It may be used to prevent a disk from being spun-up by periodic smartd
polling. The allowed values of POWERMODE are:
never - smartd will poll (check) the device regardless of its power mode. This may cause a disk which is
spun-down to be spun-up when smartd checks it. This is the default behavior if the '-n' Directive is not
given.
sleep - check the device unless it is in SLEEP mode.
standby - check the device unless it is in SLEEP or STANDBY mode. In these modes most disks are not spin-
ning, so if you want to prevent a laptop disk from spinning up each time that smartd polls, this is proba-
bly what you want.
idle - check the device unless it is in SLEEP, STANDBY or IDLE mode. In the IDLE state, most disks are
still spinning, so this is probably not what you want.
When a self test is scheduled (see �-s� Directive below), the �-n� Directive is ignored, and all tests are
carried out.
When a periodic test is skipped, smartd normally writes an informal log message. The message can be sup-
pressed by appending the option �,q� to POWERMODE (like �-n standby,q�). This prevents a laptop disk from
spinning up due to this message.
-T TYPE
Specifies how tolerant smartd should be of SMART command failures. The valid arguments to this Directive
are:
normal - do not try to monitor the disk if a mandatory SMART command fails, but continue if an optional
SMART command fails. This is the default.
permissive - try to monitor the disk even if it appears to lack SMART capabilities. This may be required
for some old disks (prior to ATA-3 revision 4) that implemented SMART before the SMART standards were
incorporated into the ATA/ATAPI Specifications. This may also be needed for some Maxtor disks which fail
to comply with the ATA Specifications and don't properly indicate support for error- or self-test logging.
[Please see the smartctl -T command-line option.]
-o VALUE
Enables or disables SMART Automatic Offline Testing when smartd starts up and has no further effect. The
valid arguments to this Directive are on and off.
The delay between tests is vendor-specific, but is typically four hours.
Note that SMART Automatic Offline Testing is not part of the ATA Specification. Please see the smartctl
-o command-line option documentation for further information about this feature.
-S VALUE
Enables or disables Attribute Autosave when smartd starts up and has no further effect. The valid argu-
ments to this Directive are on and off. Also affects SCSI devices. [Please see the smartctl -S command-
line option.]
-H Check the SMART health status of the disk. If any Prefailure Attributes are less than or equal to their
threshold values, then disk failure is predicted in less than 24 hours, and a message at loglevel
�LOG_CRITICAL� will be logged to syslog. [Please see the smartctl -H command-line option.]
-l TYPE
Reports increases in the number of errors in one of the two SMART logs. The valid arguments to this
Directive are:
error - report if the number of ATA errors reported in the ATA Error Log has increased since the last
check.
selftest - report if the number of failed tests reported in the SMART Self-Test Log has increased since
the last check, or if the timestamp associated with the most recent failed test has increased. Note that
such errors will only be logged if you run self-tests on the disk (and it fails a test!). Self-Tests can
be run automatically by smartd: please see the �-s� Directive below. Self-Tests can also be run manually
by using the �-t short� and �-t long� options of smartctl and the results of the testing can be observed
using the smartctl �-l selftest� command-line option.]
[Please see the smartctl -l and -t command-line options.]
-s REGEXP
Run Self-Tests or Offline Immediate Tests, at scheduled times. A Self- or Offline Immediate Test will be
run at the end of periodic device polling, if all 12 characters of the string T/MM/DD/d/HH match the
extended regular expression REGEXP. Here:
T is the type of the test. The values that smartd will try to match (in turn) are: �L� for a Long Self-
Test, �S� for a Short Self-Test, �C� for a Conveyance Self-Test (ATA only), and �O� for an Offline
Immediate Test (ATA only). As soon as a match is found, the test will be started and no additional
matches will be sought for that device and that polling cycle.
MM is the month of the year, expressed with two decimal digits. The range is from 01 (January) to 12
(December) inclusive. Do not use a single decimal digit or the match will always fail!
DD is the day of the month, expressed with two decimal digits. The range is from 01 to 31 inclusive. Do
not use a single decimal digit or the match will always fail!
d is the day of the week, expressed with one decimal digit. The range is from 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday)
inclusive.
HH is the hour of the day, written with two decimal digits, and given in hours after midnight. The range
is 00 (midnight to just before 1am) to 23 (11pm to just before midnight) inclusive. Do not use a sin-
gle decimal digit or the match will always fail!
Some examples follow. In reading these, keep in mind that in extended regular expressions a dot �.�
matches any single character, and a parenthetical expression such as �(A|B|C)� denotes any one of the
three possibilities A, B, or C.
