SMARTD.CONF(5) SMART Monitoring Tools SMARTD.CONF(5)

NAME

smartd.conf - SMART Disk Monitoring Daemon Configuration File

DESCRIPTION

[This man page is generated for the Solaris version of smartmontools.
It does not contain info specific to other platforms.]

/etc/smartd.conf is the configuration file for the smartd daemon.

If the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf is present, smartd reads
it at startup. If smartd subsequently receives a HUP signal, it will
then re-read the configuration file. If smartd is running in debug
mode, then an INT signal will also make it re-read the configuration
file. This signal can be generated by typing <CONTROL-C> in the
terminal window where smartd is running.

In the absence of a configuration file smartd will try to open all
available devices (see smartd(8) man page). A configuration file
with a single line 'DEVICESCAN -a' would have the same effect.

This can be annoying if you have an ATA or SCSI device that hangs or
misbehaves when receiving SMART commands. Even if this causes no
problems, you may be annoyed by the string of error log messages
about devices that can't be opened.

One can avoid this problem, and gain more control over the types of
events monitored by smartd, by using the configuration file
/etc/smartd.conf. This file contains a list of devices to monitor,
with one device per line. An example file is included with the
smartmontools distribution. You will find this sample configuration
file in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/. For security, the
configuration file should not be writable by anyone but root. The
syntax of the file is as follows:

+o There should be one device listed per line, although you may have
lines that are entirely comments or white space.

+o Any text following a hash sign '#' and up to the end of the line
is taken to be a comment, and ignored.

+o Lines may be continued by using a backslash '\' as the last non-
whitespace or non-comment item on a line.

+o Note: a line whose first character is a hash sign '#' is treated
as a white-space blank line, not as a non-existent line, and will
end a continuation line.

Here is an example configuration file. It's for illustrative
purposes only; please don't copy it onto your system without reading
to the end of the DIRECTIVES Section below!

################################################
# This is an example smartd startup config file
# /etc/smartd.conf
#
# On the second disk, start a long self-test every
# Sunday between 3 and 4 am.
#
/dev/sda -a -m admin@example.com,root@localhost
/dev/sdb -a -I 194 -I 5 -i 12 -s L/../../7/03
#
# Send a TEST warning email to admin on startup.
#
/dev/sdc -m admin@example.com -M test
#
# An ATA disk may appear as a SCSI device to the
# OS. If a SCSI to ATA Translation (SAT) layer
# is between the OS and the device then this can be
# flagged with the '-d sat' option.
/dev/sda -a -d sat
#
# The following line enables monitoring of the
# ATA Error Log and the Self-Test Error Log.
# It also tracks changes in both Prefailure
# and Usage Attributes, apart from Attributes
# 9, 194, and 231, and shows continued lines:
#
/dev/sdd -l error \
-l selftest \
-t \ # Attributes not tracked:
-I 194 \ # temperature
-I 231 \ # also temperature
-I 9 # power-on hours
#
################################################

DEVICESCAN

If a non-comment entry in the configuration file is the text string
DEVICESCAN in capital letters, then smartd will ignore any remaining
lines in the configuration file, and will scan for devices. If
DEVICESCAN is not followed by any Directives, then '-a' will apply to
all devices.

DEVICESCAN may optionally be followed by Directives that will apply
to all devices that are found in the scan. For example

DEVICESCAN -m root@example.com

will scan for all devices, and then monitor them. It will send one
email warning per device for any problems that are found.

DEVICESCAN -H -m root@example.com

will do the same, but only monitors the SMART health status of the
devices, rather than the default '-a'.

Multiple '-d TYPE' options may be specified with DEVICESCAN to
combine the scan results of more than one TYPE.

Configuration entries for specific devices may precede the DEVICESCAN
entry. For example

DEFAULT -m root@example.com
/dev/sda -s S/../.././02
/dev/sdc -d ignore
DEVICESCAN -s L/../.././02

will scan for all devices except /dev/sda and /dev/sdc, monitor them,
and run a long test between 2-3 am every morning. Device /dev/sda
will also be monitored, but only a short test will be run. Device
/dev/sdc will be ignored. Warning emails will be sent for all
monitored devices.

A device is ignored by DEVICESCAN if a configuration line with the
same device name exists. Symbolic links are resolved before this
check is done. A device name is also ignored if another device with
same identify information (vendor, model, firmware version, serial
number, WWN) already exists.

DEFAULT SETTINGS

If an entry in the configuration file starts with DEFAULT instead of
a device name, then all directives in this entry are set as defaults
for the next device entries.

This configuration:

DEFAULT -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdc
DEFAULT -H -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdd
/dev/sde -d removable

has the same effect as:

/dev/sda -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdb -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdc -a -R5! -W 2,40,45 -I 194 -s L/../../7/00 -m admin@example.com
/dev/sdd -H -m admin@example.com
/dev/sde -d removable -H -m admin@example.com

CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES

The following are the Directives that may appear following the device
name or DEVICESCAN or DEFAULT on any line of the /etc/smartd.conf
configuration file. Note that these are NOT command-line options for
smartd. The Directives below may appear in any order, following the
device name.

For an ATA device, if no Directives appear, then the device will be
monitored as if the '-a' Directive (monitor all SMART properties) had
been given.

If a SCSI disk is listed, it will be monitored at the maximum
implemented level: roughly equivalent to using the '-H -l selftest'
options for an ATA disk. So with the exception of '-d', '-m', '-l
selftest', '-s', and '-M', the Directives below are ignored for SCSI
disks. For SCSI disks, the '-m' Directive sends a warning email if
the SMART status indicates a disk failure or problem, if the SCSI
inquiry about disk status fails, or if new errors appear in the self-
test log.

