Provided by: smartmontools_6.2+svn3841-1.2ubuntu0.1_amd64 
NAME
smartd - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon
SYNOPSIS
smartd [options]
FULL PATH
/usr/sbin/smartd
PACKAGE VERSION
smartmontools-6.2 2013-07-26 r3841
DESCRIPTION
[This man page is generated for the Linux version of smartmontools. It does not contain info specific to
other platforms.]
smartd is a daemon that monitors the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) system
built into most ATA/SATA and SCSI/SAS hard drives and solid-state drives. The purpose of SMART 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 smartd is compatible with ACS-2, ATA8-ACS, ATA/ATAPI-7 and earlier
standards (see REFERENCES below).
smartd will attempt to enable SMART monitoring on ATA devices (equivalent to smartctl -s on) and polls
these and SCSI devices every 30 minutes (configurable), logging SMART errors and changes of SMART
Attributes via the SYSLOG interface. The default location for these SYSLOG notifications and warnings is
system-dependent (typically /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog). To change this default location,
please see the ´-l´ command-line option described below.
In addition to logging to a file, smartd can also be configured to send email warnings if problems are
detected. Depending upon the type of problem, you may want to run self-tests on the disk, back up the
disk, replace the disk, or use a manufacturer´s utility to force reallocation of bad or unreadable disk
sectors. If disk problems are detected, please see the smartctl manual page and the smartmontools web
page/FAQ for further guidance.
If you send a USR1 signal to smartd it will immediately check the status of the disks, and then return to
polling the disks every 30 minutes. See the ´-i´ option below for additional details.
smartd can be configured at start-up using the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf (Windows:
EXEDIR/smartd.conf). If the configuration file is subsequently modified, smartd can be told to re-read
the configuration file by sending it a HUP signal, for example with the command:
killall -HUP smartd.
On startup, if smartd finds a syntax error in the configuration file, it will print an error message and
then exit. However if smartd is already running, then is told with a HUP signal to re-read the
configuration file, and then find a syntax error in this file, it will print an error message and then
continue, ignoring the contents of the (faulty) configuration file, as if the HUP signal had never been
received.
When smartd is running in debug mode, the INT signal (normally generated from a shell with CONTROL-C) is
treated in the same way as a HUP signal: it makes smartd reload its configuration file. To exit smartd
use CONTROL-\
On startup, in the absence of the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf, the smartd daemon first scans for
all devices that support SMART. The scanning is done as follows:
LINUX: Examine all entries "/dev/hd[a-t]" for IDE/ATA devices, and "/dev/sd[a-z]", "/dev/sd[a-c][a-z]"
for SCSI or SATA devices. Disks behind RAID controllers are not included.
smartd then monitors for all possible SMART errors (corresponding to the ´-a´ Directive in the
configuration file; see the smartd.conf(5) man page).
OPTIONS
If a cciss controller is used then the corresponding block device (/dev/cciss/c?d?) must be listed, along
with the ´-d cciss,N´ Directive (see below).
-A PREFIX, --attributelog=PREFIX
Writes smartd attribute information (normalized and raw attribute values) to files
´PREFIX´´MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv´ or ´PREFIX´´VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.csv´. At each check cycle
attributes are logged as a line of semicolon separated triplets of the form "attribute-
ID;attribute-norm-value;attribute-raw-value;". For SCSI devices error counters and temperature
recorded in the form "counter-name;counter-value;" Each line is led by a date string of the form
"yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS" (in UTC).
If this option is not specified, attribute information is written to files
´/var/lib/smartmontools/attrlog.MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv´. To disable attribute log files, specify
this option with an empty string argument: ´-A ""´. MODEL and SERIAL are build from drive
identify information, invalid characters are replaced by underline.
If the PREFIX has the form ´/path/dir/´ (e.g. ´/var/lib/smartd/´), then files
´MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv´ are created in directory ´/path/dir´. If the PREFIX has the form
´/path/name´ (e.g. ´/var/lib/misc/attrlog-´), then files 'nameMODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv' are created in
directory '/path/'. The path must be absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.
-B [+]FILE, --drivedb=[+]FILE
[ATA only] Read the drive database from FILE. The new database replaces the built in database by
default. If ´+´ is specified, then the new entries prepend the built in entries. Please see the
smartctl(8) man page for further details.
-c FILE, --configfile=FILE
Read smartd configuration Directives from FILE, instead of from the default location
/etc/smartd.conf (Windows: EXEDIR/smartd.conf). If FILE does not exist, then smartd will print an
error message and exit with nonzero status. Thus, ´-c /etc/smartd.conf´ can be used to verify the
existence of the default configuration file.