To schedule a short Self-Test between 2-3am every morning, use:
-s S/../.././02
To schedule a long Self-Test between 4-5am every Sunday morning, use:
-s L/../../7/04
To schedule a long Self-Test between 10-11pm on the first and fifteenth day of each month, use:
-s L/../(01|15)/./22
To schedule an Offline Immediate test after every midnight, 6am, noon,and 6pm, plus a Short Self-Test
daily at 1-2am and a Long Self-Test every Saturday at 3-4am, use:
-s (O/../.././(00|06|12|18)|S/../.././01|L/../../6/03)
Scheduled tests are run immediately following the regularly-scheduled device polling, if the current local
date, time, and test type, match REGEXP. By default the regularly-scheduled device polling occurs every
thirty minutes after starting smartd. Take caution if you use the �-i� option to make this polling inter-
val more than sixty minutes: the poll times may fail to coincide with any of the testing times that you
have specified with REGEXP, and so the self tests may not take place as you wish.
Before running an offline or self-test, smartd checks to be sure that a self-test is not already running.
If a self-test is already running, then this running self test will not be interrupted to begin another
test.
smartd will not attempt to run any type of test if another test was already started or run in the same
hour.
Each time a test is run, smartd will log an entry to SYSLOG. You can use these or the '-q showtests' com-
mand-line option to verify that you constructed REGEXP correctly. The matching order (L before S before C
before O) ensures that if multiple test types are all scheduled for the same hour, the longer test type
has precedence. This is usually the desired behavior.
Unix users: please beware that the rules for extended regular expressions [[[7:regex|regex(7)]]] are not the same as
the rules for file-name pattern matching by the shell [[[7:glob|glob(7)]]]. smartd will issue harmless informational
warning messages if it detects characters in REGEXP that appear to indicate that you have made this mis-
take.
-m ADD Send a warning email to the email address ADD if the �-H�, �-l�, �-f�, �-C�, or �-O� Directives detect a
failure or a new error, or if a SMART command to the disk fails. This Directive only works in conjunction
with these other Directives (or with the equivalent default �-a� Directive).
To prevent your email in-box from getting filled up with warning messages, by default only a single warn-
ing will be sent for each of the enabled alert types, �-H�, �-l�, �-f�, �-C�, or �-O� even if more than
one failure or error is detected or if the failure or error persists. [This behavior can be modified; see
the �-M� Directive below.]
To send email to more than one user, please use the following "comma separated" form for the address:
user1@add1,user2@add2,...,userN@addN (with no spaces).
To test that email is being sent correctly, use the �-M test� Directive described below to send one test
email message on smartd startup.
By default, email is sent using the system mail command. In order that smartd find the mail command (nor-
mally /bin/mail) an executable named �mail� must be in the path of the shell or environment from which
smartd was started. If you wish to specify an explicit path to the mail executable (for example
/usr/local/bin/mail) or a custom script to run, please use the �-M exec� Directive below.
Note that by default under Solaris, in the previous paragraph, �mailx� and �/bin/mailx� are used, since
Solaris �/bin/mail� does not accept a �-s� (Subject) command-line argument.
On Windows, the �Blat� mailer (http://blat.sourceforge.net/) is used by default. This mailer uses a dif-
ferent command line syntax, see �-M exec� below.
Note also that there is a special argument <nomailer> which can be given to the �-m� Directive in conjunc-
tion with the �-M exec� Directive. Please see below for an explanation of its effect.
If the mailer or the shell running it produces any STDERR/STDOUT output, then a snippet of that output
will be copied to SYSLOG. The remainder of the output is discarded. If problems are encountered in send-
ing mail, this should help you to understand and fix them. If you have mail problems, we recommend run-
ning smartd in debug mode with the �-d� flag, using the �-M test� Directive described below.
The following extension is available on Windows: By specifying �msgbox� as a mail address, a warning
"email" is displayed as a message box on the screen. Using both �msgbox� and regular mail addresses is
possible, if �msgbox� is the first word in the comma separated list. With �sysmsgbox�, a system modal
(always on top) message box is used. If running as a service, a service notification message box (always
shown on current visible desktop) is used.
-M TYPE
These Directives modify the behavior of the smartd email warnings enabled with the �-m� email Directive
described above. These �-M� Directives only work in conjunction with the �-m� Directive and can not be
used without it.
Multiple -M Directives may be given. If more than one of the following three -M Directives are given
(example: -M once -M daily) then the final one (in the example, -M daily) is used.
