SMARTD.CONF(5) SMART Monitoring Tools SMARTD.CONF(5)
NAME
smartd.conf - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon Configuration File
DESCRIPTION
[This man page is generated for the Linux version of smartmontools. It
does not contain info specific to other platforms.]
/etc/smartd.conf is the configuration file for the smartd daemon.
If the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf is present, smartd reads it
at startup. If smartd subsequently receives a HUP signal, it will then
re-read the configuration file. If smartd is running in debug mode,
then an INT signal will also make it re-read the configuration file.
This signal can be generated by typing <CONTROL-C> in the terminal win-
dow where smartd is running.
In the absence of a configuration file smartd will try to open all
available devices (see smartd(8) man page). A configuration file with a
single line 'DEVICESCAN -a' would have the same effect.
This can be annoying if you have an ATA or SCSI device that hangs or
misbehaves when receiving SMART commands. Even if this causes no prob-
lems, you may be annoyed by the string of error log messages about de-
vices that can't be opened.
One can avoid this problem, and gain more control over the types of
events monitored by smartd, by using the configuration file
/etc/smartd.conf. This file contains a list of devices to monitor, with
one device per line. An example file is included with the smartmontools
distribution. You will find this sample configuration file in
/usr/share/doc/smartmontools/. For security, the configuration file
should not be writable by anyone but root. The syntax of the file is as
follows:
• There should be one device listed per line, although you may have
lines that are entirely comments or white space.
• Any text following a hash sign '#' and up to the end of the line is
taken to be a comment, and ignored.
• Lines may be continued by using a backslash '\' as the last non-
whitespace or non-comment item on a line.
• Note: a line whose first character is a hash sign '#' is treated as
a white-space blank line, not as a non-existent line, and will end a
continuation line.
Here is an example configuration file. It's for illustrative purposes
only; please don't copy it onto your system without reading to the end
of the DIRECTIVES Section below!
################################################
# This is an example smartd startup config file
# /etc/smartd.conf
#
# On the second disk, start a long self-test every
# Sunday between 3 and 4 am.
#
/dev/sda -a -m admin@example.com,root@localhost
/dev/sdb -a -I 194 -I 5 -i 12 -s L/../../7/03
#
# Send a TEST warning email to admin on startup.
#
/dev/sdc -m admin@example.com -M test
#
# An ATA disk may appear as a SCSI device to the
# OS. If a SCSI to ATA Translation (SAT) layer
# is between the OS and the device then this can be
# flagged with the '-d sat' option.
/dev/sda -a -d sat
#
# Disks connected to a MegaRAID controller
# Start short self-tests daily between 1-2, 2-3, and
# 3-4 am.
# Linux:
/dev/sda -d megaraid,0 -a -s S/../.././01
/dev/sda -d megaraid,1 -a -s S/../.././02
/dev/sda -d megaraid,2 -a -s S/../.././03
/dev/bus/0 -d megaraid,2 -a -s S/../.././03
#
# Three disks connected to an AacRaid controller
# Start short self-tests daily between 1-2, 2-3, and
# 3-4 am.
/dev/sda -d aacraid,0,0,66 -a -s S/../.././01
/dev/sda -d aacraid,0,0,67 -a -s S/../.././02
/dev/sda -d aacraid,0,0,68 -a -s S/../.././03
#
# Two SATA (not SAS) disks on a 3ware 9750 controller.
# Start long self-tests Sundays between midnight and
# 1 am and 2-3 am
# under Linux
/dev/twl0 -d 3ware,0 -a -s L/../../7/00
/dev/twl0 -d 3ware,1 -a -s L/../../7/02
#
# Two disks connected to the first HP SmartArray controller
# which uses the Linux cciss driver. Start long self-tests
# on Sunday nights and short self-tests every night and send
# errors to root.
/dev/sda -d cciss,0 -a -s (L/../../7/02|S/../.././02) -m root
/dev/sda -d cciss,1 -a -s (L/../../7/03|S/../.././03) -m root
#
# Monitor 2 disks connected to the first HP SmartArray controller which
# uses the cciss driver. Start long tests on Sunday nights and short
# self-tests every night and send errors to root
# /dev/sda -d cciss,0 -a -s (L/../../7/02|S/../.././02) -m root
# /dev/sda -d cciss,1 -a -s (L/../../7/03|S/../.././03) -m root
#
# Three SATA disks on a HighPoint RocketRAID controller.
# Start short self-tests daily between 1-2, 2-3, and
# 3-4 am.
# under Linux
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/1 -a -s S/../.././01
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/2 -a -s S/../.././02
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/3 -a -s S/../.././03
#
# Two SATA disks connected to a HighPoint RocketRAID
# via a pmport device. Start long self-tests Sundays
# between midnight and 1 am and 2-3 am.
# under Linux
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/4/1 -a -s L/../../7/00
/dev/sde -d hpt,1/4/2 -a -s L/../../7/02
#
# Three SATA disks connected to an Areca
# RAID controller. Start long self-tests Sundays
# between midnight and 3 am.
# under Linux
/dev/sg2 -d areca,1 -a -s L/../../7/00
/dev/sg2 -d areca,2 -a -s L/../../7/01
/dev/sg2 -d areca,3 -a -s L/../../7/02
#
# The following line enables monitoring of the
# ATA Error Log and the Self-Test Error Log.
# It also tracks changes in both Prefailure
# and Usage Attributes, apart from Attributes
# 9, 194, and 231, and shows continued lines:
#
/dev/sdd -l error \
-l selftest \
-t \ # Attributes not tracked:
-I 194 \ # temperature
-I 231 \ # also temperature
-I 9 # power-on hours
#
################################################
If a cciss controller is used then the corresponding block device
(/dev/sd?) must be listed, along with the ´-d cciss,N´ Directive (see
below).
DEVICESCAN
If a non-comment entry in the configuration file is the text
string DEVICESCAN in capital letters, then smartd will ignore any
remaining lines in the configuration file, and will scan for de-
vices. If DEVICESCAN is not followed by any Directives, then
'-a' will apply to all devices.
DEVICESCAN may optionally be followed by Directives that will apply to
all devices that are found in the scan. For example
DEVICESCAN -m root@example.com
will scan for all devices, and then monitor them. It will send one
email warning per device for any problems that are found.
DEVICESCAN -H -m root@example.com
will do the same, but only monitors the SMART health status of the de-
vices, rather than the default '-a'.
Multiple '-d TYPE' options may be specified with DEVICESCAN to combine
the scan results of more than one TYPE.
