Chapter 17 Hot Spare Pools (Tasks)

This chapter explains how to work with Solaris Volume Manager's hot spares and hot spare pools. For information about related concepts, see Chapter 16, Hot Spare Pools (Overview).

Hot Spare Pools (Task Map)

The following task map identifies the procedures needed to manage Solaris Volume Manager hot spare pools.

Creating a Hot Spare Pool

The metahs command can also be used to create hot spare pools.

How to Create a Hot Spare Pool

Do not create volumes or hot spares larger than 1TB if you expect to run the Solaris software with a 32–bit kernel or if you expect to use a version of the Solaris OS prior to Solaris 9 4/03. See Overview of Large Volume Support in Solaris Volume Manager for more information about large volume support in Solaris Volume Manager.

Solaris Volume Manager will not warn you if you create a hot spare that is not large enough. If the hot spare is not equal to, or larger than, the volume to which it is attached, the hot spare will not work.

Steps

1. Check Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components.

2. To create a hot spare pool, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node, then choose Action->Create Hot Spare Pool. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metainit command:

     metainit hot-spare-pool-name ctds-for-slice

     where ctds-for-slice is repeated for each slice in the hot spare pool. See the metainit(1M) man page for more information.

Example 17–1 Creating a Hot Spare Pool

# metainit hsp001 c2t2d0s2 c3t2d0s2
hsp001: Hotspare pool is setup

In this example, the hot spare pool hsp001 contains two disks as the hot spares. The system confirms that the hot spare pool has been set up.

See Also

To add more hot spares to the hot spare pool, see How to Add Additional Slices to a Hot Spare Pool. After you create the hot spare pool, you need to associate it with a submirror or RAID 5 volume. See How to Associate a Hot Spare Pool With a Volume.

How to Add Additional Slices to a Hot Spare Pool

Steps

1. Check Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components.

2. To add a slice to an existing hot spare pool, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node, then choose the hot spare pool you want to change. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spares panel. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metahs command:

     metahs -a hot-spare-pool-name slice-to-add

     Use -a for hot-spare-pool-name to add the slice to the specified hot spare pool.

     Use -all for hot-spare-pool-name to add the slice to all hot spare pools. See the metahs(1M) man page for more information.

   ---

   Note –

   You can add a hot spare to one or more hot spare pools. When you add a hot spare to a hot spare pool, it is added to the end of the list of slices in the hot spare pool.

   ---

Example 17–2 Adding a Hot Spare Slice to One Hot Spare Pool

# metahs -a hsp001 /dev/dsk/c3t0d0s2
hsp001: Hotspare is added

In this example, the -a option adds the slice /dev/dsk/c3t0d0s2 to hot spare pool hsp001. The system verifies that the slice has been added to the hot spare pool.

Example 17–3 Adding a Hot Spare Slice to All Hot Spare Pools

# metahs -a -all /dev/dsk/c3t0d0s2
hsp001: Hotspare is added
hsp002: Hotspare is added
hsp003: Hotspare is added

In this example, the -a and -all options add the slice /dev/dsk/c3t0d0s2 to all hot spare pools configured on the system. The system verifies that the slice has been added to all hot spare pools.

Associating a Hot Spare Pool With Volumes

How to Associate a Hot Spare Pool With a Volume

Steps

1. Check Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components.

2. To associate a hot spare pool with a RAID 5 volume or submirror, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Volumes and choose a volume. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spare Pool panel and Attach HSP. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metaparam command:

     metaparam -h hot-spare-pool component

     -h

     Specifies to modify the hot spare pool named.

     hot-spare-pool

     Is the name of the hot spare pool.

     component

     Is the name of the submirror or RAID 5 volume to which the hot spare pool is being attached.

     See the metaparam(1M) man page for more information.

Example 17–4 Associating a Hot Spare Pool With Submirrors

# metaparam -h hsp100 d10
# metaparam -h hsp100 d11
# metastat d0
d0: Mirror
    Submirror 0: d10
      State: Okay        
    Submirror 1: d11
      State: Okay        
...
 
d10: Submirror of d0
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp100
...
 
 
d11: Submirror of d0
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp100
...

The -h option associates a hot spare pool, hsp100, with two submirrors, d10 and d11, of mirror, d0. The metastat command shows that the hot spare pool is associated with the submirrors.

Example 17–5 Associating a Hot Spare Pool With a RAID 5 Volume

# metaparam -h hsp001 d10
# metastat d10
d10: RAID
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp001
...

The -h option associates a hot spare pool named hsp001 with a RAID 5 volume named d10. The metastat command shows that the hot spare pool is associated with the RAID 5 volume.

How to Change the Associated Hot Spare Pool

Steps

1. Check Prerequisites for Creating Solaris Volume Manager Components.

2. To change a volume's associated hot spare pool, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Volumes node and choose the volume. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spare Pool panel. Detach the unwanted hot spare pool and detach the new hot spare pool by following the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metaparam command:

     metaparam -h hot-spare-pool-name RAID5-volume-or-submirror-name

     -h

     Specifies to modify the hot spare pool named.

     hot-spare-pool

     Is the name of the new hot spare pool, or the special keyword none to remove hot spare pool associations.

     component

     Is the name of the submirror or RAID 5 volume to which the hot spare pool is being attached.

