SCSI self-tests only working in foreground mode (TOSHIBA AL13SEB300)

[Gilson Urbano]

Background self tests on TOSHIBA AL13SEB300 are taking a long time (days) to complete, while running the same tests in foreground mode works as expected.

START OF INFORMATION SECTION

Vendor:               TOSHIBA
Product:              AL13SEB300
Revision:             0101
Compliance:           SPC-3
User Capacity:        300,000,000,000 bytes [300 GB]
Logical block size:   512 bytes
Rotation Rate:        10500 rpm
Form Factor:          2.5 inches
Logical Unit id:      0x5000039568423224
Device type:          disk
Transport protocol:   SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is:        Mon Jul 25 13:20:00 2022 CEST
SMART support is:     Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is:     Enabled
Temperature Warning:  Enabled

TESTS

Background short test using smartctl takes forever.

$ smartctl -r ioctl,2 -t short /dev/sda
smartctl 7.0 2018-12-30 r4883 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-58-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

sda -> /sys/class/scsi_host/host4/proc_name: "isci"
>>>> do_scsi_cmnd_io: sg_io_ver=3
 [inquiry: 12 00 00 00 24 00 ]
  scsi_status=0x0, sg_transport_status=0x0, sg_driver_status=0x0
  sg_info=0x0  sg_duration=12 milliseconds  resid=0
  Incoming data, len=36:
 00     00 00 05 12 5b 00 10 02  54 4f 53 48 49 42 41 20
 10     41 4c 31 33 53 45 42 33  30 30 20 20 20 20 20 20
 20     30 31 30 31
>>>> do_scsi_cmnd_io: sg_io_ver=3
 [inquiry: 12 01 00 00 fc 00 ]
  scsi_status=0x0, sg_transport_status=0x0, sg_driver_status=0x0
  sg_info=0x0  sg_duration=4 milliseconds  resid=241
  Incoming data, len=11:
 00     00 00 00 07 00 80 83 86  8a 90 b1
>>>> do_scsi_cmnd_io: sg_io_ver=3
 [inquiry: 12 00 00 00 24 00 ]
  scsi_status=0x0, sg_transport_status=0x0, sg_driver_status=0x0
  sg_info=0x0  sg_duration=4 milliseconds  resid=0
  Incoming data, len=36:
 00     00 00 05 12 5b 00 10 02  54 4f 53 48 49 42 41 20
 10     41 4c 31 33 53 45 42 33  30 30 20 20 20 20 20 20
 20     30 31 30 31
>>>> do_scsi_cmnd_io: sg_io_ver=3
 [request sense: 03 00 00 00 12 00 ]
  scsi_status=0x0, sg_transport_status=0x0, sg_driver_status=0x0
  sg_info=0x0  sg_duration=0 milliseconds  resid=0
  Incoming data, len=18:
 00     70 00 00 00 00 00 00 28  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 10     00 00
>>>> do_scsi_cmnd_io: sg_io_ver=3
 [send diagnostic: 1d 20 00 00 00 00 ]
  scsi_status=0x0, sg_transport_status=0x0, sg_driver_status=0x0
  sg_info=0x0  sg_duration=176 milliseconds  resid=0
Short Background Self Test has begun
Use smartctl -X to abort test

Foreground short test completes successfully (under two minutes).

$ sg_senddiag -s 5 /dev/sda -vvv
open /dev/sda with flags=0x802
    Send diagnostic cmd: 1d a0 00 00 00 00
      duration=29832 ms
Foreground self-test returned GOOD status

Background short test using sg_senddiag never finishes or takes a long time (days) as the command is the same as being used in smartctl.

$ sg_senddiag -s 1 /dev/sda -vvv
open /dev/sda with flags=0x802
    Send diagnostic cmd: 1d 20 00 00 00 00
      duration=188 ms

Note: Long tests show the same behavior, work in the foreground (40 minutes) and take forever in the background.

SELFTEST LOGS

Self-test execution status:             100% of test remaining
SMART Self-test log
Num  Test              Status                 segment  LifeTime  LBA_first_err [SK ASC ASQ]
     Description                              number   (hours)
# 1  Background short  Self test in progress ...   -     NOW                 - [-   -    -]
# 2  Foreground short  Completed                   -   44297                 - [-   -    -]
# 3  Background short  Aborted (by user command)   -   44297                 - [-   -    -]
# 4  Background short  Aborted (by user command)   -   44228                 - [-   -    -]
# 5  Background long   Aborted (by user command)   -   44225                 - [-   -    -]
# 6  Background short  Aborted (by user command)   -   44202                 - [-   -    -]
# 7  Background long   Aborted (by user command)   -   44202                 - [-   -    -]
# 8  Background long   Aborted (by user command)   -   44199                 - [-   -    -]
# 9  Background short  Completed                   -   44060                 - [-   -    -]
#10  Background short  Aborted (by user command)   -   44006                 - [-   -    -]
#11  Background short  Aborted (by user command)   -   44006                 - [-   -    -]

Long (extended) Self-test duration: 2561 seconds [42.7 minutes]

[Christian Franke]

smartctl 7.0 2018-12-30 r4883 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-58-generic] (local build)

There were many SCSI/SAS related changes since smartmontools 7.0. Please retry with smartmontools 7.3 if possible.