-d TYPE
Specifies the type of the device. The valid arguments to this
directive are:

auto - attempt to guess the device type from the device name
or from controller type info provided by the operating system
or from a matching USB ID entry in the drive database. This
is the default.

ata - the device type is ATA. This prevents smartd from
issuing SCSI commands to an ATA device.

scsi - the device type is SCSI. This prevents smartd from
issuing ATA commands to a SCSI device.

sat[,auto][,N] - the device type is SCSI to ATA Translation
(SAT). This is for ATA disks that have a SCSI to ATA
Translation Layer (SATL) between the disk and the operating
system. SAT defines two ATA PASS THROUGH SCSI commands, one
12 bytes long and the other 16 bytes long. The default is the
16 byte variant which can be overridden with either '-d
sat,12' or '-d sat,16'.

If '-d sat,auto' is specified, device type SAT (for ATA/SATA
disks) is only used if the SCSI INQUIRY data reports a SATL
(VENDOR: "ATA "). Otherwise device type SCSI (for
SCSI/SAS disks) is used.

usbasm1352r,PORT - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] this
device type is for one or two SATA disks that are behind an
ASMedia ASM1352R USB to SATA (RAID) bridge. The parameter
PORT (0 or 1) selects the disk to monitor.
Note: This USB bridge also supports '-d sat'. This monitors
either the first disk or the second disk if no disk is
connected to the first port.

usbcypress - this device type is for ATA disks that are behind
a Cypress USB to PATA bridge. This will use the ATACB
proprietary scsi pass through command. The default SCSI
operation code is 0x24, but although it can be overridden with
'-d usbcypress,0xN', where N is the scsi operation code,
you're running the risk of damage to the device or filesystems
on it.

usbjmicron[,p][,x][,PORT] - this device type is for SATA disks
that are behind a JMicron USB to PATA/SATA bridge. The 48-bit
ATA commands (required e.g. for '-l xerror', see below) do not
work with all of these bridges and are therefore disabled by
default. These commands can be enabled by '-d usbjmicron,x'.
If two disks are connected to a bridge with two ports, an
error message is printed if no PORT (0 or 1) is specified.
The PORT parameter is not necessary if the device uses a port
multiplier to connect multiple disks to one port. The disks
appear under separate /dev/ice names then.
CAUTION: Specifying ',x' for a device which does not support
it results in I/O errors and may disconnect the drive. The
same applies if the specified PORT does not exist or is not
connected to a disk.

The Prolific PL2507/3507 USB bridges with older firmware
support a pass-through command similar to JMicron and work
with '-d usbjmicron,0'. Newer Prolific firmware requires a
modified command which can be selected by '-d usbjmicron,p'.
Note that this does not yet support the SMART status command.

usbprolific - this device type is for SATA disks that are
behind a Prolific PL2571/2771/2773/2775 USB to SATA bridge.

usbsunplus - this device type is for SATA disks that are
behind a SunplusIT USB to SATA bridge.

sntasmedia - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] this device
type is for NVMe disks that are behind an ASMedia USB to NVMe
bridge.

sntjmicron[,NSID] - this device type is for NVMe disks that
are behind a JMicron USB to NVMe bridge. The optional
parameter NSID specifies the namespace id (in hex) passed to
the driver. The default namespace id is the broadcast
namespace id (0xffffffff).

sntrealtek - this device type is for NVMe disks that are
behind a Realtek USB to NVMe bridge.

intelliprop,N[+TYPE] - (deprecated and subject to remove).

jmb39x[-q],N[,sLBA][,force][+TYPE] - the device consists of
multiple SATA disks connected to a JMicron JMB39x RAID port
multiplier. The suffix '-q' selects a slightly different
command variant used by some QNAP NAS devices. The integer N
is the port number from 0 to 4. Please see the smartctl(8)
man page for further details.

jms56x,N[,sLBA][,force][+TYPE] - the device consists of
multiple SATA disks connected to a JMicron JMS56x USB to SATA
RAID bridge. See 'jmb39x...' above for valid arguments.

ignore - the device specified by this configuration entry
should be ignored. This allows one to ignore specific devices
which are detected by a following DEVICESCAN configuration
line. It may also be used to temporary disable longer multi-
line configuration entries. This Directive may be used in
conjunction with the other '-d' Directives.

removable - the device or its media is removable. This
indicates to smartd that it should continue (instead of
exiting, which is the default behavior) if the device does not
appear to be present when smartd is started. This directive
also suppresses warning emails and repeated log messages if
the device is removed after startup. This Directive may be
used in conjunction with the other '-d' Directives.
WARNING: Removing a device and connecting a different one to
same interface is not supported and may result in bogus
warnings until smartd is restarted.

-n POWERMODE[,N][,q]
[ATA only] This 'nocheck' Directive is used to prevent a disk
from being spun-up when it is periodically polled by smartd.

ATA disks have five different power states. In order of
increasing power consumption they are: 'OFF', 'SLEEP',
'STANDBY', 'IDLE', and 'ACTIVE'. Typically in the OFF, SLEEP,
and STANDBY modes the disk's platters are not spinning. But
usually, in response to SMART commands issued by smartd, the
disk platters are spun up. So if this option is not used,
then a disk which is in a low-power mode may be spun up and
put into a higher-power mode when it is periodically polled by
smartd.

Note that if the disk is in SLEEP mode when smartd is started,
then it won't respond to smartd commands, and so the disk
won't be registered as a device for smartd to monitor. If a
disk is in any other low-power mode, then the commands issued
by smartd to register the disk will probably cause it to spin-
up.

