Incomplete Disk Group

What Caused the Problem?

One or more physical disks are missing from a disk group and there are NOT enough physical disks remaining in the disk group for the virtual disks to continue servicing I/O. The Recovery Guru Details area provides specific information you will need as you follow the recovery steps.

Caution: Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Always use proper antistatic protection when handling components. Touching components without using a proper ground may damage the equipment.

Important Notes

This problem may occur as a result of one of the following scenarios:
- There was a loss of power to one or more expansion enclosures.
- You removed physical disks - either inadvertently or in order to replace the physical disks.
- You removed physical disks because you intend to export them to another storage array. However, you did not use the Export operation available in the storage management software to prepare these physical disks before removal.
- You inserted physical disks because you intend to import them from another storage array. However, you selected the Force Import operation in the storage management software and not all of the physical disks for the disk group are inserted.
- This problem can also be displayed as a result of one or more physical disks being bypassed. If there is a Bypassed Physical Disk problem being reported in the Summary area, complete the recovery steps to correct the Bypassed Physical Disk problem first. Only continue with the Recovery Steps for this problem if it is still displayed after you click the Recheck button.
The affected disk group will be displayed as a failed disk group . You can view the status of a disk group by clicking on the Disk Groups and Virtual Disks link in the Summary tab.
There are not enough physical disks remaining in the disk group to reconstruct replacement physical disks for the missing physical disks. Depending on the RAID level of the disk group, you may need to replace one or more of the original physical disks if you want to retain the data on this disk group.
Depending on the RAID level of the disk group, you may be able to reinsert some of the original physical disks and be able to access the data on this disk group after the disk group changes to the Partially Complete Disk Group state.

Recovery Steps

If... Then...

You inadvertently removed the physical disks

Reinsert all removed physical disks.
Wait for all virtual disks and disk groups to display optimal status.
Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru. The failure should no longer appear in the Summary area. If the failure appears again, contact your technical support representative.

You removed the physical disks because you intend to export these physical disks to another storage array

Go to "Completing a Disk Group Export."

You inserted physical disks with previous disk group information and you intend to reuse them in this storage array

Disk group information needs to be erased from the disks before they can be reused. This can be performed using the following steps:

Open a Command Prompt, and type the following command:

SMcli -n <storageArray_name>;

where storageArray_name is the name of the storage array listed in the Details area.

Note: If you receive an error from this command, change your working directory to the directory that contains the SMcli executable.

Execute the following command in order to reinitialize the physical disk:

start physicalDisk [enclosure_ID,slot_ID] initialize;

where enclosure_id is the enclosure ID for the enclosure where the physical disk resides and slot_ID is the slot position within the enclosure. This is the physical disk that is shown in the Details area.

Note: The commands above are case-sensitive, and must be entered exactly as shown.

When the initialization completes, the physical disk will be an Optimal, Unassigned physical disk.

c When the initialization operation completes, click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru. The failure should no longer appear in the Summary area. If the failure appears again, contact your technical support representative.

You have inserted physical disks from another storage array and already selected the Import Disk Group link

If...

Then...

The missing physical disks were not imported with the rest of the physical disks because they were damaged

Too many physical disks are missing to recover the disk group and its associated virtual disks. Delete the disk group.

If a backup of the disk group is available, restore the backup to a new disk group.

Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru. The failure should no longer appear in the Summary area. If the failure appears again, contact your technical support representative.

You want to import the original physical disks that were associated with the disk group in the source storage array

Go to "Completing a Physical Disk Replacement or Upgrade."

Completing a Disk Group Export

1	Reinsert all of the missing physical disks associated with this disk group into the original slots. The Recovery Guru Details area provides the physical location of the missing physical disks as well as the affected disk group.
2	Wait until the disk group and its associated virtual disks display optimal status, and then go to step 3.
3	From the Support tab, click the Advanced Support Tasks link, and then click the Export Disk Group link.
4	Follow the instructions in the Export Disk Group wizard to complete a successful disk group export.
5	Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru. The failure should no longer appear in the Summary area. If the failure appears again, contact your technical support representative.

Completing a Disk Group Import

1	Replace all of the missing physical disks associated with this disk group with the original physical disks from the source storage array. The Recovery Guru Details area provides the physical location of the missing physical disks as well as the affected disk group.
2	Wait until the disk group and its associated virtual disks display optimal status, and then go to step 3.
3	Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru. The failure should no longer appear in the Summary area. If the failure appears again, contact your technical support representative.

Note: Additional information on this issue may be available. Please visit the Dell support website at support.dell.com and select your product model. Choose "troubleshooting" as your tool option, then search by this procedure title.