Patent ID: 8914577

Claim:
A disk array control apparatus for controlling a disk array having a redundant configuration with two or more disk devices and a spare disk provided for lack of redundancy in the disk array, comprising: an array control unit to detect the lack of redundancy in the disk array; and a rebuilding control unit to perform rebuilding processing on a spare disk assigned to the disk array with the lack of redundancy detected by the array control unit, the spare disk being assigned to the disk array including the disk devices having a same characteristic as that of the spare disk, wherein, the array control unit compares a characteristic of a new spare disk that has become newly available to the disk array with a characteristic of the spare disk assigned for rebuilding processing of the disk array lacking the redundancy and in use for the rebuilt disk array, and when the array control unit determines that the new spare disk has the characteristic that a storage capacity of the new spare disk is equal to or smaller than a storage capacity of the spare disk in use for the rebuilt disk array, is within a range of storage capacities usable for the disk array and the number of rotations of the new spare disk is equal to the number of rotations of the spare disk in use for the disk array lacking the redundancy, the array control unit assigns the new spare disk to the rebuilt disk array to replace the spare disk in use for the rebuilt disk array, copies data in the spare disk in use for the rebuilt disk array to the new spare disk and changes a state of the spare disk in use for the rebuilt disk array to an unused state.