The valid arguments to the -M Directive are (one of the following three):
once - send only one warning email for each type of disk problem detected. This is the default.
daily - send additional warning reminder emails, once per day, for each type of disk problem detected.
diminishing - send additional warning reminder emails, after a one-day interval, then a two-day interval,
then a four-day interval, and so on for each type of disk problem detected. Each interval is twice as long
as the previous interval.
In addition, one may add zero or more of the following Directives:
test - send a single test email immediately upon smartd startup. This allows one to verify that email is
delivered correctly.
exec PATH - run the executable PATH instead of the default mail command, when smartd needs to send email.
PATH must point to an executable binary file or script.
By setting PATH to point to a customized script, you can make smartd perform useful tricks when a disk
problem is detected (beeping the console, shutting down the machine, broadcasting warnings to all logged-
in users, etc.) But please be careful. smartd will block until the executable PATH returns, so if your
executable hangs, then smartd will also hang. Some sample scripts are included in /usr/share/doc/pack-
ages/smartmontools/examplescripts/.
The return status of the executable is recorded by smartd in SYSLOG. The executable is not expected to
write to STDOUT or STDERR. If it does, then this is interpreted as indicating that something is going
wrong with your executable, and a fragment of this output is logged to SYSLOG to help you to understand
the problem. Normally, if you wish to leave some record behind, the executable should send mail or write
to a file or device.
Before running the executable, smartd sets a number of environment variables. These environment variables
may be used to control the executable�s behavior. The environment variables exported by smartd are:
SMARTD_MAILER
is set to the argument of -M exec, if present or else to �mail� (examples: /bin/mail, mail).
SMARTD_DEVICE
is set to the device path (examples: /dev/hda, /dev/sdb).
SMARTD_DEVICETYPE
is set to the device type (possible values: ata, scsi, 3ware,N, hpt,L/M/N). Here N=0,...,15 denotes
the ATA disk behind a 3ware RAID controller and L/M/N denotes the SATA disk behind a HighPoint Rocke-
tRAID controller.
SMARTD_DEVICESTRING
is set to the device description. For SMARTD_DEVICETYPE of ata or scsi, this is the same as
SMARTD_DEVICE. For 3ware RAID controllers, the form used is �/dev/sdc [3ware_disk_01]�. For High-
Point RocketRAID controller, the form is �/dev/sdd [hpt_1/1/1]�. In these cases the device string
contains a space and is NOT quoted. So to use $SMARTD_DEVICESTRING in a bash script you should proba-
bly enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_FAILTYPE
gives the reason for the warning or message email. The possible values that it takes and their mean-
ings are:
EmailTest: this is an email test message.
Health: the SMART health status indicates imminent failure.
Usage: a usage Attribute has failed.
SelfTest: the number of self-test failures has increased.
ErrorCount: the number of errors in the ATA error log has increased.
CurrentPendingSector: one of more disk sectors could not be read and are marked to be reallocated
(replaced with spare sectors).
OfflineUncorrectableSector: during off-line testing, or self-testing, one or more disk sectors could
not be read.
FailedHealthCheck: the SMART health status command failed.
FailedReadSmartData: the command to read SMART Attribute data failed.
FailedReadSmartErrorLog: the command to read the SMART error log failed.
FailedReadSmartSelfTestLog: the command to read the SMART self-test log failed.
FailedOpenDevice: the open() command to the device failed.
SMARTD_ADDRESS
is determined by the address argument ADD of the �-m� Directive. If ADD is <nomailer>, then
SMARTD_ADDRESS is not set. Otherwise, it is set to the comma-separated-list of email addresses given
by the argument ADD, with the commas replaced by spaces (example:admin@example.com root). If more
than one email address is given, then this string will contain space characters and is NOT quoted, so
to use it in a bash script you may want to enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_MESSAGE
is set to the one sentence summary warning email message string from smartd. This message string con-
tains space characters and is NOT quoted. So to use $SMARTD_MESSAGE in a bash script you should proba-
bly enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE
is set to the contents of the entire email warning message string from smartd. This message string
contains space and return characters and is NOT quoted. So to use $SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE in a bash script
you should probably enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_TFIRST
is a text string giving the time and date at which the first problem of this type was reported. This
text string contains space characters and no newlines, and is NOT quoted. For example:
Sun Feb 9 14:58:19 2003 CST
SMARTD_TFIRSTEPOCH
is an integer, which is the unix epoch (number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970) for SMARTD_TFIRST.