The '-n' (nocheck) Directive specifies if smartd's periodic
checks should still be carried out when the device is in a
low-power mode. It may be used to prevent a disk from being
spun-up by periodic smartd polling. The allowed values of
POWERMODE are:

never - smartd will poll (check) the device regardless of its
power mode. This may cause a disk which is spun-down to be
spun-up when smartd checks it. This is the default behavior
if the '-n' Directive is not given.

sleep - check the device unless it is in SLEEP mode.

standby - check the device unless it is in SLEEP or STANDBY
mode. In these modes most disks are not spinning, so if you
want to prevent a laptop disk from spinning up each time that
smartd polls, this is probably what you want.

idle - check the device unless it is in SLEEP, STANDBY or IDLE
mode. In the IDLE state, most disks are still spinning, so
this is probably not what you want.

Maximum number of skipped checks (in a row) can be specified
by appending positive number ',N' to POWERMODE (like '-n
standby,15'). After N checks are skipped in a row, powermode
is ignored and the check is performed anyway.

When a periodic test is skipped, smartd normally writes an
informal log message. The message can be suppressed by
appending the option ',q' to POWERMODE (like '-n standby,q').
This prevents a laptop disk from spinning up due to this
message.

Both ',N' and ',q' can be specified together.

-T TYPE
Specifies how tolerant smartd should be of SMART command
failures. The valid arguments to this Directive are:

normal - do not try to monitor the disk if a mandatory SMART
command fails, but continue if an optional SMART command
fails. This is the default.

permissive - try to monitor the disk even if it appears to
lack SMART capabilities. This may be required for some old
disks (prior to ATA-3 revision 4) that implemented SMART
before the SMART standards were incorporated into the
ATA/ATAPI Specifications. [Please see the smartctl -T
command-line option.]

-o VALUE
[ATA only] Enables or disables SMART Automatic Offline Testing
when smartd starts up and has no further effect. The valid
arguments to this Directive are on and off.

The delay between tests is vendor-specific, but is typically
four hours.

Note that SMART Automatic Offline Testing is not part of the
ATA Specification. Please see the smartctl -o command-line
option documentation for further information about this
feature.

-S VALUE
Enables or disables Attribute Autosave when smartd starts up
and has no further effect. The valid arguments to this
Directive are on and off. Also affects SCSI devices. [Please
see the smartctl -S command-line option.]

-H [ATA] Check the health status of the disk with the SMART
RETURN STATUS command. If this command reports a failing
health status, then disk failure is predicted in less than 24
hours, and a message at loglevel 'LOG_CRIT' will be logged to
syslog. [Please see the smartctl -H command-line option.]

-l TYPE
Reports increases in the number of errors in one of three
SMART logs. The valid arguments to this Directive are:

error - [ATA] report if the number of ATA errors reported in
the Summary SMART error log has increased since the last
check.

xerror - [ATA] report if the number of ATA errors reported in
the Extended Comprehensive SMART error log has increased since
the last check.

If both '-l error' and '-l xerror' are specified, smartd
checks the maximum of both values.

[Please see the smartctl -l xerror command-line option.]


selftest - report if the number of failed tests reported in
the SMART Self-Test Log has increased since the last check, or
if the timestamp associated with the most recent failed test
has increased. Note that such errors will only be logged if
you run self-tests on the disk (and it fails a test!). Self-
Tests can be run automatically by smartd: please see the '-s'
Directive below. Self-Tests can also be run manually by using
the '-t short' and '-t long' options of smartctl and the
results of the testing can be observed using the smartctl
'-l selftest' command-line option. [Please see the smartctl
-l and -t command-line options.]

[ATA only] Failed self-tests outdated by a newer successful
extended self-test are ignored. The warning email counter is
reset if the number of failed self tests dropped to 0. This
typically happens when an extended self-test is run after all
bad sectors have been reallocated.

offlinests[,ns] - [ATA only] report if the Offline Data
Collection status has changed since the last check. The
report will be logged as LOG_CRIT if the new status indicates
an error. With some drives the status often changes,
therefore '-l offlinests' is not enabled by '-a' Directive.
Appending ',ns' (no standby) to this directive is not
implemented on Solaris.

selfteststs[,ns] - [ATA only] report if the Self-Test
execution status has changed since the last check. The report
will be logged as LOG_CRIT if the new status indicates an
error. Appending ',ns' (no standby) to this directive is not
implemented on Solaris.

scterc,READTIME,WRITETIME - [ATA only] sets the SCT Error
Recovery Control settings to the specified values
(deciseconds) when smartd starts up and has no further effect.
Values of 0 disable the feature, other values less than 65 are
probably not supported. For RAID configurations, this is
typically set to 70,70 deciseconds. [Please see the smartctl
-l scterc command-line option.]

-e NAME[,VALUE]
Sets non-SMART device settings when smartd starts up and has
no further effect. [Please see the smartctl --set command-
line option.] Valid arguments are:

aam,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the Automatic Acoustic
Management (AAM) feature.

apm,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the Advanced Power Management
(APM) feature.

lookahead,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the read look-ahead
feature.

security-freeze - [ATA only] Sets ATA Security feature to
frozen mode.

standby,[N|off] - [ATA only] Sets the standby (spindown) timer
and places the drive in the IDLE mode.

wcache,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the volatile write cache
feature.

dsn,[on|off] - [ATA only] Sets the DSN feature.

