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rw · May 31, 2003, 10:06 PM

What is hwmond?

proton · May 31, 2003, 10:35 PM

Originally posted by rw:
What is hwmond?

I believe it is the monitoring daemon for SMART hard drives.

- proton

utidjian · Jun 1, 2003, 07:37 AM

Originally posted by proton:
I believe it is the monitoring daemon for SMART hard drives.

- proton

Well it is more a general hardware monitor (not just hard disks). Ferinstance I get a lot of warnings about:

Thu May 1 12:16:37 EDT 2003 - Enclosure exceeds high threshold (amber)
Thu May 1 12:17:02 EDT 2003 - Enclosure returned to acceptable value

In addition to the normal checking of SMART values.

hwmond... what exactly it does, how it does it, and what do do with it is just about completely undocumented.

If you look at /private/var/run/hwmond.xml you begin to get an idea of what it might be good for.

rw · Jun 1, 2003, 08:59 AM

I don't have hwmond.xml, but I did find an XML file called /etc/hwmond.SMART. I take it that you have to have a particular brand and make of drive for this to be of any use. In fact, if I try to run hwmond, I get this response: "PowerMac4,1", hwmond will NOT run on this platform.

utidjian · Jun 1, 2003, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by rw:
I don't have hwmond.xml, but I did find an XML file called /etc/hwmond.SMART. I take it that you have to have a particular brand and make of drive for this to be of any use. In fact, if I try to run hwmond, I get this response: "PowerMac4,1", hwmond will NOT run on this platform.

If you check most HDD specs... they are all "SMART capable". A SMART HDD will, supposedly, be able to tell you about possible future failures of the HDD. The particular way this is done will vary over make and model and would require some sort of attribute definition for that particular drive.

AFAIK hwmond is only really a function that is enabled/included with Mac OS X server. The machine I checked it out on is an Xserve. Unless you are running Mac OS X server on some sort of "approved" hardware I don't think it will work well, if at all. I also have the file you mentioned on my Mac OS X v10.2.x tower box. The program is /usr/sbin/hwmond and I get the same reply that you do. I don't know whether "platform" refers to hardware, firmware, or software in any combination. I DO know that it runs on my Xserve.

rw · Jun 1, 2003, 12:51 PM

Thanks!

bracken · Jun 6, 2003, 06:02 PM

I get this on my iBook: "PowerBook4,3", hwmond will NOT run on this platform.

No problem though, the DiskWarrior 3 Automatic Diagnostics does the same thing.

utidjian · Jun 6, 2003, 06:59 PM

Originally posted by bracken:
I get this on my iBook: "PowerBook4,3", hwmond will NOT run on this platform.

No problem though, the DiskWarrior 3 Automatic Diagnostics does the same thing.

It does PART of the same thing. hwmond on Mac OS X server does a lot more than monitor disk "health".

My personal opinion is that it would be foolish to trust data to some software on a single hard disk. There is NO way that DiskWarrior can recover a major hardware (or even software) fault in disk IO. Perhaps it can cover some situations but certainly not all. An unlinked and overwritten file is GONE.... there is different data where the original used to be. A head crash that damages the surface of the disk causes the disk to be unreadable in that region.... and so on... It is no substitute for proper and regular backups.

bracken · Jun 14, 2003, 05:50 AM

Originally posted by utidjian:
My personal opinion is that it would be foolish to trust data to some software on a single hard disk. There is NO way that DiskWarrior can recover a major hardware (or even software) fault in disk IO. Perhaps it can cover some situations but certainly not all. An unlinked and overwritten file is GONE.... there is different data where the original used to be. A head crash that damages the surface of the disk causes the disk to be unreadable in that region.... and so on... It is no substitute for proper and regular backups.

I didn't say that DiskWarrior can recover anything.

The DiskWarrior autocheck is just a daemon that checks the SMART status. It doesn't say (and neither did I) that it attempts to fix anything. It just says it'll warn you that your drive could be failing.

utidjian · Jun 14, 2003, 08:45 AM

Originally posted by bracken:
I didn't say that DiskWarrior can recover anything.

The DiskWarrior autocheck is just a daemon that checks the SMART status. It doesn't say (and neither did I) that it attempts to fix anything. It just says it'll warn you that your drive could be failing.

True. You didn't claim that it could.
However... http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/ does.
I was basing my response on what I read at their site.