SMARTCTL(8) 2006/04/12 SMARTCTL(8)
NAME
smartctl - Control and Monitor Utility for SMART Disks
SYNOPSIS
smartctl [options] device
FULL PATH
/usr/sbin/smartctl
PACKAGE VERSION
smartmontools-5.36 released 2006/04/12 at 17:39:01 UTC
DESCRIPTION
smartctl controls the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technol-
ogy (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 smartctl is compatible with
ATA/ATAPI-7 and earlier standards (see REFERENCES below)
smartctl is a command line utility designed to perform SMART tasks such
as printing the SMART self-test and error logs, enabling and disabling
SMART automatic testing, and initiating device self-tests. Note: if the
user issues a SMART command that is (apparently) not implemented by the
device, smartctl will print a warning message but issue the command
anyway (see the -T, --tolerance option below). This should not cause
problems: on most devices, unimplemented SMART commands issued to a
drive are ignored and/or return an error.
smartctl also provides support for polling TapeAlert messages from SCSI
tape drives and changers.
The user must specify the device to be controlled or interrogated as
the final argument to smartctl. Device paths are as follows:
LINUX: Use the forms "/dev/hd[a-t]" for IDE/ATA devices, and
"/dev/sd[a-z]" for SCSI devices. For SCSI Tape Drives and
Changers with TapeAlert support use the devices "/dev/nst*"
and "/dev/sg*". For SATA disks accessed with libata, use
"/dev/sd[a-z]" and append "-d ata". For disks behind 3ware
controllers you may need "/dev/sd[a-z]" or "/dev/twe[0-9]" or
"/dev/twa[0-9]": see details below. More general paths (such
as devfs ones) may also be specified.
DARWIN: Use the forms /dev/disk[0-9] or equivalently disk[0-9] or
equivalently /dev/rdisk[0-9]. Long forms are also available:
please use ´-h´ to see some examples. Note that there is cur-
rently no Darwin SCSI support.
FREEBSD: Use the forms "/dev/ad[0-9]+" for IDE/ATA devices and
"/dev/da[0-9]+" for SCSI devices.
NETBSD/OPENBSD:
Use the form "/dev/wd[0-9]+c" for IDE/ATA devices. For SCSI
disk and tape devices, use the device names "/dev/sd[0-9]+c"
and "/dev/st[0-9]+c" respectively. Be sure to specify the
correct "whole disk" partition letter for your architecture.
SOLARIS: Use the forms "/dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s?" for IDE/ATA and SCSI disk
devices, and "/dev/rmt/*" for SCSI tape devices.
WINDOWS: Use the forms "/dev/hd[a-j]" for IDE/ATA devices "\\.\Physi-
calDrive[0-9]" on WinNT4/2000/XP, "/dev/hd[a-d]" for standard
IDE/ATA devices on Win95/98/98SE/ME, and "/dev/scsi[0-9][0-f]"
for SCSI devices on ASPI adapter 0-9, ID 0-15. The prefix
"/dev/" is optional.
CYGWIN: See "WINDOWS" above.
OS/2,eComStation:
Use the form "/dev/hd[a-z]" for IDE/ATA devices.
Based on the device path, smartctl will guess the device type (ATA or
SCSI). If necessary, the ´-d´ option can be used to over-ride this
guess
Note that the printed output of smartctl displays most numerical values
in base 10 (decimal), but some values are displayed in base 16 (hex-
idecimal). To distinguish them, the base 16 values are always dis-
played with a leading "0x", for example: "0xff". This man page follows
the same convention.
OPTIONS
The options are grouped below into several categories. smartctl will
execute the corresponding commands in the order: INFORMATION,
ENABLE/DISABLE, DISPLAY DATA, RUN/ABORT TESTS.
SCSI devices only accept the options -h, -V, -i, -a, -A, -d, -s, -S,-H,
-t, -C, -l selftest, -l error, -r, and -X. TapeAlert devices only
accept the options -h, -V, -i, -a, -A, -d, -s, -S, -t, -l selftest, -l
error, -r, and -H.
Long options are not supported on all systems. Use ´smartctl
-h´ to see the available options.
SHOW INFORMATION OPTIONS:
-h, --help, --usage
Prints a usage message to STDOUT and exits.
-V, --version, --copyright, --license
Prints version, copyright, license, home page and CVS-id infor-
mation for your copy of smartctl to STDOUT and then exits.
Please include this information if you are reporting bugs or
problems.
-i, --info
Prints the device model number, serial number, firmware version,
and ATA Standard version/revision information. Says if the
device supports SMART, and if so, whether SMART support is cur-
rently enabled or disabled. If the device supports Logical
Block Address mode (LBA mode) print current user drive capacity
in bytes. (If drive is has a user protected area reserved, or is
"clipped", this may be smaller than the potential maximum drive
capacity.) Indicates if the drive is in the smartmontools
database (see ´-v´ options below). If so, the drive model fam-
ily may also be printed.
-a, --all
Prints all SMART information about the disk, or TapeAlert infor-
mation about the tape drive or changer. For ATA devices this is
equivalent to
´-H -i -c -A -l error -l selftest -l selective´
and for SCSI, this is equivalent to
´-H -i -A -l error -l selftest´.
Note that for ATA disks this does not enable the ´-l directory´
option.
