----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen C. Woods scw@seas.ucla.edu To: toasters toasters@mathworks.com Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 12:10 PM Subject: Adding a spare to a Volume
The seems to be a big difference in how a 5.1.2R3 system with 4GB disks and a 5.3.4R2 system with 36BG disks adds a spare disk to a volume.
With 5.1.2R3 you get a message to the effect of: Zeroing disk, this will take forever, check progress with sysconfig -r
With 5.3.4R2 it happens right away, no delay.
Clearly this is great, however we wonder exactly when the zeroing took place (this is a brand new system just installed yesterday). Do the disks come zeroed from the factory? Or, does the system zero the drive when the drive is installed as a spare?
Normally, the disk is zeroed by Netapp. If you try to add a drive that isn't zeroed, the filer has to zero it first. Normally it should happen "right away, no delay" as you said.
Reasons why you may have experienced the difference is:
1. The 4GB disk wasn't zeroed but the 36GB disk was. 2. The 36GB disk wasn't zeroed but supports "hardware zeroing" so it completed very quickly. 3. Some difference between 5.1.2R3 and 5.3.4R2 about when it zeros a disk. (I find this the least likely, though.)
Bruce