How the maintenance center works

When a disk is in the maintenance center, it is subjected to a number of tests. If the disk passes all of the tests, it is returned to the spare pool. Otherwise, Data ONTAP fails the disk.

The maintenance center is controlled by the disk.maint_center.enable option. It is on by default.

You can control the number of times a disk is allowed to go to the maintenance center using the disk.maint_center.allowed_entries option. The default value for this option is 1, which means that if the disk is ever sent back to the maintenance center, it is automatically failed.

Data ONTAP informs you of these activities by sending messages to the following destinations:

The console
A log file at /etc/maintenance.log

Note: When Data ONTAP puts a drive into the maintenance center, and that drive is housed in a disk shelf that supports automatic power cycling, power to that drive might be turned off for a short period of time. If the drive returns to a ready state after the power cycle, the maintenance center tests the drive. Otherwise, the maintenance center fails the drive immediately.

You can see the power-cycle status for ESH4 disk shelves by using the environment shelf_power_status command.

When Data ONTAP can put a disk into the maintenance center
When Data ONTAP detects certain disk errors, it tries to put the disk into the maintenance center for testing. Certain requirements must be met for the disk to be put into the maintenance center.
Putting a disk into the maintenance center manually
You can put a disk into the maintenance center by using the disk maint start command.

Parent topic: How Data ONTAP monitors disk performance and health