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.
NOTE: The task
of importing foreign configuration imports all virtual disks residing
on physical disks that have been added to the controller. If more
than one foreign virtual disk is present, all the configurations are
imported.
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.
NOTE: It is not
recommended to remove an external enclosure cable while the operating
system is running on the system. Removing the cable could result in
a foreign configuration when the connection is re-established.
You can manage foreign configurations in the following cases:
All the physical disks in a configuration are removed and re-inserted.
Some of the physical disks in a configuration are removed and
re-inserted.
All the physical disks in a virtual disk are removed, but at
different times, and then re-inserted.
The physical disks in a non-redundant virtual disk are removed.
The following constraints apply to the physical disks that are
considered for import:
The drive state of a physical disk can change from the time
the foreign configuration is scanned to when the actual import occurs.
The foreign import occurs only on drives that are in the Unconfigured
Good state.
Drives in the failed or offline state cannot be imported.
The firmware does not allow you to import more than eight foreign
configurations.
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