Configuration entries for specific devices may precede the DEVICESCAN
entry. For example
DEFAULT -m root@example.com
/dev/sda -s S/../.././02
/dev/sdc -d ignore
DEVICESCAN -s L/../.././02
will scan for all devices except /dev/sda and /dev/sdc, monitor them,
and run a long test between 2–3 am every morning. Device /dev/sda will
also be monitored, but only a short test will be run. Device /dev/sdc
will be ignored. Warning emails will be sent for all monitored devices.
A device is ignored by DEVICESCAN if a configuration line with the same
device name exists. Symbolic links are resolved before this check is
done. A device name is also ignored if another device with same iden-
tify information (vendor, model, firmware version, serial number, WWN)
already exists.
DEFAULT SETTINGS
If an entry in the configuration file starts with DEFAULT instead of a
device name, then all directives in this entry are set as defaults for
the next device entries.
This configuration:
DEFAULT -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdc
DEFAULT -H -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdd
/dev/sde -d removable
has the same effect as:
/dev/sda -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdb -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdc -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdd -H -m admin@example.com
/dev/sde -d removable -H -m admin@example.com
CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES
The following are the Directives that may appear following the device
name or DEVICESCAN or DEFAULT on any line of the /etc/smartd.conf con-
figuration file. Note that these are NOT command-line options for
smartd. The Directives below may appear in any order, following the de-
vice name.
For an ATA device, if no Directives appear, then the device will be mon-
itored as if the '-a' Directive (monitor all SMART properties) had been
given.
If a SCSI disk is listed, it will be monitored at the maximum imple-
mented level: roughly equivalent to using the '-H -l selftest' options
for an ATA disk. So with the exception of '-d', '-m', '-l selftest',
'-s', and '-M', the Directives below are ignored for SCSI disks. For
SCSI disks, the '-m' Directive sends a warning email if the SMART status
indicates a disk failure or problem, if the SCSI inquiry about disk sta-
tus fails, or if new errors appear in the self-test log.
If a 3ware controller is used then the corresponding SCSI (/dev/sd?) or
character device (/dev/twe?, /dev/twa?, /dev/twl? or /dev/tws?) must be
listed, along with the '-d 3ware,N' Directive (see below). The individ-
ual ATA disks hosted by the 3ware controller appear to smartd as normal
ATA devices. Hence all the ATA directives can be used for these disks
(but see note below).
If an Areca controller is used then the corresponding device (SCSI
/dev/sg? on Linux or /dev/arcmsr0 on FreeBSD) must be listed, along with
the '-d areca,N' Directive (see below). The individual SATA disks
hosted by the Areca controller appear to smartd as normal ATA devices.
Hence all the ATA directives can be used for these disks. Areca
firmware version 1.46 or later which supports smartmontools must be
used; Please see the smartctl(8) man page for further details.
-d TYPE
Specifies the type of the device. The valid arguments to this
directive are:
auto - attempt to guess the device type from the device name or
from controller type info provided by the operating system or
from a matching USB ID entry in the drive database. This is the
default.
ata - the device type is ATA. This prevents smartd from issuing
SCSI commands to an ATA device.
scsi - the device type is SCSI. This prevents smartd from issu-
ing ATA commands to a SCSI device.
nvme[,NSID] - the device type is NVM Express (NVMe). The op-
tional parameter NSID specifies the namespace id (in hex) passed
to the driver. Use 0xffffffff for the broadcast namespace id.
The default for NSID is the namespace id addressed by the device
name.
sat[,auto][,N] - the device type is SCSI to ATA Translation
(SAT). This is for ATA disks that have a SCSI to ATA Translation
Layer (SATL) between the disk and the operating system. SAT de-
fines two ATA PASS THROUGH SCSI commands, one 12 bytes long and
the other 16 bytes long. The default is the 16 byte variant
which can be overridden with either '-d sat,12' or '-d sat,16'.
If '-d sat,auto' is specified, device type SAT (for ATA/SATA
disks) is only used if the SCSI INQUIRY data reports a SATL (VEN-
DOR: "ATA "). Otherwise device type SCSI (for SCSI/SAS
disks) is used.
usbasm1352r,PORT - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] this de-
vice type is for one or two SATA disks that are behind an ASMedia
ASM1352R USB to SATA (RAID) bridge. The parameter PORT (0 or 1)
selects the disk to monitor.
Note: This USB bridge also supports '-d sat'. This monitors ei-
ther the first disk or the second disk if no disk is connected to
the first port.
usbcypress - this device type is for ATA disks that are behind a
Cypress USB to PATA bridge. This will use the ATACB proprietary
scsi pass through command. The default SCSI operation code is
0x24, but although it can be overridden with '-d usbcypress,0xN',
where N is the scsi operation code, you're running the risk of
damage to the device or filesystems on it.
usbjmicron[,p][,x][,PORT] - this device type is for SATA disks
that are behind a JMicron USB to PATA/SATA bridge. The 48-bit
ATA commands (required e.g. for '-l xerror', see below) do not
work with all of these bridges and are therefore disabled by de-
fault. These commands can be enabled by '-d usbjmicron,x'. If
two disks are connected to a bridge with two ports, an error mes-
sage is printed if no PORT (0 or 1) is specified.
The PORT parameter is not necessary if the device uses a port
multiplier to connect multiple disks to one port. The disks ap-
pear under separate /dev/ice names then.
CAUTION: Specifying ',x' for a device which does not support it
results in I/O errors and may disconnect the drive. The same ap-
plies if the specified PORT does not exist or is not connected to
a disk.
The Prolific PL2507/3507 USB bridges with older firmware support
a pass-through command similar to JMicron and work with '-d usb-
jmicron,0'. Newer Prolific firmware requires a modified command
which can be selected by '-d usbjmicron,p'. Note that this does
not yet support the SMART status command.
usbprolific - this device type is for SATA disks that are behind
a Prolific PL2571/2771/2773/2775 USB to SATA bridge.
usbsunplus - this device type is for SATA disks that are behind a
SunplusIT USB to SATA bridge.
sntasmedia - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] this device
type is for NVMe disks that are behind an ASMedia USB to NVMe
bridge.
sntjmicron[,NSID] - this device type is for NVMe disks that are
behind a JMicron USB to NVMe bridge. The optional parameter NSID
specifies the namespace id (in hex) passed to the driver. The
default namespace id is the broadcast namespace id (0xffffffff).
sntrealtek - this device type is for NVMe disks that are behind a
Realtek USB to NVMe bridge.
marvell - [Linux only] (deprecated and subject to remove).
megaraid,N - [FreeBSD and Linux only] the device consists of one
or more SCSI/SAS disks connected to a MegaRAID controller. The
non-negative integer N (in the range of 0 to 127 inclusive) de-
notes which disk on the controller is monitored. This interface
will also work for Dell PERC controllers. In log files and email
messages this disk will be identified as megaraid_disk_XXX with
XXX in the range from 000 to 127 inclusive. Please see the
smartctl(8) man page for further details.
aacraid,H,L,ID - [Linux, Windows and Cygwin only] the device con-
sists of one or more SCSI/SAS or SATA disks connected to an
AacRaid controller. The non-negative integers H,L,ID (Host num-
ber, Lun, ID) denote which disk on the controller is monitored.
