For a few weeks now, smartd has been reporting that it is skipping some of its scheduled self-tests on the weekends:
Apr 24 18:29:32 calvin smartd[4758]: Device: /dev/sda, skip scheduled Offline Immediate Test; 40% remaining of current Self-Test. Apr 24 18:29:33 calvin smartd[4758]: Device: /dev/sdb, skip scheduled Offline Immediate Test; 50% remaining of current Self-Test.
The drives in this RAID-1 array are set to run an offline test four times a day, a short self-test at 2am every day, and a long self-test on Saturdays at 2am. For some reason, it looks like the long self-test is taking longer, causing the other scheduled tests to be skipped.
First question: is this a sign of likely drive failure?
Then today, smartd reported that a self-test failed. Here is the output of smartctl -a /dev/sdb:
smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 family
Device Model: ST3250823AS
Serial Number: 3ND1GNBC
Firmware Version: 3.03
User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Sun Apr 25 13:15:34 2010 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 430) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 84) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 047 039 006 Pre-fail Always - 168450357
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 098 098 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 33
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 9
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 087 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 654745480
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 055 055 000 Old_age Always - 40141
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 51
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 037 062 000 Old_age Always - 37 (0 17 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 047 039 000 Old_age Always - 168450357
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
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% 40131 -
# 2 Extended offline Completed: read failure 30% 40129 379795511
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 40084 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 40060 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 40036 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 40013 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39990 -
# 8 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 39977 -
# 9 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39919 -
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39895 -
#11 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39872 -
#12 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39848 -
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39824 -
#14 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39801 -
#15 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 39789 -
#16 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39754 -
#17 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39732 -
#18 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39707 -
#19 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39683 -
#20 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39660 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 39636 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Given that this drive is about 4.5 years old, I am probably tempting fate by keeping it in service.
SMART doesn't seem to get much respect as a reliable way to predict drive failure. What else can I use to get an early indication of drive failure?
