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smartctl.8

    • smartctl.8 10.37 KiB 
    \# Copyright (C) 2002 Bruce Allen <ballen@uwm.edu>
\#
\# $Id: smartctl.8,v 1.5 2002/10/11 03:46:17 ballen4705 Exp $
\# 
\# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
\# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
\# Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
\# version.
\# 
\# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License (for
\# example COPYING); if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675
\# Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
.TH SMARTCTL 8  "$Date: 2002/10/11 03:46:17 $" "smartmontools-5.0"
.SH NAME
smartctl \- S.M.A.R.T. control utility 
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B smartctl  
[\-\icavglLdeOSXsxAtTfF] [device]

.SH DESCRIPTION
.B smartctl
controls the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
(S.M.A.R.T.) system built into many ATA-3 and later ATA, IDE and
SCSI-3 hard drives. The purpose of S.M.A.R.T. 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-5 and earlier standards (see REFERENCES
below)

.B smartctl
is a command line utility designed to perform S.M.A.R.T. tasks such as
printing the S.M.A.R.T. self-test and error logs, and enabling and
disabling S.M.A.R.T. automatic testing.

.B smartctl
also provides limited TapeAlerts support for some SCSI tape drives and
changers.
.PP
.SH SYNTAX
.PP
.B smartctl 
takes two arguments, options and device. Examples are given below.

The first argument, options, begins with a '\-' followed by
letters. Multiple options must begin with a single '\-'. 

The second argument is the device to be controlled. ATA device use the
form "/dev/hd*" and SCSI devices use the form "/dev/sd*".

SCSI devices only accept the options a,i,c,e,d, and p. For SCSI Tape
Drives and Changers with TapeAlerts support use the devices "/dev/st*"
and "/dev/sg*". TapeAlerts devices accept the options a,i,c,e,d, and
p.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B Read-only options:
.TP
p
Print: Prints version, copyright and license information.
.TP
i
Information: Check if the device supports S.M.A.R.T.  Prints the
device model number, the ATA version and revision supported, and the
device serial number and firmware version.
.TP
c
Check: See if the device has any S.M.A.R.T. Warranty Failures. If so,
this either means 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.
.TP
g
Generic: Prints only the generic S.M.A.R.T. attributes.  This shows the
S.M.A.R.T.  capabilities of the device (can it log errors, does it
support offline surface scanning, and so on).  If the device can carry
out self-tests, it also lists the estimated time required to run those
tests.  See REFERENCES below for further information about their
meaning.
.TP
v
Vendor: Prints only the vendor specific S.M.A.R.T. attributes.  The
attributes are numbered from 1 to 253 and have specific names. 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'.  Each vendor uses their own magic to convert the Raw
value to a Normalized value.  If the Normalized value is
.B smaller
than the value given under the 'Threshold' column, then disk failure
is imminent.  The column labeled 'Worst' shows the lowest (closest to
failure) value that the disk has recorded at any time during its
lifetime when S.M.A.R.T.  was enabled.

Note that the conversion from 'Raw' value to physical units is not
specified by the S.M.A.R.T. standard. In most cases, the values printed by
.B smartctl
are sensible.  However in some cases a vendor uses unusual
conventions.  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.
.TP
l
Log: Prints only the S.M.A.R.T. error log.  S.M.A.R.T. 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.  Finally, up to the last five commands that preceded the
error are also recorded, along with a timestamp measured in seconds
from when the disk was powered up during the session where the error
took place.  The key ATA disk registers are also recorded in the log.
.TP
L
Log: Prints only the S.M.A.R.T. self-test log.  The disk maintains a
log showing the results of the self tests, which can be run using the
 '\-S', '\-s', '\-X', and '\-x' options.  The log will show, for each
of the most recent twenty-one self-tests, the type of test (short or
extended, off-line or captive) and the final status of the test.  If
the test did not complete successfully, the percentage of the test
remaining is show.  The time at which the test took place, measured in
hours of disk lifetime, is shown.  If any errors were detected, the
Logical Blobk Address (LBA) of the first error is also indicated.
.TP
a
All: Prints all parameters for c,i,g,v,t,l,L (for SCSI c,i).  This prints all
S.M.A.R.T. information about the disk.
.TP
.B Enable/Disable Options:
.TP
e 
Enable: Enables S.M.A.R.T. on device.  Note that this command (perhaps
with the '\-t' and '\-f' options also enabled) should be placed in a
start-up script for your machine, for example in rc.local or
rc.sysinit.
.TP
d
Disable: Disables S.M.A.R.T. on device.  This turns off all
S.M.A.R.T. functionality.  I can't imagine why you would want to do
this.  [Or do you cover up the oil-pressure warning light on your car?]
.TP
    t
Test: Enables S.M.A.R.T. automatic offline test timer which scans the drive
every four hours for disk defects. This command can be given during normal
system operation.

