IBM 391, 387 Setting a hot-spare drive, Rebuilding a physical drive, ThinkServer User Guide

1.Start the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program. See “Starting the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program” on page 75.

2.On the main interface of the program, select Initialize and follow the instructions on the screen.

Setting a hot-spare drive

This topic provides instructions on how to set a physical drive as a hot-spare drive using the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program.

A hot-spare drive is an extra, unused drive that is part of the disk subsystem. It is usually in standby mode and ready for service if a drive fails. Setting hot-spare drives enables you to replace failing drives without performing a system shutdown operation. For a detailed introduction to hot-spare drives, refer to “Introduction to RAID” in the MegaRAID SAS Software User Guide on the documentation DVD that comes with your server.

To set a physical drive as a hot-spare drive using the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program, do the following:

1.Start the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program. See “Starting the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program” on page 75.

2.Do one of the following:

•If you want to create or add a new RAID array, you can set a hot-spare drive during the configuration process by following the instructions on the screen.

•If you want to set a hot-spare drive right after the configuration, select Objects ➙ Physical Drive from the program main interface. Then, select the physical drive that you want to set as a hot-spare drive and press Enter. A submenu is displayed. Select Make Hot Spare from the submenu and then select Yes when prompted to set the physical drive as a hot-spare drive.

Rebuilding a physical drive

This topic provides instructions on how to rebuild a physical drive using the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program when a physical drive in an array fails.

When a drive in a RAID drive group fails, you can rebuild the drive by recreating the data that was stored on the drive before it fails. If the drive is not operational, it must be replaced and the data on the failing drive must be rebuilt on a new drive to restore the system to fault tolerance. If hot-spare drives are available, the failing drive might be rebuilt automatically without any user intervention.

The RAID controller recreates the data using the data stored on other drives in the drive group. Rebuilding can be done only in drive groups with data redundancy, such as RAID 1, 5, and 10 drive groups. For a detailed introduction to disk rebuild, refer to “Introduction to RAID” in the MegaRAID SAS Software User Guide on the documentation DVD that comes with your server.

To rebuild a physical drive using the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program when a physical drive in an array fails, do the following:

1.Start the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program. See “Starting the LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility program” on page 75.

2.On the main interface of the program, select Rebuild and follow the instructions on the screen.

Note: Running a consistency check immediately after the rebuild completes to ensure data integrity for the virtual drives. See “Running a consistency check” on page 79.

The rebuild rate is the percentage of the computing cycles dedicated to rebuilding failing drives. A rebuild rate of 100 percent means that the system gives priority to rebuilding the failing drives. The rebuild rate can

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