RUN-TIME BEHAVIOR OPTIONS:
-q TYPE, --quietmode=TYPE
Specifies that smartctl should run in one of the two quiet modes
described here. The valid arguments to this option are:
errorsonly - only print: For the ´-l error´ option, if nonzero,
the number of errors recorded in the SMART error log and the
power-on time when they occurred; For the ´-l selftest´ option,
errors recorded in the device self-test log; For the ´-H´
option, SMART "disk failing" status or device Attributes
(pre-failure or usage) which failed either now or in the past;
For the ´-A´ option, device Attributes (pre-failure or usage)
which failed either now or in the past.
silent - print no output. The only way to learn about what was
found is to use the exit status of smartctl (see RETURN VALUES
below).
-d TYPE, --device=TYPE
Specifies the type of the device. The valid arguments to this
option are ata, scsi, marvell, cciss,N and 3ware,N. If this
option is not used then smartctl will attempt to guess the
device type from the device name.
Under Linux, to look at SATA disks behind Marvell SATA con-
trollers (using Marvell’s ´linuxIAL´ driver rather than libata
driver) use ´-d marvell´. Such controllers show up as Marvell
Technology Group Ltd. SATA I or II controllers using lspci, or
using lspci -n show a vendor ID 0x11ab and a device ID of either
0x5040, 0x5041, 0x5080, 0x5081, 0x6041 or 0x6081. The ´linuxIAL´
driver seems not (yet?) available in the Linux kernel source
tree, but should be available from system vendors
(ftp://ftp.aslab.com/ is known to provide a patch with the
driver).
To look at ATA disks behind 3ware SCSI RAID controllers, use
syntax such as:
smartctl -a -d 3ware,2 /dev/sda
smartctl -a -d 3ware,0 /dev/twe0
smartctl -a -d 3ware,1 /dev/twa0
where in the argument 3ware,N, the integer N is the disk number
(3ware ´port´) within the 3ware ATA RAID controller. The
allowed values of N are from 0 to 15 inclusive. The first two
forms, which refer to devices /dev/sda-z and /dev/twe0-15, may
be used with 3ware series 6000, 7000, and 8000 series con-
trollers that use the 3x-xxxx driver. Note that the /dev/sda-z
form is deprecated starting with the Linux 2.6 kernel series and
may not be supported by the Linux kernel in the near future. The
final form, which refers to devices /dev/twa0-15, must be used
with 3ware 9000 series controllers, which use the 3w-9xxx
driver.
Note that if the special character device nodes /dev/twa? and
/dev/twe? do not exist, or exist with the incorrect major or
minor numbers, smartctl will recreate them on the fly. Typi-
cally /dev/twa0 refers to the first 9000-series controller,
/dev/twa1 refers to the second 9000 series controller, and so
on. Likewise /dev/twe0 refers to the first 6/7/8000-series con-
troller, /dev/twa1 refers to the second 6/7/8000 series con-
troller, and so on.
Note that for the 6/7/8000 controllers, any of the physical
disks can be queried or examined using any of the 3ware’s SCSI
logical device /dev/sd? entries. Thus, if logical device
/dev/sda is made up of two physical disks (3ware ports zero and
one) and logical device /dev/sdb is made up of two other physi-
cal disks (3ware ports two and three) then you can examine the
SMART data on any of the four physical disks using either SCSI
device /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. If you need to know which logical
SCSI device a particular physical disk (3ware port) is associ-
ated with, use the dmesg or SYSLOG output to show which SCSI ID
corresponds to a particular 3ware unit, and then use the 3ware
CLI or 3dm tool to determine which ports (physical disks) corre-
spond to particular 3ware units.
If the value of N corresponds to a port that does not exist on
the 3ware controller, or to a port that does not physically have
a disk attached to it, the behavior of smartctl depends upon the
specific controller model, firmware, Linux kernel and platform.
In some cases you will get a warning message that the device
does not exist. In other cases you will be presented with ´void´
data for a non-existent device.
Note that if the /dev/sd? addressing form is used, then older
3w-xxxx drivers do not pass the "Enable Autosave" (´-S on´) and
"Enable Automatic Offline" (´-o on´) commands to the disk, 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. Alter-
natively, use the character device /dev/twe0-15 interface.
The selective self-test functions (´-t select,A-B´) are only
supported using the character device interface /dev/twa0-15 and
/dev/twe0-15. The necessary WRITE LOG commands can not be
passed through the SCSI interface.
3ware controllers are currently ONLY supported under Linux and
FreeBSD.
cciss controllers are currently ONLY supported under Linux.
-T TYPE, --tolerance=TYPE
Specifies how tolerant smartctl should be of ATA and SMART com-
mand failures.
The behavior of smartctl depends upon whether the command is
"optional" or "mandatory". Here "mandatory" means "required by
the ATA/ATAPI-5 Specification if the device implements the SMART
command set" and "optional" means "not required by the
ATA/ATAPI-5 Specification even if the device implements the
SMART command set." The "mandatory" ATA and SMART commands are:
(1) ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE, (2) SMART ENABLE/DISABLE ATTRIBUTE
AUTOSAVE, (3) SMART ENABLE/DISABLE, and (4) SMART RETURN STATUS.
