Disk Monitring with SMART. Many system administrators don’t know that Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology systems (SMART) are built in to most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks. [root@power root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3f443f43

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1276    10243768+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2            1277        6246    39921525   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            6247        6376     1044225   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Output of disk information
---------------------------
[root@power root]# smartctl -i /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     ST960812A
Serial Number:    5PJ1KKV4
Firmware Version: 3.05
User Capacity:    60,011,642,880 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   6
ATA Standard is:  ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Local Time is:    Sun Dec 13 22:51:17 2009 PKT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

To check the disk Health
-----------------------
[root@power root]# smartctl -Hc /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/                            

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
Failed Attributes:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   001   001   036    Pre-fail  Always   FAILING_NOW 39184
Ohh God my drive shows the error Disk Failure. I have to replace the drive :(
The most important part to see the disk error
---------------------------------------------
[root@power root]# smartctl -l error /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
Disk Self test
---------------
[root@power root]# smartctl -t short /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 1 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sun Dec 13 22:57:28 2009
Use smartctl -X to abort test.
[root@power root]#



----------------------------------------------------------------------
By Syed Asim Abbas
E-mail : asimabbas31@gmail.com

Create/Add New SWAP
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 440.3 GB, 440345714688 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 53535 cylinders     
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes 

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2              14        2563    20482875   83  Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p4            4094       53535   397142865    5  Extended
/dev/cciss/c0d0p5            4094       53535   397142833+  83  Linux  

Command (m for help): n
Command action        
l   logical (5 or over)
p   primary partition (1-4)
p                            
Selected partition 3         
First cylinder (2564-53535, default 2564):
Using default value 2564                  
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (2564-4093, default 4093): +3G

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-5): 3
Hex code (type L to list codes): L

0  Empty           1e  Hidden W95 FAT1 80  Old Minix       be  Solaris boot  
1  FAT12           24  NEC DOS         81  Minix / old Lin bf  Solaris       
2  XENIX root      39  Plan 9          82  Linux swap / So c1  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3  XENIX usr       3c  PartitionMagic  83  Linux           c4  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4  FAT16 <32M      40  Venix 80286     84  OS/2 hidden C:  c6  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
5  Extended        41  PPC PReP Boot   85  Linux extended  c7  Syrinx        
6  FAT16           42  SFS             86  NTFS volume set da  Non-FS data   
7  HPFS/NTFS       4d  QNX4.x          87  NTFS volume set db  CP/M / CTOS / .
8  AIX             4e  QNX4.x 2nd part 88  Linux plaintext de  Dell Utility  
9  AIX bootable    4f  QNX4.x 3rd part 8e  Linux LVM       df  BootIt        
a  OS/2 Boot Manag 50  OnTrack DM      93  Amoeba          e1  DOS access    
b  W95 FAT32       51  OnTrack DM6 Aux 94  Amoeba BBT      e3  DOS R/O       
c  W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52  CP/M            9f  BSD/OS          e4  SpeedStor     
e  W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53  OnTrack DM6 Aux a0  IBM Thinkpad hi eb  BeOS fs       
f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54  OnTrackDM6      a5  FreeBSD         ee  EFI GPT       
10  OPUS            55  EZ-Drive        a6  OpenBSD         ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/
11  Hidden FAT12    56  Golden Bow      a7  NeXTSTEP        f0  Linux/PA-RISC b
12  Compaq diagnost 5c  Priam Edisk     a8  Darwin UFS      f1  SpeedStor     
14  Hidden FAT16 <3 61  SpeedStor       a9  NetBSD          f4  SpeedStor     
16  Hidden FAT16    63  GNU HURD or Sys ab  Darwin boot     f2  DOS secondary 
17  Hidden HPFS/NTF 64  Novell Netware  b7  BSDI fs         fd  Linux raid auto
18  AST SmartSleep  65  Novell Netware  b8  BSDI swap       fe  LANstep       
1b  Hidden W95 FAT3 70  DiskSecure Mult bb  Boot Wizard hid ff  BBT           
1c  Hidden W95 FAT3 75  PC/IX                                                 
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82                                           
Changed system type of partition 3 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)             

root@oratech ~]# mkswap /dev/cciss/c0d0p3
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 3010445 kB
[root@oratech ~]# swapon /dev/cciss/c0d0p3      
swapon: /dev/cciss/c0d0p3: Device or resource busy
[root@oratech ~]#                                
[root@oratech ~]#                                
[root@oratech ~]# swapoff /dev/cciss/c0d0p3
[root@oratech ~]# mkswap /dev/cciss/c0d0p3
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 3010445 kB
[root@oratech ~]# swapon /dev/cciss/c0d0p3      
[root@oratech ~]# free -m
total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3289        475       2813          0         76        325
-/+ buffers/cache:         73       3215                                
Swap:         2870          0       2870                                


By Syed Asim Abbas asimabbas31@gmail.com To boot system with with out cdrom, network or any booting device. Just copy the ISO image on your linux server and perform the following steps.

[root@power ~]# mkdir /mnt/tmp

mount Iso image.

[root@power ~]# mount -o loop /data/fc4/FC4-i386-disc1.iso /mnt/tmp

[root@power ~]# mkdir /boot/mylinux

cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/vmlinuz /boot/mylinux

cp /mnt/tmp/isolinux/initrd.img /boot/mylinux/initrdMy.img

then add following lines to /etc/grub.conf

title Fedora Core 4 Installer
root (hd0,0) <<------------ boot partition
kernel /mylinux/vmlinuzMy
initrd /mylinux/initrdMy.img