A systems administrator needs to replace a failed drive in a production server's hot-swappable RAID 1 array. The server must remain operational during the maintenance window. After physically identifying the failed drive via its amber status light, which action should the administrator perform NEXT to ensure the integrity of the array during the replacement?
Verify the replacement drive's part number against the server's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Reboot the server to access the RAID controller's configuration utility.
Physically remove the failed drive from its bay.
Use the server's storage management utility to set the failed drive to an offline state.
The correct answer is to use the server's storage management utility to set the failed drive to an offline state. This is the safest first step before physical removal, as it ensures all I/O operations to the drive are gracefully terminated, preventing potential data integrity issues. Simply pulling the active (even if failed) drive can be risky. Rebooting the server is incorrect because a primary requirement is to keep the server operational and avoid downtime. Verifying the replacement drive against the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) is a critical preparatory step that should be completed before arriving at the server to perform the physical swap, not immediately before removing the failed drive.