Smartctl Open Device Dev Sda Failed Dell Or Megaraid Controller Please Try Adding 39d Megaraid N 39 Extra Quality
When query monitoring a storage system using smartctl , hitting the error can be quite frustrating.
The error message occurs when you attempt to query the S.M.A.R.T. health status of a physical hard drive or SSD that sits behind a hardware RAID controller. By default, smartctl tries to query /dev/sda directly as a single disk, but your Dell PERC or LSI MegaRAID controller hides individual physical drives to present a unified virtual drive to the operating system.
To pull drive telemetry, you must leverage the controller's pass-through capability by identifying the internal device ID ( N ) of each disk inside the chassis. Step 1: Automatically Scan for Internal Device IDs When query monitoring a storage system using smartctl
Virtual arrays do not natively support physical Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) pass-through structures. Passing a raw geometry command down a generalized block route breaks at the controller level, generating the diagnostic message prompting for specific device arguments.
The error is – it's a deliberate safety mechanism. The RAID controller hides physical disks by design. Using -d megaraid,N is the correct, supported, and safe method to query SMART data on Dell PERC and LSI MegaRAID controllers. Ignoring this flag risks querying the wrong device or corrupting the RAID metadata. By default, smartctl tries to query /dev/sda directly
DEVICE=/dev/sda for i in $(megacli -pdlist -a0 | grep Id | cut -d":" -f2); do echo "============================== $i ==============================" smartctl -s on -a -d megaraid,$i $DEVICE -T permissive done
The output will display the exact syntax needed to communicate with each device: Passing a raw geometry command down a generalized
storcli /c0 /eall /sall show
To completely extract the full vendor log information from physical disk ID 4 passing through your first master system block, use the command string below: sudo smartctl -a -d megaraid,4 /dev/sda Use code with caution. Querying a SATA Drive Hidden Behind MegaRAID
