User's Manual

The Initialize task prepares a physical disk for use as a member of a virtual disk.
Physical disks attached to PERC 3/Si, 3/Di, and CERC SATA1.5/6ch controllers must be initialized before they can be used. On these controllers, the Initialize
task can only be performed once on a physical disk. In some cases a physical disk that is in an Unknown state can be returned to a usable state by performing
the Initialize task. The Initialize task is not displayed for physical disks that have already been initialized using Storage Management or the BIOS.
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Rebuild
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Does my controller support this feature? See "Supported Features."
Use the Rebuild task to reconstruct data when a physical disk in a redundant virtual disk fails. See "Replacing a Failed Disk that is Part of a Redundant Virtual
Disk" for more information.
Rebuilding a disk may take several hours.
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Cancel Rebuild
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Does my controller support this feature? See "Supported Features."
Use the Cancel Rebuild task to cancel a rebuild that is in progress. If you cancel a rebuild, the virtual disk remains in a degraded state. The failure of an
additional physical disk can cause the virtual disk to fail and may result in data loss. It is highly recommended that you rebuild the failed physical disk as soon
as possible.
Assign and Unassign Global Hot Spare
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Does my controller support this feature? See "Supported Features."
A global hot spare is an unused backup disk that is part of the disk group. Hot spares remain in standby mode. When a physical disk that is used in a virtual
disk fails, the assigned hot spare is activated to replace the failed physical disk without interrupting the system or requiring your intervention. When a hot
spare is activated, it rebuilds the data for all redundant virtual disks that were using the failed physical disk.
You can change the hot spare assignment by unassigning a disk and choosing another disk as needed. You can also assign more than one physical disk as a
global hot spare.
Global hot spares must be assigned and unassigned manually. They are not assigned to specific virtual disks. If you want to assign a hot spare to a virtual
disk (it will replace any physical disk that fails in the virtual disk) then use the "Assign and Unassign Dedicated Hot Spare."
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You should be familiar with the size requirements and other considerations associated with hot spares. See the following sections for more information:
l "Protecting Your Virtual Disk with a Hot Spare"
l "Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 3/SC, 3/DC, 3/QC, 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si, 4e/Di, CERC ATA100/4ch, PERC 5/E, PERC 5/i, PERC 6/E, PERC
6/I, and CERC 6/I Controllers"
l "Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 3/Si, 3/Di, CERC SATA1.5/6ch, S100, and S300 Controllers"
l "Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR"
Online and Offline
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CAUTION: This is a data-destructive task. Any virtual disks residing on this physical disk will be removed.
NOTE: If you cancel the rebuild of a physical disk that is assigned as a hot spare, you will need to reinitiate the rebuild on the same physical disk in
order to restore the data. Canceling the rebuild of a physical disk and then assigning another physical disk as a hot spare will not cause the newly
assigned hot spare to rebuild the data. You will need to reinitiate the rebuild on the physical disk that was the original hot spare.
NOTE: On SAS 6/iR controllers, you cannot assign physical disks that have boot partitions, as hot spares.
NOTE: On PERC S100 and S300 controllers, if there is free space available on the global hot spare, it continues to function as a spare even after
replacing a failed physical disk. See "Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 3/Si, 3/Di, CERC SATA1.5/6ch, S100, and S300 Controllers".
NOTE: When deleting virtual disks, all assigned global hot spares may be automatically unassigned when the last virtual disk associated with the
controller is deleted.
CAUTION: The SAS 6/iR controller enables you to assign two physical disks as global hot spare. Assigning a physical disk as a global hot spare on
a SAS 6/iR controller is likely to cause data loss from the physical disk. If the system or boot partition resides on the physical disks, it may be
destroyed. You should only assign physical disks that do not contain critical data. For more information about global hot spares and the SAS 6/iR,
see "Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR."