Hot spares can be replaced in any or all the hot spare pools to which they have been associated. However, hot spares that are in the "In Use" state cannot be replaced by other hot spares.
The order of hot spares in the hot spare pools is not changed when a replacement occurs.
Hot spares are placed in the "Broken" sate after an I/O error occurs. To fix this condition, first repair or replace the broken hot spare slice. Then bring the slice back to the "available" state by using DiskSuite Tool or the metahs(1M) command with the -e option.
A submirror or RAID5 metadevice may be using a hot spare in place of an errored slice. When that errored slice is enabled or replaced, the hot spare is marked "available" in the hot spare pool, and is ready for use.