Drives
Drives
A physical drive goes through a simple lifecycle in StorONE: when it's first installed it shows up unapproved (StorONE has detected it but isn't using it yet); you approve it to put it to work in a pool; if it's later removed or stops responding it's declared dead; and if it comes back (a cabling issue, a drive that was pulled by mistake, and so on) you can revive it rather than treating it as a permanent loss. This page covers that lifecycle, plus locating a drive's LED and pulling its SMART diagnostics.
Listing drives
Using the web interface
Open Inventory > Resources > Drives. Under Node Selection, optionally pick a specific node; under Drive Selection, optionally filter by drive ID or by pattern. The toolbar also lets you show only drives with errors, advanced details, LED status, and secure-erase status.
Using the CLI
resources drives list [--node=<name>] [--errors] [--details] [--ids=<numbers...>] [--led] [--patterns=<text...>] [--secureErase]
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--node=<name> |
Show results from a specific node. If omitted, the first available node is used. |
--errors |
Show only components with errors. |
--details |
Show advanced information. |
--ids=<numbers...> |
Filter by drive ID. |
--led |
Show the LED status. |
--patterns=<text...> |
Filter drives by name, capacity, serial, or type. Wildcards (*) are supported. |
--secureErase |
Show secure erase status. |
Examples
List every drive with full details:
resources drives list --details
List only drives currently reporting an error:
resources drives list --errors
List every 4TB SSD (using a wildcard pattern against name/capacity/serial/type):
resources drives list --patterns "*4TB*SSD*"
Approving new drives
A newly installed drive isn't used for storage until you approve it. Approving a drive assigns it to a pool —— by default, an automatic pool for its drive type (HDD, SSD, or NVMe), or a specific manual pool if you name one.
You can select which drives to approve three ways:
- By explicit drive ID(s) with
--driveIds. - With
--all, to approve every approvable drive at once. - With
--patterns(matching name, capacity, serial, or type, wildcards supported), optionally capped with--countto only take a certain number of the matches—— handy on a large JBOD where you want "the next 12 matching drives" without listing every ID.
A couple of things worth knowing before you approve drives on a brand-new system: the very first batch of NVMe/SSD drives you approve needs to include enough drives to build StorONE's own internal database with redundancy (StorONE will tell you the exact minimum and block the approval if you're short), and if any of the drives are self-encrypting (SED) drives, you won't be able to set a SED password on them anymore once they're approved —— set it first if you need to (see Self-Encrypting Drives).
Using the web interface
- Open Inventory > Resources > Drives.
- Select the unapproved drive(s) in the list, or use the Approve action and fill in the criteria.
- Under Drive Selection, choose the drives (by ID, all, or pattern/count).
- Under Assignment to Manual Pool (optional), pick a manual pool to assign the drives to instead of the automatic pool for their type.
- Confirm to approve.
Using the CLI
resources drives approve --driveIds=<numbers...>|--all|(--patterns=<text...> [--count=<numbers>]) [--manualPool=<name>] [--force]
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--driveIds=<numbers...> |
Approve newly added drives with these ids. |
--all |
Approve all drives. |
--patterns=<text...> |
Filter drives by name, capacity, serial, or type. Wildcards (*) are supported. |
--count=<numbers> |
Number of drives to take that match the specified patterns. |
--manualPool=<name> |
Assign the approved drives to this manual pool instead of an automatic pool. |
--force |
Skip the confirmation prompt. |
Examples
Approve two specific drives into their automatic type-based pool:
resources drives approve --driveIds 12,13
Approve every currently approvable drive in the system:
resources drives approve --all
Approve the next 8 SSD drives into the manual pool finance-pool:
resources drives approve --patterns "*SSD*" --count 8 --manualPool finance-pool
Unapproving a drive
Unapproving is the controlled way to take a drive out of service before physically removing it —— StorONE declares it dead and, if the drive was carrying data protected by redundancy (K > 0), starts rebuilding that data onto the remaining drives. Use this rather than just pulling the drive, so the rebuild starts immediately instead of waiting for StorONE to notice the drive vanished.