In log files and email messages this disk will be identified as
aacraid_disk_HH_LL_ID. Please see the smartctl(8) man page for
further details.
3ware,N - [FreeBSD and Linux only] the device consists of one or
more ATA disks connected to a 3ware RAID controller. The non-
negative integer N (in the range from 0 to 127 inclusive) denotes
which disk on the controller is monitored. In log files and
email messages this disk will be identified as 3ware_disk_XXX
with XXX in the range from 000 to 127 inclusive.
Note that while you may use any of the 3ware SCSI logical devices
/dev/tw* to address any of the physical disks (3ware ports), er-
ror and log messages will make the most sense if you always list
the 3ware SCSI logical device corresponding to the particular
physical disks. Please see the smartctl(8) man page for further
details.
areca,N - [FreeBSD, Linux, Windows and Cygwin only] the device
consists of one or more SATA disks connected to an Areca SATA
RAID controller. The positive integer N (in the range from 1 to
24 inclusive) denotes which disk on the controller is monitored.
In log files and email messages this disk will be identified as
areca_disk_XX with XX in the range from 01 to 24 inclusive.
Please see the smartctl(8) man page for further details.
areca,N/E - [FreeBSD, Linux, Windows and Cygwin only] the device
consists of one or more SATA or SAS disks connected to an Areca
SAS RAID controller. The integer N (range 1 to 128) denotes the
channel (slot) and E (range 1 to 8) denotes the enclosure. Im-
portant: This requires Areca SAS controller firmware version 1.51
or later.
cciss,N - [FreeBSD and Linux only] the device consists of one or
more SCSI/SAS or SATA disks connected to a cciss RAID controller.
The non-negative integer N (in the range from 0 to 15 inclusive)
denotes which disk on the controller is monitored. In log files
and email messages this disk will be identified as cciss_disk_XX
with XX in the range from 00 to 15 inclusive. Please see the
smartctl(8) man page for further details.
hpt,L/M/N - [FreeBSD and Linux only] the device consists of one
or more ATA disks connected to a HighPoint RocketRAID controller.
The integer L is the controller id, the integer M is the channel
number, and the integer N is the PMPort number if it is avail-
able. The allowed values of L are from 1 to 4 inclusive, M are
from 1 to 128 inclusive and N from 1 to 4 if PMPort available.
And also these values are limited by the model of the HighPoint
RocketRAID controller. In log files and email messages this disk
will be identified as hpt_X/X/X and X/X/X is the same as L/M/N,
note if no N indicated, N set to the default value 1. Please see
the smartctl(8) man page for further details.
sssraid,E,S - [Linux only: NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE]
the device consists of one or more SCSI/SAS or SATA disks con-
nected to a SSSRAID controller. The non-negative integer E (in
the range of 0 to 8) denotes the enclosure and S(range 0 to 128)
denotes the slot. Please see the smartctl(8) man page for fur-
ther details.
intelliprop,N[+TYPE] - (deprecated and subject to remove).
jmb39x[-q],N[,sLBA][,force][+TYPE] - the device consists of mul-
tiple SATA disks connected to a JMicron JMB39x RAID port multi-
plier. The suffix '-q' selects a slightly different command
variant used by some QNAP NAS devices. The integer N is the port
number from 0 to 4. Please see the smartctl(8) man page for fur-
ther details.
jms56x,N[,sLBA][,force][+TYPE] - the device consists of multiple
SATA disks connected to a JMicron JMS56x USB to SATA RAID bridge.
See 'jmb39x...' above for valid arguments.
ignore - the device specified by this configuration entry should
be ignored. This allows one to ignore specific devices which are
detected by a following DEVICESCAN configuration line. It may
also be used to temporary disable longer multi-line configuration
entries. This Directive may be used in conjunction with the
other '-d' Directives.
removable - the device or its media is removable. This indicates
to smartd that it should continue (instead of exiting, which is
the default behavior) if the device does not appear to be present
when smartd is started. This directive also suppresses warning
emails and repeated log messages if the device is removed after
startup. This Directive may be used in conjunction with the
other '-d' Directives.
WARNING: Removing a device and connecting a different one to same
interface is not supported and may result in bogus warnings until
smartd is restarted.
-n POWERMODE[,N][,q]
[ATA only] This 'nocheck' Directive is used to prevent a disk
from being spun-up when it is periodically polled by smartd.
ATA disks have five different power states. In order of increas-
ing power consumption they are: 'OFF', 'SLEEP', 'STANDBY',
'IDLE', and 'ACTIVE'. Typically in the OFF, SLEEP, and STANDBY
modes the disk's platters are not spinning. But usually, in re-
sponse to SMART commands issued by smartd, the disk platters are
spun up. So if this option is not used, then a disk which is in
a low-power mode may be spun up and put into a higher-power mode
when it is periodically polled by smartd.
Note that if the disk is in SLEEP mode when smartd is started,
then it won't respond to smartd commands, and so the disk won't
be registered as a device for smartd to monitor. If a disk is in
any other low-power mode, then the commands issued by smartd to
register the disk will probably cause it to spin-up.
The '-n' (nocheck) Directive specifies if smartd's periodic
checks should still be carried out when the device is in a low-
power mode. It may be used to prevent a disk from being spun-up
by periodic smartd polling. The allowed values of POWERMODE are:
never - smartd will poll (check) the device regardless of its
power mode. This may cause a disk which is spun-down to be spun-
up when smartd checks it. This is the default behavior if the
'-n' Directive is not given.
sleep - check the device unless it is in SLEEP mode.
standby - check the device unless it is in SLEEP or STANDBY mode.
In these modes most disks are not spinning, so if you want to
prevent a laptop disk from spinning up each time that smartd
polls, this is probably what you want.
idle - check the device unless it is in SLEEP, STANDBY or IDLE
mode. In the IDLE state, most disks are still spinning, so this
is probably not what you want.
Maximum number of skipped checks (in a row) can be specified by
appending positive number ',N' to POWERMODE (like '-n
standby,15'). After N checks are skipped in a row, powermode is
ignored and the check is performed anyway.
