Windows Server: How to Replace a Drive in Microsoft Azure Stack HCI using PowerShell or Windows Admin Center

Replacing a drive in Azure Stack HCI is a straightforward procedure that can be accomplished using PowerShell or Windows Admin Center (WAC).

Replace a drive using Windows PowerShell

1. On a node of the Azure Stack HCI cluster, launch an elevated PowerShell prompt.
2. To enumerate all hard drives that are not in a healthy state, run Get-PhysicalDisk | Where-Object {$_.HealthStatus -ne "Healthy"}.
3. To retire all disks identified by the previous command, run Get-PhysicalDisk | Where-Object {$_.HealthStatus -ne "Healthy"} | Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage Retired.
4. Run Get-PhysicalDisk to confirm that the disks specified in the previous step now show Retired in the Usage column.
5. Run Get-StorageJob to check whether storage jobs are still in progress. Allow them to finish before proceeding. (This may take a while.)
6. Physically remove and replace the failed drive.
7. Run Get-PhysicalDisk to confirm the presence of the replacement disk. It should automatically be added to the storage pool, though this may take a short while.
8. Once the disk has been added to the pool, the Get-StorageJob command can be used to monitor running storage jobs until they have completed.

Replace a drive using Windows Admin Center (WAC)

1. Select the cluster in WAC to open the Cluster Manager feature.
2. Click Drives in the left pane, then click Inventory to enumerate the drives in the cluster.
3. Select the drive to be replaced and click Retire in the bar above the inventory list. Click Retire in the popup window to confirm. The drive's Status column will now show that it has been retired.
4. Physically remove and replace the drive.
5. Refresh the drive inventory in WAC. The replacement drive should now be listed, though it may not yet be in the storage pool. This happens automatically, but it may take a short while.
6. Continue refreshing the drive inventory list until the old drive has disappeared from the list and the new drive has been added to the storage pool.