Replacing a failed or removed disk

The following procedure describes how to replace a failed or removed disk.

A different procedure is required to remove and replace a disk in a Sun StorEdge A5x00 or similar type of array.

To specify a disk that has replaced a failed or removed disk

  1. Select Replace a failed or removed disk from the vxdiskadm main menu.
  2. At the following prompt, enter the name of the disk to be replaced (or enter list for a list of disks):
    Select a removed or failed disk [<disk>,list,q,?] mydg02
  3. The vxdiskadm program displays the device names of the disk devices available for use as replacement disks. Your system may use a device name that differs from the examples. Enter the device name of the disk or press Return to select the default device:
    The following devices are available as replacements:
    c0t1d0 c1t1d0
    
    You can choose one of these disks to replace mydg02.
    Choose "none" to initialize another disk to replace mydg02.
    
    Choose a device, or select "none" 
    [<device>,none,q,?] (default: c0t1d0)
  4. Depending on whether the replacement disk was previously initialized, perform the appropriate step from the following:

    • If the disk has not previously been initialized, press Return at the following prompt to replace the disk:

      VxVM INFO V-5-2-378 The requested operation is to initialize 
      disk device c0t1d0 and to then use that device to 
      replace the removed or failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
      Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
    • If the disk has already been initialized, press Return at the following prompt to replace the disk:

      VxVM INFO V-5-2-382 The requested operation is to use the 
      initialized device c0t1d0 to replace the removed or 
      failed disk mydg02 in disk group mydg.
      Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y)
    • If the disk was previously an encapsulated root disk, vxdiskadm displays the following message. Enter y to confirm that you want to reinitialize the disk:

      VxVM INFO V-5-2-876 The disk c0t1d0 was a previously 
      encapsulated root disk. Due to the disk layout that results 
      from root disk encapsulation, the preferred action is to 
      reinitialize and reorganize this disk. However, if you have 
      any non-redundant data on this disk you should not reorganize
      this disk, as the data will be lost.
      Reorganize the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) y
      

    Warning:

    It is recommended that you do not enter n at this prompt. This can result in an invalid VTOC that makes the disk unbootable.

    Entering y at the prompt destroys any data that is on the disk. Ensure that you have at least one valid copy of the data on other disks before proceeding.
  5. You can now choose whether the disk is to be formatted as a CDS disk that is portable between different operating systems, or as a non-portable sliced or simple disk:
    Enter the desired format [cdsdisk,sliced,simple,q,?]
    (default: cdsdisk)

    Enter the format that is appropriate for your needs. In most cases, this is the default format, cdsdisk.

  6. At the following prompt, vxdiskadm asks if you want to use the default private region size of 65536 blocks (32 MB). Press Return to confirm that you want to use the default value, or enter a different value. (The maximum value that you can specify is 524288 blocks.)
    Enter desired private region length [<privlen>,q,?]
    (default: 65536)
  7. The vxdiskadm program then proceeds to replace the disk, and returns the following message on success:
    VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-158 Disk replacement completed successfully.

    At the following prompt, indicate whether you want to replace another disk (y) or return to the vxdiskadm main menu (n):

    Replace another disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)

More Information

Removing and replacing a disk in a Sun StorEdge A5x00 disk array