Hard disk image

Smartmontools – control and monitor storage systems

The smartmontools package (S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools) contains two open source utility programs (smartctl and smartd) to control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T. built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks.

It is derived from the smartsuite package, and includes support for ATA/ATAPI-5 disks. It should run on any modern Linux system.

Smartmontools provide early warning signs of problems with a hard drive, allowing a backup of data before the complete failure.

ATA Error Recovery Control configuration is supported by Smartmontools, allowing it to configure many desktop-class hard drives for use in a RAID array and viceversa.

Key Features

  • smartctl – command line utility designed to perform S.M.A.R.T. tasks such as disk self-checks, and to report the S.M.A.R.T. status of the disk.
  • smartd – a daemon that periodically monitors S.M.A.R.T. status and reports errors and changes in S.M.A.R.T. attributes to syslog.
  • Run Smartmontools in the background and have it check drives and email when there are issues.

Website: www.smartmontools.org
Support: Documentation
Developer: Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, Guido Guenther
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

smartmontools is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


Related Software

Handy Hard Disk Utilities
NVMe-CLINVM-Express user space tooling
SmartmontoolsControl and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.
scrutinyWebUI for smartd S.M.A.R.T monitoring
openSeaChestPerform various operations on SATA, SAS, NVMe, and USB storage devices
GSmartControlGraphical user interface for smartctl
hdparmTune hard disk parameters for high performance
sg3_utilsUtilities that send SCSI commands to devices
sdparmAccesses SCSI device parameters
nwipeSecure disk eraser
Bonnie++Toolkit for testing hard drive and file system performance

Read our verdict in the software roundup.


Best Free and Open Source Software Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.

The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk.

LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.

Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form.
Subscribe

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.

Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted