Starting smartd: FAILED

mborok · 08-08-2008, 01:44 PM

I get this message when Oracle Enterprise Linux 4.6 starts up. This is a new installation. What does this error mean, how is it affecting me, and how can I resolve it?

Thanks.

Mike

farslayer · 08-08-2008, 01:52 PM

smartd = Smartmontools

a utility for monitoring Hard drive health and notifying you early of pre-fail conditions.

This may apply since Oracle Linux is based from RHEL, and fedora is the fast moving testbed for RHEL ..

Quote:

My Fedora Core Linux system displays the startup message: smartd [FAILED]

Fedora Core is distributed with a smartd configuration file /etc/smartd.conf that monitors the first IDE disk /dev/hda. If this device does not exist (or lacks SMART capability) you will get the error message above. Look in SYSLOG (/var/log/messages) for additional details about what is going wrong.

The solution: If your system has only SCSI disks, or has IDE disk(s) on a non-primary controller, just edit /etc/smartd.conf to reflect the correct location of the drive(s). Please also read the smartd.conf man page for additional information.

mborok · 08-08-2008, 02:47 PM

Here's a more detailed background:

I've installed vmware server, and then installed Oracle Enterprise Linux 4.6 under that. My host OS is windows XP, and device driver shows my hard drive as Array (IDE\DISKARRAY).

When installing Linux, I got an error, No Hard Drives Have Been Found. The solution (per vmware forum) was to edit a .vmx file for my virtual machine and add the line, scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

the var/log/messages file says (in part):

local host smartd[4466]:
home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf parsed
Device: /dev/sda, opened
Device: /dev/sda. Bad IEC (SMART) mode page, err=5, skip device
Unable to register SCSI device /dev/sda at line 30 of file /etc/smartd. conf (no Directive -d removable). Exiting.
smartd startup failed

This seems to me to be related to the SCSI vs IDE issue ... but I'm not sure what to add or change in the .conf file.

Also, how do I read the smartd.conf man page?

Thanks.

garyg007 · 08-08-2008, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mborok

Also, how do I read the smartd.conf man page?Thanks.

One way is a console command:

Code:

man smartd.conf

mborok · 08-08-2008, 03:59 PM

I'll check out that man command. Other than that, any ideas based on the scenario and log messages posted? Thanks.

farslayer · 08-08-2008, 07:48 PM

virtual hardware wouldn't support a hardware monitoring protocol for a virtual hard drive...

you should just disable SMART it or uninstall it from your VM