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 Protecting Your Virtual Disk with a Hot Spare
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Storage Management User's Guide
Understanding Hot Spares
Setting Hot Spare Protection Policy
Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si, 4e/Di, PERC 5/E, PERC 5/i, PERC 6/E, PERC 6/I, and CERC 6/I Controllers
Considerations for Hot Spares on CERC SATA1.5/6ch, S100, and S300 Controllers
Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR
When you create a redundant virtual disk using a RAID controller, you have the opportunity to maintain system operations even when a disk fails. To do so,
you would assign a hot spare to the virtual disk. When a disk fails, the redundant data is rebuilt onto the hot spare without interrupting system operations.
Understanding Hot Spares
A hot spare is an unused backup physical disk that can be used to rebuild data from a redundant virtual disk. Hot spares remain in standby mode. When a
physical disk that is used in a redundant virtual disk fails, the assigned hot spare is activated to replace the failed physical disk without interrupting the system
or requiring your intervention. If a virtual disk using the failed physical disk is not redundant, then the data is permanently lost without any method (unless
you have a backup) to restore the data.
Hot spare implementation is different for different controllers. For more information.
l Considerations for Hot Spares on PERC 4/SC, 4/DC, 4e/DC, 4/Di, 4e/Si, 4e/Di, PERC 5/E, PERC 5/i, PERC 6/E, PERC 6/I, and CERC 6/I Controllers
l Considerations for Hot Spares on CERC SATA1.5/6ch, S100, and S300 Controllers
l Global Hot Spare Considerations on a SAS 6/iR
The following sections describe procedures for assigning a hot spare:
l Assign and Unassign Global Hot Spare
l Assign and Unassign Dedicated Hot Spare
Setting Hot Spare Protection Policy
The Hot Spare Protection Policy is supported only on Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) controllers.
The Hot Spare Protection Policy provides you with a higher protection level for the virtual disks by enabling you to specify the number of dedicated/global hot
spares to be assigned to the virtual disks/controller. You can also specify the severity levels for the protection policy. Dell OpenManage Storage Management
sends alerts when the hot spare protection policy is violated.
Storage Management does not provide a default policy; however, you can determine the hot spare protection policy best suited for your environment.
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Dedicated Hot Spare Protection Policy
Table 12-1. Hot Spare Property
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Resetting the Hot Spare Protection Policy
Deselect the RAID Layout to reset the dedicated hot spare protection policy.
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Global Hot Spare Protection Policy
Table 12-2. Global Hot Spare Properties
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Property
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Definition
RAID Layout
The RAID level(s) for which you want to configure the hot spare protection policy.
Minimum Number of Disks
The minimum number of physical disks to be assigned as dedicated hot spares for the selected RAID level(s).
Severity Level
The severity level you want to assign to the generated alert, if this policy is violated.
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NOTE: The status of the virtual disk is determined by the severity level you specify for this policy.
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