Can't add a physical disk back to the RAID1 array

OK, I will try it on Monday, thanks!!

It worked, thanks!

But the locations of the related menu options (e.g. Clear foreign config, Make Global HS, etc.) are a bit awkward.

Hope dell can improve the menu hierarchy and make it more intuitive.

Depends on your perspective, I suppose, and your understanding of what exactly is going on when you do what you do:

- Foreign Configuration.  The RAID configuration is managed by the controller - when disks are tagged with a configuration that does not match the controller's configuration, they are tagged as foreign.  Even though the individual disks are flagged as foreign, and it might then seem that you should be able to clear/import the foreign configuration from the physical disks menu, the fact that it is the controller alone that handles that foreign configuration - and all configurations - makes it sensible to find the foreign configuration options in the tasks and configuration settings for the controller.

- Hot Spare.  There are two types of Hot Spares:  Global and Dedicated.  

Global Hot Spares are Hot Spares that can be assigned to protect any physical disk failure in the system (for which it is a suitable replacement), regardless of which virtual disk it belongs to, so that option is found in the Physical Disks menu, so any disk can be assigned to protect any/all arrays.  Say you have a RAID 1 with 2x73GB disks and a RAID 5 with 4x73GB ... you assign a Global Hot Spare, so that whether a disk from the RAID 1 or the RAID 5 fails, the Global Hot Spare will rebuild in the place of whatever array that disk belongs to.

Dedicated Hot Spares are Hot Spares assigned to specific arrays/virtual disks.  In our example above, if you assign the Hot Spare as a Dedicated Hot Spare for your RAID 5, then if a disk from the RAID 1 fails, the Hot Spare will NOT rebuild in its place - the Hot Spare will ONLY rebuild if a disk from the RAID 5 fails.  So, it then makes sense to find the Assign Dedicated Hot Spare option in the Virtual Disks section in the options for that specific RAID array/virtual disk.

These options have been in place for a decade, so it is unlikely that they will be moved any time soon.

Not intended to argue. I appreciate your help very much.

Just hope Dell staff might see this and consider my opinion. :)

With your explanation, I agree the general location (VD section or PD section) of the options. But I think they can be presented in a better way.

Consider my case again.

I want to add a PD back to a VD.

So, a logical thinking was to locate that PD or VD in the menu, and drill down to see what I can do with them.

However, the correct option (clear foreign config) was hidden under the drill-down menu of "Controller 0".

I wouldn't say it's totally wrong. But it wouldn't be the first place I look for.

It's also unclear if there are more than 1 foreign PDs and foreign configs.

A suggestion is to add another node under "Controller 0", say, "Disk Group of Available disks", "Disk Group of Orphan Disks", or whatever.

Under this node are those foreign PDs, and drill down from them will you find some VD-related options for them,

say,

clear the foreign config in this specific PD,

add that specific PD to VD0.

I understand.  That would be nice, but that is not something that is available on any Dell/LSI controllers ... not just not in the OpenManage software ... would likely take some substantial firmware/controller redesign on LSI's part to implement foreign configuration management like you describe.  As LSI's foreign configuration management and options stand now, the current setup is probably all that makes much sense.