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Checking disks behind RAID controllers

RAID controllers typically simulate a (logical) disk for each array of (physical) disks to the OS. Access to SMART functionality relies on ATA or SCSI pass through I/O controls providing direct access to each physical disk. But the standard I/O controls available are usually not designed to make this distinction between logical and physical disks. Therefore, smartmontools has to use vendor specific I/O controls. Support for disks behind RAID controllers is highly dependent on both platform and controller type.

RAID-Controller Directive Supported in OS
Linux FreeBSD MS-Windows
3ware SATA RAID controller -d 3ware,N Yes [1] Yes [2] Yes [3]
Areca SATA RAID controller -d areca,N Yes [4] No No
HighPoint RocketRAID SATA RAID controller -d hpt,L/M/N Yes [5] Yes [6] No
CCISS (HP/Compaq Smart Array Controller) -d cciss,N Yes [7] Yes No
LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID controller -d megaraid,N Yes [8] No No

See the notes below and the INSTALL file for information about kernel and driver requirements on your platform. Also consult the man pages for controller specific smartmontools options or directives.

Notes:

1. 3ware RAID controllers are supported on Linux since smartmontools release 5.1-18. Support for char devices /dev/tw* was added in release 5.33.
2. 3ware support on FreeBSD is available since release 5.33, multiple controller and char device support was added in release 5.36.
3. 3ware 9000 series only (added in release 5.37), requires Windows driver 9.4.0 or later. For older controllers, smartctl and smartd provide limited SMART support through tw_cli tool, see man page.
4. Areca support on Linux added at 2008-07-24. Get current version from SVN. The Areca controller must have firmware version 1.46 or later. Earlier versions will not return SMART information but will instead produce (harmless) SCSI error messages.
5. HighPoint RocketRAID support for Linux was added in release 5.37.
6. HighPoint RocketRAID support for FreeBSD was added on 2009-01-14. Get current version from SVN
7. CCISS (Compaq Smart Array Controller) support for Linux was added in release 5.37.
8. Support for LSI MegaRAID controller on Linux was added at 2008-10-03. Get current version from SVN
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