How to Make Active Spare Part of the Array?

[TonySinFL]

Proliant ML350 G5 with Smart Array E200i. 7 72GB drives with 5 in RAID5 and 2 spares.

HP support detected a problem with one of the drives in the array and suggested replacing it. I pulled it and one of the spares became "active".

The array rebuild completed but ACU-CLI shows the array as "failed" but the logicaldrive as OK. The server is operating fine.

ACU indicates it's missing the drive that I pulled. Shows the one spare as "active".

My question is how do I make the active spare a part of the array? I was thinking it would do that on it's own.

Do I need to physically put another drive in that slot?

Thanks.

[TTr · Accepted solution]

> how do I make the active spare a part of the array

The active spare is part of the array as a "spared-out" drive and not as a "data" drive. That's why the array is still in failed state. The hot spare is meant to temporarily take the place of a failed data drive and not replace it permanently.

What you should do is get a new drive and put it in place of the failed drive (same slot) and then the array will "spare in" from the hot spare to the new data drive.

That's how hot spares work. The array is in failed state but not in degraded state, you are still fully protected and can tolerate additional drive failures.

[TonySinFL]

Since I don't have another drive couldn't I use the other spare (non-active) and put it into the old slot?

Thanks.

[TTr]

Yes but you must unconfigure it from being a hot spare first. Then pull it and put it in the slot of the failed drive.

Is the failed drive under warrantee? It is OK to run like this for a few days until a replacement arrives.

[TonySinFL]

Odd, I'm not presented with any Spare Management options in ACU. I try to remove the spare via ACU-CLI and it says the "option is not supported with the current configuration".

[TTr]

Do you see the other drive in ACU? Is it a hot spare or is it just sitting there spinning. page 26, http://docs.hp.com/en/9320/acu.pdf

[TonySinFL]

In the physical drive display in ACU I see all the drives. One spare shows as "Spare" and the other as "Active Spare".

I can select the drive and retrieve the properties of the drive but there is nothing about Spare Management on the screen nor is there anything in the Wizards.

[TonySinFL]

I got this working finally. Here's what I did:

I pulled the non-active spare out and put it in the empty slot that contained the failing drive I had pulled previously.

After the array rebuilt and the Active Spare reverted back to just Spare I could then see Spare Management options in ACU.

It was showing the missing spare so I removed it via Spare Management.

It's all good now. Thanks for the help.