-s REGEXP
Run Self-Tests or Offline Immediate Tests, at scheduled times.
A Self- or Offline Immediate Test will be run at the end of
periodic device polling, if all 12 characters of the string
T/MM/DD/d/HH match the extended regular expression REGEXP.
Here:

T is the type of the test. The values that smartd will try
to match (in turn) are: 'L' for a Long Self-Test, 'S' for
a Short Self-Test, 'C' for a Conveyance Self-Test (ATA
only), and 'O' for an Offline Immediate Test (ATA only).
As soon as a match is found, the test will be started and
no additional matches will be sought for that device and
that polling cycle.

To run scheduled Selective Self-Tests, use 'n' for next
span, 'r' to redo last span, or 'c' to continue with next
span or redo last span based on status of last test. The
LBA range is based on the first span from the last test.
See the smartctl -t select,[next|redo|cont] options for
further info.

Some disks (e.g. WD) do not preserve the selective self
test log across power cycles. If state persistence ('-s'
option) is enabled, the last test span is preserved by
smartd and used if (and only if) the selective self test
log is empty.

MM is the month of the year, expressed with two decimal
digits. The range is from 01 (January) to 12 (December)
inclusive. Do not use a single decimal digit or the match
will always fail!

DD is the day of the month, expressed with two decimal
digits. The range is from 01 to 31 inclusive. Do not use
a single decimal digit or the match will always fail!

d is the day of the week, expressed with one decimal digit.
The range is from 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday) inclusive.

HH is the hour of the day, written with two decimal digits,
and given in hours after midnight. The range is 00
(midnight to just before 1 am) to 23 (11pm to just before
midnight) inclusive. Do not use a single decimal digit or
the match will always fail!

If the regular expression contains substrings of the form :NNN
or :NNN-LLL, where NNN and LLL are three decimal digits,
staggered tests are enabled. Then a test will also be run if
all 16 (or 20) characters of the string T/MM/DD/d/HH:NNN (or
T/MM/DD/d/HH:NNN-LLL) match the regular expression. This
check is done for up to seven :NNN or :NNN-LLL found in the
regular expression. The time used for the check is adjusted
to the past such that tests of the first drive are not
delayed, tests of the second drive are delayed by NNN hours,
tests of the third drive are delayed by 2*NNN hours, and so
on.
If LLL is also specified, delays are limited to LLL hours by
calculating each individual delay as:
'((DRIVE_INDEX * NNN) mod (LLL + 1))'.

Some examples follow. In reading these, keep in mind that in
extended regular expressions a dot '.' matches any single
character, and a parenthetical expression such as '(A|B|C)'
denotes any one of the three possibilities A, B, or C.

To schedule a short Self-Test between 2-3 am every morning,
use:
-s S/../.././02
To schedule a long Self-Test between 4-5 am every Sunday
morning, use:
-s L/../../7/04
To enable staggered tests with delays in three hour steps,
use:
-s L/../../7/04:003
To enable staggered tests with delays 0, 3, 6, 9, 1, 4, 7, 10,
2, 5, 8, 0, ... hours, use:
-s L/../../7/04:003-010
To enable staggered tests with delays 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, 10, 0,
... hours, use:
-s L/../../7/04:001-010
To schedule a long Self-Test between 10-11 pm on the first and
fifteenth day of each month, use:
-s L/../(01|15)/./22
To schedule an Offline Immediate test after every midnight, 6
am, noon, and 6 pm, plus a Short Self-Test daily at 1-2 am and
a Long Self-Test every Saturday at 3-4 am, use:
-s (O/../.././(00|06|12|18)|S/../.././01|L/../../6/03)
To enable staggered Long Self-Tests with delays in three hour
steps, use:
-s (O/../.././(00|06|12|18)|S/../.././01|L/../../6/03:003)
If Long Self-Tests of a large disks take longer than the
system uptime, a full disk test can be performed by several
Selective Self-Tests. To setup a full test of a 1 TB disk
within 20 days (one 50 GB span each day), run this command
once:
smartctl -t select,0-99999999 /dev/sda
To run the next test spans on Monday-Friday between 12-13 am,
run smartd with this directive:
-s n/../../[1-5]/12

Scheduled tests are run immediately following the regularly-
scheduled device polling, if the current local date, time, and
test type, match REGEXP. By default the regularly-scheduled
device polling occurs every thirty minutes after starting
smartd. Take caution if you use the '-i' option to make this
polling interval more than sixty minutes: the poll times may
fail to coincide with any of the testing times that you have
specified with REGEXP. In this case the test will be run
following the next device polling.

Before running an offline or self-test, smartd checks to be
sure that a self-test is not already running. If a self-test
is already running, then this running self test will not be
interrupted to begin another test.

smartd will not attempt to run any type of test if another
test was already started or run in the same hour.

To avoid performance problems during system boot, smartd will
not attempt to run any scheduled tests following the very
first device polling (unless '-q onecheck' is specified).

Each time a test is run, smartd will log an entry to SYSLOG.
You can use these or the '-q showtests' command-line option to
verify that you constructed REGEXP correctly. The matching
order (L before S before C before O) ensures that if multiple
test types are all scheduled for the same hour, the longer
test type has precedence. This is usually the desired
behavior.

If the scheduled tests are used in conjunction with state
persistence ('-s' option), smartd will also try to match the
hours since last shutdown (or 90 days at most). If any test
would have been started during downtime, the longest (see
above) of these tests is run after second device polling.

If the '-n' directive is used and any test would have been
started during disk standby time, the longest of these tests
is run when the disk is active again.

Unix users: please beware that the rules for extended regular
expressions [regex(7)] are not the same as the rules for file-
name pattern matching by the shell [glob(7)]. smartd will
issue harmless informational warning messages if it detects
characters in REGEXP that appear to indicate that you have
made this mistake.

