Smartctl Open Device Dev Sda Failed Dell Or Megaraid Controller Please Try Adding 39d Megaraid N 39 Extra Quality
If you are trying to run smartctl on a Dell server with a MegaRAID controller, you must tell the command which controller and which physical drive to query.
smartctl -d megaraid,2 --all /dev/sda
to see a list of detected devices and their corresponding MegaRAID IDs. Detailed Method (using Dell PERCCLI perccli /c0 /eall /sall show . Look for the (Device ID) column in the output table. Alternate (MegaCLI) MegaCli -PDList -aALL | grep "Device Id" Server Fault 2. Run the Correct Command Once you have the ID (e.g., if the drive ID is ), use the following syntax: For SAS/SCSI Drives smartctl -a -d megaraid,0 /dev/sda For SATA Drives If the standard command fails, try adding the smartctl -a -d sat+megaraid,0 /dev/sda Unix & Linux Stack Exchange Troubleshooting Common Issues
: If storcli is not installed on your system, you can download it from the Broadcom support website or install it from your distribution’s repository (search for storcli or megacli ). For older Dell systems, the legacy MegaCli64 utility (typically located at /opt/MegaRAID/MegaCli/MegaCli64 ) also works. If you are trying to run smartctl on
This error indicates that smartctl cannot access the drive directly, likely due to the way the Dell or MegaRAID controller presents the drives to the operating system.
N is the (or “drive ID”) as reported by the RAID controller , not the OS device name. It typically ranges from 0 to the number of physical drives minus one.
Output example:
By using the sat+megaraid,N flag with smartctl , you can bypass the controller emulation and properly monitor the health of your physical drives, ensuring reliable data storage.
Run this storcli script to display all physical drives and enclosure indices: sudo storcli /c0 /eall /sall show Use code with caution.
This happens because the Linux operating system abstracts physical storage behind a hardware RAID layer. Instead of seeing individual Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) or Solid State Drives (SSDs), the OS only interacts with a (e.g., /dev/sda ) assembled by the controller. Because standard S.M.A.R.T. queries cannot natively penetrate the RAID abstraction layer, smartctl fails unless you pass a direct hardware pass-through argument. Look for the (Device ID) column in the output table
The most accurate method to find physical disk IDs is to use the RAID controller's official command-line interface (CLI) tools.
for N in $(seq 0 $((MAX_DISKS-1))); do echo "Checking $LOGICAL_DEV -d megaraid,$N" smartctl -H -d megaraid,$N $LOGICAL_DEV > /dev/null 2>&1 if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "Disk $N exists. Health status:" smartctl -H -d megaraid,$N $LOGICAL_DEV | grep "SMART overall-health" echo "---" else # No more disks found break fi done
If you encounter the error Smartctl open device: /dev/sda failed: DELL or MegaRaid controller, please try adding '-d megaraid,N' , it means smartctl cannot directly talk to your hard drives because they are hidden behind a (like a Dell PERC). To fix this, you must tell smartctl exactly which physical drive to look at using the -d megaraid,N flag. Why This Error Occurs For older Dell systems, the legacy MegaCli64 utility