The valid arguments to this option are:
normal - exit on failure of any mandatory SMART command, and
ignore all failures of optional SMART commands. This is the
default. Note that on some devices, issuing unimplemented
optional SMART commands doesn´t cause an error. This can result
in misleading smartctl messages such as "Feature X not imple-
mented", followed shortly by "Feature X: enabled". In most such
cases, contrary to the final message, Feature X is not enabled.
conservative - exit on failure of any optional SMART command.
permissive - ignore failure(s) of mandatory SMART commands.
This option may be given more than once. Each additional use of
this option will cause one more additional failure to be
ignored. Note that the use of this option can lead to messages
like "Feature X not implemented", followed shortly by "Error:
unable to enable Feature X". In a few such cases, contrary to
the final message, Feature X is enabled.
verypermissive - equivalent to giving a large number of ´-T per-
missive´ options: ignore failures of any number of mandatory
SMART commands. Please see the note above.
-b TYPE, --badsum=TYPE
Specifies the action smartctl should take if a checksum error is
detected in the: (1) Device Identity Structure, (2) SMART
Self-Test Log Structure, (3) SMART Attribute Value Structure,
(4) SMART Attribute Threshold Structure, or (5) ATA Error Log
Structure.
The valid arguments to this option are:
warn - report the incorrect checksum but carry on in spite of
it. This is the default.
exit - exit smartctl.
ignore - continue silently without issuing a warning.
-r TYPE, --report=TYPE
Intended primarily to help smartmontools developers understand
the behavior of smartmontools on non-conforming or poorly con-
forming hardware. This option reports details of smartctl
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.
Invoking this once shows the SCSI commands in hex and the corre-
sponding status. Invoking it a second time adds a hex listing of
the first 64 bytes of data send to, or received from the device.
Any argument may include a positive integer to specify the level
of detail that should be reported. The argument should be fol-
lowed 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.
SMART FEATURE ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS:
Note: if multiple options are used to both enable and disable a
feature, then both the enable and disable commands will be
issued. The enable command will always be issued before the
corresponding disable command.
-s VALUE, --smart=VALUE
Enables or disables SMART on device. The valid arguments to
this option are on and off. Note that the command ´-s on´ (per-
haps used with with the ´-o on´ and ´-S on´ options) should be
placed in a start-up script for your machine, for example in
rc.local or rc.sysinit. In principle the SMART feature settings
are preserved over power-cycling, but it doesn´t hurt to be
sure. It is not necessary (or useful) to enable SMART to see the
TapeAlert messages.
-o VALUE, --offlineauto=VALUE
Enables or disables SMART automatic offline test, which scans
the drive every four hours for disk defects. This command can be
given during normal system operation. The valid arguments to
this option are on and off.
Note that the SMART automatic offline test command is listed as
"Obsolete" in every version of the ATA and ATA/ATAPI Specifica-
tions. It was originally part of the SFF-8035i Revision 2.0
specification, but was never part of any ATA specification.
However it is implemented and used by many vendors. [Good docu-
mentation can be found in IBM´s Official Published Disk Specifi-
cations. For example the IBM Travelstar 40GNX Hard Disk Drive
Specifications (Revision 1.1, 22 April 2002, Publication # 1541,
Document S07N-7715-02) page 164. You can also read the SFF-8035i
Specification -- see REFERENCES below.] You can tell if auto-
matic offline testing is supported by seeing if this command
enables and disables it, as indicated by the ´Auto Offline Data
Collection´ part of the SMART capabilities report (displayed
with ´-c´).
SMART provides three basic categories of testing. The first
category, called "online" testing, has no effect on the perfor-
mance of the device. It is turned on by the ´-s on´ option.
The second category of testing is called "offline" testing. This
type of test can, in principle, degrade the device performance.
The ´-o on´ option causes this offline testing to be carried
out, automatically, on a regular scheduled basis. Normally, the
disk will suspend offline testing while disk accesses are taking
place, and then automatically resume it when the disk would oth-
erwise be idle, so in practice it has little effect. Note that
a one-time offline test can also be carried out immediately upon
receipt of a user command. See the ´-t offline´ option below,
which causes a one-time offline test to be carried out immedi-
ately.
The choice (made by the SFF-8035i and ATA specification authors)
of the word testing for these first two categories is unfortu-
nate, and often leads to confusion. In fact these first two
categories of online and offline testing could have been more
accurately described as online and offline data collection.
The results of this automatic or immediate offline testing (data
collection) are reflected in the values of the SMART Attributes.
Thus, if problems or errors are detected, the values of these
Attributes will go below their failure thresholds; some types of
errors may also appear in the SMART error log. These are visible
with the ´-A´ and ´-l error´ options respectively.
Some SMART attribute values are updated only during off-line
data collection activities; the rest are updated during normal
operation of the device or during both normal operation and
off-line testing. The Attribute value table produced by the
´-A´ option indicates this in the UPDATED column. Attributes of
the first type are labeled "Offline" and Attributes of the sec-
ond type are labeled "Always".
The third category of testing (and the only category for which
the word ´testing´ is really an appropriate choice) is "self"
testing. This third type of test is only performed (immedi-
ately) when a command to run it is issued. The ´-t´ and ´-X´
options can be used to carry out and abort such self-tests;
please see below for further details.
Any errors detected in the self testing will be shown in the
SMART self-test log, which can be examined using the ´-l self-
test´ option.
Note: in this manual page, the word "Test" is used in connection
with the second category just described, e.g. for the "offline"
testing. The words "Self-test" are used in connection with the
third category.
