Virtual Disk - Hot Spare in Use

What Caused the Problem?

One or more physical disks have failed, and hot spare physical disks have automatically taken over for the failed physical disks. The data on the virtual disks is still accessible. The Recovery Guru Details area provides specific information you will need as you follow the Recovery Steps.

Caution: Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Possible loss of data accessibility. Do not remove a component when the Service Action Allowed field in the Details area of this recovery procedure is NO. Removing a component while its Service Action Allowed field is NO may result in temporary loss of access to your data. Refer to the following Important Notes and the Recovery Steps for more detail.

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

Important Notes

When a hot spare takes over for a failed physical disk, data from the failed physical disk is rebuilt on the hot spare. When you replace the failed physical disk, data is copied back from the hot spare to the new physical disk and the hot spare returns to Standby. You can replace the failed physical disk before rebuild is completed on the hot spare. However, the copyback to the new physical disk will not occur until the rebuild has completed.
From the Summary tab, click the Virtual disks and disk groups link and look at the virtual disk icons for the affected virtual disks. If any virtual disks display an Operation in Progress icon, rebuild is still taking place on the hot spare. If all virtual disk icons are Optimal, rebuild is completed.
Depending on how many hot spares you have created in the storage array, a virtual disk could remain Optimal and still have multiple failed physical disks (each one being covered by a hot spare).
Make sure the replacement physical disks are of the same type and have a capacity equal to or greater than the failed physical disks.
You can replace the failed physical disks while the affected virtual disks are receiving I/O.
The Service Action Allowed field in the Details area indicates whether you can safely remove the component. If the Service Action Allowed field is NO, then the affected component must remain in place until you service another component first.

Recovery Steps

Check the Service Action Allowed status in the Details area for the failed physical disk.

If...

Then...

Service Action Allowed is YES

Go to step 2.

Service Action Allowed is NO

Answer the following question:

Are there other problems being reported in the Summary area?

Yes - Fix these problems first and then return to this procedure after clicking Recheck.
No - Stop this procedure and contact your technical support representative.

If...	Then...
You want to replace the failed physical disk with a new physical disk	Remove the physical disk (its status LED may be amber flashing). Wait 30 seconds, and then insert the new physical disk. Result: The affected virtual disks change to an Operation in Progress icon (in the Disk groups and virtual disks link) as the rebuild/copyback operations take place. When rebuild/copyback is completed, the virtual disks return to Optimal, and the hot spare physical disk returns to Standby. Repeat above steps for each failed physical disk. Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.
You want to utilize an existing unassigned physical disk or the in-use hot spare to replace the failed disk in the disk group	Click on the Modify tab and then select Replace Physical Disks. Under Failed and Missing Physical Disks, select the physical disk that you would like to replace Under Available replacement physical disks, select the physical disk that you would like to use to replace the failed or missing physical disk Click on Replace Physical Disk. Result: If you choose an unassigned physical disk as a replacement, the affected virtual disks change to an Operation in Progress icon (in the Disk groups and virtual disks link) as the rebuild/copyback operations take place. When rebuild/copyback is completed, the virtual disks return to Optimal, and the hot spare physical disk returns to Standby. If you choose the Hot Spare as a replacement for the failed or missing physical disk, the Hot Spare role will be changed to Assigned. A new Hot Spare would need to be assigned if that functionality is desired Repeat above steps for each failed physical disk Click the Recheck button to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.

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.