does not monitor NVMe drives

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

xnox@ottawa:~$ sudo smartd -d
smartd 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.4.0-21-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Drive: DEVICESCAN, implied '-a' Directive on line 21 of file /etc/smartd.conf
Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf was parsed, found DEVICESCAN, scanning devices
glob(3) found no matches for pattern /dev/hd[a-t]
glob(3) found no matches for pattern /dev/sd[a-z]
glob(3) found no matches for pattern /dev/sd[a-c][a-z]
DEVICESCAN failed: glob(3) aborted matching pattern /dev/discs/disc*
In the system's table of devices NO devices found to scan
Unable to monitor any SMART enabled devices. Try debug (-d) option. Exiting...

However i have /dev/nvme* drives that could be monitor.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: smartmontools 6.5+svn4324-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Fri Apr 21 19:11:38 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-01-26 (451 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Alpha amd64 (20160125)
SourcePackage: smartmontools
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2016-12-05 (137 days ago)

[Christian Franke (christian-franke)]

Add '-d nvme' directive to 'DEVICESCAN' line in /etc/smartd.conf. Note that this will exclude other devices unless e.g. '-d scsi -d ata -d sat' is added also.

Background: The NVMe support in smartmontools is still EXPERIMENTAL. To avoid any serious problems after smartmontools package upgrade, I decided to exclude NVMe devices from default smartd DEVICESCAN (and 'smartctl --scan') result. This will be changed in some later release.

Package maintainers could override this decision by using --with-nvme-devicescan configure option.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

On 21 April 2017 at 22:47, Christian Franke <email address hidden> wrote:
> Add '-d nvme' directive to 'DEVICESCAN' line in /etc/smartd.conf. Note
> that this will exclude other devices unless e.g. '-d scsi -d ata -d sat'
> is added also.
>
> Background: The NVMe support in smartmontools is still EXPERIMENTAL. To
> avoid any serious problems after smartmontools package upgrade, I
> decided to exclude NVMe devices from default smartd DEVICESCAN (and
> 'smartctl --scan') result. This will be changed in some later release.
>
> Package maintainers could override this decision by using --with-nvme-
> devicescan configure option.
>

OK.

My drive is failing, thus i have no options but to force monitor it =(

--
Regards,

Dimitri.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Thanks Christian to outline the backgrounds.
For now I'd agree that relying on an experimental feature as support would not be the preferred way.
It is great to have this bug also as a documentation for others wondering about the same.

Down the road enabling nvme as default once stable and reliable anough sounds like the right approach to me.

@Dimitri - do you object and want it enabled by default?
Also do you think we need a doc update or any other help pointer (man page, comment in config, ...) that would help?

[Christian Franke (christian-franke)]

> ... any other help pointer (man page, comment in config, ...) that would help?

No need for man page, as --with-nvme-devicescan also results in a brief change to smartd.8.

[Gérard Bigot (gerard-bigot)]

I'm on 17.10
my mvne is THNSN5512GPUK NVMe TOSHIBA 512GB, FW:5KDA4101 on a DELL Precision 5510.

I just followed comment#2, and restarted the systemd service. It worked.

I got :

smartd 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.10.0-21-lowlatency] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Drive: DEVICESCAN, implied '-a' Directive on line 21 of file /etc/smartd.conf
Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf was parsed, found DEVICESCAN, scanning devices
Device: /dev/nvme0, opened
Device: /dev/nvme0, THNSN5512GPUK NVMe TOSHIBA 512GB, S/N:XXXXXXXXXX, FW:5KDA4101
Device: /dev/nvme0, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Monitoring 0 ATA/SATA, 0 SCSI/SAS and 1 NVMe devices
Device: /dev/nvme0, state written to /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.THNSN5512GPUK_NVMe_TOSHIBA_512GB-XXXXXXXX.nvme.state

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Having spoken to Christian, marking this Triaged/Wishlist.

Wishlist because Ubuntu currently has no support in smartmontools for monitoring NVMe. Triaged because it's clear that a developer could work on this feature. However, until this is declared stable upstream, it's probably inappropriate for Ubuntu to carry a patch for this functionality. People interested in getting this fixed in Ubuntu should focus on helping upstream first.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> Having spoken to Christian...

Just realised there are two Christians. I meant Christian Ehrhardt.

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

Hi,

this bug is fixed in recent Ubuntu systems:

# smartd -d
smartd 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.1.20-060120-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Drive: DEVICESCAN, implied '-a' Directive on line 21 of file /etc/smartd.conf
Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf was parsed, found DEVICESCAN, scanning devices
[...]
Device: /dev/nvme0, opened
Device: /dev/nvme0, Samsung SSD 960 EVO 500GB, S/N:S3EUNX0J203860B, FW:2B7QCXE7, 500 GB
Device: /dev/nvme0, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Device: /dev/nvme0, state read from /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.Samsung_SSD_960_EVO_500GB-S3EUNX0J203860B.nvme.state

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

Here is another example:

# smartd -d
smartd 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.2.0-18-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Drive: DEVICESCAN, implied '-a' Directive on line 21 of file /etc/smartd.conf
Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf was parsed, found DEVICESCAN, scanning devices
Device: /dev/nvme0, opened
Device: /dev/nvme0, Samsung SSD 970 PRO 1TB, S/N:S462NF0M109001Z, FW:1B2QEXP7, 1.02 TB
Device: /dev/nvme0, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Device: /dev/nvme0, state read from /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.Samsung_SSD_970_PRO_1TB-S462NF0M109001Z.nvme.state
Monitoring 0 ATA/SATA, 0 SCSI/SAS and 1 NVMe devices