When a periodic test is skipped, smartd normally writes an infor-
mal log message. The message can be suppressed by appending the
option ',q' to POWERMODE (like '-n standby,q'). This prevents a
laptop disk from spinning up due to this message.
Both ',N' and ',q' can be specified together.
-T TYPE
Specifies how tolerant smartd should be of SMART command fail-
ures. The valid arguments to this Directive are:
normal - do not try to monitor the disk if a mandatory SMART com-
mand fails, but continue if an optional SMART command fails.
This is the default.
permissive - try to monitor the disk even if it appears to lack
SMART capabilities. This may be required for some old disks
(prior to ATA-3 revision 4) that implemented SMART before the
SMART standards were incorporated into the ATA/ATAPI Specifica-
tions. [Please see the smartctl -T command-line option.]
-o VALUE
[ATA only] Enables or disables SMART Automatic Offline Testing
when smartd starts up and has no further effect. The valid argu-
ments to this Directive are on and off.
The delay between tests is vendor-specific, but is typically four
hours.
Note that SMART Automatic Offline Testing is not part of the ATA
Specification. Please see the smartctl -o command-line option
documentation for further information about this feature.
-S VALUE
Enables or disables Attribute Autosave when smartd starts up and
has no further effect. The valid arguments to this Directive are
on and off. Also affects SCSI devices. [Please see the smartctl
-S command-line option.]
-H [ATA] Check the health status of the disk with the SMART RETURN
STATUS command. If this command reports a failing health status,
then disk failure is predicted in less than 24 hours, and a mes-
sage at loglevel 'LOG_CRIT' will be logged to syslog. [Please
see the smartctl -H command-line option.]
[NVMe] Checks the "Critical Warning" byte from the SMART/Health
Information log. If any warning bit is set, a message at
loglevel 'LOG_CRIT' will be logged to syslog.
-l TYPE
Reports increases in the number of errors in one of three SMART
logs. The valid arguments to this Directive are:
error - [ATA] report if the number of ATA errors reported in the
Summary SMART error log has increased since the last check.
error - [NVMe] report if the "Number of Error Information Log En-
tries" from the SMART/Health Information log has increased since
the last check.
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] This will only be logged as
LOG_CRIT if at least one of the new errors is still present in
the Error Information log and its status indicates a device re-
lated error. Up to eight of the most recent of these errors are
logged as LOG_INFO then. This is useful because the NVMe Error
Information log is not persistent across power cycles or device
resets.
If all new errors are either no longer present in the log or are
not device related (e.g. invalid command, invalid field in com-
mand, ...), a LOG_INFO message is generated instead. This avoids
misleading warnings if the operating system issues unsupported
commands and the device firmware also logs these kind of errors.
xerror - [ATA] report if the number of ATA errors reported in the
Extended Comprehensive SMART error log has increased since the
last check.
If both '-l error' and '-l xerror' are specified, smartd checks
the maximum of both values.
[Please see the smartctl -l xerror command-line option.]
xerror - [NVMe] same as '-l error'.
selftest - report if the number of failed tests reported in the
SMART Self-Test Log has increased since the last check, or if the
timestamp associated with the most recent failed test has in-
creased. Note that such errors will only be logged if you run
self-tests on the disk (and it fails a test!). Self-Tests can be
run automatically by smartd: please see the '-s' Directive below.
Self-Tests can also be run manually by using the '-t short' and
'-t long' options of smartctl and the results of the testing can
be observed using the smartctl '-l selftest' command-line option.
[Please see the smartctl -l and -t command-line options.]
[ATA only] Failed self-tests outdated by a newer successful ex-
tended self-test are ignored. The warning email counter is reset
if the number of failed self tests dropped to 0. This typically
happens when an extended self-test is run after all bad sectors
have been reallocated.
offlinests[,ns] - [ATA only] report if the Offline Data Collec-
tion status has changed since the last check. The report will be
logged as LOG_CRIT if the new status indicates an error. With
some drives the status often changes, therefore '-l offlinests'
is not enabled by '-a' Directive. Appending ',ns' (no standby)
to this directive is not implemented on Linux.
selfteststs[,ns] - [ATA only] report if the Self-Test execution
status has changed since the last check. The report will be
logged as LOG_CRIT if the new status indicates an error. Append-
ing ',ns' (no standby) to this directive is not implemented on
Linux.
scterc,READTIME,WRITETIME - [ATA only] sets the SCT Error Recov-
ery Control settings to the specified values (deciseconds) when
smartd starts up and has no further effect. Values of 0 disable
the feature, other values less than 65 are probably not sup-
ported. For RAID configurations, this is typically set to 70,70
deciseconds. [Please see the smartctl -l scterc command-line op-
tion.]
-e NAME[,VALUE]
Sets non-SMART device settings when smartd starts up and has no
further effect. [Please see the smartctl --set command-line op-
tion.] Valid arguments are:
aam,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the Automatic Acoustic Management
(AAM) feature.
apm,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the Advanced Power Management (APM)
feature.
lookahead,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the read look-ahead feature.
security-freeze - [ATA only] Sets ATA Security feature to frozen
mode.
standby,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the standby (spindown) timer
and places the drive in the IDLE mode.
wcache,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the volatile write cache fea-
ture.
dsn,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the DSN feature.
-s REGEXP
Run Self-Tests or Offline Immediate Tests, at scheduled times. A
Self- or Offline Immediate Test will be run at the end of peri-
odic device polling, if all 12 characters of the string
T/MM/DD/d/HH match the extended regular expression REGEXP. Here:
T is the type of the test. The values that smartd will try to
match (in turn) are: 'L' for a Long Self-Test, 'S' for a
Short Self-Test, 'C' for a Conveyance Self-Test (ATA only),
and 'O' for an Offline Immediate Test (ATA only). As soon as
a match is found, the test will be started and no additional
matches will be sought for that device and that polling cy-
cle.
To run scheduled Selective Self-Tests, use 'n' for next span,
'r' to redo last span, or 'c' to continue with next span or
redo last span based on status of last test. The LBA range
is based on the first span from the last test. See the
smartctl -t select,[next|redo|cont] options for further info.
Some disks (e.g. WD) do not preserve the selective self test
log across power cycles. If state persistence ('-s' option)
is enabled, the last test span is preserved by smartd and
used if (and only if) the selective self test log is empty.
MM is the month of the year, expressed with two decimal digits.
The range is from 01 (January) to 12 (December) inclusive.
Do not use a single decimal digit or the match will always
fail!
DD is the day of the month, expressed with two decimal digits.
