Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9) Version 3.00.00.00 User's Guide

Importing or auto importing foreign configuration

A foreign configuration is data residing on physical disks that have been moved from one controller to another. Virtual disks residing on physical disks that have been moved are considered to be a foreign configuration.

You can import foreign configurations so that virtual disks are not lost after moving Physical Disks. A foreign configuration can be imported only if it contains a virtual disk that is in either Ready or Degraded state or a hotspare that is dedicated to a virtual disk which can be imported or is already present.

All of the virtual disk data must be present, but if the virtual disk is using a redundant RAID level, the additional redundant data is not required.

For example, if the foreign configuration contains only one side of a mirror in a RAID 1 virtual disk, then the virtual disk is in a Degraded state and can be imported. If the foreign configuration contains only one physical disk that was originally configured as a RAID 5 using three physical disks, then the RAID 5 virtual disk is in a Failed state and cannot be imported.

In addition to virtual disks, a foreign configuration may consist of a physical disk that was assigned as a hot spare on one controller and then moved to another controller. The Import Foreign Configuration task imports the new physical disk as a hot spare. If the physical disk was set as a dedicated hot spare on the previous controller, but the virtual disk to which the hot spare was assigned is no longer present in the foreign configuration, then the physical disk is imported as a global hot spare.

If any foreign configurations locked using Local Key manager (LKM) are Detected, then import foreign configuration operation is not possible in iDRAC in this release. You must unlock the drives through CTRL-R and then continue to import foreign configuration from iDRAC.

The Import Foreign Configuration task is only displayed when the controller has detected a foreign configuration. You can also identify whether a physical disk contains a foreign configuration (virtual disk or hot spare) by checking the physical disk state. If the physical disk state is Foreign, then the physical disk contains all or some portion of a virtual disk or has a hot spare assignment.

PERC9 controller provides support for auto import of foreign configuration without requiring user interactions. The auto import can be enabled or disabled. If enabled, the PERC controller can auto import any foreign configuration detected without manual intervention. If disabled the PERC does not auto import any foreign configuration.

You must have Login and Server Control privilege to import foreign configurations.

This task is not supported on PERC hardware controllers running in HBA mode.