Summary
Enhance the "SMART max hours" row in the advanced system settings reference table and add an explanatory note clarifying that the alert is an age indicator (not a health fault), its common trigger on redeployed drives, and how to resolve it.
Type
Reference / Troubleshooting
Target Page
docs/product-guide/system/advanced-system-settings.md — ENHANCE the existing "SMART max hours a drive can reach before a warning is set" row in the settings table, and APPEND a new explanatory note block immediately after the table.
Proposed Content
Updated table row:
| SMART max hours a drive can reach before a warning is set | Sets the maximum operational hours (power-on hours) for a drive before triggering an "HD Warning - hours exceeded maximum threshold(s)" alert. Default 43800 hours (5 years). Maximum value is 87,600 hours (10 years). | 43800 |
New note block (append after the table):
!!! note "SMART max hours — age warning, not a failure"
The **"HD Warning - hours exceeded maximum threshold(s)"** alert means a drive's accumulated power-on hours have crossed the threshold above. It is an age indicator, not a SMART health fault — a drive can have zero reallocated or pending sectors and still trip this warning.
A common trigger is pre-owned or redeployed drives: power-on hours belong to the drive itself, not the cluster, so drives with prior service life carry that history into a new deployment.
**To resolve:**
- **If the drives are healthy** (SMART status OK, no grown defects): raise *SMART max hours* above the drives' current reading under **System → Settings → Advanced** to silence the alert. The field is capped at **87,600 hours (10 years)** — attempting a higher value returns a validation error.
- **If the drives are genuinely aged**: plan a drive refresh. Replace one drive at a time and allow vSAN to fully rebuild to green under **System → vSAN** before pulling the next, to keep redundancy intact throughout.
Confirm SMART health independently before dismissing the alert.
Context
- Audience: admins
- Verified: The setting exists with a default of 43800 hours. The exact alert string "HD Warning - hours exceeded maximum threshold(s)" is confirmed. Not lab-tested: the 87,600-hour cap and validation-error behavior come from support knowledge, not a live system test — docs team should verify before publishing.
- Recurring support topic: admins see SMART hour warnings on redeployed or older drives and are unsure whether the alert signals imminent failure or is an age threshold that can be safely adjusted.
- Source: Salesforce cases #13192, #12880
Summary
Enhance the "SMART max hours" row in the advanced system settings reference table and add an explanatory note clarifying that the alert is an age indicator (not a health fault), its common trigger on redeployed drives, and how to resolve it.
Type
Reference / Troubleshooting
Target Page
docs/product-guide/system/advanced-system-settings.md— ENHANCE the existing "SMART max hours a drive can reach before a warning is set" row in the settings table, and APPEND a new explanatory note block immediately after the table.Proposed Content
Updated table row:
| SMART max hours a drive can reach before a warning is set | Sets the maximum operational hours (power-on hours) for a drive before triggering an "HD Warning - hours exceeded maximum threshold(s)" alert. Default 43800 hours (5 years). Maximum value is 87,600 hours (10 years). | 43800 |
New note block (append after the table):
!!! note "SMART max hours — age warning, not a failure"
Context