Thomas Lin

Setting Up Disk Monitoring

Disk monitoring can be done via the package smartmontools

To get e-mail alerts, the server should have a mail transport agent (MTA) installed. Suggest to install postfix.

When installing postfix, select Internet Site, and specify the hostname of the server for identification purposes
Suggested configuration of the server (edit /etc/postfix/main.cf):
- Make server listen only on loopback interface: inet_interfaces = loopback-only
- Set hostname of server: myhostname = <HOSTNAME HERE>
Test sending an email, e.g.: mail -s "test subject" <EMAIL HERE> < file-with-test-body-content.txt

Set the e-mail address for sending alerts:

Edit /etc/smartd.conf, comment out the original DEVICESCAN line
Replace it with: DEVICESCAN -H -l error -l selftest -n standby -m <EMAIL HERE> -M exec /usr/share/smartmontools/smartd-runner
If server includes HDDs that can’t be detected (some removable HDDs are like this), manually specify device before the DEVICESCAN line
- Example: /dev/sdc -d sat -d removable -H -l error -l selftest -n standby -m <EMAIL HERE> -M exec /usr/share/smartmontools/smartd-runner
- Adjust the type(s) after -d as required