Symptoms

Unable to create Storage pool/RAID group even though there are unbound drives. While creating a new RAID group: Error: There are no more disks available to create a RAID. While creating a new storage pool: Error: There are no more disks available to create pool. Note that the system disk are not eligible for use in a pool.

Cause

The drives used to create a RAID group/storage pool were showing unbound in the disk list [Unisphere > System > Storage Hardware > Disk]. However these unbound drives were showing as part of a raid group [In Unisphere > Storage > Storage Pool > RAID Group]. And this raid group, RAID type was showing as Unbound. See the screenshot: In the screenshot, disk Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 15 drives are shown as unbound. It also shows that this drive is part of raid group "RAID Group 2" and the RAID Type shows as unbound. In the below logs, the drives 0.0.15 to 0.0.19 are shown as unbound but also part of RAID Group 2. 0.0.15 2 600GB SAS HITACHI Cobra-D PPGJR17B 118032767 005049250PWR C260 Unbound -- 6 6 0.0.16 2 600GB SAS HITACHI Cobra-D PPGK24ZB 118032767 005049250PWR C260 Unbound -- 6 6 0.0.17 2 600GB SAS HITACHI Cobra-D PPGHLMRB 118032767 005049250PWR C260 Unbound -- 6 6 0.0.18 2 600GB SAS HITACHI Cobra-D PZKD8URD 118032767 005049250PWR C3B2 Unbound -- 6 6 0.0.19 2 600GB SAS HITACHI Cobra-D PPGET75B 118032767 005049250PWR C260 Unbound -- 6 6 SPA/B_arrayconfig.txt file: RAIDGroup[2]: <<<<<< Raid group 2 Capacity: 5613414400 FreeSpace: 5613414400 LargestUnboundSegmentSize: 5613414400 RGRaidType: 0 Type: 0 OperationPriority: 1 WillBeRemoved: false IsPrivate: false State: 3 MaxLuns: 256 RawCapacityBlocks: 5613414400 PercentDefragmented: 100 PercentExpanded: 4294967295 LunExpansionEnabled: false LegalRaidTypes: 153 RGUserDefinedPowerSaving: false RGUserDefinedLatencyTolerance: 0 IsRGHardwarePowerSavingEligible: true IsRGPowerSavingEligible: true IsRGInStandByState: false ElementSize: 128 Disks: Disk[0.0.19]: Name: Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 19 Bank: -1 BankAsInteger: 4294967295 Disk[0.0.18]: Name: Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 18 Bank: -1 BankAsInteger: 4294967295 Disk[0.0.17]: Name: Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 17 Bank: -1 BankAsInteger: 4294967295 Disk[0.0.16]: Name: Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 16 Bank: -1 BankAsInteger: 4294967295 Disk[0.0.15]: Name: Bus 0 Enclosure 0 Disk 15 Bank: -1 BankAsInteger: 4294967295

Resolution

Destroy the RAID Group in which the RAID Type shows as "unbound" and the disks in the raid group shows as unbound. Then these drives can be used to create new pool or raid group. Destroying the raid group deletes all the LUNs. Ideally such RAID Group does not have any LUNs in them. In case if there are any LUNs in such a type of RAID group, the RAID group can be destroyed after deleting the LUN. If the LUNs are required, then do not delete the LUN or RAID Group.

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