By using ´-´ for FILE, the configuration is read from standard input. This is useful for commands
like:
echo /dev/hdb -m user@home -M test | smartd -c - -q onecheck
to perform quick and simple checks without a configuration file.
-C, --capabilities
Use capabilities(7).
Warning: Mail notification does not work when used.
-d, --debug
Runs smartd in "debug" mode. In this mode, it displays status information to STDOUT rather than
logging it to SYSLOG and does not fork(2) into the background and detach from the controlling
terminal. In this mode, smartd also prints more verbose information about what it is doing than
when operating in "daemon" mode. In this mode, the INT signal (normally generated from a terminal
with CONTROL-C) makes smartd reload its configuration file. Please use CONTROL-\ to exit
-D, --showdirectives
Prints a list (to STDOUT) of all the possible Directives which may appear in the configuration
file /etc/smartd.conf, and then exits. These Directives are also described later in this man
page. They may appear in the configuration file following the device name.
-h, --help, --usage
Prints usage message to STDOUT and exits.
-i N, --interval=N
Sets the interval between disk checks to N seconds, where N is a decimal integer. The minimum
allowed value is ten and the maximum is the largest positive integer that can be represented on
your system (often 2^31-1). The default is 1800 seconds.
Note that the superuser can make smartd check the status of the disks at any time by sending it
the SIGUSR1 signal, for example with the command:
kill -SIGUSR1 <pid>
where <pid> is the process id number of smartd. One may also use:
killall -USR1 smartd
for the same purpose.
-l FACILITY, --logfacility=FACILITY
Uses syslog facility FACILITY to log the messages from smartd. Here FACILITY is one of local0,
local1, ..., local7, or daemon [default]. If this command-line option is not used, then by
default messages from smartd are logged to the facility daemon.
If you would like to have smartd messages logged somewhere other than the default location, this
can typically be accomplished with (for example) the following steps:
[1] Modify the script that starts smartd to include the smartd command-line argument ´-l local3´.
This tells smartd to log its messages to facility local3.
[2] Modify the syslogd configuration file (typically /etc/syslog.conf) by adding a line of the
form:
local3.* /var/log/smartd.log
This tells syslogd to log all the messages from facility local3 to the designated file:
/var/log/smartd.log.
[3] Tell syslogd to re-read its configuration file, typically by sending the syslogd process a
SIGHUP hang-up signal.
[4] Start (or restart) the smartd daemon.
For more detailed information, please refer to the man pages for syslog.conf, syslogd, and syslog.
You may also want to modify the log rotation configuration files; see the man pages for logrotate
and examine your system´s /etc/logrotate.conf file.
-n, --no-fork
Do not fork into background; this is useful when executed from modern init methods like initng,
minit or supervise.
-p NAME, --pidfile=NAME
Writes pidfile NAME containing the smartd Process ID number (PID). To avoid symlink attacks make
sure the directory to which pidfile is written is only writable for root. Without this option, or
if the --debug option is given, no PID file is written on startup. If smartd is killed with a
maskable signal then the pidfile is removed.
-q WHEN, --quit=WHEN
Specifies when, if ever, smartd should exit. The valid arguments are to this option are:
nodev - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found at startup in the
configuration file. This is the default.
errors - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any errors are found in the configuration
file /etc/smartd.conf at startup or whenever it is reloaded.
nodevstartup - Exit if there are no devices to monitor at startup. But continue to run if no
devices are found whenever the configuration file is reloaded.
never - Only exit if a fatal error occurs (no remaining system memory, invalid command line
arguments). In this mode, even if there are no devices to monitor, or if the configuration file
/etc/smartd.conf has errors, smartd will continue to run, waiting to load a configuration file
listing valid devices.
onecheck - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then check device´s SMART status
once, and then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked correctly.
This last option is intended for ´distribution-writers´ who want to create automated scripts to
determine whether or not to automatically start up smartd after installing smartmontools. After
starting smartd with this command-line option, the distribution´s install scripts should wait a
reasonable length of time (say ten seconds). If smartd has not exited with zero status by that
time, the script should send smartd a SIGTERM or SIGKILL and assume that smartd will not operate
correctly on the host. Conversely, if smartd exits with zero status, then it is safe to run
smartd in normal daemon mode. If smartd is unable to monitor any devices or encounters other
problems then it will return with non-zero exit status.
showtests - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices, then write a list of future
scheduled self tests to stdout, and then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked
correctly. Device's SMART status is not checked.
