1SMARTD(8) SMART Monitoring Tools SMARTD(8)
2
6 smartd - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon
7
10 smartd [options]
11
14 [This man page is generated for the Linux version of smartmontools. It
15 does not contain info specific to other platforms.]
16 smartd is a daemon that monitors the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Re‐
18 porting Technology (SMART) system built into most ATA/SATA and SCSI/SAS
19 hard drives and solid-state drives. The purpose of SMART is to monitor
20 the reliability of the hard drive and predict drive failures, and to
21 carry out different types of drive self-tests. This version of smartd
22 is compatible with ACS-3, ACS-2, ATA8-ACS, ATA/ATAPI-7 and earlier
23 standards (see REFERENCES below).
24 smartd will attempt to enable SMART monitoring on ATA devices (equiva‐
26 lent to smartctl -s on) and polls these and SCSI devices every 30 min‐
27 utes (configurable), logging SMART errors and changes of SMART At‐
28 tributes via the SYSLOG interface. The default location for these SYS‐
29 LOG notifications and warnings is system-dependent (typically
30 /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog). To change this default loca‐
31 tion, please see the '-l' command-line option described below.
32 In addition to logging to a file, smartd can also be configured to send
34 email warnings if problems are detected. Depending upon the type of
35 problem, you may want to run self-tests on the disk, back up the disk,
36 replace the disk, or use a manufacturer's utility to force reallocation
37 of bad or unreadable disk sectors. If disk problems are detected,
38 please see the smartctl manual page and the smartmontools web page/FAQ
39 for further guidance.
40 If you send a USR1 signal to smartd it will immediately check the sta‐
42 tus of the disks, and then return to polling the disks every 30 min‐
43 utes. See the '-i' option below for additional details.
44 smartd can be configured at start-up using the configuration file
46 /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf (Windows: EXEDIR/smartd.conf). If the
47 configuration file is subsequently modified, smartd can be told to re-
48 read the configuration file by sending it a HUP signal, for example
49 with the command:
50 killall -HUP smartd.
51 On startup, if smartd finds a syntax error in the configuration file,
53 it will print an error message and then exit. However if smartd is al‐
54 ready running, then is told with a HUP signal to re-read the configura‐
55 tion file, and then find a syntax error in this file, it will print an
56 error message and then continue, ignoring the contents of the (faulty)
57 configuration file, as if the HUP signal had never been received.
58 When smartd is running in debug mode, the INT signal (normally gener‐
60 ated from a shell with CONTROL-C) is treated in the same way as a HUP
61 signal: it makes smartd reload its configuration file. To exit smartd
62 use CONTROL-\.
63 [Linux only] If smartd is started as a systemd(1) service and 'Type=No‐
65 tify' is specified in the service file, the service manager is notified
66 after successful startup. Other state changes are reported via systemd
67 notify STATUS messages. Notification of successful reloads (after HUP
68 signal) is not supported. To detect this process start-up type, smartd
69 checks whether the environment variable 'NOTIFY_SOCKET' is set. Note
70 that it is required to set the '-n' ('--nofork') option in the 'Exec‐
71 Start=/usr/sbin/smartd' command line if 'Type=Notify' is used.
72 On startup, in the absence of the configuration file /etc/smartmon‐
74 tools/smartd.conf, the smartd daemon first scans for all devices that
75 support SMART. The scanning is done as follows:
76 LINUX: Examine all entries "/dev/hd[a-t]" for IDE/ATA devices, and
78 "/dev/sd[a-z]", "/dev/sd[a-z][a-z]" for ATA/SATA or SCSI/SAS
79 devices. Disks behind RAID controllers are not included.
80 If directive '-d nvme' or no '-d' directive is specified, ex‐
82 amine all entries "/dev/nvme[0-99]" for NVMe devices.
83 smartd then monitors for all possible SMART errors (corresponding to
85 the '-a' Directive in the configuration file; see the smartd.conf(5)
86 man page).
87
90 -A PREFIX, --attributelog=PREFIX
91 Writes smartd attribute information (normalized and raw attri‐
92 bute values) to files 'PREFIX''MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv' or 'PRE‐
93 FIX''VENDOR-MODEL-SERIAL.scsi.csv'. At each check cycle at‐
94 tributes are logged as a line of semicolon separated triplets of
95 the form "attribute-ID;attribute-norm-value;attribute-raw-
96 value;". For SCSI devices error counters and temperature
97 recorded in the form "counter-name;counter-value;". Each line
98 is led by a date string of the form "yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS" (in
99 local time).
