User Guide

53987 Rev. 3.01 June 2016
AMD-RAIDXpert2 User Guide
Chapter 3
Arrays, Disks and RAID Levels
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Because of this function, RAIDXpert2 does not automatically perform a rescan when it detects
that a disk has been added or removed. For example, to hot-swap a RAID5 set with six disks into a
new system, do not perform a rescan until all six disks have been connected.
Arrays associated with the disks that are not yet connected change state to either Critical or
Offline. In the example above, if the state of the RAID5 set changes to Offline, data is unavailable.
Rescanning can also result in the state of a disk being reported differently in the Array View and
the Disk List. A disk within an array can have a state of Failed in the Array View field, while at
the same time it can show a state of Online in the Disk List.
3.10 Sparing Options: Disks and Arrays
RAIDXpert2 supports multiple sparing options. Spares are restored in the order indicated in Table
12.
Table 12. Sparing Options
Option
Description
Dedicated
A spare disk assigned to a specific redundant array.
Global
A spare disk that is shared by multiple arrays.
Note: An array is marked Critical or Offline if a disk reports a Failed state to an I/O, or if the
SATA cable or power cable is disconnected.
Note: One or more spares can be assigned to a redundant RAID level.
Note: Spare assignments do not apply to non-redundant RAID levels. To protect data, transform
the array to a redundant RAID level. Spares can then be assigned. (Be aware that the
Transform task is supported only by RAIDXpert2 Plus.)
3.11 Dedicated Sparing
A dedicated spare is a disk that is assigned as an alternate disk for a specific array. Should a disk
fail in that array, the alternate disk is used to replace the failed disk and the array is rebuilt.
A dedicated spare can be assigned to any redundant array type, and up to four spares can be
assigned to an array.
CAUTION: Assigning a dedicated spare does not reserve space on the disk. Therefore, an
automatic restore is not guaranteed if a disk fails. If a disk fails, make space on the
disk for the fail-over to complete, or assign a different disk with enough space. If a
dedicated spare is assigned and a disk fails, the restore process starts automatically,
if there is enough space available on the dedicated spare.