-m ADD Send a warning email to the email address ADD if the '-H', '-l
error', '-l xerror', '-l selftest', '-f', '-C', '-U', or '-W'
Directives detect a failure or a new error, or if a SMART
command to the disk fails. This Directive only works in
conjunction with these other Directives (or with the
equivalent default '-a' Directive).

To prevent your email in-box from getting filled up with
warning messages, by default only a single warning and
(depending on '-s' option) daily reminder emails will be sent
for each of the enabled alert types. See the '-M' Directive
below for details.

To send email to more than one user, please use the following
"comma separated" form for the address:
user1@add1,user2@add2,...,userN@addN (with no spaces).

To test that email is being sent correctly, use the '-M test'
Directive described below to send one test email message on
smartd startup.

By default, email is sent using the system mailx(1) command.
In order that smartd find this command (normally
/usr/bin/mailx) the executable must be in the path of the
shell or environment from which smartd was started. If you
wish to specify an explicit path to the mail executable (for
example /usr/local/bin/mail) or a custom script to run, please
use the '-M exec' Directive below.

Note also that there is a special argument <nomailer> which
can be given to the '-m' Directive in conjunction with the '-M
exec' Directive. Please see below for an explanation of its
effect.

If the mailer or the shell running it produces any
STDERR/STDOUT output, then a snippet of that output will be
copied to SYSLOG. The remainder of the output is discarded.
If problems are encountered in sending mail, this should help
you to understand and fix them. If you have mail problems, we
recommend running smartd in debug mode with the '-d' flag,
using the '-M test' Directive described below.

If a word of the comma separated list has the form '@plugin',
a custom script /etc/smartd_warning.d/plugin is run and the
word is removed from the list before sending mail. The string
'plugin' may be any valid name except 'ALL'. If '@ALL' is
specified, all scripts in /etc/smartd_warning.d/* are run
instead. This is handled by the script /etc/smartd_warning.sh
(see also '-M exec' below). Plugin scripts without execute
permission are silently ignored. If any plugin script is
missing or fails with a nonzero exit status, the warning
script exits immediately without sending mail.

-M TYPE
These Directives modify the behavior of the smartd email
warnings enabled with the '-m' email Directive described
above. These '-M' Directives only work in conjunction with
the '-m' Directive and can not be used without it.

Multiple -M Directives may be given. If more than one of the
following three -M Directives are given (example: -M once -M
daily) then the final one (in the example, -M daily) is used.

The valid arguments to the -M Directive are (one of the
following three):

once - send only one warning email for each type of disk
problem detected. This is the default unless state
persistence ('-s' option) is enabled.

always - [NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] send additional
warning reminder emails, upon each check, for each type of
disk problem detected.

daily - send additional warning reminder emails, once per day,
for each type of disk problem detected. This is the default
if state persistence ('-s' option) is enabled.

diminishing - send additional warning reminder emails, after a
one-day interval, then a two-day interval, then a four-day
interval, and so on for each type of disk problem detected.
Each interval is twice as long as the previous interval.
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.4 FEATURE] The interval length will
stay at 32 days after 5 warning reminder emails.

If a disk problem is no longer detected, the internal email
counter is reset. If the problem reappears a new warning
email is sent immediately.

In addition, one may add zero or more of the following
Directives:

test - send a single test email immediately upon smartd
startup. This allows one to verify that email is delivered
correctly. Note that if this Directive is used, smartd will
also send the normal email warnings that were enabled with the
'-m' Directive, in addition to the single test email!

exec PATH - run the executable PATH instead of the default
mail command, when smartd needs to send email. PATH must
point to an executable binary file or script.

By setting PATH to point to a customized script, you can make
smartd perform useful tricks when a disk problem is detected
(beeping the console, shutting down the machine, broadcasting
warnings to all logged-in users, etc.) But please be careful.
smartd will block until the executable PATH returns, so if
your executable hangs, then smartd will also hang. Some
sample scripts are included in
/usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examplescripts/.

The exit status of the executable is recorded by smartd in
SYSLOG. The executable is not expected to write to STDOUT or
STDERR. If it does, then this is interpreted as indicating
that something is going wrong with your executable, and a
fragment of this output is logged to SYSLOG to help you to
understand the problem. Normally, if you wish to leave some
record behind, the executable should send mail or write to a
file or device.

Before running the executable, smartd sets a number of
environment variables. These environment variables may be
used to control the executable's behavior. The environment
variables exported by smartd are:

SMARTD_MAILER
is set to the argument of -M exec, if present or else to
'mail' (examples: /usr/local/bin/mail, mail).

SMARTD_DEVICE
is set to the device path (example: /dev/sda).

SMARTD_DEVICETYPE
is set to the device type specified by '-d' directive or
'auto' if none.

SMARTD_DEVICESTRING
is set to the device description. It starts with
SMARTD_DEVICE and may be followed by an optional
controller identification (example: /dev/sda [SAT]). The
string may contain a space and is NOT quoted.

SMARTD_DEVICEINFO
is set to device identify information. It includes most
of the info printed by smartctl -i but uses a brief single
line format. This device info is also logged when smartd
starts up. The string contains space characters and is
NOT quoted.

SMARTD_FAILTYPE
gives the reason for the warning or message email. The
possible values that it takes and their meanings are:
EmailTest: this is an email test message.
Health: the SMART health status indicates imminent
failure.
Usage: a usage Attribute has failed.
SelfTest: the number of self-test failures has increased.
ErrorCount: the number of errors in the ATA error log has
increased.
CurrentPendingSector: one of more disk sectors could not
be read and are marked to be reallocated (replaced with
spare sectors).
OfflineUncorrectableSector: during off-line testing, or
self-testing, one or more disk sectors could not be read.
Temperature: Temperature reached critical limit (see -W
directive).
FailedHealthCheck: the SMART health status command failed.
FailedReadSmartData: the command to read SMART Attribute
data failed.
FailedReadSmartErrorLog: the command to read the SMART
error log failed.
FailedReadSmartSelfTestLog: the command to read the SMART
self-test log failed.
FailedOpenDevice: the open() command to the device failed.

SMARTD_ADDRESS
is determined by the address argument ADD of the '-m'
Directive. If ADD is <nomailer>, then SMARTD_ADDRESS is
not set. Otherwise, it is set to the comma-separated-list
of email addresses given by the argument ADD, with the
commas replaced by spaces (example:admin@example.com
root). If more than one email address is given, then this
string will contain space characters and is NOT quoted, so
to use it in a shell script you may want to enclose it in
double quotes.

SMARTD_ADDRESS_ORIG
is set to the original value of SMARTD_ADDRESS with
'@plugin' strings still present. If there are no such
strings in the '-m' Directive, this variable is NOT set.

SMARTD_MESSAGE
is set to the one sentence summary warning email message
string from smartd. This message string contains space
characters and is NOT quoted. So to use $SMARTD_MESSAGE
in a shell script you should probably enclose it in double
quotes.

SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE
is set to the contents of the entire email warning message
string from smartd. This message string contains space
and return characters and is NOT quoted. So to use
$SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE in a shell script you should probably
enclose it in double quotes.

SMARTD_TFIRST
is a text string giving the time and date at which the
first problem of this type was reported. This text string
contains space characters and no newlines, and is NOT
quoted. For example:
Sun Feb 9 14:58:19 2003 CST

SMARTD_TFIRSTEPOCH
is an integer, which is the unix epoch (number of seconds
since Jan 1, 1970) for SMARTD_TFIRST.

SMARTD_PREVCNT
is an integer specifying the number of previous messages
sent. It is set to '0' for the first message.

SMARTD_NEXTDAYS
is an integer specifying the number of days until the next
message will be sent. It is set to empty on '-M once',
set to '0' on '-M always' and set to '1' on '-M daily'.

If the '-m ADD' Directive is given with a normal address
argument, then the executable pointed to by PATH will be run
in a shell with STDIN receiving the body of the email message,
and with the same command-line arguments:
-s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS
that would normally be provided to 'mail'. Examples include:
-m user@home -M exec /usr/bin/mailx
-m admin@work -M exec /usr/local/bin/mailto
-m root -M exec /Example_1/shell/script/below

If the '-m ADD' Directive is given with the special address
argument <nomailer> then the executable pointed to by PATH is
run in a shell with no STDIN and no command-line arguments,
for example:
-m <nomailer> -M exec /Example_2/shell/script/below

If the executable produces any STDERR/STDOUT output, then
smartd assumes that something is going wrong, and a snippet of
that output will be copied to SYSLOG. The remainder of the
output is then discarded.

Some EXAMPLES of scripts that can be used with the '-M exec'
Directive are given below. Some sample scripts are also
included in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examplescripts/.

The executable is run by the script /etc/smartd_warning.sh.
This script formats subject and full message based on
SMARTD_MESSAGE and other environment variables set by smartd.
The environment variables SMARTD_SUBJECT and
SMARTD_FULLMESSAGE are set by the script before running the
executable.

-f [ATA only] Check for 'failure' of any Usage Attributes. If
these Attributes are less than or equal to the threshold, it
does NOT indicate imminent disk failure. It "indicates an
advisory condition where the usage or age of the device has
exceeded its intended design life period." [Please see the
smartctl -A command-line option.]

-p [ATA only] Report anytime that a Prefail Attribute has changed
its value since the last check. [Please see the smartctl -A
command-line option.]

-u [ATA only] Report anytime that a Usage Attribute has changed
its value since the last check. [Please see the smartctl -A
command-line option.]

-t [ATA only] Equivalent to turning on the two previous flags
'-p' and '-u'. Tracks changes in all device Attributes (both
Prefailure and Usage). [Please see the smartctl -A command-
line option.]

-i ID [ATA only] Ignore device Attribute number ID when checking for
failure of Usage Attributes. ID must be a decimal integer in
the range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior
of the '-f' Directive and has no effect without it.

This is useful, for example, if you have a very old disk and
don't want to keep getting messages about the hours-on-
lifetime Attribute (usually Attribute 9) failing. This
Directive may appear multiple times for a single device, if
you want to ignore multiple Attributes.

-I ID [ATA only] Ignore device Attribute ID when tracking changes in
the Attribute values. ID must be a decimal integer in the
range from 1 to 255. This Directive modifies the behavior of
the '-p', '-u', and '-t' tracking Directives and has no effect
without one of them.

This is useful, for example, if one of the device Attributes
is the disk temperature (usually Attribute 194 or 231). It's
annoying to get reports each time the temperature changes.
This Directive may appear multiple times for a single device,
if you want to ignore multiple Attributes.

-r ID[!]
[ATA only] When tracking, report the Raw value of Attribute ID
along with its (normally reported) Normalized value. ID must
be a decimal integer in the range from 1 to 255. This
Directive modifies the behavior of the '-p', '-u', and '-t'
tracking Directives and has no effect without one of them.
This Directive may be given multiple times.

A common use of this Directive is to track the device
Temperature (often ID=194 or 231).