-S VALUE, --saveauto=VALUE
Enables or disables SMART autosave of device vendor-specific
Attributes. The valid arguments to this option are on and off.
Note that this feature is preserved across disk power cycles, so
you should only need to issue it once.
For SCSI devices this toggles the value of the Global Logging
Target Save Disabled (GLTSD) bit in the Control Mode Page. Some
disk manufacturers set this bit by default. This prevents error
counters, power-up hours and other useful data from being placed
in non-volatile storage, so these values may be reset to zero
the next time the device is power-cycled. If the GLTSD bit is
set then ´smartctl -a´ will issue a warning. Use on to clear the
GLTSD bit and thus enable saving counters to non-volatile stor-
age. For extreme streaming-video type applications you might
consider using off to set the GLTSD bit.
SMART READ AND DISPLAY DATA OPTIONS:
-H, --health
Check: Ask the device to report its SMART health status or pend-
ing TapeAlert messages. SMART status is based on information
that it has gathered from online and offline tests, which were
used to determine/update its SMART vendor-specific Attribute
values. TapeAlert status is obtained by reading the TapeAlert
log page.
If the device reports failing health status, this means either
that the device has already failed, or that it is predicting its
own failure within the next 24 hours. If this happens, use the
´-a´ option to get more information, and get your data off the
disk and someplace safe as soon as you can.
-c, --capabilities
Prints only the generic SMART capabilities. These show what
SMART features are implemented and how the device will respond
to some of the different SMART commands. For example it shows
if the device logs errors, if it supports offline surface scan-
ning, and so on. If the device can carry out self-tests, this
option also shows the estimated time required to run those
tests.
Note that the time required to run the Self-tests (listed in
minutes) are fixed. However the time required to run the
Immediate Offline Test (listed in seconds) is variable. This
means that if you issue a command to perform an Immediate
Offline test with the ´-t offline´ option, then the time may
jump to a larger value and then count down as the Immediate
Offline Test is carried out. Please see REFERENCES below for
further information about the the flags and capabilities
described by this option.
-A, --attributes
Prints only the vendor specific SMART Attributes. The
Attributes are numbered from 1 to 253 and have specific names
and ID numbers. For example Attribute 12 is "power cycle count":
how many times has the disk been powered up.
Each Attribute has a "Raw" value, printed under the heading
"RAW_VALUE", and a "Normalized" value printed under the heading
"VALUE". [Note: smartctl prints these values in base-10.] In
the example just given, the "Raw Value" for Attribute 12 would
be the actual number of times that the disk has been
power-cycled, for example 365 if the disk has been turned on
once per day for exactly one year. Each vendor uses their own
algorithm to convert this "Raw" value to a "Normalized" value in
the range from 1 to 254. Please keep in mind that smartctl only
reports the different Attribute types, values, and thresholds as
read from the device. It does not carry out the conversion
between "Raw" and "Normalized" values: this is done by the
disk´s firmware.
The conversion from Raw value to a quantity with physical units
is not specified by the SMART standard. In most cases, the val-
ues printed by smartctl are sensible. For example the tempera-
ture Attribute generally has its raw value equal to the tempera-
ture in Celsius. However in some cases vendors use unusual con-
ventions. For example the Hitachi disk on my laptop reports its
power-on hours in minutes, not hours. Some IBM disks track three
temperatures rather than one, in their raw values. And so on.
Each Attribute also has a Threshold value (whose range is 0 to
255) which is printed under the heading "THRESH". If the Nor-
malized value is less than or equal to the Threshold value, then
the Attribute is said to have failed. If the Attribute is a
pre-failure Attribute, then disk failure is imminent.
Each Attribute also has a "Worst" value shown under the heading
"WORST". This is the smallest (closest to failure) value that
the disk has recorded at any time during its lifetime when SMART
was enabled. [Note however that some vendors firmware may actu-
ally increase the "Worst" value for some "rate-type"
Attributes.]
The Attribute table printed out by smartctl also shows the
"TYPE" of the Attribute. Attributes are one of two possible
types: Pre-failure or Old age. Pre-failure Attributes are ones
which, if less than or equal to their threshold values, indicate
pending disk failure. Old age, or usage Attributes, are ones
which indicate end-of-product life from old-age or normal aging
and wearout, if the Attribute value is less than or equal to the
threshold. Please note: the fact that an Attribute is of type
’Pre-fail’ does not mean that your disk is about to fail! It
only has this meaning if the Attribute´s current Normalized
value is less than or equal to the threshold value.
If the Attribute´s current Normalized value is less than or
equal to the threshold value, then the "WHEN_FAILED" column will
display "FAILING_NOW". If not, but the worst recorded value is
less than or equal to the threshold value, then this column will
display "In_the_past". If the "WHEN_FAILED" column has no entry
(indicated by a dash: ´-´) then this Attribute is OK now (not
failing) and has also never failed in the past.
The table column labeled "UPDATED" shows if the SMART Attribute
values are updated during both normal operation and off-line
testing, or only during offline testing. The former are labeled
"Always" and the latter are labeled "Offline".
