Patent ID: 8959389
Filing Date: 2015-02-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer program product comprising: a computer-readable storage device having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising: computer-readable program code configured to identify a failure indication for a first data storage device that is a member of a first RAID group of a storage array; computer-readable program code configured to, via a processor external to the storage array, identify a virtual drive that is defined to include at least one logical storage volume defined in a second RAID group; computer-readable program code configured to determine whether the virtual drive is healthy; and computer-readable program code configured to provision the virtual drive to serve as a virtual hot spare within the first RAID group to replace the first data storage device, wherein the computer usable storage device is not a transitory, propagating signal per se, and the computer-readable program code configured to provision the virtual drive to serve as the virtual hot spare within the first RAID group comprises computer-readable program code configured to provision the virtual drive only if the virtual drive is healthy.