If the optional flag '!' is appended, a change of the
Normalized value is considered critical. The report will be
logged as LOG_CRIT and a warning email will be sent if '-m' is
specified.

-R ID[!]
[ATA only] When tracking, report whenever the Raw value of
Attribute ID changes. (Normally smartd only tracks/reports
changes of the Normalized Attribute values.) ID must be a
decimal integer in the range from 1 to 255. This Directive
modifies the behavior of the '-p', '-u', and '-t' tracking
Directives and has no effect without one of them. This
Directive may be given multiple times.

If this Directive is given, it automatically implies the '-r'
Directive for the same Attribute, so that the Raw value of the
Attribute is reported.

A common use of this Directive is to track the device
Temperature (often ID=194 or 231). It is also useful for
understanding how different types of system behavior affects
the values of certain Attributes.

If the optional flag '!' is appended, a change of the Raw
value is considered critical. The report will be logged as
LOG_CRIT and a warning email will be sent if '-m' is
specified. An example is '-R 5!' to warn when new sectors are
reallocated.

-C ID[+]
[ATA only] Report if the current number of pending sectors is
non-zero. Here ID is the id number of the Attribute whose raw
value is the Current Pending Sector count. The allowed range
of ID is 0 to 255 inclusive. To turn off this reporting, use
ID = 0. If the -C ID option is not given, then it defaults to
-C 197 (since Attribute 197 is generally used to monitor
pending sectors). If the name of this Attribute is changed by
a '-v 197,FORMAT,NAME' directive, the default is changed to -C
0.

If '+' is specified, a report is only printed if the number of
sectors has increased between two check cycles. Some disks do
not reset this attribute when a bad sector is reallocated.
See also '-v 197,increasing' below.

The warning email counter is reset if the number of pending
sectors dropped to 0. This typically happens when all pending
sectors have been reallocated or could be read again.

A pending sector is a disk sector (containing 512 bytes of
your data) which the device would like to mark as "bad" and
reallocate. Typically this is because your computer tried to
read that sector, and the read failed because the data on it
has been corrupted and has inconsistent Error Checking and
Correction (ECC) codes. This is important to know, because it
means that there is some unreadable data on the disk. The
problem of figuring out what file this data belongs to is
operating system and file system specific. You can typically
force the sector to reallocate by writing to it (translation:
make the device substitute a spare good sector for the bad
one) but at the price of losing the 512 bytes of data stored
there.

-U ID[+]
[ATA only] Report if the number of offline uncorrectable
sectors is non-zero. Here ID is the id number of the
Attribute whose raw value is the Offline Uncorrectable Sector
count. The allowed range of ID is 0 to 255 inclusive. To
turn off this reporting, use ID = 0. If the -U ID option is
not given, then it defaults to -U 198 (since Attribute 198 is
generally used to monitor offline uncorrectable sectors). If
the name of this Attribute is changed by a '-v
198,FORMAT,NAME' (except '-v
198,FORMAT,Offline_Scan_UNC_SectCt'), directive, the default
is changed to -U 0.

If '+' is specified, a report is only printed if the number of
sectors has increased since the last check cycle. Some disks
do not reset this attribute when a bad sector is reallocated.
See also '-v 198,increasing' below.

The warning email counter is reset if the number of offline
uncorrectable sectors dropped to 0. This typically happens
when all offline uncorrectable sectors have been reallocated
or could be read again.

An offline uncorrectable sector is a disk sector which was not
readable during an off-line scan or a self-test. This is
important to know, because if you have data stored in this
disk sector, and you need to read it, the read will fail.
Please see the previous '-C' option for more details.

-W DIFF[,INFO[,CRIT]]
Report if the current temperature had changed by at least DIFF
degrees since last report, or if new min or max temperature is
detected. Report or Warn if the temperature is greater or
equal than one of INFO or CRIT degrees Celsius. If the limit
CRIT is reached, a message with loglevel 'LOG_CRIT' will be
logged to syslog and a warning email will be send if '-m' is
specified. If only the limit INFO is reached, a message with
loglevel 'LOG_INFO' will be logged.

The warning email counter is reset if the temperature dropped
below INFO or CRIT-5 if INFO is not specified.

If this directive is used in conjunction with state
persistence ('-s' option), the min and max temperature values
are preserved across boot cycles. The minimum temperature
value is not updated during the first 30 minutes after
startup.

To disable any of the 3 reports, set the corresponding limit
to 0. Trailing zero arguments may be omitted. By default,
all temperature reports are disabled ('-W 0').

To track temperature changes of at least 2 degrees, use:
-W 2
To log informal messages on temperatures of at least 40
degrees, use:
-W 0,40
For warning messages/mails on temperatures of at least 45
degrees, use:
-W 0,0,45
To combine all of the above reports, use:
-W 2,40,45

For ATA devices, smartd interprets Attribute 194 or 190 as
Temperature Celsius by default. This can be changed to
Attribute 9 or 220 by the drive database or by the '-v 9,temp'
or '-v 220,temp' directive.

