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Preemptive copy, also known as Copyaway, detects impending failure of a disk drive, checks RAID status, and if the RAID status is fully redundant and current, will initiate a Copyaway process to the available spare before the impaired drive fails.

In this Document

Symptoms

Axiom Brick RAID Preemptive Copy may cause storage to go offline temporarily

Synopsis

Affected Hardware and Software Versions

Changes

Cause

Problem

Solution

Solution/Workaround

Applies to:

Symptoms

Axiom Brick RAID Preemptive Copy may cause storage to go offline temporarily

Synopsis

Preemptive Copy is a feature of the Axiom where the data contained on a disk drive within a Brick storage enclosure is proactively copied away if it is determined that the drive has degraded to a point that failure is imminent. The Axiom attempts to copy the data off the drive prior to removing it from the associated RAID array in preparation for replacement.

A vulnerability has been discovered with the Preemptive Copy feature which may affect access to storage.

Affected Hardware and Software Versions

This issue affects all Axiom systems that are on AxiomONE 4.2.0 through 4.2.10 releases. The issue was mitigated beginning 4.2.11 by removing the feature until such time it could be corrected.

Changes

N/A

Cause

Problem

If, during the process of a Preemptive Copy, also known as Copyaway, the drive continues to degrade (i.e. suffers continued read/write errors), it may cause a condition whereby the RAID LUN's contained on the drive are rendered inaccessible. At that point, the LUN's will be taken offline pending completion of the Preemptive Copy operation.

IMPORTANT!

Contact Pillar Data Systems Customer Support immediately if this issue is encountered.

Solution

Solution/Workaround

This issue was mitigated in Release 04.02.11 of the Axiom software by disabling the Preemptive Copy feature until a full resolution can be put in place.

CopyAway was re-enabled on 04.06.00 and higher with fixes that prevent this type of issues. CopyAway is also enabled from 05.00.00 and higher with the appropriate fixes.

An upgrade to the latest release is highly recommended if the Axiom is on that range of releases: 4.2.0 through 4.2.10.

Axiom customers below AxiomONE release 04.03.03 are urged to contact the Pillar World Wide Customer Support Center to open a Service Request and schedule an upgrade for remediation.

Common Questions

Question: How much risk is there?
Answer: While the triggering of this issue is reliant upon certain conditions to exist, it is Pillar's position that any risk to data is too much. It is, therefore, strongly recommended to take appropriate steps to remove that risk as soon as possible.

Question: How long have you known about this? Why didn’t we hear about this before?
Answer: This issue was discovered recently and a solution provided. Pillar is proactively issuing this alert following confirmation of risk.

Question: Is the fix non-disruptive?
Answer: Yes. Those customers already on AxiomONE release 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, or 4.3 may upgrade non-disruptively.

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