This option is intended to test whether the '-s REGEX' directives in smartd.conf will have the
desired effect. The output lists the next test schedules, limited to 5 tests per type and device.
This is followed by a summary of all tests of each device within the next 90 days.
-r TYPE, --report=TYPE
Intended primarily to help smartmontools developers understand the behavior of smartmontools on
non-conforming or poorly-conforming hardware. This option reports details of smartd transactions
with the device. The option can be used multiple times. When used just once, it shows a record
of the ioctl() transactions with the device. When used more than once, the detail of these
ioctl() transactions are reported in greater detail. The valid arguments to this option are:
ioctl - report all ioctl() transactions.
ataioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with ATA devices.
scsiioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with SCSI devices.
Any argument may include a positive integer to specify the level of detail that should be
reported. The argument should be followed by a comma then the integer with no spaces. For
example, ataioctl,2 The default level is 1, so ´-r ataioctl,1´ and ´-r ataioctl´ are equivalent.
-s PREFIX, --savestates=PREFIX
Reads/writes smartd state information from/to files ´PREFIX´´MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state´ or
´PREFIX´´VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.state´. This preserves SMART attributes, drive min and max
temperatures (-W directive), info about last sent warning email (-m directive), and the time of
next check of the self-test REGEXP (-s directive) across boot cycles.
If this option is not specified, state information is maintained in files
´/var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state´ for ATA devices and
´/var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.state´ for SCSI devices. To disable state
files, specify this option with an empty string argument: ´-s ""´. MODEL and SERIAL are build
from drive identify information, invalid characters are replaced by underline.
If the PREFIX has the form ´/path/dir/´ (e.g. ´/var/lib/smartd/´), then files
´MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state´ are created in directory ´/path/dir´. If the PREFIX has the form
´/path/name´ (e.g. ´/var/lib/misc/smartd-´), then files 'nameMODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' are created
in directory '/path/'. The path must be absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.
The state information files are read on smartd startup. The files are always (re)written after
reading the configuration file, before rereading the configuration file (SIGHUP), before smartd
shutdown, and after a check forced by SIGUSR1. After a normal check cycle, a file is only
rewritten if an important change (which usually results in a SYSLOG output) occurred.
-w PATH, --warnexec=PATH
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] Run the executable PATH instead of the default script when
smartd needs to send warning messages. PATH must point to an executable binary file or script.
The default script is /etc/smartd_warning.sh.
-V, --version, --license, --copyright
Prints version, copyright, license, home page and SVN revision information for your copy of smartd
to STDOUT and then exits. Please include this information if you are reporting bugs or problems.
EXAMPLES
smartd
Runs the daemon in forked mode. This is the normal way to run smartd. Entries are logged to SYSLOG.
smartd -d -i 30
Run in foreground (debug) mode, checking the disk status every 30 seconds.
smartd -q onecheck
Registers devices, and checks the status of the devices exactly once. The exit status (the bash $?
variable) will be zero if all went well, and nonzero if no devices were detected or some other problem
was encountered.
Note that smartmontools provides a start-up script in /smartd which is responsible for starting and
stopping the daemon via the normal init interface. Using this script, you can start smartd by giving the
command:
/smartd start
and stop it by using the command:
/smartd stop
CONFIGURATION
The syntax of the smartd.conf(5) file is discussed separately.
NOTES
smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_INFO if the Normalized SMART Attribute values have changed,
as reported using the ´-t´, ´-p´, or ´-u´ Directives. For example:
´Device: /dev/hda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 to 93´
Note that in this message, the value given is the ´Normalized´ not the ´Raw´ Attribute value (the disk
temperature in this case is about 22 Celsius). The ´-R´ and ´-r´ Directives modify this behavior, so
that the information is printed with the Raw values as well, for example:
´Device: /dev/hda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 94 [Raw 22] to 93 [Raw 23]´
Here the Raw values are the actual disk temperatures in Celsius. The way in which the Raw values are
printed, and the names under which the Attributes are reported, is governed by the various ´-v
Num,Description´ Directives described previously.
Please see the smartctl manual page for further explanation of the differences between Normalized and Raw
Attribute values.
smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_CRIT if a SMART Attribute has failed, for example:
´Device: /dev/hdc, Failed SMART Attribute: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct´
This loglevel is used for reporting enabled by the ´-H´, -f´, ´-l selftest´, and ´-l error´ Directives.
Entries reporting failure of SMART Prefailure Attributes should not be ignored: they mean that the disk
is failing. Use the smartctl utility to investigate.
