Hot spares are used to protect redundant logical drives. If a disk in a redundant logical drive backed up by a hot spare fails, the hot spare automatically replaces the failed disk.
On some controllers a hot spare can be assigned in order to back up an individual logical drive or all logical drives on the controller. With other controllers it is automatically possible to use any free disk which is large enough as a backup.
This action enables you to add or delete a global or dedicated hot spare.
To create a global or dedicated hot spare please select a free disk
()
on the left in the tree structure. Start the Manage hot spare action
(via the pull-down menu of the Actions button or with a right mouse click).
In the dialog box which is now displayed (see example) please select one or more collections in order to create a dedicated hot spare. If you do not select a collection, a global hot spare is then created.
The static (or revertible) hot spare feature can be used to automatically restore a hot spare and logical drive to their original configuration. This function allows administrators who prefer to keep a hot spare in a specific slot within the enclosure to easily return to the preferred configuration without a manual rebuild. The static hot spare feature reduces or eliminates any administrator maintenance beyond replacement of the failed hard drive.
Note: The controller automatically reverts a hot spare only if the failed disk is replaced with a new disk in the same slot. If the new disk is not placed in the same slot, a manual "Replace missing" operation can be used to revert a previously commissioned hot spare.
Enclosure affinity is used to set the preference for a hot spare to be used to rebuild a physical disk that resides in the same physical enclosure. This does not preclude the hot spare from being provisioned to a second enclosure if there are no other hot spares present. For example, if there are two enclosures and each enclosure has a hot spare with affinity set, then upon a drive failure the hot spare will be provisioned from the same enclosure as the failed drive.
Note: You can configure hot spare enclosure affinity only if you are using an external storage enclosure.
After you have clicked on the Create button you must confirm the action once again in another dialog box.
Depending on what was selected in the previous dialog box, the drive which was originally unused becomes the
hot spare and is flagged as a global
() or dedicated
(
) hot spare on
the left in the tree structure.
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Please note that you can only create a hot spare with RAID types with redundancy (e.g. RAID-1, RAID-5, not RAID-0). |
To delete a hot spare please mark the hot spare
() or
(
) which you wish to
delete on the left in the tree structure. Start the Manage hot spare action.
The dialog box which is now displayed shows you the configuration with the logical drives which are currently protected.
After you have clicked on the Delete button you must confirm the action once again in another dialog box.
The assignment is now released and the previous hot spare is flagged as unused
() on the left in the
tree structure.
When you quit one of the dialog boxes by means of Cancel, no hot spare is created or deleted.
In some controllers the individual actions Create dedicated hot spare, Create global hot spare, Delete dedicated hot spare and Delete global hot spare are offered as alternatives to the Manage hot spare action described above.
With hot spare you can protect either a single logical drive (dedicated hot spare) or all logical drives on the controller (global hot spare). The example below describes how you create a dedicated hot spare.
In the tree structure select an unused drive
()
which is to function as a standby drive.
Start the Create dedicated hot spare action (via the pulldown menu of the Actions button or with a right mouse click). A dialog box is opened as in the example below.
In the pulldown menu select the required logical drive and create it using the Apply button.
After you have pressed the button you must confirm the process once more in another dialog box.
The drive that was previously unused is now identified as a dedicated hot spare
()
in the tree structure.
This action enables you to delete hot spares which you have created. The example below describes how you delete a dedicated hot spare.
In the tree structure select the dedicated hot spare
() that you
want to delete.
Start the Delete dedicated hot spare action (via the pulldown menu of the Actions
button or with a right mouse click). In the dialog box that appears you must confirm the deletion again.
After successful deletion the previously dedicated hot spare is now marked in the tree structure
as an unused drive ().