SmokeSignal

Catches the smoke before the reboot catches fire.

What is this?

A reboot is never 100% guaranteed — but a large class of "it didn't come back right" is predictable from the current state of the running system. SmokeSignal inspects that state before you reboot and gives you one honest verdict: GO / CAUTION / NO-GO, with the exact findings.

It is advisory only: it reads the host and reports — it never stops, mounts, unmounts or changes anything (acting on the host is exactly what tends to cause reboot trouble in the first place). The plugin adds a "SmokeSignal: Check now" button next to Reboot on the Main tab and an icon on the Dashboard. Click, read the verdict, then reboot with confidence.

Highlights

• Critical (NO-GO) — array started & every device assignment OK (no disabled/invalid/missing disk); no parity/sync/rebuild/clear or mover running; no container mounting a host runtime dir (the bind class that can take libvirt/docker down on reboot); no stuck docker.img/libvirt.img loop; flash writable

• Caution — crashes since boot in the syslog, disk/IO errors (failing disk or loose cable), low free space, running VMs, a stopped core service, missing container bind sources, and SMART health (status + attributes: reallocated/pending/uncorrectable sectors, UDMA CRC, temperature)

• Advisory only — reads and reports, never changes the host

• Follows your Unraid theme & language — light/dark, English + German (English fallback for other languages)

• No dependencies — a small Bash engine querying the tools Unraid already ships; no daemon, nothing to configure

Honest limit: it is an early warning, not an oracle — genuine hardware, BIOS or timing failures during boot cannot be seen from a running system. What it covers reliably is the state-detectable class.

Requirements

• Unraid 6.10+

• Nothing else — install from the Apps tab (or the .plg URL) and the button appears on the Main tab

Posting a bug report

Please post:

• Unraid version (Settings → System Information)

• SmokeSignal version (Plugins tab)

• The verdict + the lines shown, or the console output of bash /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/smokesignal/smokesignal-check.sh

• Browser + OS (for any WebGUI/display issue)

GitHub issues with the same info are welcome: github.com/junkerderprovinz/smokesignal/issues

Credits

Born from the classic homelab lesson that a green build is not a booting server. The engine stands on the tools Unraid already ships (mdcmd, smartctl, losetup, docker). If SmokeSignal saves you a bad reboot, you can buy me a coffee.

Self-hosted, MIT-licensed — you run it, you own your data and the responsibility.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Junker der Provinz