100 MODEL and SERIAL are build from drive identify information, in‐
102 valid characters are replaced by underline.
103 If the PREFIX has the form '/path/dir/' (e.g.
105 '/var/lib/smartd/'), then files 'MODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv' are cre‐
106 ated in directory '/path/dir'. If the PREFIX has the form
107 '/path/name' (e.g. '/var/lib/misc/attrlog-'), then files 'nameM‐
108 ODEL-SERIAL.ata.csv' are created in directory '/path/'. The
109 path must be absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.
110 -B [+]FILE, --drivedb=[+]FILE
112 [ATA only] Read the drive database from FILE. The new database
113 replaces the built in database by default. If '+' is specified,
114 then the new entries prepend the built in entries. Please see
115 the smartctl(8) man page for further details.
116 -c FILE, --configfile=FILE
118 Read smartd configuration Directives from FILE, instead of from
119 the default location /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf (Windows:
120 EXEDIR/smartd.conf). If FILE does not exist, then smartd will
121 print an error message and exit with nonzero status. Thus, '-c
122 /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf' can be used to verify the exis‐
123 tence of the default configuration file.
124 By using '-' for FILE, the configuration is read from standard
126 input. This is useful for commands like:
127 echo /dev/sdb -m user@home -M test | smartd -c - -q onecheck
128 to perform quick and simple checks without a configuration file.
129 -C, --capabilities[=mail]
131 [Linux only] Use libcap-ng to drop unneeded Linux process capa‐
132 bilities(7). The following capabilities are kept in the effec‐
133 tive and permissive sets: CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SYS_RAWIO,
134 CAP_MKNOD. If the '-u, --warn_as_user' option (see below) is
135 used with a non-privileged user or group, the following capabil‐
136 ities are also kept: CAP_SETGID, CAP_SETUID. The capability
137 bounding set is cleared.
138 [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Mail notification is no
140 longer suppressed if capabilities are dropped. It depends on
141 the local MTA whether mail could be send from a root process
142 with all capabilities dropped. It works with the postfix MTA.
143 If '--capabilities=mail' is specified, the following capabili‐
145 ties are added to the bounding set: CAP_SETGID, CAP_SETUID,
146 CAP_CHOWN, CAP_FOWNER, CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE. This allows one to
147 send mail with the exim MTA.
148 -d, --debug
150 Runs smartd in "debug" mode. In this mode, it displays status
151 information to STDOUT rather than logging it to SYSLOG and does
152 not fork(2) into the background and detach from the controlling
153 terminal. In this mode, smartd also prints more verbose infor‐
154 mation about what it is doing than when operating in "daemon"
155 mode. In this mode, the INT signal (normally generated from a
156 terminal with CONTROL-C) makes smartd reload its configuration
157 file. Please use CONTROL-\ to exit
158 -D, --showdirectives
160 Prints a list (to STDOUT) of all the possible Directives which
161 may appear in the configuration file /etc/smartmon‐
162 tools/smartd.conf, and then exits. These Directives are de‐
163 scribed in the smartd.conf(5) man page. They may appear in the
164 configuration file following the device name.
165 -h, --help, --usage
167 Prints usage message to STDOUT and exits.
168 -i N, --interval=N
170 Sets the interval between disk checks to N seconds, where N is a
171 decimal integer. The minimum allowed value is ten and the maxi‐
172 mum is the largest positive integer that can be represented on
173 your system (often 2^31-1). The default is 1800 seconds.
174 [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] The interval could be
175 overridden with the '-c i=N' directive, see smartd.conf(5) man
176 page.
177 Note that the superuser can make smartd check the status of the
179 disks at any time by sending it the SIGUSR1 signal, for example
180 with the command:
181 kill -SIGUSR1 <pid>
182 where <pid> is the process id number of smartd. One may also
183 use:
184 killall -USR1 smartd
185 for the same purpose.
186 -l FACILITY, --logfacility=FACILITY
188 Uses syslog facility FACILITY to log the messages from smartd.
189 Here FACILITY is one of local0, local1, ..., local7, or daemon
190 [default]. If this command-line option is not used, then by de‐
191 fault messages from smartd are logged to the facility daemon.
