#E5600 can't assign hot spares to groups/volumes

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

tepid temple
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Noticed the other day when we had a disk fail on our array that hot spares, although present and showing as standby/optimal, are not being used when a disk fails.

After some digging, I realized this is because in the Hot Spare Coverage detail menu in SANtricity, all the spares show the volumes/VG's they are protecting as none.

I'm hopefully just missing something obvious, but after un-assigning and attempting to reassign the spares a couple of times, there doesn't seem to be a way to associate a hot spare with a specific pool/volume. The manual makes it sound like another menu should pop up asking you which volume groups you want to protect with each spare, but assigning spares just results in them showing as protecting nothing again.

Does this require some type of license I don't have? Is this step done elsewhere in the software? I appreciate any input.

solid tide
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Hi @tepid temple , sorry to hear you’re having trouble with assigning the hot spares. Just wanted to confirm, you do have Volume Groups created, and not Dynamic Disk Pools correct? Do you have a case open with support on this yet? That might be the quickest way to get the necessary details to troubleshoot further.

tepid temple
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Yes, volume groups, not Dynamic Disk Pools.

Unfortunately this system is years and years out of support; I was hoping it was just something simple I was missing. If not, I'll keep trying to muddle through it myself. I realize there may not be as many of these still out there, so the admin base isn't as big.

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I appreciate the response!

solid tide
tepid temple
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Yes, I had found this, but I do appreciate you sending it!

Assigning disks manually or automatically does not give any opportunity to select specific volume groups. The table called out in this doc "Hot spare coverage" is just empty, with no option to select a specific volume group.

To clarify, the hot spares are assigned as hot spares, but they can't be dedicated to a specific volume group, so currently they are just...sitting there. 😂

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Also, I can confirm we definitely have volume groups on this system...otherwise none being available would make sense.

solid tide
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Got it, thank you for the additional details. I'll see what other docs I can find, but I'm wondering if you have defined **Global **Hot Spares that can apply to any of the VGs they fit for, and will be utilized once a drive fails vs. a dedicated Hot Spare to a specific VG. Been awhile since I've had a config to play with, but will let you know if I find anything. I might be imagining things too.

tepid temple
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I figured that might be the case a while back, but if that is the case, there must be some error with the hot spares actually jumping in when a drive fails, because they were not used during our last drive failure.

I appreciate anything you can find, and I definitely appreciate the help!

solid tide
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Ah I see. All the drives are homogenous? Same capacity, FDE, DA values? Sorry for all the questions, nothing is immediately jumping out.

tepid temple
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Yes, that was one thing I had to check, but all drives in this system are identical.

solid tide
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Hi @tepid temple, thank you for checking that. I was talking with a colleague about this, and wanted to also confirm if those drives are FDE drives? If so, are the drives "unlocked"? If the drives are secured (FDE capable and enabled) this might be the reason.

tepid temple
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That's a great thought. One of the spares is FIPS Compliant, but the rest are not.
But we also don't own the license for Drive Security for this array, so it's not enabled.

Is it possible that one of the spares being FIPS/FDE capable even though it's not enabled is screwing up the works?

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I know this is pretty deep in the weeds so I appreciate your help, again.

solid tide
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Based on what you stated, that they are all the same, even though it is FDE capable, it should still work as long as the other drives in the VG are also FDE capable. What RAID levels did you have created when the hot spare failed to engage? Did the VG go to a degraded, or failed state on the drive failure?

tepid temple
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As it turns out, I was mistaken about one of the original questions you asked me. This array does use disk pools, and as such doesn't require hot spares.

I was thrown off by the 'dynamic' terminology because that's not how it's labelled in the AMW, so I assumed (incorrectly) that this was a different feature.

I'm sorry to put you to unnecessary trouble and I really appreciate your persistence in helping! You guys rock!

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(also I've just mysteriously upped my capacity by an undisclosed amount of 'hot spare' drives) 🙂