The range is from 01 to 31 inclusive. Do not use a single
decimal digit or the match will always fail!
d is the day of the week, expressed with one decimal digit.
The range is from 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday) inclusive.
HH is the hour of the day, written with two decimal digits, and
given in hours after midnight. The range is 00 (midnight to
just before 1 am) to 23 (11pm to just before midnight) inclu-
sive. Do not use a single decimal digit or the match will
always fail!
If the regular expression contains substrings of the form :NNN or
:NNN-LLL, where NNN and LLL are three decimal digits, staggered
tests are enabled. Then a test will also be run if all 16 (or
20) characters of the string T/MM/DD/d/HH:NNN (or
T/MM/DD/d/HH:NNN-LLL) match the regular expression. This check
is done for up to seven :NNN or :NNN-LLL found in the regular ex-
pression. The time used for the check is adjusted to the past
such that tests of the first drive are not delayed, tests of the
second drive are delayed by NNN hours, tests of the third drive
are delayed by 2*NNN hours, and so on.
If LLL is also specified, delays are limited to LLL hours by cal-
culating each individual delay as:
'((DRIVE_INDEX * NNN) mod (LLL + 1))'.
Some examples follow. In reading these, keep in mind that in ex-
tended regular expressions a dot '.' matches any single charac-
ter, and a parenthetical expression such as '(A|B|C)' denotes any
one of the three possibilities A, B, or C.
To schedule a short Self-Test between 2–3 am every morning, use:
-s S/../.././02
To schedule a long Self-Test between 4–5 am every Sunday morning,
use:
-s L/../../7/04
To enable staggered tests with delays in three hour steps, use:
-s L/../../7/04:003
To enable staggered tests with delays 0, 3, 6, 9, 1, 4, 7, 10, 2,
5, 8, 0, ... hours, use:
-s L/../../7/04:003-010
To enable staggered tests with delays 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, 10, 0, ...
hours, use:
-s L/../../7/04:001-010
To schedule a long Self-Test between 10–11 pm on the first and
fifteenth day of each month, use:
-s L/../(01|15)/./22
To schedule an Offline Immediate test after every midnight, 6 am,
noon, and 6 pm, plus a Short Self-Test daily at 1–2 am and a Long
Self-Test every Saturday at 3–4 am, use:
-s (O/../.././(00|06|12|18)|S/../.././01|L/../../6/03)
To enable staggered Long Self-Tests with delays in three hour
steps, use:
-s (O/../.././(00|06|12|18)|S/../.././01|L/../../6/03:003)
If Long Self-Tests of a large disks take longer than the system
uptime, a full disk test can be performed by several Selective
Self-Tests. To setup a full test of a 1 TB disk within 20 days
(one 50 GB span each day), run this command once:
smartctl -t select,0-99999999 /dev/sda
To run the next test spans on Monday–Friday between 12–13 am, run
smartd with this directive:
-s n/../../[1-5]/12
Scheduled tests are run immediately following the regularly-
scheduled device polling, if the current local date, time, and
test type, match REGEXP. By default the regularly-scheduled de-
vice polling occurs every thirty minutes after starting smartd.
Take caution if you use the '-i' option to make this polling in-
terval more than sixty minutes: the poll times may fail to coin-
cide with any of the testing times that you have specified with
REGEXP. In this case the test will be run following the next de-
vice polling.
Before running an offline or self-test, smartd checks to be sure
that a self-test is not already running. If a self-test is al-
ready running, then this running self test will not be inter-
rupted to begin another test.
smartd will not attempt to run any type of test if another test
was already started or run in the same hour.
To avoid performance problems during system boot, smartd will not
attempt to run any scheduled tests following the very first de-
vice polling (unless '-q onecheck' is specified).
Each time a test is run, smartd will log an entry to SYSLOG. You
can use these or the '-q showtests' command-line option to verify
that you constructed REGEXP correctly. The matching order (L be-
fore S before C before O) ensures that if multiple test types are
all scheduled for the same hour, the longer test type has prece-
dence. This is usually the desired behavior.
If the scheduled tests are used in conjunction with state persis-
tence ('-s' option), smartd will also try to match the hours
since last shutdown (or 90 days at most). If any test would have
been started during downtime, the longest (see above) of these
tests is run after second device polling.
If the '-n' directive is used and any test would have been
started during disk standby time, the longest of these tests is
run when the disk is active again.
Unix users: please beware that the rules for extended regular ex-
pressions [regex(7)] are not the same as the rules for file-name
pattern matching by the shell [glob(7)]. smartd will issue harm-
less informational warning messages if it detects characters in
REGEXP that appear to indicate that you have made this mistake.
-m ADD Send a warning email to the email address ADD if the '-H', '-l
error', '-l xerror', '-l selftest', '-f', '-C', '-U', or '-W' Di-
rectives detect a failure or a new error, or if a SMART command
to the disk fails. This Directive only works in conjunction with
these other Directives (or with the equivalent default '-a' Di-
rective).
To prevent your email in-box from getting filled up with warning
messages, by default only a single warning and (depending on '-s'
option) daily reminder emails will be sent for each of the en-
abled alert types. See the '-M' Directive below for details.
To send email to more than one user, please use the following
"comma separated" form for the address:
user1@add1,user2@add2,...,userN@addN (with no spaces).
To test that email is being sent correctly, use the '-M test' Di-
rective described below to send one test email message on smartd
startup.
By default, email is sent using the system mail(1) command. In
order that smartd find this command (normally /usr/bin/mail) the
executable must be in the path of the shell or environment from
which smartd was started. If you wish to specify an explicit
path to the mail executable (for example /usr/local/bin/mail) or
a custom script to run, please use the '-M exec' Directive below.
Note also that there is a special argument <nomailer> which can
be given to the '-m' Directive in conjunction with the '-M exec'
Directive. Please see below for an explanation of its effect.
If the mailer or the shell running it produces any STDERR/STDOUT
output, then a snippet of that output will be copied to SYSLOG.
The remainder of the output is discarded. If problems are en-
countered in sending mail, this should help you to understand and
fix them. If you have mail problems, we recommend running smartd
in debug mode with the '-d' flag, using the '-M test' Directive
described below.
If a word of the comma separated list has the form '@plugin', a
custom script /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.d/plugin is run
and the word is removed from the list before sending mail. The
string 'plugin' may be any valid name except 'ALL'. If '@ALL' is
specified, all scripts in /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.d/*
are run instead. This is handled by the script /usr/share/smart-
montools/smartd_warning.sh (see also '-M exec' below). Plugin
scripts without execute permission are silently ignored. If any
plugin script is missing or fails with a nonzero exit status, the
warning script exits immediately without sending mail.
