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How to Configure a "Global" Spare Drive in Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) for Linux*

Install & SetupArticle ID:0000989419/24/24

Environment

Operating System: Linux*

Description

When configuring a spare drive in Intel® VROC for Linux*, it only works inside the container. When a RAID from another container fails, the spare drive does not work.

Resolution

By default, the Intel® VROC spare drive in Linux* is dedicated to a specific container. Only the Intel® VROC RAID volumes inside that container can be automatically reconstructed to the spare drive when a redundant RAID volume is degraded.

Intel® VROC for Linux* allows configuring a global spare drive that can be used by any degraded Intel® VROC RAID volume on the system for automatic recovery (rebuilding).

The following command adds the policy with the same domain and the same action for all drives to the mdadm configuration file, which enables the global spare function that allows the spare drives to move from one container to another for rebuilding: # echo "POLICY domain=DOMAIN path=* metadata=imsm action=spare-same-slot" >> /etc/mdadm.conf

After configuring the policy in the mdadm configuration file, the mdmonitor service should be restarted to take effect: # systemctl restart mdmonitor.service

Additional information

Configuring a spare drive to work as a global spare still requires to first designate a drive to become a spare drive. To learn how to designate a drive to become a spare drive, refer to How to Mark a Drive as Spare in Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC).