Under Linux, you can read the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) information from the hard disk using smartctl. The S.M.A.R.T [ Smartmontools] can be installed on your linux distribution using package available package manager.
In RHEL Based system :
# yum install smartmontools
In Ubuntu/Debian :
# apt-get install smartmontools
Once installation is completed , check whether your drive support SMART futures using the following command:-
# smartctl -i /dev/sdX
[Replace “X” with your drive name , for example sda, sdb..]
In case SMART support is available, but for some reason is not activated, try the follwoing command to activate S.M.A.R.T
# smartctl -s on /dev/sda
To display the SMART attributes of the hard disk, perform the following command:
# smartctl -a /dev/sda
Important SMART Attributes
The following command will list some important parameters that may provide useful information
# smartctl -a /dev/sdX | egrep 'Reallocated_Sector_Ct|Spin_Retry_Count|Reallocated_Event_Count|Current_Pending_Sector|Offline_Uncorrectable' 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
The following parameters may provide information concerning an impending hard drive failure.
Reallocated Sectors Count: Number of sectors that have been reallocated due to read errors (remapped).
Spin Retry Count: Number of attempts that have been required to bring the spindle to operating speed.
Reallocation Event Count: Number of remaps that have been carried out both (successful and unsuccessful).
Current Pending Sector Count: Number of sectors waiting for remapping.
Offline_Uncorrectable: Number of uncorrectable errors when accessing (read/write) to sectors.
