Dell Shared PowerEdge RAID Controller 8 Cards For Dell PowerEdge VRTX Systems User’s Guide

The automatic Replace Member functionality allows a previously commissioned hot spare to be reverted to a usable hot spare. When a disk failure occurs within a virtual disk, an assigned hot spare (dedicated or global) is commissioned and begins rebuilding until the virtual disk is optimal. After the failed physical disk is replaced (in the same slot) and the rebuild is complete, the Shared PERC 8 card automatically starts to copy data from the commissioned hot spare to the newly inserted disk. After the data is copied, the new disk is a part of the virtual disk and the hot spare is reverted to a ready hot spare. This allows hot spares to remain in specific enclosure slots. While the Shared PERC 8 card is reverting the hot spare, the virtual disk remains optimal.

The physical disk with the SMART error is marked as Failed only after the successful completion of the Replace Member. This avoids putting the array in degraded status. If an automatic Replace Member occurs using a source disk that was originally a hot spare (that was used in a rebuild), and a new disk added for the Replace Member operation as the target disk, the hot spare reverts to the hot spare state after a successful Replace Member operation.