So to summarize: the Raw Attribute values are the ones that
might have a real physical interpretation, such as "Temperature
Celsius", "Hours", or "Start-Stop Cycles". Each manufacturer
converts these, using their detailed knowledge of the disk´s
operations and failure modes, to Normalized Attribute values in
the range 1-254. The current and worst (lowest measured) of
these Normalized Attribute values are stored on the disk, along
with a Threshold value that the manufacturer has determined will
indicate that the disk is going to fail, or that it has exceeded
its design age or aging limit. smartctl does not calculate any
of the Attribute values, thresholds, or types, it merely reports
them from the SMART data on the device.
Note that starting with ATA/ATAPI-4, revision 4, the meaning of
these Attribute fields has been made entirely vendor-specific.
However most ATA/ATAPI-5 disks seem to respect their meaning, so
we have retained the option of printing the Attribute values.
For SCSI devices the "attributes" are obtained from the tempera-
ture and start-stop cycle counter log pages. Certain vendor spe-
cific attributes are listed if recognised. The attributes are
output in a relatively free format (compared with ATA disk
attributes).
-l TYPE, --log=TYPE
Prints either the SMART Error Log, the SMART Self-Test Log, the
SMART Selective Self-Test Log [ATA only], or the Log Directory
[ATA only]. The valid arguments to this option are:
error - prints only the SMART error log. SMART disks maintain a
log of the most recent five non-trivial errors. For each of
these errors, the disk power-on lifetime at which the error
occurred is recorded, as is the device status (idle, standby,
etc) at the time of the error. For some common types of errors,
the Error Register (ER) and Status Register (SR) values are
decoded and printed as text. The meanings of these are:
ABRT: Command ABoRTed
AMNF: Address Mark Not Found
CCTO: Command Completion Timed Out
EOM: End Of Media
ICRC: Interface Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC) error
IDNF: IDentity Not Found
ILI: (packet command-set specific)
MC: Media Changed
MCR: Media Change Request
NM: No Media
obs: obsolete
TK0NF: TracK 0 Not Found
UNC: UNCorrectable Error in Data
WP: Media is Write Protected
In addition, up to the last five commands that preceded the
error are listed, along with a timestamp measured from the start
of the corresponding power cycle. This is displayed in the form
Dd+HH:MM:SS.msec where D is the number of days, HH is hours, MM
is minutes, SS is seconds and msec is milliseconds. [Note: this
time stamp wraps after 2^32 milliseconds, or 49 days 17 hours 2
minutes and 47.296 seconds.] The key ATA disk registers are
also recorded in the log. The final column of the error log is
a text-string description of the ATA command defined by the Com-
mand Register (CR) and Feature Register (FR) values. Commands
that are obsolete in the most current (ATA-7) spec are listed
like this: READ LONG (w/ retry) [OBS-4], indicating that the
command became obsolete with or in the ATA-4 specification.
Similarly, the notation [RET-N] is used to indicate that a com-
mand was retired in the ATA-N specification. Some commands are
not defined in any version of the ATA specification but are in
common use nonetheless; these are marked [NS], meaning non-stan-
dard.
The ATA Specification (ATA-5 Revision 1c, Section 8.41.6.8.2)
says: "Error log structures shall include UNC errors, IDNF
errors for which the address requested was valid, servo errors,
write fault errors, etc. Error log data structures shall not
include errors attributed to the receipt of faulty commands such
as command codes not implemented by the device or requests with
invalid parameters or invalid addresses." The definitions of
these terms are:
UNC (UNCorrectable): data is uncorrectable. This refers to data
which has been read from the disk, but for which the Error
Checking and Correction (ECC) codes are inconsistent. In
effect, this means that the data can not be read.
IDNF (ID Not Found): user-accessible address could not be found.
For READ LOG type commands, IDNF can also indicate that a device
data log structure checksum was incorrect.
If the command that caused the error was a READ or WRITE com-
mand, then the Logical Block Address (LBA) at which the error
occurred will be printed in base 10 and base 16. The LBA is a
linear address, which counts 512-byte sectors on the disk,
starting from zero. (Because of the limitations of the SMART
error log, if the LBA is greater than 0xfffffff, then either no
error log entry will be made, or the error log entry will have
an incorrect LBA. This may happen for drives with a capacity
greater than 128 GiB or 137 GB.) On Linux systems the smartmon-
tools web page has instructions about how to convert the LBA
address to the name of the disk file containing the erroneous
disk sector.
Please note that some manufacturers ignore the ATA specifica-
tions, and make entries in the error log if the device receives
a command which is not implemented or is not valid.
error [SCSI] - prints the error counter log pages for reads,
write and verifies. The verify row is only output if it has an
element other than zero.
selftest - prints the SMART self-test log. The disk maintains a
self-test log showing the results of the self tests, which can
be run using the ´-t´ option described below. For each of the
most recent twenty-one self-tests, the log shows the type of
test (short or extended, off-line or captive) and the final sta-
tus of the test. If the test did not complete successfully,
then the percentage of the test remaining is shown. The time at
which the test took place, measured in hours of disk lifetime,
is also printed. If any errors were detected, the Logical Block
Address (LBA) of the first error is printed in decimal notation.
