A new version (5.10) of the monitoring plugin check_smart was released today.

This version introduces a new parameter "-s" (or "--selftest"). By using this switch, an additional check will happen on the SMART's self-test log.

A typical example of such a self-test log entry:

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       10%     10926         962363536

Remember: You can always launch a SMART self-test by running the following command (example on drive /dev/sda):

# smartctl -t long /dev/sda

At first I thought this selftest check should be part of the main check, but there might be some situations where a drive reported errors in the past but were resolved (e.g. sectors meanwhile re-allocated). By using an additional parameter "-s", which can be easily added into existing Nagios/Icinga/NRPE configurations, this doesn't break compatibility.