SMART Devices

Listing 7: Short Test Output

# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
smartctl 7.2 2020-07-11 r5076 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-42-generic] (CircleCI)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     12441         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     12441         -

In this case, the output reports Completed without error . Also notice from the additional entry in the output that the test has been run previously.

Listings 8 and 9 show running the long , or extended, offline test and viewing its output. Remember, the command just kicks off the test; the long test might take several minutes to complete. To check whether the test has completed, use the same -l selftest option as before.

Listing 8: Long Self-Test

# smartctl -t long /dev/sda
smartctl 7.2 2020-07-11 r5076 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-42-generic] (CircleCI)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 30 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sun Aug  9 09:50:56 2020 EDT
Use smartctl -X to abort test.

Related content

  • SMART storage device monitoring
    Most storage devices have SMART capability, but can it help you predict failure? We look at ways to take advantage of this built-in monitoring technology with the smartctl utility from the Linux smartmontools package.
  • S.M.A.R.T., smartmontools, and drive monitoring
    Modern drives use S.M.A.R.T. (self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology) to gather information and run self-tests. Smartmontools is a Linux tool for interacting with the S.M.A.R.T. features of drives. But is S.M.A.R.T. the best way to predict impending drive doom?
  • Predicting Drive Doom

    Modern drives use S.M.A.R.T. (self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology) to gather information and run self-tests. Smartmontools is a Linux tool for interacting with the S.M.A.R.T. features of drives. But is S.M.A.R.T. the best way to predict impending drive doom?

  • When I/O workloads don't perform
    Every now and then, you find yourself in a situation where you expect better performance from your data storage drives. Either they once performed very well and one day just stopped, or they came straight out of the box underperforming. We explore a few of the reasons why this might happen.
  • A closer look at hard drives
    We continue our exploration of the world of hard drives – both solid state and spinning varieties.
comments powered by Disqus