User's Manual

Controllers 113
Importing Foreign Configurations
Some controllers enable you to import a foreign configuration so that virtual
disks are not lost after moving the physical disks.
You can import a foreign configuration only if it contains a virtual disk that is
in either Ready or Degraded state. In other words, all of the virtual disk data
must be present, but if the virtual disk is using a redundant RAID level, the
additional redundant data is not required.
For example, if the foreign configuration contains only one side of a mirror in
a RAID 1 virtual disk, then the virtual disk is in Degraded state and can be
imported. On the other hand, if the foreign configuration contains only one
physical disk that was originally configured as a RAID 5 using three physical
disks, then the RAID 5 virtual disk is failed and cannot be imported.
In addition to virtual disks, a foreign configuration may consist of a physical
disk that was assigned as a hot spare on one controller and then moved to
another controller. The Import Foreign Configuration task imports the new
physical disk as a hot spare. If the physical disk was a dedicated hot spare on
the previous controller, but the virtual disk to which the hot spare was
assigned is no longer present in the foreign configuration, then the physical
disk is imported as a global hot spare.
The Import Foreign Configuration task is only displayed when the controller
has detected a foreign configuration. You can also identify whether or not a
physical disk contains a foreign configuration (virtual disk or hot spare) by
checking the physical disk state. If the physical disk state is Foreign, then the
physical disk contains all or some portion of a virtual disk or has a hot spare
assignment.
If you have an incomplete foreign configuration which cannot be imported,
you can use the Clear Foreign Configuration option to erase the foreign data
on the physical disks.
NOTE: The task of importing foreign configuration imports all virtual disks residing
on physical disks that have been added to the controller. If more than one foreign
virtual disk is present, you cannot choose which one to import. All foreign
configurations are imported.