Modern SSDs like the Intel X25-M maintain internal counters that track write operations. The most important metrics for endurance monitoring are:

• Total LBAs Written (SMART attribute 241)
• Total Host Writes (manufacturer-specific)
• Wear Leveling Count (SMART attribute 173)
• Available Spare (SMART attribute 169)

The smartmontools package provides the most comprehensive interface for querying SSD health:

# Install smartmontools on RHEL
sudo yum install smartmontools

# Check basic health status
sudo smartctl -H /dev/sdX

# View all SMART attributes
sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdX

# Get detailed information including power-on hours
sudo smartctl -i /dev/sdX

For Intel SSDs specifically, we need to look at these key attributes:

Create a cron job to log SSD wear periodically:

#!/bin/bash
DEVICE="/dev/sda"
LOG_FILE="/var/log/ssd_health.log"

{
    date
    echo "===== SMART Summary ====="
    smartctl -H $DEVICE
    echo "===== Critical Attributes ====="
    smartctl -A $DEVICE | grep -E "Media_Wearout_Indicator|Host_Writes|Total_LBAs_Written"
    echo ""
} >> $LOG_FILE

To calculate approximate remaining endurance:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess

def get_smart_value(device, attribute):
    output = subprocess.check_output(
        f"smartctl -A {device} | grep {attribute}",
        shell=True
    ).decode()
    return int(output.split()[9])

device = "/dev/sda"
media_wear = get_smart_value(device, "Media_Wearout_Indicator")
host_writes = get_smart_value(device, "Host_Writes")

rated_endurance = 100  # TBW (check your model's specs)
remaining_life = (100 - (100 - media_wear)) / 100 * rated_endurance

print(f"Estimated remaining writes: {remaining_life:.2f} TB")
print(f"Media wear: {media_wear}%")

For production environments, consider these specialized tools:

• nvme-cli for NVMe SSDs
• Intel MAS (Memory and Storage Tool)
• Prometheus node_exporter SMART collector
• Grafana dashboards with SMART metrics

For system administrators and developers running production workloads on SSDs, monitoring write cycles is crucial for predicting drive longevity. The Intel X25-M and other modern SSDs implement the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) standard that provides valuable health metrics.

These three attributes are particularly important:

# smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep -E 'Media_Wearout_Indicator|Host_Writes|Wear_Leveling_Count'
  177 Wear_Leveling_Count     0x0013   100   100   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       3
  241 Host_Writes_32MiB       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       2151936

Install the package:

# RHEL/CentOS
sudo yum install smartmontools

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install smartmontools

Create a daily monitoring script:

#!/bin/bash
DEVICE="/dev/sda"
LOG="/var/log/ssd_health.log"
echo "$(date) - SSD Health Report" >> $LOG
smartctl -A $DEVICE | grep -E 'Media_Wearout_Indicator|Host_Writes|Wear_Leveling_Count' >> $LOG

For Intel SSDs, you can estimate remaining life using this formula:

# Python example
current_wear = 3  # From Media_Wearout_Indicator
total_lifespan = 1000  # P/E cycles for X25-M
remaining_life = ((1000 - current_wear) / 1000) * 100
print(f"Estimated remaining lifespan: {remaining_life:.2f}%")

For programmatic access to S.M.A.R.T. data:

# Install jq for JSON parsing
sudo apt-get install jq

# Get SSD wear in percentage
wear_level=$(smartctl -A -j /dev/sda | jq '.ata_smart_attributes.table[] | select(.id == 233).raw.value')
echo "SSD wear level: $wear_level%"

For production systems, consider integrating with Prometheus:

# prometheus-node-exporter collector
import prometheus_client
from smartmontools import parse_smart_attributes

ssd_health = prometheus_client.Gauge(
    'ssd_health_percent',
    'SSD remaining health percentage',
    ['device']
)

def collect_ssd_metrics():
    attributes = parse_smart_attributes('/dev/sda')
    health = 100 - attributes['Media_Wearout_Indicator']
    ssd_health.labels(device='sda').set(health)

To track write patterns over time:

# SQLite schema for tracking SSD stats
CREATE TABLE ssd_metrics (
    timestamp DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    device TEXT NOT NULL,
    host_writes INTEGER,
    wear_level INTEGER,
    temperature INTEGER
);