Overview

Hot-plug reconfiguration or hot-plug operations cannot be performed on an active disk drive. All disk access activity must be stopped on a disk drive being removed or replaced.

In general, hot-plug reconfiguration operations involve three separate stages:

1. Preparing for hot-plug reconfiguration

2. Adding, replacing, or removing a disk drive

3. Reconfiguring the operating environment

Three specific cases exist where the hot-plug feature is useful.

• Adding a disk drive to a system to increase storage capacity. See "Adding a Hot-Pluggable Disk Drive".

• Replacing a faulty disk drive while the system is running. See "Replacing a Faulty Hot-Pluggable Disk Drive". When you intend to replace a faulty drive, prepare replacement disks ahead of time to simplify replacement later. Each replacement disk should be formatted, labeled, and partitioned the same as the disks to be replaced, and have file systems or other application specific preparation performed.

• Removing a drive from a system that no longer needs it. See "Removing a Hot-Pluggable Disk Drive".