Bug 90896 - please update SMART tools to smartmontools
Summary: please update SMART tools to smartmontools
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED RAWHIDE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: kernel-utils
Version: 9
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Arjan van de Ven
QA Contact: Brian Brock
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2003-05-15 06:45 UTC by James Ralston
Modified: 2007-04-18 16:53 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2003-07-14 09:19:06 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
patch for /etc/init.d/smartd (525 bytes, patch)
2003-05-15 06:47 UTC, James Ralston
no flags Details | Diff
sample /etc/sysconfig/smart file (173 bytes, text/plain)
2003-05-15 06:47 UTC, James Ralston
no flags Details

Description James Ralston 2003-05-15 06:45:41 UTC
I have a hard drive (a Western Digital WD800JB) which always defaults to SMART
being off.  (I've downloaded WD's utilities, but I can't find any way to
configure the drive to always default to enabling SMART.)  Therefore, I have to
explicitly run "smartctl -a" on the drive to enable SMART before the smartd
daemon is launched (as smartd doesn't explicitly enable it).

One solution to this would be to make the smartd daemon explicitly enable SMART
on every device it can.  However, it may be perfectly desirable to have a system
in which some drives have SMART enabled, while some drives do not.  Thus, I
don't think making smartd always enable SMART is the best solution.

What I've done instead is patch /etc/init.d/smartd so that if the file
/etc/sysconfig/smart exists, it is sourced, and an explicit "smartctl -a" is
executed for all devices listed in the SMART_ENABLE variable.

I'll attach the patch for /etc/init.d/smartd, and a sample /etc/sysconfig/smart
file.  If you don't have a problem with this approach, please include it in the
next release.

If there's a different approach you'd like to see taken, suggest it, and I'll
see what I can do.

Comment 1 James Ralston 2003-05-15 06:47:03 UTC
Created attachment 91689 [details]
patch for /etc/init.d/smartd

this patch makes /etc/init.d/smartd aware of /etc/sysconfig/smart

Comment 2 James Ralston 2003-05-15 06:47:45 UTC
Created attachment 91690 [details]
sample /etc/sysconfig/smart file

Comment 3 Bruce Allen 2003-05-16 22:04:54 UTC
Another solution is to use the smartmontools package:
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

The version of smartd in this package give the SMART ENABLE
command when devices are registered.  It also
uses a config file /etc/smartd.conf that permits great flexibility in
setup and configuration.

So for example if you have a drive that you don't want to enable SMART on,
you don't list it in the config file.

Comment 4 James Ralston 2003-07-14 08:40:19 UTC
Okay, I've looked (albeit briefly) at the smartmontools package (thanks for the
pointer Bruce), and it seems like the way to go.

It would probably make sense to package smartmontools separately, rather than
bundling it into kernel-utils.  As it is now, the fact that kernel-utils
contributes the SMART stuff means that someone who wants to build and install
smartmontools themselves either has to rebuild kernel-utils with the SMART stuff
removed, or they have to use --replacefiles when installing a smartmontools RPM.

Thoughts?


Comment 5 Bruce Allen 2003-07-31 12:28:06 UTC
Personally I am in favor of having smartmontools be a separate package from the
kernel-utils package.  But this may have ramifications that I am unaware of, and
so I'm not sure if it is the "right thing" to do. Other people are more
qualified to decide this than I am.

Cheers,
   Bruce


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