Patent ID: 7434090
Filing Date: 2008-10-07
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for spare disk drive management in a storage system, the storage system comprising a first set of disk drives in a power-on state, a second set of disk drives in a power-off state, the method comprising: detecting failure of a disk drive belonging to the first set of disk drives; analyzing location and connectivity to the first set of drives for disk drives in the second set of disk drives, the analysis based on the location and connectivity as applied to one or more spare selection criteria; and selecting a spare disk drive from the second set of disk drives based on the analysis of the location and connectivity as applied to the one or more spare selection criteria, wherein the selected spare disk drive is determined based on its location and connectivity to the first set of drives as applied to the one or more spare selection criteria; powering-on the selected spare disk drive; and replacing the failed disk drive with the selected spare disk drive, wherein selecting a spare disk drive further comprises: