Abstract: Passive vibration control systems, as the key and sensitive components of structures, dissipate a great amount of structural vibration energy under hazard loads such as earthquakes and strong winds, etc. The performance of passive control systems degrades in service due to long-term loading and environmental effects. The materials of the passive control systems are characterized as anisotropic, multiple medium coupling and strong nonlinear features, resulting in multi-scale and multiple damages under complex spatio-temporal and coupled loading conditions. Literature review regarding performance monitoring and damage identification, performance evolution and reliability evaluation, self-powered and adaptive features of laminated rubber isolation bearings and magnetorheological (MR) dampers are comprehensively presented. The paper also summarizes the shortcomings of current research, and provides a guideline for further research work of structural vibration control systems, including performance monitoring, evaluation, and development.