Physical Disks

Only Dell™ supported 6.0-Gbps SAS physical disks are supported in the storage array. If the storage array detects unsupported physical disks, it marks the disk as unsupported and the physical disk becomes unavailable for all operations.

NOTE: The MD3200 Series array must contain at least two physical disks for proper operation. This is necessary because the physical disks are used to store configuration information.

Physical Disk States

The storage array recognizes the physical disk states. Mode and status of physical disks are reported in the MDSM application. Possible values for mode and status or described in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1. RAID Controller Physical Disk States

Status

Mode

Description

Physical Disk

 

 

 

Status LED

 

 

 

 

Optimal

Assigned

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Steady Green

 

 

is configured as part of a disk group.

 

Optimal

Unassigned

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Steady Green

 

 

is unused and available to be

 

 

 

configured.

 

Optimal

Hot Spare

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Steady Green

 

standby

is configured as a hot spare.

 

Optimal

Hot Spare in

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Steady Green

 

use

is in use as a hot spare within a disk

 

 

 

group.

 

Failed

Assigned,

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Amber flashing

 

Unassigned,

has failed because of an unrecoverable

(150 ms)

 

Hot Spare in

error, an incorrect drive type or drive

 

 

use, or Hot

size, or by its operational state being

 

 

Spare standby

set to failed.

 

Replaced

Assigned

The physical disk in the indicated slot

Green flashing

 

 

has been replaced and is ready to be,

(On 400 ms, Off

 

 

or is actively being, configured into a

100 ms)

 

 

disk group.

 

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Planning: MD3200 Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts

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Dell MD3200, MD3220 owner manual Physical Disks, Physical Disk States