smartctl Tool to Check Hard Disk Drive Health Status using SMART on Linux Fedora

   The step by step command example below show the process of using SMART disk monitoring tool that provide us with the information of overall hard disk health status.  The SMART it self stand for Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Tool and on Linux Fedora, the smartctl command is use to display and manipulate SMART.  The step by step example below show how to use smartctl command to enable SMART and disable SMART on the hard disk drives and the example below also show the use the smartctl command to get hard disk drive health status.

Enabling SMART Monitoring Tools on Hard Disk Devices (turn on SMART).

   To enable SMART on hard disk drive, execute 'smartctl' with the '-s on' option and the disk device, the example below show that the SMART is enable (turn to ON status) on the /dev/hda (first IDE hard disk device).

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -s on /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===

SMART Enabled.

[root@fedora ~]#

Verify the SMART status turn to Enable (on) for the disk device using smartctl command with the -i option, as on example below.

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -i /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.7 Plus family

Device Model: ST380011A

Serial Number: 5JVKJYSJ

Firmware Version: 8.01

User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes

Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]

ATA Version is: 6

ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2

Local Time is: Fri May 25 07:43:45 2007 EDT

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled

[root@fedora ~]#

Note: The command example below show another example of smartctl command that can be use to enable SMART monitoring tool on the disk device.

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on --saveauto=on /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===

SMART Enabled.

SMART Attribute Autosave Enabled.

SMART Automatic Offline Testing Enabled every four hours.

[root@fedora ~]#

Disable SMART Monitoring Tools on Hard Disk Devices (turn off SMART).

   To disable the SMART monitoring tool for the disk device, execute smartctl command with the -s off option, the example below show the smartctl command use to disable or turn off SMART for /dev/hda disk device.

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -s off /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===

SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.

[root@fedora ~]#

To verify the changes made issue smartctl command with -i option as shown on example below.

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -i /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.7 Plus family

Device Model: ST380011A

Serial Number: 5JVKJYSJ

Firmware Version: 8.01

User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes

Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]

ATA Version is: 6

ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2

Local Time is: Fri May 25 07:42:23 2007 EDT

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Disabled

SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.

[root@fedora ~]#

Get Hard Disk Device SMART Health Status

The smart command example below show the information on the hard disk device health status for /dev/hda device.

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -H /dev/hda

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

[root@fedora ~]#

Help using smartctl command.

To get help for smartctl tool, execute smartctl command with -h option, as shown on example below :

[root@fedora ~]# smartctl -h

smartctl version 5.36 [i686-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Usage: smartctl [options] device

========================= SHOW INFORMATION OPTIONS =====

-h, --help, --usage

Display this help and exit

-V, --version, --copyright, --license

Print license, copyright, and version information and exit

-i, --info

Show identity information for device

-a, --all

Show all SMART information for device

==================== SMARTCTL RUN-TIME BEHAVIOR OPTIONS =====

Keywords: enable smart, enable smart hard disk, using smart on linux, using smart, disable smart, smart command, smartctl command