The shell which is used to run PATH is system-dependent. For vanilla Linux/glibc it�s bash. For other sys-
tems, the man page for popen(3) should say what shell is used.
If the �-m ADD� Directive is given with a normal address argument, then the executable pointed to by PATH
will be run in a shell with STDIN receiving the body of the email message, and with the same command-line
arguments:
-s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS
that would normally be provided to �mail�. Examples include:
-m user@home -M exec /bin/mail
-m admin@work -M exec /usr/local/bin/mailto
-m root -M exec /Example_1/bash/script/below
Note that on Windows, the syntax of the �Blat� mailer is used:
- -q -subject "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" -to "$SMARTD_ADDRESS"
If the �-m ADD� Directive is given with the special address argument <nomailer> then the executable
pointed to by PATH is run in a shell with no STDIN and no command-line arguments, for example:
-m <nomailer> -M exec /Example_2/bash/script/below
If the executable produces any STDERR/STDOUT output, then smartd assumes that something is going wrong,
and a snippet of that output will be copied to SYSLOG. The remainder of the output is then discarded.
Some EXAMPLES of scripts that can be used with the �-M exec� Directive are given below. Some sample
scripts are also included in /usr/share/doc/packages/smartmontools/examplescripts/.
-f Check for �failure� of any Usage Attributes. If these Attributes are less than or equal to the threshold,
it does NOT indicate imminent disk failure. It "indicates an advisory condition where the usage or age of
the device has exceeded its intended design life period." [Please see the smartctl -A command-line
option.]
-p Report anytime that a Prefail Attribute has changed its value since the last check, 30 minutes ago.
[Please see the smartctl -A command-line option.]
-u Report anytime that a Usage Attribute has changed its value since the last check, 30 minutes ago. [Please
see the smartctl -A command-line option.]
-t Equivalent to turning on the two previous flags �-p� and �-u�. Tracks changes in all device Attributes
(both Prefailure and Usage). [Please see the smartctl -A command-line option.]
-i ID Ignore device Attribute number ID when checking for failure of Usage Attributes. ID must be a decimal
integer in the range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the �-f� Directive and has no
effect without it.
This is useful, for example, if you have a very old disk and don�t want to keep getting messages about the
hours-on-lifetime Attribute (usually Attribute 9) failing. This Directive may appear multiple times for a
single device, if you want to ignore multiple Attributes.
-I ID Ignore device Attribute ID when tracking changes in the Attribute values. ID must be a decimal integer in
the range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the �-p�, �-u�, and �-t� tracking Direc-
tives and has no effect without one of them.
This is useful, for example, if one of the device Attributes is the disk temperature (usually Attribute
194 or 231). It�s annoying to get reports each time the temperature changes. This Directive may appear
multiple times for a single device, if you want to ignore multiple Attributes.
-r ID When tracking, report the Raw value of Attribute ID along with its (normally reported) Normalized value.
ID must be a decimal integer in the range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the
�-p�, �-u�, and �-t� tracking Directives and has no effect without one of them. This Directive may be
given multiple times.
A common use of this Directive is to track the device Temperature (often ID=194 or 231).
-R ID When tracking, report whenever the Raw value of Attribute ID changes. (Normally smartd only
tracks/reports changes of the Normalized Attribute values.) ID must be a decimal integer in the range
from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the �-p�, �-u�, and �-t� tracking Directives and
has no effect without one of them. This Directive may be given multiple times.
If this Directive is given, it automatically implies the �-r� Directive for the same Attribute, so that
the Raw value of the Attribute is reported.
A common use of this Directive is to track the device Temperature (often ID=194 or 231). It is also use-
ful for understanding how different types of system behavior affects the values of certain Attributes.
-C ID [ATA only] Report if the current number of pending sectors is non-zero. Here ID is the id number of the
Attribute whose raw value is the Current Pending Sector count. The allowed range of ID is 0 to 255 inclu-
sive. To turn off this reporting, use ID = 0. If the -C ID option is not given, then it defaults to -C
197 (since Attribute 197 is generally used to monitor pending sectors).
A pending sector is a disk sector (containing 512 bytes of your data) which the device would like to mark
as ``bad" and reallocate. Typically this is because your computer tried to read that sector, and the read
failed because the data on it has been corrupted and has inconsistent Error Checking and Correction (ECC)
codes. This is important to know, because it means that there is some unreadable data on the disk. The
problem of figuring out what file this data belongs to is operating system and file system specific. You
can typically force the sector to reallocate by writing to it (translation: make the device substitute a
spare good sector for the bad one) but at the price of losing the 512 bytes of data stored there.