LOG TIMESTAMP TIMEZONE
When smartd makes log entries, these are time-stamped. The time stamps are in the computer's local time
zone, which is generally set using either the environment variable ´TZ´ or using a time-zone file such as
/etc/localtime. You may wish to change the timezone while smartd is running (for example, if you carry a
laptop to a new time-zone and don't reboot it). Due to a bug in the tzset(3) function of many unix
standard C libraries, the time-zone stamps of smartd might not change. For some systems, smartd will
work around this problem if the time-zone is set using /etc/localtime. The work-around fails if the time-
zone is set using the ´TZ´ variable (or a file that it points to).
RETURN VALUES
The return value (exit status) of smartd can have the following values:
0: Daemon startup successful, or smartd was killed by a SIGTERM (or in debug mode, a SIGQUIT).
1: Commandline did not parse.
2: There was a syntax error in the config file.
3: Forking the daemon failed.
4: Couldn´t create PID file.
5: Config file does not exist (only returned in conjunction with the ´-c´ option).
6: Config file exists, but cannot be read.
8: smartd ran out of memory during startup.
9: A compile time constant of smartd was too small. This can be caused by an excessive number of
disks, or by lines in /etc/smartd.conf that are too long. Please report this problem to
smartmontools-support@lists.sourceforge.net.
10: An inconsistency was found in smartd´s internal data structures. This should never happen. It
must be due to either a coding or compiler bug. Please report such failures to smartmontools-
support@lists.sourceforge.net.
16: A device explicitly listed in /etc/smartd.conf can´t be monitored.
17: smartd didn´t find any devices to monitor.
254: When in daemon mode, smartd received a SIGINT or SIGQUIT. (Note that in debug mode, SIGINT has
the same effect as SIGHUP, and makes smartd reload its configuration file. SIGQUIT has the same
effect as SIGTERM and causes smartd to exit with zero exit status.
132 and above
smartd was killed by a signal that is not explicitly listed above. The exit status is then 128
plus the signal number. For example if smartd is killed by SIGKILL (signal 9) then the exit
status is 137.
AUTHORS
Bruce Allen
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Physics Department
Christian Franke (Windows interface, C++ redesign, most enhancements since 2009)
smartmontools-support@lists.sourceforge.net
CONTRIBUTORS
The following have made large contributions to smartmontools:
Casper Dik (Solaris SCSI interface)
Douglas Gilbert (SCSI subsystem)
Guido Guenther (Autoconf/Automake packaging)
Geoffrey Keating (Darwin ATA interface)
Eduard Martinescu (FreeBSD interface)
Frédéric L. W. Meunier (Web site and Mailing list)
Gabriele Pohl (Web site and Wiki, conversion from CVS to SVN)
Keiji Sawada (Solaris ATA interface)
Manfred Schwarb (Drive database)
Sergey Svishchev (NetBSD interface)
David Snyder and Sergey Svishchev (OpenBSD interface)
Phil Williams (User interface and drive database)
Shengfeng Zhou (Linux/FreeBSD HighPoint RocketRAID interface)
Many other individuals have made smaller contributions and corrections.
CREDITS
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. This code was originally developed as a
Senior Thesis by Michael Cornwell at the Concurrent Systems Laboratory (now part of the Storage Systems
Research Center), Jack Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz.
http://ssrc.soe.ucsc.edu/ .
HOME PAGE FOR SMARTMONTOOLS:
Please see the following web site for updates, further documentation, bug reports and patches:
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
SEE ALSO:
smartd.conf(5), smartctl(8), syslogd(8), syslog.conf(5), badblocks(8), ide-smart(8), regex(7).
REFERENCES FOR SMART
An introductory article about smartmontools is Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART, by Bruce Allen, Linux
Journal, January 2004, pages 74-77. This is http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983 online.
If you would like to understand better how SMART works, and what it does, a good place to start is with
Sections 4.8 and 6.54 of the first volume of the ´AT Attachment with Packet Interface-7´ (ATA/ATAPI-7)
specification Revision 4b. This documents the SMART functionality which the smartmontools utilities
provide access to.
The functioning of SMART was originally defined by the SFF-8035i revision 2 and the SFF-8055i revision
1.4 specifications. These are publications of the Small Form Factors (SFF) Committee.
Links to these and other documents may be found on the Links page of the smartmontools Wiki at
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/Links .
SVN ID OF THIS PAGE:
$Id: smartd.8.in 3799 2013-03-15 17:47:25Z chrfranke $
smartmontools-6.2 2013-07-26 SMARTD(8)