-M TYPE
These Directives modify the behavior of the smartd email warnings
enabled with the '-m' email Directive described above. These
'-M' Directives only work in conjunction with the '-m' Directive
and can not be used without it.
Multiple -M Directives may be given. If more than one of the
following three -M Directives are given (example: -M once -M
daily) then the final one (in the example, -M daily) is used.
The valid arguments to the -M Directive are (one of the following
three):
once - send only one warning email for each type of disk problem
detected. This is the default unless state persistence ('-s' op-
tion) is enabled.
always - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] send additional
warning reminder emails, upon each check, for each type of disk
problem detected.
daily - send additional warning reminder emails, once per day,
for each type of disk problem detected. This is the default if
state persistence ('-s' option) is enabled.
diminishing - send additional warning reminder emails, after a
one-day interval, then a two-day interval, then a four-day inter-
val, and so on for each type of disk problem detected. Each in-
terval is twice as long as the previous interval.
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] The interval length will
stay at 32 days after 5 warning reminder emails.
If a disk problem is no longer detected, the internal email
counter is reset. If the problem reappears a new warning email
is sent immediately.
In addition, one may add zero or more of the following Direc-
tives:
test - send a single test email immediately upon smartd startup.
This allows one to verify that email is delivered correctly.
Note that if this Directive is used, smartd will also send the
normal email warnings that were enabled with the '-m' Directive,
in addition to the single test email!
exec PATH - run the executable PATH instead of the default mail
command, when smartd needs to send email. PATH must point to an
executable binary file or script.
By setting PATH to point to a customized script, you can make
smartd perform useful tricks when a disk problem is detected
(beeping the console, shutting down the machine, broadcasting
warnings to all logged-in users, etc.) But please be careful.
smartd will block until the executable PATH returns, so if your
executable hangs, then smartd will also hang. Some sample
scripts are included in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examples//.
The exit status of the executable is recorded by smartd in SYS-
LOG. The executable is not expected to write to STDOUT or
STDERR. If it does, then this is interpreted as indicating that
something is going wrong with your executable, and a fragment of
this output is logged to SYSLOG to help you to understand the
problem. Normally, if you wish to leave some record behind, the
executable should send mail or write to a file or device.
Before running the executable, smartd sets a number of environ-
ment variables. These environment variables may be used to con-
trol the executable's behavior. The environment variables ex-
ported by smartd are:
SMARTD_MAILER
is set to the argument of -M exec, if present or else to
'mail' (examples: /usr/local/bin/mail, mail).
SMARTD_DEVICE
is set to the device path (example: /dev/sda).
SMARTD_DEVICETYPE
is set to the device type specified by '-d' directive or
'auto' if none.
SMARTD_DEVICESTRING
is set to the device description. It starts with SMARTD_DE-
VICE and may be followed by an optional controller identifi-
cation (example: /dev/sda [SAT]). The string may contain a
space and is NOT quoted.
SMARTD_DEVICEINFO
is set to device identify information. It includes most of
the info printed by smartctl -i but uses a brief single line
format. This device info is also logged when smartd starts
up. The string contains space characters and is NOT quoted.
SMARTD_FAILTYPE
gives the reason for the warning or message email. The pos-
sible values that it takes and their meanings are:
EmailTest: this is an email test message.
Health: the SMART health status indicates imminent failure.
Usage: a usage Attribute has failed.
SelfTest: the number of self-test failures has increased.
ErrorCount: the number of errors in the ATA error log has in-
creased.
CurrentPendingSector: one of more disk sectors could not be
read and are marked to be reallocated (replaced with spare
sectors).
OfflineUncorrectableSector: during off-line testing, or self-
testing, one or more disk sectors could not be read.
Temperature: Temperature reached critical limit (see -W di-
rective).
FailedHealthCheck: the SMART health status command failed.
FailedReadSmartData: the command to read SMART Attribute data
failed.
FailedReadSmartErrorLog: the command to read the SMART error
log failed.
FailedReadSmartSelfTestLog: the command to read the SMART
self-test log failed.
FailedOpenDevice: the open() command to the device failed.
SMARTD_ADDRESS
is determined by the address argument ADD of the '-m' Direc-
tive. If ADD is <nomailer>, then SMARTD_ADDRESS is not set.
Otherwise, it is set to the comma-separated-list of email ad-
dresses given by the argument ADD, with the commas replaced
by spaces (example:admin@example.com root). If more than one
email address is given, then this string will contain space
characters and is NOT quoted, so to use it in a shell script
you may want to enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_ADDRESS_ORIG
is set to the original value of SMARTD_ADDRESS with '@plugin'
strings still present. If there are no such strings in the
'-m' Directive, this variable is NOT set.
SMARTD_MESSAGE
is set to the one sentence summary warning email message
string from smartd. This message string contains space char-
acters and is NOT quoted. So to use $SMARTD_MESSAGE in a
shell script you should probably enclose it in double quotes.
SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE
is set to the contents of the entire email warning message
string from smartd. This message string contains space and
return characters and is NOT quoted. So to use
$SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE in a shell script you should probably en-
close it in double quotes.
SMARTD_TFIRST
is a text string giving the time and date at which the first
problem of this type was reported. This text string contains
space characters and no newlines, and is NOT quoted. For ex-
ample:
Sun Feb 9 14:58:19 2003 CST
SMARTD_TFIRSTEPOCH
is an integer, which is the unix epoch (number of seconds
since Jan 1, 1970) for SMARTD_TFIRST.
SMARTD_PREVCNT
is an integer specifying the number of previous messages
sent. It is set to '0' for the first message.
SMARTD_NEXTDAYS
is an integer specifying the number of days until the next
message will be sent. It is set to empty on '-M once', set
to '0' on '-M always' and set to '1' on '-M daily'.
If the '-m ADD' Directive is given with a normal address argu-
ment, then the executable pointed to by PATH will be run in a
shell with STDIN receiving the body of the email message, and
with the same command-line arguments:
-s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS
that would normally be provided to 'mail'. Examples include:
-m user@home -M exec /usr/bin/mail
-m admin@work -M exec /usr/local/bin/mailto
-m root -M exec /Example_1/shell/script/below
If the '-m ADD' Directive is given with the special address argu-
ment <nomailer> then the executable pointed to by PATH is run in
a shell with no STDIN and no command-line arguments, for example:
-m <nomailer> -M exec /Example_2/shell/script/below
If the executable produces any STDERR/STDOUT output, then smartd
assumes that something is going wrong, and a snippet of that out-
put will be copied to SYSLOG. The remainder of the output is
then discarded.