-U ID [ATA only] Report if the number of offline uncorrectable sectors is non-zero. Here ID is the id number of
the Attribute whose raw value is the Offline Uncorrectable Sector count. The allowed range of ID is 0 to
255 inclusive. To turn off this reporting, use ID = 0. If the -U ID option is not given, then it
defaults to -U 198 (since Attribute 198 is generally used to monitor offline uncorrectable sectors).
An offline uncorrectable sector is a disk sector which was not readable during an off-line scan or a
self-test. This is important to know, because if you have data stored in this disk sector, and you need
to read it, the read will fail. Please see the previous �-C� option for more details.
-W DIFF[,INFO[,CRIT]]
Report if the current temperature had changed by at least DIFF degrees since last report. Report or Warn
if the temperature is greater or equal than one of INFO or CRIT degrees Celsius. If the limit CRIT is
reached, a message with loglevel �LOG_CRITICAL� will be logged to syslog and a warning email will be send
if '-m' is specified. If only the limit INFO is reached, a message with loglevel �LOG_INFO� will be
logged.
To disable any of the 3 reports, set the corresponding limit to 0. Trailing zero arguments may be omit-
ted. By default, all temperature reports are disabled (�-W 0�).
To track temperature changes of at least 2 degrees, use:
-W 2
To log informal messages on temperatures of at least 40 degrees, use:
-W 0,40
For warning messages/mails on temperatures of at least 45 degrees, use:
-W 0,0,45
To combine all of the above reports, use:
-W 2,40,45
For ATA devices, smartd interprets Attribute 194 as Temperature Celsius by default. This can be changed to
Attribute 9 or 220 by the drive database or by the �-v� directive, see below.
-F TYPE
[ATA only] Modifies the behavior of smartd to compensate for some known and understood device firmware
bug. The arguments to this Directive are exclusive, so that only the final Directive given is used. The
valid values are:
none - Assume that the device firmware obeys the ATA specifications. This is the default, unless the
device has presets for �-F� in the device database.
samsung - In some Samsung disks (example: model SV4012H Firmware Version: RM100-08) some of the two- and
four-byte quantities in the SMART data structures are byte-swapped (relative to the ATA specification).
Enabling this option tells smartd to evaluate these quantities in byte-reversed order. Some signs that
your disk needs this option are(1) no self-test log printed, even though you have run self-tests; (2)
very large numbers of ATA errors reported in the ATA error log; (3) strange and impossible values for the
ATA error log timestamps.
samsung2 - In more recent Samsung disks (firmware revisions ending in "-23") the number of ATA errors
reported is byte swapped. Enabling this option tells smartd to evaluate this quantity in byte-reversed
order.
Note that an explicit �-F� Directive will over-ride any preset values for �-F� (see the �-P� option
below).
[Please see the smartctl -F command-line option.]
-v N,OPTION
Modifies the labeling for Attribute N, for disks which use non-standard Attribute definitions. This is
useful in connection with the Attribute tracking/reporting Directives.
This Directive may appear multiple times. Valid arguments to this Directive are:
9,minutes - Raw Attribute number 9 is power-on time in minutes. Its raw value will be displayed in the
form �Xh+Ym�. Here X is hours, and Y is minutes in the range 0-59 inclusive. Y is always printed with
two digits, for example �06� or �31� or �00�.
9,seconds - Raw Attribute number 9 is power-on time in seconds. Its raw value will be displayed in the
form �Xh+Ym+Zs�. Here X is hours, Y is minutes in the range 0-59 inclusive, and Z is seconds in the range
0-59 inclusive. Y and Z are always printed with two digits, for example �06� or �31� or �00�.
9,halfminutes - Raw Attribute number 9 is power-on time, measured in units of 30 seconds. This format is
used by some Samsung disks. Its raw value will be displayed in the form �Xh+Ym�. Here X is hours, and Y
is minutes in the range 0-59 inclusive. Y is always printed with two digits, for example �06� or �31� or
�00�.
9,temp - Raw Attribute number 9 is the disk temperature in Celsius.
192,emergencyretractcyclect - Raw Attribute number 192 is the Emergency Retract Cycle Count.
193,loadunload - Raw Attribute number 193 contains two values. The first is the number of load cycles.
The second is the number of unload cycles. The difference between these two values is the number of times
that the drive was unexpectedly powered off (also called an emergency unload). As a rule of thumb, the
mechanical stress created by one emergency unload is equivalent to that created by one hundred normal
unloads.
