Question regarding smart tests in unraid

[je82]

I have a unraid box that only comes on for a short period of time to sync data from another unraid server as a backup unit.

 

The question i have here, evertime unraid boots is there some kind of quick smart test being done or is this only done if the machine is on and the smart test schedule runs? If yes, how can i change the routine so that the backup server automatically does a quick smart test for the array when it comes up so i don't live in the dark how the drives may feel because it misses the scheduled smart test because its turned of 99% of time?

 

Reason i ask is that i suddenly had a drive fail the boot smart test from bios, i was just lucky this drive was attached to the motherboard controller and not a custom HBA (i am not sure if the bios smart test runs on the HBA attached devies as bios does not see them so i guess it doesn't?) This drive was reporting smart failure and was about to collapse but unraid reported nothing until i manually ran a test on it, which is something i need to prevent for the future, i was under the impression that an alert email would be sent but it appears these notification emails only are sent if the unraid setup is on during the scheduled nightly smart tests which the backup server isn't.

 

Thanks.

Edited July 8, 2021 by je82

[JorgeB]

24 minutes ago, je82 said:

evertime unraid boots is there some kind of quick smart test being done or is this only done if the machine is on and the smart test schedule runs?

Unraid doesn't schedule SMART checks, you can only run them manually or by using for example a script with the user scripts plugin, it does schedule a parity check that is for all practical purposes the same as an extended SMART test.

[je82]

4 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

Unraid doesn't schedule SMART checks, you can only run them manually or by using for example a script with the user scripts plugin, it does schedule a parity check that is for all practical purposes the same as an extended SMART test.

If unraid doesn't schedule some kind of smart test, what is the unraid health report that keeps being sent every night from my unraid installation that is online 24/7?

 

is there any recommended plugin/scripts that can be used to run some kind of "light maintainance smart check" in order to see this type of stats, i honestly though this was part of the health check but maybe i am wrong?

 

thanks!

 

 

[je82]

i see relying on full parity check is the best way to deal with this because smart test may not detect the issue, i guess i just have to make a habit of parity checking my backup server every now and again manually as i don't see it as a good solution to have a 24hour parity check run everytime the server boots

[JorgeB]

42 minutes ago, je82 said:

what is the unraid health report that keeps being sent every night from my unraid installation that is online 24/7?

It's based on the current SMART attributes.

 

40 minutes ago, je82 said:

as i don't see it as a good solution to have a 24hour parity check run everytime the server boots

It's not, but a short SMART test is usually not enough to find a failing disk, unless there are already pending sectors, but you already get notified if those appear.