On Linux systems the smartmontools web page has instructions
about how to convert this LBA address to the name of the disk
file containing the erroneous block.
selftest [SCSI] - the self-test log for a SCSI device has a
slightly different format than for an ATA device. For each of
the most recent twenty self-tests, it shows the type of test and
the status (final or in progress) of the test. SCSI standards
use the terms "foreground" and "background" (rather than ATA´s
corresponding "captive" and "off-line") and "short" and "long"
(rather than ATA´s corresponding "short" and "extended") to
describe the type of the test. The printed segment number is
only relevant when a test fails in the third or later test seg-
ment. It identifies the test that failed and consists of either
the number of the segment that failed during the test, or the
number of the test that failed and the number of the segment in
which the test was run, using a vendor-specific method of
putting both numbers into a single byte. The Logical Block
Address (LBA) of the first error is printed in hexadecimal nota-
tion. On Linux systems the smartmontools web page has instruc-
tions about how to convert this LBA address to the name of the
disk file containing the erroneous block. If provided, the SCSI
Sense Key (SK), Additional Sense Code (ASC) and Additional Sense
Code Qualifier (ASQ) are also printed. The self tests can be run
using the ´-t´ option described below (using the ATA test termi-
nology).
selective [ATA] - Some ATA-7 disks (example: Maxtor) also main-
tain a selective self-test log. Please see the ´-t select´
option below for a description of selective self-tests. The
selective self-test log shows the start/end Logical Block
Addresses (LBA) of each of the five test spans, and their cur-
rent test status. If the span is being tested or the remainder
of the disk is being read-scanned, the current 65536-sector
block of LBAs being tested is also displayed. The selective
self-test log also shows if a read-scan of the remainder of the
disk will be carried out after the selective self-test has com-
pleted (see ´-t afterselect´ option) and the time delay before
restarting this read-scan if it is interrupted (see ´-t pending´
option). This is a new smartmontools feature; please report
unusual or incorrect behavior to the smartmontools-support mail-
ing list.
directory - if the device supports the General Purpose Logging
feature set (ATA-6 and ATA-7 only) then this prints the Log
Directory (the log at address 0). The Log Directory shows what
logs are available and their length in sectors (512 bytes). The
contents of the logs at address 1 [Summary SMART error log] and
at address 6 [SMART self-test log] may be printed using the pre-
viously-described error and selftest arguments to this option.
[Please note: this is a new, experimental feature. We would
like to add support for printing the contents of extended and
comprehensive SMART self-test and error logs. If your disk sup-
ports these, and you would like to assist, please contact the
smartmontools developers.]
-v N,OPTION, --vendorattribute=N,OPTION
Sets a vendor-specific display OPTION for Attribute N. This
option may be used multiple times. Valid arguments to this
option are:
help - Prints (to STDOUT) a list of all valid arguments to this
option, then exits.
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, mea-
sured in units of 30 seconds. This format is used by some Sam-
sung 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 Cel-
sius.
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 num-
ber 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 tempera-
ture, and its interpretation is unknown. This is primarily use-
ful for the -P (presets) option.
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 cor-
responds 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 useful 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.
-F TYPE, --firmwarebug=TYPE
Modifies the behavior of smartctl to compensate for some known
and understood device firmware bug. The arguments to this
option are exclusive, so that only the final option given is
used. The valid values are:
none - Assume that the device firmware obeys the ATA specifica-
tions. This is the default, unless the device has presets for
´-F´ in the device database (see note below).
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 smartctl 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 end-
ing in "-23") the number of ATA errors reported is byte swapped.
Enabling this option tells smartctl to evaluate this quantity in
byte-reversed order. An indication that your Samsung disk needs
this option is that the self-test log is printed correctly, but
there are a very large number of errors in the SMART error log.
This is because the error count is byte swapped. Thus a disk
with five errors (0x0005) will appear to have 20480 errors
(0x5000).
Note that an explicit ´-F´ option on the command line will
over-ride any preset values for ´-F´ (see the ´-P´ option
below).
-P TYPE, --presets=TYPE
Specifies whether smartctl should use any preset options that
are available for this drive. By default, if the drive is recog-
nized in the smartmontools database, then the presets are used.
smartctl can automatically set appropriate options for known
drives. For example, the Maxtor 4D080H4 uses Attribute 9 to
stores power-on time in minutes whereas most drives use that
Attribute to store the power-on time in hours. The command-line
option ´-v 9,minutes´ ensures that smartctl correctly interprets
Attribute 9 in this case, but that option is preset for the Max-
tor 4D080H4 and so need not be specified by the user on the
smartctl command line.
The argument show will show any preset options for your drive
and the argument showall will show all known drives in the
smartmontools database, along with their preset options. If
there are no presets for your drive and you think there should
be (for example, a -v or -F option is needed to get smartctl to
display correct values) then please contact the smartmontools
developers so that this information can be added to the smart-
montools database. Contact information is at the end of this
man page.
The valid arguments to this option are:
use - if a drive is recognized, then use the stored presets for
it. This is the default. Note that presets will NOT over-ride
additional Attribute interpretation (´-v N,something´) com-
mand-line options or explicit ´-F´ command-line options..
ignore - do not use presets.
show - show if the drive is recognized in the database, and if
so, its presets, then exit.
showall - list all recognized drives, and the presets that are
set for them, then exit.
The ´-P showall´ option takes up to two optional arguments to
match a specific drive type and firmware version. The command:
smartctl -P showall
lists all entries, the command:
smartctl -P showall ´MODEL´
lists all entries matching MODEL, and the command:
smartctl -P showall ´MODEL´ ´FIRMWARE´
lists all entries for this MODEL and a specific FIRMWARE ver-
sion.
