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Difficulty: HardStorage Drives and RAID Array Issues

A system administrator notices severe write latency on a database server containing a four-disk NVMe RAID 10 array. The hardware RAID controller utility indicates that the array status is currently Degraded after Disk 2 failed S.M.A.R.T. health checks and was automatically marked offline. No hot spare is currently assigned to the array. Which of the following is the most appropriate immediate action to restore redundancy and optimal array performance without data loss?

  1. Replace Disk 2 with a functional NVMe drive of equal or greater capacity and initiate a rebuild of the degraded array.Answer
  2. B
    Format all functional drives in the RAID 10 array using disk management to clear corrupted metadata before re-adding Disk 2.
  3. C
    Re-initialize the RAID 10 configuration from the controller BIOS and restore the system volume from the latest offsite backup.
  4. D
    Perform a low-level format on Disk 2 and force the array controller to bring the drive back online into the active set.

Answer

The correct action is to replace the failed NVMe disk with a new disk of equal or greater capacity and initiate an array rebuild through the storage controller interface.
In a RAID 10 configuration, data is striped across mirrored pairs. When a single disk fails S.M.A.R.T. checks, the controller marks it offline, leaving its mirror partner to handle all read/write operations (causing degraded write latency). Replacing the failed drive with a healthy drive of equal or greater capacity allows the controller to rebuild the mirror relationship without taking down the volume or losing data.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify degraded array status and confirm failing hardware component
Disk 2 is identified as failed due to S.M.A.R.T. hardware errors while remaining drives continue running the degraded RAID 10 volume.
RAID 10 provides fault tolerance against single disk failures per mirrored pair without total volume loss.
2
Remove failing drive and insert a healthy replacement disk
The physical failing NVMe SSD is swapped with a new drive matching or exceeding the original drive's specification.
Rebuilding requires a clean target disk free of S.M.A.R.T. physical sector failures.
3
Execute the array rebuild via the RAID controller utility
Data from the surviving mirrored partner disk is copied back to the replacement disk, restoring full redundancy.
Rebuilding updates the new disk's data structures to match the active RAID set while preserving existing volume data.

Key Concept

RAID 10 Degraded State Recovery
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Topics

Storage Drives and RAID Array Issues

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