Spare Management

For links and interfaces common to all Configuration Wizards links, please see Wizards Overview in ACU help.

The following screens allow you to assign or remove spare(s) to or from array(s).

Adding a Spare
This option is only available when there are at least three or more physical drives on the controller, since the minimum number of drives in a RAID 1+0 - Drive Mirroring configuration is two and RAID 0 - No Fault Tolerance doesn't allow spares. Multiple online spares can be assigned to each array, and these drives can be used as a spare by more than one array. If a spare has already been assigned to an array, it can also be assigned to another array. This reduces the amount of disk space that remains unused while the spare(s) wait for drive(s) to fail.

Removing a Spare
This option is only available when there is at least one physical drive being used as a spare on an array. To remove a drive from all of the arrays using it as a spare, each array must be chosen separately and then select the drive for removal.

Your first option will be to select the array you want to add or remove spare(s) from, selected from the available arrays listed.

The next option will be to select the drive(s) you want to add or remove from the array from the available physical drives listed. Check the drive(s) you would like to add to an array or Uncheck the drive(s) to remove them from an array.

Note: Only physical drives of the same size (within 10 percent) should be added to the same array because all the drives within an array are reduced to the size of the smallest physical drive. For example, an array with three 2.1-GB drives and a 4.3-GB drive would be viewed as being the same size as an array with four 2.1-GB drives since the 4.3-GB drive is seen as a 2.1-GB drive.

Active Spare
An Active Spare is a spare that is currently in use by an Array which contains a failed Physical Drive. A spare may also become an Active Spare if the current Active Spare fails and there are multiple spares available.

Note: A spare cannot be "selected" to become active. It becomes active automatically when it is being used.