SMART RUN/ABORT OFFLINE TEST AND SELF-TEST OPTIONS:
-t TEST, --test=TEST
Executes TEST immediately. The ´-C´ option can be used in con-
junction with this option to run the short or long (and also for
ATA devices, selective or conveyance) self-tests in captive mode
(known as "foreground mode" for SCSI devices). Note that only
one test type can be run at a time, so only one test type should
be specified per command line. Note also that if a computer is
shutdown or power cycled during a self-test, no harm should
result. The self-test will either be aborted or will resume
automatically.
The valid arguments to this option are:
offline - runs SMART Immediate Offline Test. This immediately
starts the test described above. This command can be given dur-
ing normal system operation. The effects of this test are visi-
ble only in that it updates the SMART Attribute values, and if
errors are found they will appear in the SMART error log, visi-
ble with the ´-l error´ option. [In the case of SCSI devices
runs the default self test in foreground. No entry is placed in
the self test log.]
If the ´-c´ option to smartctl shows that the device has the
"Suspend Offline collection upon new command" capability then
you can track the progress of the Immediate Offline test using
the ´-c´ option to smartctl. If the ´-c´ option show that the
device has the "Abort Offline collection upon new command" capa-
bility then most commands will abort the Immediate Offline Test,
so you should not try to track the progress of the test with
´-c´, as it will abort the test.
short - runs SMART Short Self Test (usually under ten minutes).
[Note: in the case of SCSI devices, this command option runs the
"Background short" self-test.] This command can be given during
normal system operation (unless run in captive mode - see the
´-C´ option below). This is a test in a different category than
the immediate or automatic offline tests. The "Self" tests
check the electrical and mechanical performance as well as the
read performance of the disk. Their results are reported in the
Self Test Error Log, readable with the ´-l selftest´ option.
Note that on some disks the progress of the self-test can be
monitored by watching this log during the self-test; with other
disks use the ´-c´ option to monitor progress.
long - runs SMART Extended Self Test (tens of minutes). [Note:
in the case of SCSI devices, this command option runs the "Back-
ground long" self-test.] This is a longer and more thorough
version of the Short Self Test described above. Note that this
command can be given during normal system operation (unless run
in captive mode - see the ´-C´ option below).
conveyance - [ATA ONLY] runs a SMART Conveyance Self Test (min-
utes). This self-test routine is intended to identify damage
incurred during transporting of the device. This self-test rou-
tine should take on the order of minutes to complete. Note that
this command can be given during normal system operation (unless
run in captive mode - see the ´-C´ option below).
select,N-M - [ATA ONLY] [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTCTL FEATURE] runs
a SMART Selective Self Test, to test a range of disk Logical
Block Addresses (LBAs), rather than the entire disk. Each range
of LBAs that is checked is called a "span" and is specified by a
starting LBA (N) and an ending LBA (M) with N less than or equal
to M. For example the command:
smartctl -t select,10-20 /dev/hda
runs a self test on one span consisting of LBAs ten to twenty
(inclusive). The ´-t´ option can be given up to five times, to
test up to five spans. For example the command:
smartctl -t select,0-100 -t select,1000-2000 /dev/hda
runs a self test on two spans. The first span consists of 101
LBAs and the second span consists of 1001 LBAs. Note that the
spans can overlap partially or completely, for example:
smartctl -t select,0-10 -t select,5-15 -t select,10-20 /dev/hda
The results of the selective self-test can be obtained (both
during and after the test) by printing the SMART self-test log,
using the ´-l selftest´ option to smartctl.
Selective self tests are particularly useful as disk capacities
increase: an extended self test (smartctl -t long) can take sev-
eral hours. Selective self-tests are helpful if (based on SYS-
LOG error messages, previous failed self-tests, or SMART error
log entries) you suspect that a disk is having problems at a
particular range of Logical Block Addresses (LBAs).
Selective self-tests can be run during normal system operation
(unless done in captive mode - see the ´-C´ option below).
[Note: this new experimental smartmontools feature is currently
only available under Linux. The Linux kernel must be compiled
with the configuration option CONFIG_IDE_TASKFILE_IO enabled.
Please report unusual or incorrect behavior to the smartmon-
tools-support mailing list.]
afterselect,on - [ATA ONLY] perform an offline read scan after a
Selective Self-test has completed. This option must be used
together with one or more of the select,N-M options above. If
the LBAs that have been specified in the Selective self-test
pass the test with no errors found, then read scan the remainder
of the disk. If the device is powered-cycled while this read
scan is in progress, the read scan will be automatically resumed
after a time specified by the pending timer (see below). The
value of this option is preserved between selective self-tests.
afterselect,off - [ATA ONLY] do not read scan the remainder of
the disk after a Selective self-test has completed. This option
must be use together with one or more of the select,N-M options
above. The value of this option is preserved between selective
self-tests.
pending,N - [ATA ONLY] set the pending offline read scan timer
to N minutes. Here N is an integer in the range from 0 to 65535
inclusive. If the device is powered off during a read scan
after a Selective self-test, then resume the test automatically
N minutes after power-up. This option must be use together with
one or more of the select,N-M options above. The value of this
option is preserved between selective self-tests.
-C, --captive
Runs self-tests in captive mode. This has no effect with ´-t
offline´ or if the ´-t´ option is not used. [Note: in the case
of SCSI devices, this command option runs the self-test in
"Foreground" mode.]
