When a failure is anticipated by S.M.A.R.T.,

the user may choose to replace the drive to avoid unexpected outage and data loss.

Fedora comes with a "smartd" service that will email root if serious problems are detected on disks.

[root@server ~]# yum provides smartd

Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit

smartmontools-6.1-1.fc19.x86_64 : Tools for monitoring SMART capable hard disks

Repo : fedora

Matched from:

Filename : /usr/sbin/smartd

smartmontools comes with two programs:
- smartctl : meant for interactive use
- smartd : continuously monitors S.M.A.R.T.

Check smartctl daemon service
# service smartd status

[root@abxrds ~]#
[root@abxrds ~]# service smartd status
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl status smartd.service
smartd.service - Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART) Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/smartd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2013-12-06 22:27:46 EET; 2h 30min ago
Main PID: 9625 (smartd)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/smartd.service
└─9625 /usr/sbin/smartd -n -q never

Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb, type changed from 'scsi' to 'sat'
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], opened
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], ST2000DM001-9YN164, S/N:Z1E2JV3Q, WWN:5-000c50-04f5f87f8, FW:CC4G, 2.00 TB
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], found in smartd database: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF)
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], WARNING: A firmware update for this drive is available,
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: see the following Seagate web pages:
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207931en
Dec 06 22:27:46 abxrds smartd[9625]: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/223651en
Dec 06 22:27:47 abxrds smartd[9625]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Dec 06 22:27:47 abxrds smartd[9625]: Monitoring 2 ATA and 0 SCSI devices
[root@abxrds ~]#

To ensure that your drive supports SMART, type:

smartctl -i /dev/sda

SMART will also give you a lot of detailed information about the drive :

smartctl -a /dev/sda

[root@gate ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sda

smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.11.6-200.fc19.x86_64] (local build)

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family: Seagate SV35

Device Model: ST2000VX000-1CU164

Serial Number: S1E2D65T

LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 062131fc0

Firmware Version: CV22

User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]

Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

Rotation Rate: 7200 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 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)

Local Time is: Sat Dec 7 00:38:33 2013 EET

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:

Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity

was completed without error.

Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.

Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed

without error or no self-test has ever

been run.

Total time to complete Offline

data collection: ( 97) seconds.

Offline data collection

capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.

Auto Offline data collection on/off support.

Suspend Offline collection upon new

command.

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: ( 223) minutes.

Conveyance self-test routine

recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.

SCT capabilities: (0x10b9) SCT Status supported.

SCT Error Recovery Control supported.

SCT Feature Control supported.

SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE

1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 113 099 006 Pre-fail Always - 54914664

3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 095 095 000 Pre-fail Always - 0

4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 43

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0

7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 069 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 9313921

9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1483

10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0

12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 43

184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0

187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 072 072 000 Old_age Always - 28

190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 066 065 045 Old_age Always - 34 (Min/Max 22/35)

191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 15

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 43

194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 034 040 000 Old_age Always - 34 (0 17 0 0 0)

197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0

199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1

No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1

Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error

# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1482 -

# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1478 -

# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 42 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1

SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS

1 0 0 Not_testing

2 0 0 Not_testing

3 0 0 Not_testing

4 0 0 Not_testing

5 0 0 Not_testing

Selective self-test flags (0x0):

After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.

If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

[root@gate ~]#

Check the overall health:

smartctl -H /dev/sda

smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.11.6-200.fc19.x86_64] (local build)

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

Testing a Drive

You may run any type of test while the drive is mounted although there may be some drop in performance. There are three types of test that can be conducted on a drive: