Replacing a pdisk using mmvdisk

If one or more pdisks in the recovery group is marked for replacement, the mmvdisk recoverygroup list command reports it with a yes in the needs service column.

In the following example, the BB01L recovery group needs service:

# mmvdisk recoverygroup list

                                                            needs    user
recovery group  active   current or master server          service  vdisks  remarks
--------------  -------  --------------------------------  -------  ------  -------
BB01L           yes      server01.gpfs.net                 yes           3
BB01R           yes      server02.gpfs.net                 no            3

This happens when the number of failed pdisks in one of the recovery group's declustered arrays reaches or exceeds the replacement threshold for the declustered array.

Pdisks that have reached the threshold for replacement are listed with mmvdisk pdisk list --replace:
# mmvdisk pdisk list --recovery-group all --replace

recovery group  pdisk         priority  FRU (type)       location
--------------  ------------  --------  ---------------  --------
BB01L           e2s11             1.15  00W1240          Enclosure 2 Drive 11
BB01L           e3s01             1.15  00W1240          Enclosure 3 Drive 1

mmvdisk: A lower priority value means a higher need for replacement.
To replace the physical disk of a failed recovery group pdisk, complete the following tasks:
  1. Prepare the pdisk for replacement.
  2. Remove the failed physical disk.
  3. Insert a new physical disk.
  4. Replace the pdisk with the newly inserted physical disk.
To prepare pdisk e2s11 of recovery group BB01L for replacement, run the following command:
# mmvdisk pdisk replace --prepare --recovery-group BB01L --pdisk e2s11
mmvdisk: Suspending pdisk e2s11 of RG BB01L in location SX32901810-11.
mmvdisk: Location SX32901810-11 is Enclosure 2 Drive 11.
mmvdisk: Carrier released.
mmvdisk:
mmvdisk:   - Remove carrier.
mmvdisk:   - Replace disk in location SX32901810-11 with type '00W1240'.
mmvdisk:   - Reinsert carrier.
mmvdisk:   - Issue the following command:
mmvdisk:
mmvdisk:   mmvdisk pdisk replace --recovery-group BB01L --pdisk 'e2s11'

Then, remove the failed physical disk and insert a new physical disk of the same FRU/type.

Finish replacing pdisk e2s11 with the new physical disk by running the following command:
# mmvdisk pdisk replace --recovery-group BB01L --pdisk e2s11
mmvdisk:
mmvdisk: Preparing a new pdisk for use may take many minutes.
mmvdisk:
mmvdisk: The following pdisks will be formatted on node ess01io1:
mmvdisk:       /dev/sdrk
mmvdisk:
mmvdisk: Location SX32901810-11 is Enclosure 2 Drive 11.

mmvdisk: Pdisk e2s11 of RG BB01L successfully replaced.
mmvdisk: Carrier resumed.

Repeat this procedure for any other pdisk that is marked for replacement.