192 If you would like to have smartd messages logged somewhere other
194 than the default location, include (for example) '-l local3' in
195 its start up argument list. Tell the syslog daemon to log all
196 messages from facility local3 to (for example)
197 '/var/log/smartd.log'.
198 For more detailed information, please refer to the man pages for
200 the local syslog daemon, typically syslogd(8), syslog-ng(8) or
201 rsyslogd(8).
202 -n, --no-fork
204 Do not fork into background; this is useful when executed from
205 modern init methods like initng, minit, supervise or systemd.
206 -p NAME, --pidfile=NAME
208 Writes pidfile NAME containing the smartd Process ID number
209 (PID). To avoid symlink attacks make sure the directory to
210 which pidfile is written is only writable for root. Without
211 this option, or if the --debug option is given, no PID file is
212 written on startup. If smartd is killed with a maskable signal
213 then the pidfile is removed.
214 -q WHEN, --quit=WHEN
216 Specifies when, if ever, smartd should exit. The valid argu‐
217 ments are to this option are:
218 nodev - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any er‐
220 rors are found at startup in the configuration file. This is
221 the default.
222 errors - Exit if there are no devices to monitor, or if any er‐
224 rors are found in the configuration file /etc/smartmon‐
225 tools/smartd.conf at startup or whenever it is reloaded.
226 nodevstartup - Exit if there are no devices to monitor at
228 startup. But continue to run if no devices are found whenever
229 the configuration file is reloaded.
230 never - Only exit if a fatal error occurs (no remaining system
232 memory, invalid command line arguments). In this mode, even if
233 there are no devices to monitor, or if the configuration file
234 /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf has errors, smartd will continue
235 to run, waiting to load a configuration file listing valid de‐
236 vices.
237 nodev0 - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Same as 'nodev',
239 except that the exit status is 0 if there are no devices to mon‐
240 itor.
241 nodev0startup - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Same as
243 'nodevstartup', except that the exit status is 0 if there are no
244 devices to monitor.
245 errors,nodev0 - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Same as
247 'errors', except that the exit status is 0 if there are no de‐
248 vices to monitor.
249 onecheck - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices,
251 then check device's SMART status once, and then exit with zero
252 exit status if all of these steps worked correctly.
253 This last option is intended for 'distribution-writers' who want
255 to create automated scripts to determine whether or not to auto‐
256 matically start up smartd after installing smartmontools. After
257 starting smartd with this command-line option, the distribu‐
258 tion's install scripts should wait a reasonable length of time
259 (say ten seconds). If smartd has not exited with zero status by
260 that time, the script should send smartd a SIGTERM or SIGKILL
261 and assume that smartd will not operate correctly on the host.
262 Conversely, if smartd exits with zero status, then it is safe to
263 run smartd in normal daemon mode. If smartd is unable to moni‐
264 tor any devices or encounters other problems then it will return
265 with non-zero exit status.
266 showtests - Start smartd in debug mode, then register devices,
268 then write a list of future scheduled self tests to stdout, and
269 then exit with zero exit status if all of these steps worked
270 correctly. Device's SMART status is not checked.
271 This option is intended to test whether the '-s REGEX' direc‐
273 tives in smartd.conf will have the desired effect. The output
274 lists the next test schedules, limited to 5 tests per type and
275 device. This is followed by a summary of all tests of each de‐
276 vice within the next 90 days.
277 -r TYPE, --report=TYPE
279 Intended primarily to help smartmontools developers understand
280 the behavior of smartmontools on non-conforming or poorly-con‐
281 forming hardware. This option reports details of smartd trans‐
282 actions with the device. The option can be used multiple times.
283 When used just once, it shows a record of the ioctl() transac‐
284 tions with the device. When used more than once, the detail of
285 these ioctl() transactions are reported in greater detail. The
286 valid arguments to this option are:
287 ioctl - report all ioctl() transactions.
289 ataioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with ATA devices.
291 scsiioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with SCSI devices.
293 nvmeioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with NVMe devices.
295 Any argument may include a positive integer to specify the level
297 of detail that should be reported. The argument should be fol‐
298 lowed by a comma then the integer with no spaces. For example,
299 ataioctl,2 The default level is 1, so '-r ataioctl,1' and '-r
300 ataioctl' are equivalent.