194,10xCelsius - Raw Attribute number 194 is ten times the disk temperature in Celsius. This is used by
some Samsung disks (example: model SV1204H with RK100-13 firmware).
194,unknown - Raw Attribute number 194 is NOT the disk temperature, and its interpretation is unknown.
This is primarily useful for the -P (presets) Directive.
198,offlinescanuncsectorct - Raw Attribute number 198 is the Offline Scan UNC Sector Count.
200,writeerrorcount - Raw Attribute number 200 is the Write Error Count.
201,detectedtacount - Raw Attribute number 201 is the Detected TA Count.
220,temp - Raw Attribute number 220 is the disk temperature in Celsius.
Note: a table of hard drive models, listing which Attribute corresponds to temperature, can be found at:
http://www.guzu.net/linux/hddtemp.db
N,raw8 - Print the Raw value of Attribute N as six 8-bit unsigned base-10 integers. This may be useful
for decoding the meaning of the Raw value. The form �N,raw8� prints Raw values for ALL Attributes in this
form. The form (for example) �123,raw8� only prints the Raw value for Attribute 123 in this form.
N,raw16 - Print the Raw value of Attribute N as three 16-bit unsigned base-10 integers. This may be use-
ful for decoding the meaning of the Raw value. The form �N,raw16� prints Raw values for ALL Attributes in
this form. The form (for example) �123,raw16� only prints the Raw value for Attribute 123 in this form.
N,raw48 - Print the Raw value of Attribute N as a 48-bit unsigned base-10 integer. This may be useful for
decoding the meaning of the Raw value. The form �N,raw48� prints Raw values for ALL Attributes in this
form. The form (for example) �123,raw48� only prints the Raw value for Attribute 123 in this form.
-P TYPE
Specifies whether smartd should use any preset options that are available for this drive. The valid argu-
ments to this Directive are:
use - use any presets that are available for this drive. This is the default.
ignore - do not use any presets for this drive.
show - show the presets listed for this drive in the database.
showall - show the presets that are available for all drives and then exit.
[Please see the smartctl -P command-line option.]
-a Equivalent to turning on all of the following Directives: �-H� to check the SMART health status, �-f� to
report failures of Usage (rather than Prefail) Attributes, �-t� to track changes in both Prefailure and
Usage Attributes, �-l selftest� to report increases in the number of Self-Test Log errors, �-l error� to
report increases in the number of ATA errors, �-C 197� to report nonzero values of the current pending
sector count, and �-U 198� to report nonzero values of the offline pending sector count.
Note that -a is the default for ATA devices. If none of these other Directives is given, then -a is
assumed.
# Comment: ignore the remainder of the line.
\ Continuation character: if this is the last non-white or non-comment character on a line, then the follow-
ing line is a continuation of the current one.
If you are not sure which Directives to use, I suggest experimenting for a few minutes with smartctl to see what
SMART functionality your disk(s) support(s). If you do not like voluminous syslog messages, a good choice of
smartd configuration file Directives might be:
-H -l selftest -l error -f.
If you want more frequent information, use: -a.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT DEVICESCAN
If the first non-comment entry in the configuration file is the text string DEVICESCAN in capital letters,
then smartd will ignore any remaining lines in the configuration file, and will scan for devices.
If DEVICESCAN is not followed by any Directives, then smartd will scan for both ATA and SCSI devices, and
will monitor all possible SMART properties of any devices that are found.
DEVICESCAN may optionally be followed by any valid Directives, which will be applied to all devices that
are found in the scan. For example
DEVICESCAN -m root@example.com
will scan for all devices, and then monitor them. It will send one email warning per device for any prob-
lems that are found.
DEVICESCAN -d ata -m root@example.com
will do the same, but restricts the scan to ATA devices only.
DEVICESCAN -H -d ata -m root@example.com
will do the same, but only monitors the SMART health status of the devices, (rather than the default -a,
which monitors all SMART properties).
EXAMPLES OF SHELL SCRIPTS FOR �-M exec�
These are two examples of shell scripts that can be used with the �-M exec PATH� Directive described pre-
viously. The paths to these scripts and similar executables is the PATH argument to the �-M exec PATH�
Directive.
Example 1: This script is for use with �-m ADDRESS -M exec PATH�. It appends the output of smartctl -a to
the output of the smartd email warning message and sends it to ADDRESS.
