[smartmontools-support] Tests take 1min on HDD!?

[Gabriele Pohl]

Hi David,

On Wed, 29 May 2019 22:35:49 -0400
David Niklas wrote:

> On Wed, 29 May 2019 22:30:16 -0400
> David Niklas <doark at mail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > The following is the output of smartctl -a /dev/sdb it says that long
> > tests take only 1 min. 

> Oops, I sent the wrong drive info. It's my /dev/sda and /dev/sdc drives
> 24 seconds is a really fast long test time for an HDD.
> I'll paste the output of all 3 in order.

> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Model Family:     Hitachi/HGST Ultrastar 7K4000
> Device Model:     Hitachi HUS724030ALE641
> Serial Number:    P8GLNYJP
> [...]
> General SMART Values:
> Offline data collection status:  (0x82)	Offline data collection activity
> 					was completed without error.
> 					Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
> Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
> 					without error or no self-test has ever 
> 					been run.
> Total time to complete Offline 
> data collection: 		(   24) seconds.

^^ fyi: this is _not_ the time for the extended selftest ("-t long")

This routine is run automatically every four hours 
and updates the SMART attributes that are marked
as "Offline" in column "UPDATED"

> Short self-test routine 
> recommended polling time: 	 (   1) minutes.
> Extended self-test routine
> recommended polling time: 	 (   1) minutes.

Yes, that sounds weird..

You may observe how long the test will need in reality

--------------- snip ---------------
# smartctl -t long /dev/sda
smartctl 7.0 2019-03-31 r4903 [x86_64-linux-5.0.17-200.fc29.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 114 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Thu May 30 15:13:31 2019

Use smartctl -X to abort test.
--------------- snip ---------------

and then poll the progress with this command:

--------------- snip ---------------
# smartctl -lselftest /dev/sda
smartctl 7.0 2019-03-31 r4903 [x86_64-linux-5.0.17-200.fc29.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Self-test routine in progress 90%     23509         -
--------------- snip ---------------

HTH and kind regards,

Gabriele