Merge foreign disk command


Merge foreign disk command
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If you remove a disk from the server and also remove it in Storage Foundation and then decide to reattach it to the server as a member of the same dynamic disk group, you need to use the Merge Foreign Disk command. This command reinstates the disk to its old status as a member of its former dynamic disk group on that server.

Note:

Dynamic disks belonging to a Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group do not support the Merge Foreign Disk command.

You also need to use this command if you remove a disk without taking its disk group offline, move the disk to another server, and then attempt to reinstall it in the original server. The command is necessary in this case because the disk has the other server's disk group ID.

In Storage Foundation, this command does not need to be used very often, because if a disk is removed from a computer that has subdisks from a redundant volume (such as a RAID-5 volume or a mirrored volume), the Hot Relocation command automatically rebuilds the missing subdisk on the volume. However, if the hot relocation feature is turned off, you may need this command.

If you have a dynamic disk group with one disk marked as Missing and you revert the remaining disks in the group to basic, the dynamic disk group no longer exists, and the disk marked as Missing also disappears from the VEA GUI. This happens because the information about a dynamic disk group is stored in a database on each of the disks that reside in the group. The dynamic disk group information is no longer available from the disks that were reverted to basic, and the Missing disk is not connected. If you reconnect the Missing disk and rescan, it shows up as Foreign. Now its database is available, but the remaining disks in the group are gone.

More information about removing a dynamic disk from the computer is available.

Note:

Dynamic disks belonging to a Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group do not support hot relocation.

Note:

Dynamic disks belonging to a SAN Disk Group do not support hot relocation.

To use the merge foreign disk command

Reattach the disk to the original server.
In the VEA console, do a rescan (select Rescan from the Actions menu). The disk is displayed in the tree with a red X. Its dynamic disk group displays as "Unknown Group."
Right-click the disk label in the tree view to bring up the disk context menu.
Select Merge Foreign Disk from the disk context menu.
After reading the first screen of the Merge Foreign Disk wizard, click Next to continue.
In the Merge Foreign Disk wizard screen that appears, select the disk that you want to merge.
Using the Add option, move it from the left pane of the screen to the right pane and then click Next to continue.

In the next screen, click Next to continue if the data condition on the disk is Healthy.

The final screen of the Merge Foreign Disk wizard appears.

The volume condition types are shown below:

Failed	Volume is not functional. Volume will be merged, may be unusable.
Failed Redundancy	Volume contents are not current. Volume will be merged.
Missing	Volume does not have a subdisk on merged disks.

If the volume condition type is Failed, there is no guarantee that the data is intact (though it may be).

If the disk is Missing, make sure that it is properly connected.

Click Finish to complete the process of merging the Foreign disk into the server.
The merged disk should now appear as it was before it was removed from the server. It should now be shown as being in its former dynamic disk group.
If the disk still has an error symbol, right-click the disk and click Reactivate Disk from the context menu that appears.
The disk now should appear as normal.

Dynamic disks belonging to a Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group do not support the Reactivate Disk command.

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