#! /bin/bash
# Save the email message (STDIN) to a file:
cat > /root/msg
# Append the output of smartctl -a to the message:
/usr/sbin/smartctl -a -d $SMART_DEVICETYPE $SMARTD_DEVICE >> /root/msg
# Now email the message to the user at address ADD:
/bin/mail -s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS < /root/msg
Example 2: This script is for use with �-m <nomailer> -M exec PATH�. It warns all users about a disk prob-
lem, waits 30 seconds, and then powers down the machine.
#! /bin/bash
# Warn all users of a problem
wall �Problem detected with disk: � "$SMARTD_DEVICESTRING"
wall �Warning message from smartd is: � "$SMARTD_MESSAGE"
wall �Shutting down machine in 30 seconds... �
# Wait half a minute
sleep 30
# Power down the machine
/sbin/shutdown -hf now
Some example scripts are distributed with the smartmontools package, in /usr/share/doc/packages/smartmon-
tools/examplescripts/.
Please note that these scripts typically run as root, so any files that they read/write should not be
writable by ordinary users or reside in directories like /tmp that are writable by ordinary users and may
expose your system to symlink attacks.
As previously described, if the scripts write to STDOUT or STDERR, this is interpreted as indicating that
there was an internal error within the script, and a snippet of STDOUT/STDERR is logged to SYSLOG. The
remainder is flushed.
NOTES
smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_INFO if the Normalized SMART Attribute values have changed, as
reported using the �-t�, �-p�, or �-u� Directives. For example:
�Device: /dev/hda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 to 93�
Note that in this message, the value given is the �Normalized� not the �Raw� Attribute value (the disk tempera-
ture in this case is about 22 Celsius). The �-R� and �-r� Directives modify this behavior, so that the informa-
tion is printed with the Raw values as well, for example:
�Device: /dev/hda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 [Raw 22] to 93 [Raw 23]�
Here the Raw values are the actual disk temperatures in Celsius. The way in which the Raw values are printed,
and the names under which the Attributes are reported, is governed by the various �-v Num,Description� Directives
described previously.
Please see the smartctl manual page for further explanation of the differences between Normalized and Raw
Attribute values.
smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_CRIT if a SMART Attribute has failed, for example:
�Device: /dev/hdc, Failed SMART Attribute: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct�
This loglevel is used for reporting enabled by the �-H�, -f�, �-l selftest�, and �-l error� Directives. Entries
reporting failure of SMART Prefailure Attributes should not be ignored: they mean that the disk is failing. Use
the smartctl utility to investigate.
Under Solaris with the default /etc/syslog.conf configuration, messages below loglevel LOG_NOTICE will not be
recorded. Hence all smartd messages with loglevel LOG_INFO will be lost. If you want to use the existing daemon
facility to log all messages from smartd, you should change /etc/syslog.conf from:
...;daemon.notice;... /var/adm/messages
to read:
...;daemon.info;... /var/adm/messages
Alternatively, you can use a local facility to log messages: please see the smartd '-l' command-line option
described above.
On Cygwin and Windows, the log messages are written to the event log or to a file. See documentation of the '-l
FACILITY' option above for details.
On Windows, the following built-in commands can be used to control smartd, if running as a daemon:
�smartd status� - check status
�smartd stop� - stop smartd
�smartd reload� - reread config file
�smartd restart� - restart smartd
�smartd sigusr1� - check disks now
�smartd sigusr2� - toggle debug mode
On WinNT4/2000/XP, smartd can also be run as a Windows service:
The Cygwin Version of smartd can be run as a service via the cygrunsrv tool. The start-up script provides Cygwin-
specific commands to install and remove the service:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/smartd install [options]
/etc/rc.d/init.d/smartd remove
The service can be started and stopped by the start-up script as usual (see EXAMPLES above).
The Windows Version of smartd has buildin support for services:
�smartd install [options]� installs a service named "smartd" (display name "SmartD Service") using the command
line �/installpath/smartd.exe --service [options]�.
�smartd remove� can later be used to remove the service entry from registry.
Upon startup, the smartd service changes the working directory to its own installation path. If smartd.conf and
blat.exe are stored in this directory, no �-c� option and �-M exec� directive is needed.
The debug mode (�-d�, �-q onecheck�) does not work if smartd is running as service.
The service can be controlled as usual with Windows commands �net� or �sc� (�net start smartd�, �net stop
smartd�).
Pausing the service (�net pause smartd�) sets the interval between disk checks (�-i N�) to infinite.
Continuing the paused service (�net continue smartd�) resets the interval and rereads the configuration file
immediately (like SIGHUP):
Continuing a still running service (�net continue smartd� without preceding �net pause smartd�) does not reread
configuration but checks disks immediately (like SIGUSR1).
