chdrive

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Use the chdrive command to change the drive properties.

Syntax

Parameters

-use unused | candidate | spare | failed

Describes the role of the drive:

unused indicates that the drive is not in use and will not be used as a spare.
candidate indicates that the drive is available for use in an array.
spare indicates that the drive can be used as a hot-spare drive if required.
failed indicates that the drive has failed.

Note: To create member drives, add the drives to (new) arrays by using the mkarray command.

If a drive fails for a distributed array, the array remains associated with the failed drive while it is in the failed state.

Note: If chdrive -use candidate is run on a compressed drive, it causes the drive to perform a format. The format must complete before the drive becomes online and available for use.

-allowdegraded

(Optional) Permits permission for a change of drive use to continue, even if a hotspare drive is not available for the array that the drive is a member of. You cannot specify -allowdegraded and -task together. You cannot specify -allowdegraded when an array expansion is in progress.

Important: Avoid using -allowdegraded.

-task format | certify | recover | erase

Causes the drive to perform a task:

format indicates that a drive will be formatted for use in an array; only permitted when drive is a candidate or has failed validation.
Note: For NVMe drives, formatting the drive completes a cryptographic erase of the drive.
certify indicates that the drive will be analyzed to verify the integrity of the data it contains; permitted for any drive that is a member.
Note: certify is not supported in NVMe drives.
recover recovers an offline flash drive without losing data; permitted when the drive is offline because a build is required, or when the drive has failed validation.
Note: recover is not supported in NVMe drives.
erase causes a sanitize disk erase operation. The type of erase is either cryptographic, block, or overwrite. The type of erase depends on the drive manufacturer, drive type, and firmware.
Note: This parameter is not available on cloud systems.

drive_id

The identity of the drive.

Description

Use this command to change the drive role, or to start long running drive tasks.

You can use lsdriveprogress to display progress (percentage) and estimated completion time of ongoing drive tasks.

When a drive that is associated with a distributed array is changed from member to failed, if the distributed array does not have available rebuild space then it is degraded. If -allowdegraded is not specified, the command fails because of insufficient rebuild areas. If the -allowdegraded parameter is specified, the command succeeds and the array no longer uses the drive for I/O operations. If a drive is changed from failed to another configuration, the information for that drive is removed and the distributed array creates a missing member that belongs in the member table. Use the charraymember command to replace the missing member.

An invocation example

chdrive -use spare 1

The resulting output:

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An invocation example to certify drive 23

chdrive -task certify 23

The resulting output:

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