301 -s PREFIX, --savestates=PREFIX
303 Reads/writes smartd state information from/to files 'PRE‐
304 FIX''MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' or 'PREFIX''VENDOR-MODEL-SE‐
305 RIAL.scsi.state'. This preserves SMART attributes, drive min
306 and max temperatures (-W directive), info about last sent warn‐
307 ing email (-m directive), and the time of next check of the
308 self-test REGEXP (-s directive) across boot cycles.
309 MODEL and SERIAL are build from drive identify information, in‐
311 valid characters are replaced by underline.
312 If the PREFIX has the form '/path/dir/' (e.g.
314 '/var/lib/smartd/'), then files 'MODEL-SERIAL.ata.state' are
315 created in directory '/path/dir'. If the PREFIX has the form
316 '/path/name' (e.g. '/var/lib/misc/smartd-'), then files 'nameMO‐
317 DEL-SERIAL.ata.state' are created in directory '/path/'. The
318 path must be absolute, except if debug mode is enabled.
319 The state information files are read on smartd startup. The
321 files are always (re)written after reading the configuration
322 file, before rereading the configuration file (SIGHUP), before
323 smartd shutdown, and after a check forced by SIGUSR1. After a
324 normal check cycle, a file is only rewritten if an important
325 change (which usually results in a SYSLOG output) occurred.
326 -w PATH, --warnexec=PATH
328 Run the executable PATH instead of the default script when
329 smartd needs to send warning messages. PATH must point to an
330 executable binary file or script. The default script is
331 /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.sh.
332 -u USER[:GROUP], --warn-as-user=USER[:GROUP]
334 [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Run the warning script as
335 a non-privileged user instead of root. The USER and optional
336 GROUP may be specified as numeric ids or names. If no GROUP is
337 specified, the default group of USER is used instead.
338 If a warning occurs, a child process is created with fork(2).
340 This process closes all inherited file descriptors, connects
341 stdio to /dev/null, changes the user and group ids, removes any
342 supplementary group ids and then calls the popen(3) function
343 from the standard library.
344 If '0:0' is specified, user and group are not changed, but the
346 remaining actions still apply.
347 If '-' is specified, popen(3) is called directly. This is the
349 default.
350 -V, --version, --license, --copyright
352 Prints version, copyright, license, home page and SVN revision
353 information for your copy of smartd to STDOUT and then exits.
354
357 smartd
358 Runs the daemon in forked mode. This is the normal way to run smartd.
359 Entries are logged to SYSLOG.
360 smartd -d -i 30
362 Run in foreground (debug) mode, checking the disk status every 30 sec‐
363 onds.
364 smartd -q onecheck
366 Registers devices, and checks the status of the devices exactly once.
367 The exit status (the shell $? variable) will be zero if all went well,
368 and nonzero if no devices were detected or some other problem was en‐
369 countered.
370
373 The syntax of the smartd.conf(5) file is discussed separately.
374
377 smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_INFO if the Normalized
378 SMART Attribute values have changed, as reported using the '-t', '-p',
379 or '-u' Directives. For example:
380 'Device: /dev/sda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed
381 from 94 to 93'
382 Note that in this message, the value given is the 'Normalized' not the
383 'Raw' Attribute value (the disk temperature in this case is about 22
384 Celsius). The '-R' and '-r' Directives modify this behavior, so that
385 the information is printed with the Raw values as well, for example:
386 'Device: /dev/sda, SMART Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed
387 from 94 [Raw 22] to 93 [Raw 23]'
388 Here the Raw values are the actual disk temperatures in Celsius. The
389 way in which the Raw values are printed, and the names under which the
390 Attributes are reported, is governed by the various '-v Num,Descrip‐
391 tion' Directives described previously.
392 Please see the smartctl manual page for further explanation of the dif‐
394 ferences between Normalized and Raw Attribute values.
395 smartd will make log entries at loglevel LOG_CRIT if a SMART Attribute
397 has failed, for example:
398 'Device: /dev/sdc, Failed SMART Attribute: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct'
399 This loglevel is used for reporting enabled by the '-H', -f', '-l self‐
400 test', and '-l error' Directives. Entries reporting failure of SMART
401 Prefailure Attributes should not be ignored: they mean that the disk is
402 failing. Use the smartctl utility to investigate.
403
406 When smartd makes log entries, these are time-stamped. The time stamps
407 are in the computer's local time zone, which is generally set using ei‐
408 ther the environment variable 'TZ' or using a time-zone file such as
409 /etc/localtime. You may wish to change the timezone while smartd is
410 running (for example, if you carry a laptop to a new time-zone and
411 don't reboot it). Due to a bug in the tzset(3) function of many unix
412 standard C libraries, the time-zone stamps of smartd might not change.
