Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) system is incorporated into many ATA-3 and later, IDE and SCSI-3 disks.
SMART monitors disks and can be used to predict drive failures, and to perform disk self-tests.
Install
The Alpine/Debian package is smartmontools, for Fedora it is included in kernel-utils.
root ~$ apk add smartmontools
fetch http://alpinelinux.mirrors.ovh.net/v3.21/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://alpinelinux.mirrors.ovh.net/v3.21/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://dl-2.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
WARNING: Permanently redirected to https://dl-2.alpinelinux.org:443/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/2) Installing smartmontools (7.4-r1)
(2/2) Installing smartmontools-openrc (7.4-r1)
Executing busybox-1.37.0-r12.trigger
OK: 2214 MiB in 992 packagesVerify disk supports SMART
The last 2 lines of the output tell you whether or not the disk supports SMART, in this example it does.
root ~$ smartctl -i /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.18-0-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate FireCuda 2.5
Device Model: ST1000LX015-1U7172
Serial Number: WDEXAERC
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0acf05cdc
Firmware Version: SDM1
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Wed Apr 2 08:38:32 2025 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: EnabledCheck disk for errors
root ~$ smartctl -l error /dev/sda
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.18-0-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors LoggedExample of bad disk
root ~$ smartctl -l error /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.18-0-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 62 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
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.
Error 62 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 60892 hours (2537 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 60 f1 1f 0d Error: WP at LBA = 0x0d1ff160 = 220197216
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
61 00 18 ff ff ff 4f 00 2d+16:54:40.960 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 10 ff ff ff 4f 00 2d+16:54:40.959 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 08 40 19 34 4c 00 2d+16:54:40.959 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 08 80 87 15 48 00 2d+16:54:40.959 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 30 a0 a1 36 46 00 2d+16:54:40.959 WRITE FPDMA QUEUEDRetrieve all SMART data from disk which should include metrics.
In this example, the Pre-Fail metrics all exceed the manufacturers threshold.
root ~$ smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.18-0-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate FireCuda 2.5
Device Model: ST1000LX015-1U7172
Serial Number: WDEXAERC
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0acf05cdc
Firmware Version: SDM1
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Wed Apr 2 09:19:17 2025 BST
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: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
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: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x71) SMART execute Offline immediate.
No Auto Offline data collection 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: ( 167) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x3035) SCT Status 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 062 045 006 Pre-fail Always - 79509560
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 099 099 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 312
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 078 078 036 Pre-fail Always - 13096
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 090 060 045 Pre-fail Always - 926066536
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 031 031 000 Old_age Always - 60922 (175 48 0)
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 64
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 038 038 000 Old_age Always - 62
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 099 000 Old_age Always - 77310656535
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 071 049 040 Old_age Always - 29 (Min/Max 29/42)
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 - 30
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 8757
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 029 051 000 Old_age Always - 29 (0 19 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 098 097 000 Old_age Always - 216
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 098 097 000 Old_age Offline - 216
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 60954h+08m+58.229s
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 312698923751
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 411335859664
254 Free_Fall_Sensor 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 62 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
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