S.M.A.R.T. provides three basic classes of testing.  The so-called
'online' testing has no effect on the performance of the device.  It
is turned on by the '\-e' option. The offline testing, enabled by this
 '\-t' option, can, in principle, degrade the device performance.  Normally,
the disk will suspend any offline testing while disk accesses are
taking place, then automatically resume them when the disk would
otherwise be idle, so in practice it has little effect.  The third
class of testing is the 'self' testing; see below.

Any errors detected in the automatic offline testing will be shown in
the S.M.A.R.T. error log, and will be reflected in the values of the
S.M.A.R.T. attributes.  These are visible with the '\-l' and '\-v'
options.
.TP
T 
unTest: Disables S.M.A.R.T. automatic offline test timer. 
.TP
f
File: Enables S.M.A.R.T. autosave of device vendor-specific attributes.
.TP
F
unFile: Disables S.M.A.R.T. autosave of device vendor-specific attributes.
.TP
.B Run a Test Immediately Options:
.TP
O
Offline: Runs S.M.A.R.T. Immediate offline Test.  This immediately
starts the test describe above.  This command can be given during
normal system operation.
.TP
S Selftest: Runs S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test (usually under ten
minutes).  This is a test in a different category than the 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' option. Note that this command can be given during normal system
operation.
.TP
s
Selftest: Runs S.M.A.R.T. Short Self Test in Captive Mode.  (WARNING: This test
will busy out drive for length of test. Only run this on drives
without any mounted partitions.)
.TP
X
eXtended: Runs S.M.A.R.T. Extended Self Test (tens of minutes).  This is a
longer and more thorough version of the Short Self Test described
under the '\-x' option.  Note that this command can be given during normal
system operation.
.TP
x
eXtended: Runs S.M.A.R.T. Extended Self Test in Captive Mode.  (WARNING: This
test will busy out drive for length of test. Only run this on drives
without any mounted partitions.)
.TP
A
Abort: Aborts Non-Captive S.M.A.R.T. Self Tests.
.PP
.SH EXAMPLES
.nf
.B smartctl -a /dev/hda
.fi
prints all S.M.A.R.T. information for drive /dev/hda (Primary Master).
.PP
.nf
.B smartctl -d /dev/hdd
    .fi
disable S.M.A.R.T. on drive /dev/hdd (Secondary Slave).
.PP
.nf
.B smartctl -etf /dev/hda
.fi
enables S.M.A.R.T. on drive /dev/hda, enables automatic offline
testing every four hours, and enables autosaving of
S.M.A.R.T. attributes.  This is a good start-up line for your system's
init files.  You can issue this command on a running system.
.PP
.nf
.B smartctl -X /dev/hdc
.fi
begin an extended self-test of drive /dev/hdc.  The results can be
seen in the self-test log after the test has completed. You can issue
this command on a running system.

.PP
.SH AUTHOR
Bruce Allen
.B ballen@uwm.edu
.fi
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Physics Department

.PP
.SH CREDITS
.fi
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.
.SH
HOME PAGE FOR SMARTMONTOOLS: 
.fi
Please see the following web site for updates, further documentation, bug
reports and patches:
.nf
.B
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

.SH
SEE ALSO:
.B
smartd (8)
.SH
REFERENCES FOR S.M.A.R.T.
.fi
If you would like to understand better how S.M.A.R.T. works, and what
it does, a good place to start is  Section 8.41 of the 'AT
Attachment with Packet Interface-5' (ATA/ATAPI-5) specification.  This
documents the S.M.A.R.T. functionality which the smartmontools
utilities provide access to.  You can find Revision 1 of this document
at:
.nf
.B
http://www.t13.org/project/d1321r1c.pdf
.fi
Future versions of the specifications (ATA/ATAPI-6 and ATA/ATAPI-7),
and later revisions (2, 3) of the ATA/ATAPI-5 specification are
available from:
.nf
.B
http://www.t13.org/#FTP_site

.fi
The functioning of S.M.A.R.T. is also described by the SFF-8035i
revision 2 specification.  This is a publication of the Small Form
Factors (SFF) Committee, and can be obtained from:
.TP
\ 
    SFF Committee
.nf
14426 Black Walnut Ct.
.nf
Saratoga, CA 95070, USA
.nf
SFF FaxAccess: +01 408-741-1600
.nf
Ph: +01 408-867-6630
.nf
Fax: +01 408-867-2115
.nf
E-Mail: 250-1752@mcimail.com.
.PP
Please let us know if there is an on\-line source for this document.

.SH
CVS ID OF THIS PAGE:
$Id: smartctl.8,v 1.5 2002/10/11 03:46:17 ballen4705 Exp $

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