WARNING: Tests run in captive mode may busy out the drive for
the length of the test. Only run captive tests on drives with-
out any mounted partitions!
-X, --abort
Aborts non-captive SMART Self Tests. Note that this command
will abort the Offline Immediate Test routine only if your disk
has the "Abort Offline collection upon new command" capability.
EXAMPLES
smartctl -a /dev/hda
Print all SMART information for drive /dev/hda (Primary Master).
smartctl -s off /dev/hdd
Disable SMART on drive /dev/hdd (Secondary Slave).
smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on --saveauto=on /dev/hda
Enable SMART on drive /dev/hda, enable automatic offline testing every
four hours, and enable autosaving of SMART Attributes. This is a good
start-up line for your system´s init files. You can issue this command
on a running system.
smartctl -t long /dev/hdc
Begin an extended self-test of drive /dev/hdc. You can issue this com-
mand on a running system. The results can be seen in the self-test log
visible with the ´-l selftest´ option after it has completed.
smartctl -s on -t offline /dev/hda
Enable SMART on the disk, and begin an immediate offline test of drive
/dev/hda. You can issue this command on a running system. The results
are only used to update the SMART Attributes, visible with the ´-A´
option. If any device errors occur, they are logged to the SMART error
log, which can be seen with the ´-l error´ option.
smartctl -A -v 9,minutes /dev/hda
Shows the vendor Attributes, when the disk stores its power-on time
internally in minutes rather than hours.
smartctl -q errorsonly -H -l selftest /dev/hda
Produces output only if the device returns failing SMART status, or if
some of the logged self-tests ended with errors.
smartctl -q silent -a /dev/hda
Examine all SMART data for device /dev/hda, but produce no printed out-
put. You must use the exit status (the $? shell variable) to learn if
any Attributes are out of bound, if the SMART status is failing, if
there are errors recorded in the self-test log, or if there are errors
recorded in the disk error log.
smartctl -a -d 3ware,0 /dev/sda
Examine all SMART data for the first ATA disk connected to a 3ware RAID
controller card.
smartctl -a -d 3ware,0 /dev/twe0
Examine all SMART data for the first ATA disk connected to a 3ware RAID
6000/7000/8000 controller card.
smartctl -a -d 3ware,0 /dev/twa0
Examine all SMART data for the first ATA disk connected to a 3ware RAID
9000 controller card.
smartctl -t short -d 3ware,3 /dev/sdb
Start a short self-test on the fourth ATA disk connected to the 3ware
RAID controller card which is the second SCSI device /dev/sdb.
smartctl -t select,10-100 -t select,30-300 -t afterselect,on -t pending,45 /dev/hda
Run a selective self-test on LBAs 10 to 100 and 30 to 300. After the
these LBAs have been tested, read-scan the remainder of the disk. If
the disk is power-cycled during the read-scan, resume the scan 45 min-
utes after power to the device is restored.
smartctl -a -d cciss,0 /dev/cciss/c0d0
Examine all SMART data for the first SCSI disk connected to a cciss
RAID controller card.
RETURN VALUES
The return values of smartctl are defined by a bitmask. If all is well
with the disk, the return value (exit status) of smartctl is 0 (all
bits turned off). If a problem occurs, or an error, potential error,
or fault is detected, then a non-zero status is returned. In this
case, the eight different bits in the return value have the following
meanings for ATA disks; some of these values may also be returned for
SCSI disks.
Bit 0: Command line did not parse.
Bit 1: Device open failed, or device did not return an IDENTIFY DEVICE
structure.
Bit 2: Some SMART command to the disk failed, or there was a checksum
error in a SMART data structure (see ´-b´ option above).
Bit 3: SMART status check returned "DISK FAILING".
Bit 4: SMART status check returned "DISK OK" but we found prefail
Attributes <= threshold.
Bit 5: SMART status check returned "DISK OK" but we found that some
(usage or prefail) Attributes have been <= threshold at some
time in the past.
Bit 6: The device error log contains records of errors.
Bit 7: The device self-test log contains records of errors.
To test within the shell for whether or not the different bits
are turned on or off, you can use the following type of con-
struction (this is bash syntax):
smartstat=$(($? & 8))
This looks at only at bit 3 of the exit status $? (since
8=2^3). The shell variable $smartstat will be nonzero if SMART
status check returned "disk failing" and zero otherwise.
NOTES
The TapeAlert log page flags are cleared for the initiator when the
page is read. This means that each alert condition is reported only
once by smartctl for each initiator for each activation of the condi-
tion.
AUTHOR
Bruce Allen smartmontools-support@lists.sourceforge.net
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Physics Department
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)
Yuri Dario (OS/2, eComStation interface)
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 smartsuite 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://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
SEE ALSO:
smartd(8), badblocks(8), ide-smart(8).
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 smart-
montools utilities provide access to. You can find Revision 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 revi-
sion 2 and the SFF-8055i revision 1.4 specifications. These are publi-
cations of the Small Form Factors (SFF) Committee. Links to these doc-
uments may be found in the References section of the smartmontools home
page at http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ .
CVS ID OF THIS PAGE:
$Id: smartctl.8.in,v 1.78 2006/04/12 15:45:38 ballen4705 Exp $
smartmontools-5.36 2006/04/12 SMARTCTL(8)