LOG TIMESTAMP TIMEZONE
When smartd makes log entries, these are time-stamped. The time stamps are in the computer's local time zone,
which is generally set using either the environment variable �TZ� or using a time-zone file such as /etc/local-
time. You may wish to change the timezone while smartd is running (for example, if you carry a laptop to a new
time-zone and don't reboot it). Due to a bug in the tzset(3) function of many unix standard C libraries, the
time-zone stamps of smartd might not change. For some systems, smartd will work around this problem if the time-
zone is set using /etc/localtime. The work-around fails if the time-zone is set using the �TZ� variable (or a
file that it points to).
RETURN VALUES
The return value (exit status) of smartd can have the following values:
0: Daemon startup successful, or smartd was killed by a SIGTERM (or in debug mode, a SIGQUIT).
1: Commandline did not parse.
2: There was a syntax error in the config file.
3: Forking the daemon failed.
4: Couldn�t create PID file.
5: Config file does not exist (only returned in conjunction with the �-c� option).
6: Config file exists, but cannot be read.
8: smartd ran out of memory during startup.
9: A compile time constant of smartd was too small. This can be caused by an excessive number of disks, or
by lines in /etc/smartd.conf that are too long. Please report this problem to smartmontools-sup-
port@lists.sourceforge.net.
10 An inconsistency was found in smartd�s internal data structures. This should never happen. It must be due
to either a coding or compiler bug. Please report such failures to smartmontools-support@lists.source-
forge.net.
16: A device explicitly listed in /etc/smartd.conf can�t be monitored.
17: smartd didn�t find any devices to monitor.
254: When in daemon mode, smartd received a SIGINT or SIGQUIT. (Note that in debug mode, SIGINT has the same
effect as SIGHUP, and makes smartd reload its configuration file. SIGQUIT has the same effect as SIGTERM
and causes smartd to exit with zero exit status.
132 and above
smartd was killed by a signal that is not explicitly listed above. The exit status is then 128 plus the
signal number. For example if smartd is killed by SIGKILL (signal 9) then the exit status is 137.
CONTRIBUTORS
The following have made large contributions to smartmontools:
Casper Dik (Solaris SCSI interface)
Christian Franke (Windows interface and Cygwin package)
Douglas Gilbert (SCSI subsystem)
Guido Guenther (Autoconf/Automake packaging)
Geoffrey Keating (Darwin ATA interface)
Eduard Martinescu (FreeBSD interface)
Frederic L. W. Meunier (Web site and Mailing list)
Keiji Sawada (Solaris ATA interface)
Sergey Svishchev (NetBSD interface)
David Snyder and Sergey Svishchev (OpenBSD interface)
Phil Williams (User interface and drive database)
Many other individuals have made smaller contributions and corrections.
CREDITS
This code was derived from the smartsuite package, written by Michael Cornwell, and from the previous ucsc smart-
suite package. It extends these to cover ATA-5 disks. This code was originally developed as a Senior Thesis by
Michael Cornwell at the Concurrent Systems Laboratory (now part of the Storage Systems Research Center), Jack
Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz. http://ssrc.soe.ucsc.edu/ .
HOME PAGE FOR SMARTMONTOOLS:
Please see the following web site for updates, further documentation, bug reports and patches: http://smartmon- tools.sourceforge.net/
SEE ALSO:
smartd.conf(5), smartctl(8), syslogd(8), syslog.conf(5), badblocks(8), ide-smart(8), regex(7).
REFERENCES FOR SMART
An introductory article about smartmontools is Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART, by Bruce Allen, Linux Journal,
January 2004, pages 74-77. This is http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6983 online.
If you would like to understand better how SMART works, and what it does, a good place to start is with Sections
4.8 and 6.54 of the first volume of the �AT Attachment with Packet Interface-7� (ATA/ATAPI-7) specification.
This documents the SMART functionality which the smartmontools utilities provide access to. You can find Revi-
sion 4b of this document at http://www.t13.org/docs2004/d1532v1r4b-ATA-ATAPI-7.pdf . Earlier and later versions
of this Specification are available from the T13 web site http://www.t13.org/ .
The functioning of SMART was originally defined by the SFF-8035i revision 2 and the SFF-8055i revision 1.4 speci-
fications. These are publications of the Small Form Factors (SFF) Committee. Links to these documents may be
found in the References section of the smartmontools home page at http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/#refer-
ences .
CVS ID OF THIS PAGE:
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