Some EXAMPLES of scripts that can be used with the '-M exec' Di-
rective are given below. Some sample scripts are also included
in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examples//.
The executable is run by the script /usr/share/smartmon-
tools/smartd_warning.sh. This script formats subject and full
message based on SMARTD_MESSAGE and other environment variables
set by smartd. The environment variables SMARTD_SUBJECT and
SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE are set by the script before running the exe-
cutable.
-f [ATA only] Check for 'failure' of any Usage Attributes. If these
Attributes are less than or equal to the threshold, it does NOT
indicate imminent disk failure. It "indicates an advisory condi-
tion where the usage or age of the device has exceeded its in-
tended design life period." [Please see the smartctl -A command-
line option.]
-p [ATA only] Report anytime that a Prefail Attribute has changed
its value since the last check. [Please see the smartctl -A com-
mand-line option.]
-u [ATA only] Report anytime that a Usage Attribute has changed its
value since the last check. [Please see the smartctl -A command-
line option.]
-t [ATA only] Equivalent to turning on the two previous flags '-p'
and '-u'. Tracks changes in all device Attributes (both Prefail-
ure and Usage). [Please see the smartctl -A command-line op-
tion.]
-i ID [ATA only] Ignore device Attribute number ID when checking for
failure of Usage Attributes. ID must be a decimal integer in the
range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the
'-f' Directive and has no effect without it.
This is useful, for example, if you have a very old disk and
don't want to keep getting messages about the hours-on-lifetime
Attribute (usually Attribute 9) failing. This Directive may ap-
pear multiple times for a single device, if you want to ignore
multiple Attributes.
-I ID [ATA only] Ignore device Attribute ID when tracking changes in
the Attribute values. ID must be a decimal integer in the range
from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of the '-p',
'-u', and '-t' tracking Directives and has no effect without one
of them.
This is useful, for example, if one of the device Attributes is
the disk temperature (usually Attribute 194 or 231). It's annoy-
ing to get reports each time the temperature changes. This Di-
rective may appear multiple times for a single device, if you
want to ignore multiple Attributes.
-r ID[!]
[ATA only] When tracking, report the Raw value of Attribute ID
along with its (normally reported) Normalized value. ID must be
a decimal integer in the range from 1 to 255. This Directive
modifies the behavior of the '-p', '-u', and '-t' tracking Direc-
tives and has no effect without one of them. This Directive may
be given multiple times.
A common use of this Directive is to track the device Temperature
(often ID=194 or 231).
If the optional flag '!' is appended, a change of the Normalized
value is considered critical. The report will be logged as
LOG_CRIT and a warning email will be sent if '-m' is specified.
-R ID[!]
[ATA only] When tracking, report whenever the Raw value of At-
tribute ID changes. (Normally smartd only tracks/reports changes
of the Normalized Attribute values.) ID must be a decimal inte-
ger in the range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the be-
havior of the '-p', '-u', and '-t' tracking Directives and has no
effect without one of them. This Directive may be given multiple
times.
If this Directive is given, it automatically implies the '-r' Di-
rective for the same Attribute, so that the Raw value of the At-
tribute is reported.
A common use of this Directive is to track the device Temperature
(often ID=194 or 231). It is also useful for understanding how
different types of system behavior affects the values of certain
Attributes.
If the optional flag '!' is appended, a change of the Raw value
is considered critical. The report will be logged as LOG_CRIT
and a warning email will be sent if '-m' is specified. An exam-
ple is '-R 5!' to warn when new sectors are reallocated.
-C ID[+]
[ATA only] Report if the current number of pending sectors is
non-zero. Here ID is the id number of the Attribute whose raw
value is the Current Pending Sector count. The allowed range of
ID is 0 to 255 inclusive. To turn off this reporting, use
ID = 0. If the -C ID option is not given, then it defaults to -C
197 (since Attribute 197 is generally used to monitor pending
sectors). If the name of this Attribute is changed by a '-v
197,FORMAT,NAME' directive, the default is changed to -C 0.
If '+' is specified, a report is only printed if the number of
sectors has increased between two check cycles. Some disks do
not reset this attribute when a bad sector is reallocated. See
also '-v 197,increasing' below.
The warning email counter is reset if the number of pending sec-
tors dropped to 0. This typically happens when all pending sec-
tors have been reallocated or could be read again.
A pending sector is a disk sector (containing 512 bytes of your
data) which the device would like to mark as "bad" and reallo-
cate. Typically this is because your computer tried to read that
sector, and the read failed because the data on it has been cor-
rupted and has inconsistent Error Checking and Correction (ECC)
codes. This is important to know, because it means that there is
some unreadable data on the disk. The problem of figuring out
what file this data belongs to is operating system and file sys-
tem specific. You can typically force the sector to reallocate
by writing to it (translation: make the device substitute a spare
good sector for the bad one) but at the price of losing the 512
bytes of data stored there.
-U ID[+]
[ATA only] Report if the number of offline uncorrectable sectors
is non-zero. Here ID is the id number of the Attribute whose raw
value is the Offline Uncorrectable Sector count. The allowed
range of ID is 0 to 255 inclusive. To turn off this reporting,
use ID = 0. If the -U ID option is not given, then it defaults
to -U 198 (since Attribute 198 is generally used to monitor of-
fline uncorrectable sectors). If the name of this Attribute is
changed by a '-v 198,FORMAT,NAME' (except '-v 198,FORMAT,Of-
fline_Scan_UNC_SectCt'), directive, the default is changed to -U
0.
If '+' is specified, a report is only printed if the number of
sectors has increased since the last check cycle. Some disks do
not reset this attribute when a bad sector is reallocated. See
also '-v 198,increasing' below.
The warning email counter is reset if the number of offline un-
correctable sectors dropped to 0. This typically happens when
all offline uncorrectable sectors have been reallocated or could
be read again.
An offline uncorrectable sector is a disk sector which was not
readable during an off-line scan or a self-test. This is impor-
tant to know, because if you have data stored in this disk sec-
tor, and you need to read it, the read will fail. Please see the
previous '-C' option for more details.
-W DIFF[,INFO[,CRIT]]
Report if the current temperature had changed by at least DIFF
degrees since last report, or if new min or max temperature is
detected. Report or Warn if the temperature is greater or equal
than one of INFO or CRIT degrees Celsius. If the limit CRIT is
reached, a message with loglevel 'LOG_CRIT' will be logged to
syslog and a warning email will be send if '-m' is specified. If
only the limit INFO is reached, a message with loglevel
'LOG_INFO' will be logged.
The warning email counter is reset if the temperature dropped be-
low INFO or CRIT-5 if INFO is not specified.
