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Under Linux, we can monitor SSD wear fairly easily with smartmontools whether the drive is presented as a normal block device or a generic device (which happens when the drive has been hardware RAIDed by certain controllers such as the one on the IBM HS22).

How can we do the equivalent under Windows? Does anyone actually use smartmontools? Or are there other packages out there?

The problem is that SCSI Generic devices just don't show up in Windows. If the drives aren't RAIDed we can see them fine.

How I'd do it in Linux:

sles11-live:~ # lsscsi -g
[1:0:0:0]    disk    SMART    USB-IBM          8989  /dev/sda   /dev/sg0
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      MTFDDAK256MAR-1K MA44  -          /dev/sg1
[2:0:1:0]    disk    ATA      MTFDDAK256MAR-1K MA44  -          /dev/sg2
[2:1:8:0]    disk    LSILOGIC Logical Volume   3000  /dev/sdb   /dev/sg3

sles11-live:~ # smartctl -l ssd /dev/sg1
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-2.6.32.49-0.3-default] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page Offset Size         Value  Description
  7  =====  =                =  == Solid State Device Statistics (rev 1) ==
  7  0x008  1               26~ Percentage Used Endurance Indicator
                              |_ ~ normalized value

sles11-live:~ # smartctl -l ssd /dev/sg2
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-2.6.32.49-0.3-default] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page Offset Size         Value  Description
  7  =====  =                =  == Solid State Device Statistics (rev 1) ==
  7  0x008  1                3~ Percentage Used Endurance Indicator
                              |_ ~ normalized value
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

You need a utility provided by your raid controller. For example, most HP raid controllers have a compatible utility for reading the smart info from drives connected to their controllers.

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Ultimately, looks like this is what it comes down to. I was hoping Windows could be convinced to expose 'Generic' devices in a similar way. – MikeyB May 17 '12 at 14:59
   
Similar? I dont see how Linux looks THROUGH the Raid controller - in your example it definitely does not look like that. Comparing apples to oranges, are we not? – TomTom Jul 6 '12 at 19:55
This particular RAID controller (the LSI 1064e) exposes the physical drives behind it to the host OS via Generic SCSI devices. – MikeyB Jul 6 '12 at 21:02
up vote -1 down vote

There are a lot of SMART utilities for windows, but you may need one that supports your RAID controller. You could give CrystalDiskInfo (http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html) a try.

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From the website: "CrystalDiskInfo does not support RAID disks and IDE (Parallel ATA) and Serial ATA disks connected external ATA controller" – MikeyB May 7 '12 at 13:48
Hmm, I guess not. I really can't think of any that do specifically. It would need to advertise support for the RAID controller in use, though, because the individual devices don't seem to be expressed in windows at all. – Falcon Momot May 8 '12 at 2:20

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