[OT] smartmontools setup (was Re: sqlite error: disk I/O error)

[Daniel J. Luke]

On Jul 9, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Scott Haneda wrote:
> This appears to be a significantly complex set of tools.  I read over the man pages and the conf file. There is an initial test you run `sudo smartctl -t short /dev/disk0s2` which when run, from what I can gather, sets up the device in a way that prepares it for automated running in the future.

well, that will start a short test.

> Instructions say to keep running `smartctl -t short /dev/disk0s2` until you get results, which I have been trying:

nope, you want smartctl -l selftest disk0

> Each time I run it, that time to completion moves forward,

because you are aborting the test/starting a new one.

> How did you arrive at your conf file options?  

man page/website plus the examples in the conf file.

> Out of curiosity, what does your email report look like?  

I don't have one handy (it's been a while since I've had one sent to me - I'm probably due for another disk replacement soon).

> Do you notice any system performance degradation when the scan is running?  

not that I've noticed, my current systems aren't usually very heavily loaded, though.

> And all automation is handled internally by the dameon, there is no launchctl or any other schedulers that I need to look into to make sure that it keeps on running?

smartd will just take care of it (but you run smartd with launchd - macports installs an appropriate plist)

> I want to make sure the smartd is running, but can't seem to find out what keeps it running all the time, past reboot, on schedule.

just like any other daemon (launchd)

> Thanks for any pointers.  If this gets too out there for a MP post, shove me away to the smartmontools mailing list, and I can take it up there.  

Yeah, this is pretty far off topic. (I'll stop replying ;-) )

--
Daniel J. Luke                                                                   
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