Disk replacement recording and reporting

The disk hospital keeps track of disks that require replacement according to the disk replacement policy of the declustered array, and it can be configured to report the need for replacement in a variety of ways. It records and reports the FRU number and physical hardware location of failed disks to help guide service personnel to the correct location with replacement disks.

If the storage JBOD supports multiple disks that are mounted on a removable carrier, such as the Power® 775, disk replacement requires the hospital to suspend other disks in the same carrier temporarily. On the Power 775 storage JBOD, the disk carriers are also not removable until GNR actuates a solenoid-controlled latch, in order to guard against human error.

In response to administrative commands, the hospital quiesces the appropriate disk (or multiple disks on a carrier), releases the carrier latch solenoid (if necessary), and turns on identify lights to guide replacement. After one or more disks are replaced and the disk or carrier is re-inserted, the hospital, in response to administrative commands, verifies that the repair has taken place and adds any new disks to the declustered array automatically, which causes GPFS Native RAID to rebalance the tracks and spare space across all of the disks of the declustered array. If service personnel fail to re-insert the disk or carrier within a reasonable period, the hospital declares the disks missing and starts rebuilding the affected data.