PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

[KBeau]

What does this mean when I reseat a failed drive and instead of going into a rebuild, it shows the state as 'foreign' and the only thing I can do with the drive from within OMA is blink or un-blink the drive?

KBeau

[grm139 · Accepted solution]

You will need to clear the foreign configuration, reconfigure the drive as hotspare and the rebuild will start.

To clear foreign configuration:  select the controller on OpenManage, go to the "Information/Configuration" tab, on "Controller Tasks" select "Foreign Configiration Operations", click "Execute".  On the next page, click "Clear"

To reconfigure as hot spare: go to the "Physical Disk" view, on the "Available Task" for that drive select "Assign Global Hot Spare".

I this drive is of the same type (SAS vs SATA), of equal or greater capacity, and there is no other degraded VDs on the controller, the rebuild will start.

[KBeau]

Thank you.  The rebuild did not start, but the physical disk now is in a 'Ready' state.  How do I get it in an 'on line' state?  My only options are to Blink, Unblink, Clear or make it a hot spare.  I don't want to assign it as a hot spare.  But CLEAR?  That doesn't sound right to me either!

Thanks loads!!

KBeau

[grm139]

If it is "ready" you do not need to clear the foreign configurations.

if you make it a hot spare, it will be used by the degraded virtual disk and it will become 'on line' when the rebuild completes.  That is your only option.  you cannot make a disk 'on line' just by changing the status.  The status will change when the disk has been properly integrated on the VD and all the data (and parity) written to it.

[KBeau]

I think I'm even more confused now.  I thought when a drive which is part of a raid array failed and was replaced or reseated, it automatically entered a rebuild state when the drive came back on line.  It never was a hot spare, just part of a RAID 1 configuration.

[grm139]

That will happen if you replaced the failed drive with a clean one, it seems the one you inserted had a foreign configuration.  Now that the automated rebuild is not working, you need to configure a hot spare to rebuild your RAID 1 volume.

[KBeau]

I only reseated the failed drive.  I did not replace it.  Be that as it may, I will go ahead and configure the hot spare and get to rebuilding the RAID.

Thanks again,

KBeau

[HDSupportRules]

Raid 5 config... Drive 1 failed... reseated drive, rebuild started then went to failed status then foreign... Followed these instructions and drive began rebuilding... 

[niko05]

does clearing foreign configuration erase the data on the hard drive..?

[theflash1932]

No. It only clears the RAID metadata. Why do you ask?