38 Planning: MD3600i Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts
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 MD3600i storage enclosure 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

Table4-1 describes the various states of the physical disk, which are

recognized by the storage array and reported in the MDSM application.

Table 4-1. RAID Controller Physical Disk States
Status Mode Description Physical Disk
Status LED
Optimal Assigned The physical disk in the indicated slot
is configured as part of a disk group.
Steady green
Optimal Unassigned The physical disk in the indicated slot
is unused and available to be
configured.
Steady green
Optimal Hot Spare
Standby
The physical disk in the indicated slot
is configured as a hot spare.
Steady green
Optimal Hot Spare in
use
The physical disk in the indicated slot
is in use as a hot spare within a disk
group.
Steady green
Failed A ssig ned,
Unassigned,
Hot Spare in
use, or Hot
Spare Standby
The physical disk in the indicated slot
has failed because of an unrecoverable
error, an incorrect drive type or drive
size, or by its operational state being
set to failed.
Amber flashing
(150 ms)
Replaced Assigned The physical disk in the indicated slot
has been replaced and is ready to be,
or is actively being, configured into a
disk group.
Green flashing
(on 400 ms, off
100 ms)
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