If this directive is used in conjunction with state persistence
('-s' option), the min and max temperature values are preserved
across boot cycles. The minimum temperature value is not updated
during the first 30 minutes after startup.
To disable any of the 3 reports, set the corresponding limit to
0. Trailing zero arguments may be omitted. By default, all tem-
perature reports are disabled ('-W 0').
To track temperature changes of at least 2 degrees, use:
-W 2
To log informal messages on temperatures of at least 40 degrees,
use:
-W 0,40
For warning messages/mails on temperatures of at least 45 de-
grees, use:
-W 0,0,45
To combine all of the above reports, use:
-W 2,40,45
For ATA devices, smartd interprets Attribute 194 or 190 as Tem-
perature Celsius by default. This can be changed to Attribute 9
or 220 by the drive database or by the '-v 9,temp' or '-v
220,temp' directive.
For NVMe devices, smartd checks the maximum of the Composite Tem-
perature value and all Temperature Sensor values reported by
SMART/Health Information log.
-F TYPE
[ATA only] Modifies the behavior of smartd to compensate for some
known and understood device firmware bug. This directive may be
used multiple times. The valid arguments 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 drive database. Using this directive will override
any preset values.
nologdir - Suppresses read attempts of SMART or GP Log Directory.
Support for all standard logs is assumed without an actual check.
Some Intel SSDs may freeze if log address 0 is read.
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 smartd 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 er-
rors reported in the ATA error log; (3) strange and impossible
values for the ATA error log timestamps.
samsung2 - In some Samsung disks the number of ATA errors re-
ported is byte swapped. Enabling this option tells smartd to
evaluate this quantity in byte-reversed order.
samsung3 - Some Samsung disks (at least SP2514N with Firmware
VF100-37) report a self-test still in progress with 0% remaining
when the test was already completed. If this directive is speci-
fied, smartd will not skip the next scheduled self-test (see Di-
rective '-s' above) in this case.
xerrorlba - This only affects smartctl.
[Please see the smartctl -F command-line option.]
-v ID,FORMAT[:BYTEORDER][,NAME]
[ATA only] Sets a vendor-specific raw value print FORMAT, an op-
tional BYTEORDER and an optional NAME for Attribute ID. This di-
rective may be used multiple times. Please see smartctl -v com-
mand-line option for further details.
The following arguments affect smartd warning output:
197,increasing - Raw Attribute number 197 (Current Pending Sector
Count) is not reset if uncorrectable sectors are reallocated.
This sets '-C 197+' if no other '-C' directive is specified.
198,increasing - Raw Attribute number 198 (Offline Uncorrectable
Sector Count) is not reset if uncorrectable sectors are reallo-
cated. This sets '-U 198+' if no other '-U' directive is speci-
fied.
-P TYPE
[ATA only] Specifies whether smartd should use any preset options
that are available for this drive. The valid arguments to this
Directive are:
use - use any presets that are available for this drive. This is
the default.
ignore - do not use any presets for this drive.
show - show the presets listed for this drive in the database.
showall - show the presets that are available for all drives and
then exit.
[Please see the smartctl -P command-line option.]
-a Equivalent to turning on all of the following Directives: '-H' to
check the SMART health status, '-f' to report failures of Usage
(rather than Prefail) Attributes, '-t' to track changes in both
Prefailure and Usage Attributes, '-l error' to report increases
in the number of ATA errors, '-l selftest' to report increases in
the number of Self-Test Log errors, '-l selfteststs' to report
changes of Self-Test execution status, '-C 197' to report nonzero
values of the current pending sector count, and '-U 198' to re-
port nonzero values of the offline pending sector count.
Note that -a is the default for ATA devices. If none of these
other Directives is given, then -a is assumed.
-c OPTION=VALUE
Allows one to override smartd command line options for specific
devices. Only the following OPTION is currently supported:
-c i=N, -c interval=N
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Sets the interval between
disk checks to N seconds, where N is a decimal integer. The min-
imum allowed value is ten. The default is the value from the '-i
N, --interval=N' command line option or its default of 1800 sec-
onds.
# Comment: ignore the remainder of the line.
\ Continuation character: if this is the last non-white or non-com-
ment character on a line, then the following line is a continua-
tion of the current one.
If you are not sure which Directives to use, I suggest experimenting for
a few minutes with smartctl to see what SMART functionality your disk(s)
support(s). If you do not like voluminous syslog messages, a good
choice of smartd configuration file Directives might be:
-H -l selftest -l error -f.
If you want more frequent information, use: -a.
EXAMPLES OF SHELL SCRIPTS FOR '-M exec'
These are two examples of shell scripts that can be used with the
'-M exec PATH' Directive described previously. The paths to
these scripts and similar executables is the PATH argument to the
'-M exec PATH' Directive.
Example 1: This script is for use with '-m ADDRESS -M exec PATH'.
It appends the output of smartctl -a to the output of the smartd
email warning message and sends it to ADDRESS.
#! /bin/sh
# Save the email message (STDIN) to a file:
cat > /root/msg
# Append the output of smartctl -a to the message:
/usr/sbin/smartctl -a -d $SMART_DEVICETYPE \
$SMARTD_DEVICE >> /root/msg
# Now email the message to the user at address ADD:
/usr/bin/mail -s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS \
< /root/msg
Example 2: This script is for use with '-m <nomailer> -M exec
PATH'. It warns all users about a disk problem, waits 30 sec-
onds, and then powers down the machine.
#! /bin/sh
# Warn all users of a problem
wall <<EOF
Problem detected with disk: $SMARTD_DEVICESTRING
Warning message from smartd is: $SMARTD_MESSAGE
Shutting down machine in 30 seconds...
EOF
# Wait half a minute
sleep 30
# Power down the machine
/sbin/shutdown -hf now
Some example scripts are distributed with the smartmontools pack-
age, in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examples/.
Please note that these scripts typically run as root, so any
files that they read/write should not be writable by ordinary
users or reside in directories like /tmp that are writable by or-
dinary users and may expose your system to symlink attacks.
As previously described, if the scripts write to STDOUT or
STDERR, this is interpreted as indicating that there was an in-
ternal error within the script, and a snippet of STDOUT/STDERR is
logged to SYSLOG. The remainder is flushed.
FILES
/etc/smartd.conf
full path of this file.
SEE ALSO
smartd(8), smartctl(8), mail(1), regex(7).
PACKAGE VERSION
smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 r5530
$Id: smartd.conf.5.in 5521 2023-07-24 16:44:49Z chrfranke $
smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 SMARTD.CONF(5)
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