Hot spare missing in Security Analytics storage

Products

• Security Analytics

Issue/Introduction

The storage array is reporting the following error:

Failure Entry 1: HOT_SPARE_MISSING-Recovery Failure Type Code: 203

Environment

Dell MD3860f storage array
NetApp E5660 storage array

Cause

This can be caused by several things:

• A hot spare drive has been removed from the storage array.
• An old or a 'ghost' hot spare is being detected by the system.
• The actual Hot Spare drive has failed.

You may see something like this.  Notice the first drive listed is showing as "Standby (Missing)". However, the same exact drive in the same drawer and slot is showing at the bottom as "Standby (Optimal)"

You may also see just two drives listed, one that says Missing and the other that says Optimal.

Resolution

Gather a support bundle from the storage array.  

In almost all cases, this is caused by one of the two hot spare drives failing.  Usually the storage array volumes will remain healthy and optimal, but the hot spare should be replaced as soon as possible to prevent volume failures in the future.

Contact technical support for further assistance and be ready shipping information for a new drive.

 

If both hot spares are present in the array (showing as Hot spare standby - Optimal) and the entire storage array is showing Optimal, then the 'ghost' hot spare can be manually deleted in the SANtricity client.

1. Connected to the storage array, click Hardware in the menu.
2. Select Hot Spare Coverage
3. Click View/change current hot spare coverage
4. Look at the list of drives in the "Hot spare drives" window and identify if any are showing "Missing" in the "Drive Sector Format" column.
5. If there are two valid hot spares listed (they will show either Native or Emulated), select the third "Missing" drive and click Unassign.
6. Confirm the error message is gone and the array is Optimal.

If you cannot unassign the drive in SANtricity, contact technical support for further assistance.

 

Additional Information

See this article for other reasons a drive may fail: Disk drive failed in the Security Analytics storage array

keyword:  hotspare