Intel® SSD 520 Series: Why does the smart test in Linux lasts 5-6 hours instead of 48 minutes?

[tirzu]

Use command: smartctl -t long /dev/sda

The test is passed by drive. But why is so long? (freebsd 8.4, Ubuntu 14.04). Speed is ok, about 400-450 kbytes/sec. Short test is ok, about 1-1,5 min.

Firmware Version: 400i,

[240 GB] Capacity,

Sata current: 6.0 Gb/s

[jbenavides]

Hello caruna,

Smartctl is a 3rd party tool, and there may be different things that can cause this type of behavior. It is not possible for us to determine the exact reason why the long test is taking so long, however, here are a few aspects we can provide regarding this:

- Make sure that you are using the most recent version of Smartctl software. You can find the downloads and software information at their official website: https://www.smartmontools.org/ https://www.smartmontools.org/

*NOTE: This link is being offered for your convenience and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Intel of the content, products, or services offered there.

- Run the TRIM function manually on your SSD with the "fstrim" command. Automatic file system TRIM is normally disabled in Linux due to performance implications. You can find more details about TRIM and Linux in this thread:

- Contact the http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm Computer Manufacturer Support and make sure you are using the most recent firmware for your motherboard.

- Check the BIOS of your PC and confirm that the storage controller is set to AHCI (SATA), and using SATA 6.0 Gbps for your SSD.

Please be aware that the long test has no time restriction and it reads/verifies the entire drive. Additionally, the time may increase if the system is performing other tasks at the time the SSD is tested.

[tirzu]

Is there any official programs for testing yours SSD under Linux ?

[tirzu]

attach for you log smartctl , why so many

# 1 Extended offlineSelf-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

....

# 19 Extended offlineSelf-test routine in progress 40% 16924 -

fstrim -v /mnt

/mnt: 236092682240 bytes were trimmed

smartctl -x /dev/sda

smartctl 6.5 2015-12-19 r4193 [x86_64-linux-3.16.0-46-generic] (daily-20151219)

Copyright (C) 2002-15, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family: Intel 520 Series SSDs

Device Model: INTEL SSDSC2CW240A3

Serial Number: CVCV2495000A240CGN

LU WWN Device Id: 5 001517 803d11a4a

Firmware Version: 400i

User Capacity: 240,057,409,536 bytes [240 GB]

Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical

Rotation Rate: Solid State Device

Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]

ATA Version is: ACS-2 T13/2015-D revision 3

SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)

Local Time is: Tue Dec 22 11:29:49 2015 UTC

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled

AAM feature is: Unavailable

APM level is: 254 (maximum performance)

Rd look-ahead is: Enabled

Write cache is: Enabled

ATA Security is: Disabled, frozen [SEC2]

Wt Cache Reorder: Unavailable

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:

Offline data collection status: (0x03) Offline data collection activity

is in progress.

Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.

Self-test execution status: ( 244) Self-test routine in progress...

40% of test remaining.

Total time to complete Offline

data collection: ( 1877) seconds.

Offline data collection

capabilities: (0x7f) SMART execute Offline immediate.

Auto Offline data collection on/off support.

Abort Offline collection upon new

command.

Offline surface scan supported.

Self-test supported.

Conveyance Self-test supported.

Selective Self-test supported.

SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering

power-saving mode.

Supports SMART auto save timer.

Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.

General Purpose Logging supported.

Short self-test routine

recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.

Extended self-test routine

recommended polling time: ( 48) minutes.

Conveyance self-test routine

recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.

SCT capabilities: (0x0021) SCT Status supported.

SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0

9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec -O--CK 000 000 000 - 911718h+07m+41.930s

12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 13

170 Available_Reservd_Space PO--CK 100 100 010 - 0

171 Program_Fail_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0

172 Erase_Fail_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0

174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct -O--CK 100 100 000 - 13

184 End-to-End_Error PO--CK 100 100 090 - 0

187 Uncorrectable_Error_Cnt -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0

192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 13

225 Host_Writes_32MiB -O--CK 100 100 000 - 16152107

226 Workld_Media_Wear_Indic -O--CK 100 100 000 - 65535

227 Workld_Host_Reads_Perc -O--CK 100 100 000 - 23

228 Workload_Minutes -O--CK 100 100 000 - 65535

232 Available_Reservd_Space PO--CK 100 100 010 - 0

233 Media_Wearout_Indicator -O--CK 089 089 000 - 0

241 Host_Writes_32MiB -O--CK 100 100 000 - 16152107

242 Host_Reads_32MiB -O--CK 100 100 000 - 4829664

249 NAND_Writes_1GiB PO--C- 100 100 000 - 160487

||||||_ K auto-keep

|||||__ C event count

||||___ R error rate

|||____ S speed/performance

||_____ O updated online

|______ P prefailure warning

General Purpose Log Directory Version 1

SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]

Address Access R/W Size Description

0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory

0x04 GPL,SL R/O 1 Device Statistics log

0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log

0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log

0x10 GPL R/O 1 SATA NCQ Queued Error log

0x11 GPL,SL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log

0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log

0xb7 GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log

0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status

0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer

SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log (GP Log 0x03) not supported

SMART Error Log not supported

SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)

Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error

# 1 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 2 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 3 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 4 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 5 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 6 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 7 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 8 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 9 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 10 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 11 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 12 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 13 Extended offline Self-test routine in progress 40% 16923 -

# 14 Extended offline Self-test rout...

[jbenavides]

Hello Caruna,

Currently, Intel does not provide management software for Consumer SSD's like the Intel® SSD 520 Series working in Linux environments.

We actually consider Smartmontools to be a good tool to monitor your SSD in Linux, just keep in mind that this is a 3rd party software and it has its own developing team and support.

Smartmontools has a lot of options and can pull a lot of data from the drive, some may not be meaningful depending on the situation. Checking the information from https://www.smartmontools.org/browser/trunk/smartmontools/smartctl.8.in Smartctl manpages, the selftest log can show information from the last 21 Self-tests. You can check the documentation, or contact their team for more details about this log.

We did check the SMART data and drive information from the log, and it does not show any errors. The drive appears healthy and operating normally.