     See the metaparam(1M) man page for more information.

Example 17–6 Changing the Hot Spare Pool Association

# metastat d4
d4: RAID
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp001
...
# metaparam -h hsp002 d4
# metastat d4
d4: RAID
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp002
...

In this example, the hot spare pool hsp001 is initially associated with a RAID 5 volume named d4. The hot spare pool association is changed to hsp002. The metastat command shows the hot spare pool association before and after this change.

Example 17–7 Removing the Hot Spare Pool Association

# metastat d4
d4: RAID
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool: hsp001
...
# metaparam -h none d4
# metastat d4
d4: RAID
    State: Okay        
    Hot spare pool:
...

In this example, the hot spare pool hsp001 is initially associated with a RAID 5 volume named d4. The hot spare pool association is changed to none, which indicates that no hot spare pool should be associated with this device. The metastat command shows the hot spare pool association before and after this change.

Maintaining Hot Spare Pools

The following sections show how to perform maintenance tasks on hot spare pools.

How to Check the Status of Hot Spares and Hot Spare Pools

Step

To view the status of a hot spare pool and its hot spares, use one of the following methods:

• From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties to get detailed status information. For more information, see the online help.

• Run the following form of the metastat command:

  metastat hot-spare-pool-name

Example 17–8 Viewing Hot Spare Pool Status

Here is sample output from the metastat command on a hot spare pool.

# metastat hsp001
hsp001: 1 hot spare
        c1t3d0s2                Available       16800 blocks

The metahs command can also be used to check the status of hot spare pool.

How to Replace a Hot Spare in a Hot Spare Pool

Steps

1. Verify whether the hot spare is currently being used by using one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spares panel and follow the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metastat command:

     metastat hot-spare-pool-name

     See the metastat(1M) man page.

2. To replace the hot spare, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spares panel and follow the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metahs command:

     metahs -r hot-spare-pool-name current-hot-spare replacement-hot-spare

     -r

     Specifies to replace disks in the hot spare pool named.

     hot-spare-pool

     Is the name of the hot spare pool, or the special keyword all to change all hot spare pool associations.

     current-hot-spare

     Is the name of the current hot spare that will be replaced.

     replacement-hot-spare

     Is the name of the slice to take the place of the current hot spare in the named pools.

     See the metahs(1M) man page for more information.

Example 17–9 Replacing a Hot Spare in One Hot Spare Pool

# metastat hsp003
hsp003: 1 hot spare
        c0t2d0s2                Broken       5600 blocks
# metahs -r hsp003 c0t2d0s2 c3t1d0s2
hsp003: Hotspare c0t2d0s2 is replaced with c3t1d0s2

In this example, the metastat command makes sure that the hot spare is not in use. The metahs -r command replaces hot spare /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s2 with /dev/dsk/c3t1d0s2 in the hot spare pool hsp003.

Example 17–10 Replacing a Hot Spare in All Associated Hot Spare Pools

# metahs -r all c1t0d0s2 c3t1d0s2
hsp001: Hotspare c1t0d0s2 is replaced with c3t1d0s2
hsp002: Hotspare c1t0d0s2 is replaced with c3t1d0s2
hsp003: Hotspare c1t0d0s2 is replaced with c3t1d0s2

In this example, the keyword all replaces hot spare /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s2 with /dev/dsk/c3t1d0s2 in all its associated hot spare pools.

How to Delete a Hot Spare From a Hot Spare Pool

Steps

1. Verify whether the hot spare is currently being used by using one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spares panel and follow the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metastat command:

     metastat hot-spare-pool-name

     See the metastat(1M) man page.

2. To delete the hot spare, use one of the following methods:

   • From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties, then choose the Hot Spares panel and follow the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

   • Use the following form of the metahs command:

     metahs -d hot-spare-pool-name current-hot-spare

     -d

     Specifies to delete a hot spare from the hot spare pool named.

     hot-spare-pool

     Is the name of the hot spare pool, or the special keyword all to delete from all hot spare pools.

     current-hot-spare

     Is the name of the current hot spare that will be deleted.

     See the metahs(1M) man page for more information.

Example 17–11 Deleting a Hot Spare from One Hot Spare Pool

# metastat hsp003
hsp003: 1 hot spare
        c0t2d0s2                Broken       5600 blocks
# metahs -d hsp003 c0t2d0s2

In this example, the metastat command makes sure that the hot spare is not in use. The metahs -d command deletes hot spare /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s2 in the hot spare pool hsp003.

How to Enable a Hot Spare

Step

To return a hot spare to the “available” state, use one of the following methods:

• From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Hot Spare Pools node and select a hot spare pool. Choose Action->Properties, then the Hot Spares panel and follow the instructions. For more information, see the online help.

• Use the following form of the metahs command:

  metahs -e hot-spare-slice

  -e

  Specifies to enable a hot spare.

  hot-spare-slice

  Is the name of the slice to enable.

  For more information, see the metahs(1M) man page.

Example 17–12 Enabling a Hot Spare

# metahs -e c0t0d0s2

In this example, the command places the hot spare /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 in the “Available” state after it has been repaired. It is unnecessary to specify a hot spare pool.