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Difficulty: HardStorage Drives and RAID Array Issues

A system administrator receives an alert indicating that a enterprise database server's five-disk RAID 5 array of U.2 NVMe SSDs is running in a degraded state after Disk 3 experienced a unrecoverable hardware failure. The administrator hot-swaps the failed drive with a brand-new, identical NVMe SSD. After physical installation, the controller status interface shows the new drive as 'Unconfigured Good' or 'Unassigned', and the array remains in a degraded state without initiating an automatic rebuild. Which of the following is the most appropriate next step to initiate the array rebuild?

  1. Assign the replacement drive as a dedicated hot spare or select it to manually initiate the array rebuild operation in the controller software.Answer
  2. B
    Format the entire RAID volume from the operating system disk management utility to force the controller to register the replacement drive.
  3. C
    Perform a low-level format on the newly installed NVMe SSD using command-line storage tools to clear its partition table.
  4. D
    Re-initialize the RAID 5 array configuration from the controller BIOS/UEFI, creating a new virtual disk volume.

Answer

Assign the replacement drive as a dedicated hot spare or select it to manually initiate the array rebuild operation in the controller software.
The correct action is to assign the newly physically installed drive as a dedicated target drive or hot spare within the RAID management interface. In many enterprise hardware RAID setups, a newly inserted drive is detected as an unconfigured raw disk. Explicitly assigning it to the array or setting it as a hot spare informs the RAID controller to begin reconstructing parity onto the new drive.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the reported RAID array state and drive status.
The array is RAID 5 in a degraded state due to a failed drive, and the new replacement drive is detected physically but marked as 'Unassigned' or 'Unconfigured Good'.
Hardware RAID controllers do not always automatically import or start rebuilding onto unassigned foreign or newly inserted blank disks unless explicit auto-rebuild policies are active.
2
Determine the administrative action required to rebuild the degraded RAID 5 array.
The technician must enter the RAID management interface and assign the drive to the array volume or mark it as a hot spare/rebuild target.
Explicit assignment instructs the RAID controller to use the target drive's storage capacity to reconstruct missing data using parity calculations from the remaining online member drives.

Key Concept

RAID 5 Rebuild Operations & Unassigned Drive Configuration
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Storage Drives and RAID Array Issues

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