by Pradeep Kumar · Published November 16, 2014 · Updated July 11, 2017
Smartctl (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a command line utility or a tool in UNIX like operating system that perform SMART tasks such as printing the SMART self-test and error logs, enabling and disabling SMART automatic testing, and initiating device self-tests.
Smartctl is useful on physical Linux servers where smart disks can be checked for errors and extract info regarding the disks that are used behind the Hardware RAID.
In this post we will discuss some practical examples of smartctl command, Use below steps to install smartctl , if it is not installed on your linux box.
Installation of Smartcl in Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install smartmontools
Installation of Smartcl in Redhat / CentOS
# yum install smartmontools
Start the Smartctl Service
For Ubuntu
$ sudo /etc/init.d/smartmontools start
For CentOS & RHEL
# service smartd start ; chkconfig smartd on
Example:1 Check Whether Smart Capability is enabled or not for the disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -i /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Momentus 5400.6
Device Model: ST9320325AS
Serial Number: 5VD2V59T
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 020a37ec4
Firmware Version: 0002BSM1
User Capacity: 320,072,933,376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 1.5 Gb/s
Local Time is: Sun Nov 16 12:32:09 2014 IST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Where '/dev/sdb' is your hard disk. Last Two lines in above output shows that SMART capability is enable for the device.
Example:2 Enable Smart Capability for the disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -s on /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Enabled.
Example:3 Disable Smart Capability for the disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -s off /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.
Example:4 Display Detailed Smart info for the disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdb // For IDE drive
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdb // For SATA drive
Example:5 Display Overall health of the Disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -H /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
Please note the following marginal Attributes:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 067 045 045 Old_age Always In_the_past 33 (Min/Max 25/33)
Example:6 Test Hard drive using long & short option.
Long Test
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl --test=long /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 102 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sun Nov 16 14:29:43 2014
Use smartctl -X to abort test.
OR We can redirect test output to a log file , as shown below
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl --test=long /dev/sdb > /var/log/long.text
Short Test
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl --test=short /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 1 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sun Nov 16 12:51:45 2014
Use smartctl -X to abort test.
OR
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl --test=short /dev/sdb > /var/log/short.text
Note : Short test will take maximum 2 minutes whereas in long test there is no time restriction because it read & verify every segment of the entire disk.
Example:7 To View Drive's Self Test result
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 492 210841222
# 2 Extended offline Completed: read failure 90% 492 210841222
Example:8 Calculate Estimate time to perform test
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -c /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 121) The previous self-test completed having
the read element of the test failed.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 102) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x103b) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
Example:9 Display Error logs of the disk
root@linuxtechi:~# smartctl -l error /dev/sdb
Sample Output
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-32-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 5
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 da 08 e7 e5 a5 4c 00 00:30:44.515 READ DMA EXT
25 da 08 df e5 a5 4c 00 00:30:44.514 READ DMA EXT
25 da 80 5f e5 a5 4c 00 00:30:44.502 READ DMA EXT
25 da f0 5f e6 a5 4c 00 00:30:44.496 READ DMA EXT
25 da 10 4f e6 a5 4c 00 00:30:44.383 READ DMA EXT