Display the total number of reads and writes for a given disk in a Linux shell

Question

I am looking for a program that can display the total number of reads and writes a given disk has had during its lifetime in a Linux shell.

E.g., on Microsoft Windows, I use CrystalDiskInfo:

Any license and price is fine.

Answer 1

You can use smartctl.

smartctl (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a command line utility or a tool in UNIX like operating system that perform SMART tasks such as printing the SMART self-test and error logs, enabling and disabling SMART automatic testing, and initiating device self-tests.

To install:

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

(smartctl is part of smartmontools)

To run:

sudo  smartctl -l devstat -a -d ata /dev/sda

where /dev/sda is your disk.

Example of output (truncated):

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       504
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       11
177 Wear_Leveling_Count     0x0013   099   099   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       17
179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot   0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total  0x0032   100   100   010    Old_age   Always       -       0
182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total  0x0032   100   100   010    Old_age   Always       -       0
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0032   074   072   000    Old_age   Always       -       26
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
235 Unknown_Attribute       0x0012   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       9127069901

• 241: Total LBAs Written The total number of 512-byte sectors written during the entire lifetime of the device.
• 242: Total LBAs Read The total number of 512-byte sectors read during the entire lifetime of the device.

With awk to select only the number of interest, e.g. to display how many terabytes were written:

sudo  smartctl -l devstat -a -d ata /dev/sda | grep Total_LBAs_Written | awk '{print $(NF)/10^12*512}'

---

You can use lsblk to list all your disks:

username@server:~$ lsblk
NAME                         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sda                            8:0    0   1.9T  0 disk
├─sda1                         8:1    0   1.9T  0 part
│ ├─vg_system-swap (dm-0)    252:0    0     4G  0 lvm   [SWAP]
│ ├─vg_system-openafs (dm-1) 252:1    0     3G  0 lvm   /var/cache/openafs
│ └─vg_system-root (dm-2)    252:2    0   1.9T  0 lvm   /
└─sda2                         8:2    0     1M  0 part
sdb                            8:16   0   5.5T  0 disk
└─sdb1                         8:17   0   5.5T  0 part
  └─md0                        9:0    0  10.9T  0 raid0 /crimea
sdc                            8:32   0   5.5T  0 disk
└─sdc1                         8:33   0   5.5T  0 part
  └─md0                        9:0    0  10.9T  0 raid0 /crimea