413 For some systems, smartd will work around this problem if the time-zone
414 is set using /etc/localtime. The work-around fails if the time-zone is
415 set using the 'TZ' variable (or a file that it points to).
416
419 The exit status (return value) of smartd can have the following values:
420 0: Daemon startup successful, or smartd was killed by a SIGTERM (or
422 in debug mode, a SIGQUIT).
423 1: Commandline did not parse.
425 2: There was a syntax error in the config file.
427 3: Forking the daemon failed.
429 4: Couldn't create PID file.
431 5: Config file does not exist (only returned in conjunction with
433 the '-c' option).
434 6: Config file exists, but cannot be read.
436 8: smartd ran out of memory during startup.
438 10: An inconsistency was found in smartd's internal data structures.
440 This should never happen. It must be due to either a coding or
441 compiler bug. Please report such failures to smartmontools de‐
442 velopers, see REPORTING BUGS below.
443 16: A device explicitly listed in /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf
445 can't be monitored.
446 17: smartd didn't find any devices to monitor.
448 [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] This could be changed to 0
449 (success) with one of the '-q *nodev0*' options, see above.
450 254: When in daemon mode, smartd received a SIGINT or SIGQUIT. (Note
452 that in debug mode, SIGINT has the same effect as SIGHUP, and
453 makes smartd reload its configuration file. SIGQUIT has the
454 same effect as SIGTERM and causes smartd to exit with zero exit
455 status.
456 132 and above
458 smartd was killed by a signal that is not explicitly listed
459 above. The exit status is then 128 plus the signal number. For
460 example if smartd is killed by SIGKILL (signal 9) then the exit
461 status is 137.
462
465 /usr/sbin/smartd
466 full path of this executable.
467 /etc/smartmontools/smartd.conf
469 configuration file (see smartd.conf(5) man page).
470 /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.sh
472 script run on warnings (see '-w' option above and '-M exec' di‐
473 rective on smartd.conf(5) man page).
474 /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.d/
476 plugin directory for smartd warning script (see '-m' directive
477 on smartd.conf(5) man page).
478 /usr/share/smartmontools/drivedb.h
480 drive database (see '-B' option).
481 /etc/smartmontools/smart_drivedb.h
483 optional local drive database (see '-B' option).
484
487 Bruce Allen (project initiator),
488 Christian Franke (project manager, Windows port and all sort of
489 things),
490 Douglas Gilbert (SCSI subsystem),
491 Volker Kuhlmann (moderator of support and database mailing list),
492 Gabriele Pohl (wiki & development team support),
493 Alex Samorukov (FreeBSD port and more, new Trac wiki).
494 Many other individuals have made contributions and corrections, see AU‐
496 THORS, ChangeLog and repository files.
497 The first smartmontools code was derived from the smartsuite package,
499 written by Michael Cornwell and Andre Hedrick.
500
503 To submit a bug report, create a ticket in smartmontools wiki:
504 <https://www.smartmontools.org/>.
505 Alternatively send the info to the smartmontools support mailing list:
506 <https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/smartmontools-support>.
507
510 smartd.conf(5), smartctl(8).
511 update-smart-drivedb(8).
512 systemd.exec(5).
513
516 Please see the following web site for more info: <https://www.smartmon‐
517 tools.org/>
518 An introductory article about smartmontools is Monitoring Hard Disks
520 with SMART, by Bruce Allen, Linux Journal, January 2004, pages 74–77.
521 See <https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983>.
522 If you would like to understand better how SMART works, and what it
524 does, a good place to start is with Sections 4.8 and 6.54 of the first
525 volume of the 'AT Attachment with Packet Interface-7' (ATA/ATAPI-7)
526 specification Revision 4b. This documents the SMART functionality
527 which the smartmontools utilities provide access to.
528 The functioning of SMART was originally defined by the SFF-8035i revi‐
530 sion 2 and the SFF-8055i revision 1.4 specifications. These are publi‐
531 cations of the Small Form Factors (SFF) Committee.
532 Links to these and other documents may be found on the Links page of
534 the smartmontools Wiki at <https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Links>.
535
538 smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 r5530
539 $Id: smartd.8.in 5521 2023-07-24 16:44:49Z chrfranke $
540smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 SMARTD(8)