-F TYPE
[ATA only] Modifies the behavior of smartd to compensate for
some known and understood device firmware bug. This directive
may be used multiple times. The valid arguments are:

none - Assume that the device firmware obeys the ATA
specifications. This is the default, unless the device has
presets for '-F' in the drive database. Using this directive
will override any preset values.

nologdir - Suppresses read attempts of SMART or GP Log
Directory. Support for all standard logs is assumed without
an actual check. Some Intel SSDs may freeze if log address 0
is read.

samsung - In some Samsung disks (example: model SV4012H
Firmware Version: RM100-08) some of the two- and four-byte
quantities in the SMART data structures are byte-swapped
(relative to the ATA specification). Enabling this option
tells smartd to evaluate these quantities in byte-reversed
order. Some signs that your disk needs this option are (1) no
self-test log printed, even though you have run self-tests;
(2) very large numbers of ATA errors reported in the ATA error
log; (3) strange and impossible values for the ATA error log
timestamps.

samsung2 - In some Samsung disks the number of ATA errors
reported is byte swapped. Enabling this option tells smartd
to evaluate this quantity in byte-reversed order.

samsung3 - Some Samsung disks (at least SP2514N with Firmware
VF100-37) report a self-test still in progress with 0%
remaining when the test was already completed. If this
directive is specified, smartd will not skip the next
scheduled self-test (see Directive '-s' above) in this case.

xerrorlba - This only affects smartctl.

[Please see the smartctl -F command-line option.]

-v ID,FORMAT[:BYTEORDER][,NAME]
[ATA only] Sets a vendor-specific raw value print FORMAT, an
optional BYTEORDER and an optional NAME for Attribute ID.
This directive may be used multiple times. Please see
smartctl -v command-line option for further details.

The following arguments affect smartd warning output:

197,increasing - Raw Attribute number 197 (Current Pending
Sector Count) is not reset if uncorrectable sectors are
reallocated. This sets '-C 197+' if no other '-C' directive
is specified.

198,increasing - Raw Attribute number 198 (Offline
Uncorrectable Sector Count) is not reset if uncorrectable
sectors are reallocated. This sets '-U 198+' if no other '-U'
directive is specified.

-P TYPE
[ATA only] Specifies whether smartd should use any preset
options that are available for this drive. The valid
arguments to this Directive are:

use - use any presets that are available for this drive. This
is the default.

ignore - do not use any presets for this drive.

show - show the presets listed for this drive in the database.

showall - show the presets that are available for all drives
and then exit.

[Please see the smartctl -P command-line option.]

-a Equivalent to turning on all of the following Directives: '-H'
to check the SMART health status, '-f' to report failures of
Usage (rather than Prefail) Attributes, '-t' to track changes
in both Prefailure and Usage Attributes, '-l error' to report
increases in the number of ATA errors, '-l selftest' to report
increases in the number of Self-Test Log errors,
'-l selfteststs' to report changes of Self-Test execution
status, '-C 197' to report nonzero values of the current
pending sector count, and '-U 198' to report nonzero values of
the offline pending sector count.

Note that -a is the default for ATA devices. If none of these
other Directives is given, then -a is assumed.

-c OPTION=VALUE
Allows one to override smartd command line options for
specific devices. Only the following OPTION is currently
supported:

-c i=N, -c interval=N
[NEW EXPERIMENTAL SMARTD 7.3 FEATURE] Sets the interval
between disk checks to N seconds, where N is a decimal
integer. The minimum allowed value is ten. The default is
the value from the '-i N, --interval=N' command line option or
its default of 1800 seconds.

# Comment: ignore the remainder of the line.

\ Continuation character: if this is the last non-white or non-
comment character on a line, then the following line is a
continuation of the current one.

If you are not sure which Directives to use, I suggest experimenting
for a few minutes with smartctl to see what SMART functionality your
disk(s) support(s). If you do not like voluminous syslog messages, a
good choice of smartd configuration file Directives might be:
-H -l selftest -l error -f.
If you want more frequent information, use: -a.


EXAMPLES OF SHELL SCRIPTS FOR '-M exec'
These are two examples of shell scripts that can be used with
the '-M exec PATH' Directive described previously. The paths
to these scripts and similar executables is the PATH argument
to the '-M exec PATH' Directive.

Example 1: This script is for use with '-m ADDRESS -M exec
PATH'. It appends the output of smartctl -a to the output of
the smartd email warning message and sends it to ADDRESS.

#! /bin/sh

# Save the email message (STDIN) to a file:
cat > /root/msg

# Append the output of smartctl -a to the message:
/usr/sbin/smartctl -a -d $SMART_DEVICETYPE \
$SMARTD_DEVICE >> /root/msg

# Now email the message to the user at address ADD:
/usr/bin/mailx -s "$SMARTD_SUBJECT" $SMARTD_ADDRESS \
< /root/msg

Example 2: This script is for use with '-m <nomailer> -M exec
PATH'. It warns all users about a disk problem, waits 30
seconds, and then powers down the machine.

#! /bin/sh

# Warn all users of a problem
wall <<EOF
Problem detected with disk: $SMARTD_DEVICESTRING
Warning message from smartd is: $SMARTD_MESSAGE
Shutting down machine in 30 seconds...
EOF

# Wait half a minute
sleep 30

# Power down the machine
/sbin/shutdown -hf now

Some example scripts are distributed with the smartmontools
package, in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/examplescripts/.

Please note that these scripts typically run as root, so any
files that they read/write should not be writable by ordinary
users or reside in directories like /tmp that are writable by
ordinary users and may expose your system to symlink attacks.

As previously described, if the scripts write to STDOUT or
STDERR, this is interpreted as indicating that there was an
internal error within the script, and a snippet of
STDOUT/STDERR is logged to SYSLOG. The remainder is flushed.

FILES

/etc/smartd.conf
full path of this file.

SEE ALSO

smartd(8), smartctl(8), mailx(1), regex(7).

PACKAGE VERSION

smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 r5530
$Id: smartd.conf.5.in 5521 2023-07-24 16:44:49Z chrfranke $

smartmontools-7.4 2023-08-01 SMARTD.CONF(5)