I have a Linux server for home use (it mainly runs a MythTV backend and records CCTV via Zoneminder), which has 1 SDD and 4 HDDs.
I have noticed that one of the HDDs runs quite a bit hotter than the others. This HDD is mounted as /home, so it’s plausible that it gets more traffic than the other ones. I’m not sure whether it’s running hot enough that I need to worry about it.
Here is the temperature-related output of smartctl for the hot disk:
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 052 045 040 - 48 (Min/Max 35/55)
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 048 055 000 - 48 (0 23 0 0 0)
Current Temperature: 48 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 35/56 Celsius
Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 23/56 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
SCT Temperature History Version: 2
Temperature Sampling Period: 3 minutes
Temperature Logging Interval: 94 minutes
Min/Max recommended Temperature: 1/61 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit: 2/60 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (1)
Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
0x05 ===== = = === == Temperature Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x05 0x008 1 48 --- Current Temperature
0x05 0x010 1 48 --- Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x018 1 47 --- Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x020 1 55 --- Highest Temperature
0x05 0x028 1 28 --- Lowest Temperature
0x05 0x030 1 51 --- Highest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x038 1 36 --- Lowest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x040 1 47 --- Highest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x048 1 40 --- Lowest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x050 4 0 --- Time in Over-Temperature
0x05 0x058 1 70 --- Specified Maximum Operating Temperature
0x05 0x060 4 0 --- Time in Under-Temperature
0x05 0x068 1 0 --- Specified Minimum Operating Temperature
For comparison, here’s the output from one of the other disks (the others are all pretty similar to each other:
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 059 054 040 - 41 (Min/Max 28/46)
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 041 046 000 - 41 (0 21 0 0 0)
Current Temperature: 41 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 28/47 Celsius
Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 21/47 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
SCT Temperature History Version: 2
Temperature Sampling Period: 3 minutes
Temperature Logging Interval: 94 minutes
Min/Max recommended Temperature: 1/61 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit: 2/60 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (74)
Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
0x05 ===== = = === == Temperature Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x05 0x008 1 41 --- Current Temperature
0x05 0x010 1 41 --- Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x018 1 40 --- Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x020 1 46 --- Highest Temperature
0x05 0x028 1 24 --- Lowest Temperature
0x05 0x030 1 44 --- Highest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x038 1 30 --- Lowest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x040 1 41 --- Highest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x048 1 32 --- Lowest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x050 4 0 --- Time in Over-Temperature
0x05 0x058 1 70 --- Specified Maximum Operating Temperature
0x05 0x060 4 0 --- Time in Under-Temperature
0x05 0x068 1 0 --- Specified Minimum Operating Temperature
I notice that the maximum temperature the disk has ever reached is 55C, and according to the smartctl output, its maximum operating temperature is 70C, which suggests that everything is fine and I have nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, I have seen advice on various web pages that it is worth worrying about HDD temperatures above 50C, for example this one.
The disk is a Seagate IronWolf 6TB, the server runs Ubuntu 24.04 if that’s relevant.
Is this something I should be worried about, or is it a complete non-issue that I can happily ignore?
