Reassign data disks as spares

[tep_russia]

I have a FAS270, which has recently ran out of spares. There's not much data left on that filer and there are no plans of prolonging maintenance contract for it. Instead I'd like to reuse some existing disks as spares, as there is some space in the aggregate unoccupied by any volumes.

Is it possible to reassign some disks in the aggregate as hot spares?

[ekashpureff]

No, it isn't possible.

You'd have to destroy the aggregate to return the disks to the spares pool.

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Fastlane NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.fastlaneus.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[aborzenkov]

If existing aggregate is of type RAID_DP you could convert it it RAID4, that will free extra parity disk in every raid group. Otherwise it is impossible to remove disk from aggregate.

[tep_russia]

Apparently, I'll have to destroy and re-create it, I can't shrink RAID groups for them to support RAID4.

Thanks anyway.