GSmartControl vs Scrutiny

GSmartControl is a graphical interface for smartctl, used to inspect drive SMART data and run tests. It displays drive identity, capabilities, attributes and device statistics, and automatically highlights anomalies. Users can enable or disable SMART and adjust global or per-drive smartctl options. Saved smartctl output can be opened as a read-only virtual device. The software supports ATA drives, including SATA and PATA, and NVMe drives, plus some devices behind USB bridges and selected RAID controllers. SCSI and SAS drives are not supported, though some information about them may appear. GSmartControl is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3. Downloads include Linux packages, Windows installers and portable archives, FreeBSD ports, macOS packages and source code. smartmontools is a runtime requirement, but official Windows packages include the required software. Useful operations require root or Administrator privileges because operating systems restrict direct hardware access. Supported systems listed include Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, macOS and Solaris; QNX support is described as untested.

Scrutiny is a free, self-hosted dashboard for monitoring hard drive health through S.M.A.R.T. metrics. It records metric history and temperature, and allows customized thresholds based on real-world failure rates. Its collector uses smartctl to discover connected drives, and the project integrates with smartd. Failure notifications can be sent through email, webhooks, Discord, Gotify, Mattermost, ntfy, Slack, Teams, Telegram, and other listed services. Deployment choices include an all-in-one Docker image, separate hub-and-spoke Docker components, and manual installation; the hub-and-spoke setup stores S.M.A.R.T. data in InfluxDB 2.8. The repository lists Linux, macOS, and Windows binaries, while Windows Docker support remains in progress. For Docker, users must pass drive devices through and grant SYS_RAWIO; NVMe drives may also require SYS_ADMIN. Some RAID controllers do not pass underlying SMART data to smartctl. Manual installation instructions describe running the collector as an unprivileged user with restricted systemd permissions and network access. The project describes itself as a work in progress with rough edges and lists the MIT license.