Using the web interface
- Open Inventory > Resources > Drives.
- Select the drive and use the Unapprove action.
- Confirm
—— optionally choosing to begin a secure erase of the drive immediately afterward.
Using the CLI
resources drives unapprove --driveId=<numbers> [--force] [--secure_erase]
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--driveId=<numbers> |
Unapprove existing drive with this id. |
--force |
Skip the confirmation prompt. |
--secure_erase |
Begin secure erase of the drive after unapproving it. |
Examples
Unapprove a drive that's about to be physically replaced:
resources drives unapprove --driveId 12
Unapprove a drive and immediately wipe it, e.g. before decommissioning it:
resources drives unapprove --driveId 12 --secure_erase --force
Secure erasing an unapproved drive
This performs a full, irreversible data wipe of a drive that is not currently approved —— either because you just unapproved it, or because it's a new drive you want to sanitize before it's ever used. Use this when a drive is leaving your control (being returned, discarded, or repurposed outside StorONE) and you need to guarantee no data on it is recoverable.
This is a general-purpose wipe, distinct from the self-encrypting-drive PSID erase covered in Self-Encrypting Drives, which is specifically for recovering a SED drive when its password is lost.
Using the web interface
- Open Inventory > Resources > Drives.
- Select the unapproved drive and use the Secure Erase action.
- Confirm
—— this cannot be undone.
Using the CLI
resources drives secure_erase --driveId=<numbers> [--force]
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--driveId=<numbers> |
Secure erase unapproved drive with this id. |
--force |
Skip the confirmation prompt. |
Example
resources drives secure_erase --driveId 12
Reviving a dead drive
If a drive was declared dead but the problem turns out to be recoverable —— it was pulled by mistake, a cable was reseated, and so on —— reviving it puts it back into service instead of leaving it permanently retired. A drive can only be revived if it's healthy, not the OS/boot drive, and currently in the dead state.
Using the web interface
- Open Inventory > Resources > Drives.
- Select the dead drive(s) and use the Revive action.
- Optionally choose a manual pool to assign the revived drive(s) to.
- Confirm.
Using the CLI
resources drives revive --driveIds=<numbers...> [--manualPool=<name>]
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--driveIds=<numbers...> |
Revive dead drives with these ids. |
--manualPool=<name> |
Assign the revived drives to this manual pool. |
Examples
Revive a single drive back into its original (automatic) pool:
resources drives revive --driveIds 12
Revive two drives directly into the manual pool finance-pool:
resources drives revive --driveIds 12,13 --manualPool finance-pool
Locating a drive (LED)
Turning on a drive's locate LED lights up the indicator on its physical bay, which is the easiest way to confirm you're about to pull the right drive out of a chassis full of look-alikes. Turn it back off once you're done.
Using the web interface
Open Inventory > Resources > Drives, select the drive (or multiple drives), and use the LED On / LED Off row action.
Using the CLI
resources drives led_on --driveId=<numbers>
resources drives led_off --driveId=<numbers>
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--driveId=<numbers> |
Turn the LED on/off for this drive. |
Examples
resources drives led_on --driveId 12
resources drives led_off --driveId 12
SMART diagnostics
For a deeper look at a drive's health than its StorONE status alone provides —— power-on hours, reallocated sectors, temperature history, and so on —— you can pull its raw SMART data. This is most useful when a drive is reporting intermittent errors and you want to see whether the drive's own self-monitoring backs that up before deciding to replace it.
Using the web interface
Open Inventory > Resources > Drives, select the drive, and use the SMART action.
Using the CLI
resources drives smart --node=<name> --driveid=<numbers>
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--node=<name> |
The node to run the SMART command on. |
--driveid=<numbers> |
The ID of the drive to get SMART data for. |
Example
resources drives smart --node node1 --driveid 12
Next: Drive Enclosures —— locating drives by their physical chassis/slot.
See also: Drive Pools ·· Self-Encrypting Drives