HPE P2000/MSA 2000 Storage - How to Rebuild the VDisk After a Hard Drive Failure if the Process is Not Started Automatically

Environment

FACT:HP MSA 2000 series G1 and G2 family

FACT:HPE MSA P2000 G3 Modular Smart Array Systems

Questions/Symptoms

SYMPTOM:When the hard disk was replaced after a disk failure the rebuild did not start automatically

Cause

CAUSE:The MSA had no available spares (Dedicated or global spare) and dynamic spares feature was not enabled. Hence, by simply replacing the failed disk did not start the reconstruction process.

Answer/Solution

FIX:The controller automatically reconstructs a redundant (fault-tolerant) vdisk (RAID 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50) when one or more of its disks fails and a compatible spare disk is available. 

A compatible spare disk is a properly sized available drive used for reconstruction whose capacity is equal to or greater than the smallest drive in the virtual disk and is the same type (SAS or SATA).

There are three types of spares:
• Dedicated spare - Reserved for use by a specific vdisk to replace a failed disk. Most secure way to provide spares for vdisks but expensive to reserve a spare for each vdisk.
• Global spare - Reserved for use by any redundant vdisk to replace a failed disk.
• Dynamic spare - An available compatible disk that is automatically assigned to replace a failed disk in a redundant vdisk.

Spare disk usage:

• When a disk fails, the system looks for a dedicated spare first. 
• If it does not find a dedicated spare, it looks for a global spare. 
• If it does not find a compatible global spare and the dynamic spares option is enabled, it takes any available compatible disk. 
• If no compatible disk is available, reconstruction cannot start. 
In this scenario, follow the steps given below to add Dedicated spare to the vdisk in question to start the reconstruction.

For MSA 2000 Gen 1:

Follow the steps below to rebuild the VDisk after the hard drive failure:

1. Log into the HPE MSA Storage Management Utility (SMU).
2. Select Manage, Virtual Disk Config, Vdisk Configuration, Add Vdisk Spares.
For each virtual disk, the virtual disk panel shows a status icon; the name, RAID level, size, number of disk drives, and number of volumes; and utility status, if any.
3. Select the virtual disk (which needs to rebuild).
4. In the Select Drives To Be Vdisk Spares panel, select drives to be spares for the selected virtual disk. Only appropriate drives are selectable.
5. Click Add Vdisk Spares.
A processing message is displayed. 

The rebuild will start and one can monitor the rebuild status.


For MSA 2000 Gen 2, P2000 Gen 3:

Follow the steps below to rebuild the VDisk after the hard drive failure:

1. Log into the HP MSA Storage Management Utility (SMU).
2. In the Configuration View panel, right-click a vdisk and select Configuration, Manage Dedicated Spares. 
The main panel shows information about the selected vdisk, its spares, and all disks in the system. Existing spares are labeled SPARE.
• In the disk selection sets table, the number of empty slots in the SPARE entry's Disks field shows how many spares can be added to the vdisk.
• In the enclosure view or list, only existing spares and suitable available disks are selectable.
3. Select disks to add as spares.
4. Click Modify Spares. If the task succeeds, the panel is updated to show which disks are now spares for the vdisk.

The rebuild will start and one can monitor the rebuild status.