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SMARTD(8)                              SMART Monitoring Tools                              SMARTD(8)



NAME
       smartd - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon


SYNOPSIS
       smartd [options]


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-3, 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/sys‐‐
       log).  To change this default location, please see the '-l' command-line option described be‐
       low.

       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 real‐
       location 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  configura‐
       tion file.  To exit smartd use CONTROL-\.

       [Linux  only] [NEW EXPERMIMENTAL SMARTD FEATURE] If smartd is started as a systemd(1) service
       and 'Type=Notify' is specified in the service file, the service  manager  is  notified  after
       successful  startup.   Other  state  changes are reported via systemd notify STATUS messages.
       Notification of successful reloads (after HUP signal)  is  not  supported.   To  detect  this
       process start-up type, smartd checks whether the environment variable 'NOTIFY_SOCKET' is set.
       Note  that  it  is  required  to  set  the   '-n'   ('--nofork')   option   in   the   'Exec‐
       Start=/usr/sbin/smartd' command line if 'Type=Notify' is used.

       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 ATA/SATA or SCSI/SAS devices.  Disks behind RAID controllers
                are not included.

                If directive '-d nvme' or no  '-d'  directive  is  specified,  examine  all  entries
                "/dev/nvme[0-99]" for NVMe devices.

       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
       -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  under‐
              line.

              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-SE‐
              RIAL.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/sdb -m user@home -M test | smartd -c - -q onecheck
              to perform quick and simple checks without a configuration file.

       -C, --capabilities
              [Linux  only]  Use libcap-ng to drop unneeded Linux process capabilities(7).  The fol‐
              lowing capabilities are kept: CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SYS_RAWIO, CAP_MKNOD.

              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 informa‐
              tion  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 con‐
              figuration file /etc/smartd.conf, and then exits.  These Directives are  described  in
              the  smartd.conf(5) 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 lo‐
              cation, include (for example) '-l local3' in its start up  argument  list.   Tell  the
              syslog   daemon   to   log   all  messages  from  facility  local3  to  (for  example)
              '/var/log/smartd.log'.

              For more detailed information, please refer to the man pages for the local syslog dae‐
              mon, typically syslogd(8), syslog-ng(8) or rsyslogd(8).

       -n, --no-fork
              Do  not  fork  into  background; this is useful when executed from modern init methods
              like initng, minit, supervise or systemd.

       -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.

              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.  This is the default.

              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  distribu‐
              tion'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 smart‐‐
              montools 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.

              nvmeioctl - report only ioctl() transactions with NVMe 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 spa‐
              ces.  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 direc‐
              tive), 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 re‐
              placed 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-SE‐
              RIAL.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 re‐
              sults in a SYSLOG output) occurred.

       -w PATH, --warnexec=PATH
              Run the executable PATH instead of the default script when smartd needs to send  warn‐
              ing  messages.   PATH  must point to an executable binary file or script.  The default
              script is /usr/share/smartmontools/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.


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
       shell $?  variable) will be zero if all went well, and nonzero if no devices were detected or
       some other problem was encountered.


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/sda, 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/sda,  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  Nor‐
       malized and Raw Attribute values.

       smartd  will make log entries at loglevel LOG_CRIT if a SMART Attribute has failed, for exam‐
       ple:
       'Device: /dev/sdc, 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).


EXIT STATUS
       The exit status (return value) 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.

       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 fail‐
              ures to smartmontools developers, see REPORTING BUGS below.

       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  sta‐
              tus.

       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.


FILES
       /usr/sbin/smartd
              full path of this executable.

       /etc/smartd.conf
              configuration file (see smartd.conf(5) man page).

       /usr/share/smartmontools/smartd_warning.sh
              script   run   on  warnings  (see  '-w'  option  above  and  '-M  exec'  directive  on
              smartd.conf(5) man page).

       /etc/smartmontools/smartd_warning.d/
              plugin directory for smartd warning script (see '-m' directive on  smartd.conf(5)  man
              page).

       /var/lib/smartmontools/drivedb/drivedb.h
              drive database (see '-B' option).

       /etc/smart_drivedb.h
              optional local drive database (see '-B' option).


AUTHORS
       Bruce Allen (project initiator),
       Christian Franke (project manager, Windows port and all sort of things),
       Douglas Gilbert (SCSI subsystem),
       Volker Kuhlmann (moderator of support and database mailing list),
       Gabriele Pohl (wiki & development team support),
       Alex Samorukov (FreeBSD port and more, new Trac wiki).

       Many  other  individuals  have made contributions and corrections, see AUTHORS, ChangeLog and
       repository files.

       The first smartmontools code was derived from the  smartsuite  package,  written  by  Michael
       Cornwell and Andre Hedrick.


REPORTING BUGS
       To submit a bug report, create a ticket in smartmontools wiki:
       <https://www.smartmontools.org/>.
       Alternatively send the info to the smartmontools support mailing list:
       <https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/smartmontools-support>.


SEE ALSO
       smartd.conf(5), smartctl(8).
       update-smart-drivedb(8).
       systemd.exec(5).


REFERENCES
       Please see the following web site for more info: <https://www.smartmontools.org/>

       An  introductory  article  about  smartmontools is Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART, by Bruce
       Allen, Linux Journal, January 2004,  pages  74–77.   See  <https://www.linuxjournal.com/arti‐‐
       cle/6983>.

       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 In‐
       terface-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) Commit‐
       tee.

       Links to these and other documents may be found on the Links page of the  smartmontools  Wiki
       at <https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Links>.


PACKAGE VERSION
       smartmontools-7.2 2020-12-30 r5155
       $Id: smartd.8.in 4861 2018-12-16 18:24:57Z chrfranke $



smartmontools-7.2                            2020-12-30                                    SMARTD(8)
smartd(8)
NAME SYNOPSIS
smartd [options]
DESCRIPTION OPTIONS
-A PREFIX, --attributelog=PREFIX -B [+]FILE, --drivedb=[+]FILE -c FILE, --configfile=FILE -C, --capabilities -d, --debug -D, --showdirectives -h, --help, --usage -i N, --interval=N -l FACILITY, --logfacility=FACILITY -n, --no-fork -p NAME, --pidfile=NAME -q WHEN, --quit=WHEN -r TYPE, --report=TYPE -s PREFIX, --savestates=PREFIX -w PATH, --warnexec=PATH -V, --version, --license, --copyright
EXAMPLES
smartd smartd -d -i 30 smartd -q onecheck
CONFIGURATION NOTES
[Raw 23]'
LOG TIMESTAMP TIMEZONE EXIT STATUS
132 and above
FILES
/usr/sbin/smartd /etc/smartd.conf /var/lib/smartmontools/drivedb/drivedb.h
AUTHORS REPORTING BUGS SEE ALSO REFERENCES PACKAGE VERSION

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